Guest CuratorCraig Atkinson

Craig is an artist and curator from Liverpool, England. His new book, Reward, has just been released by Café Royal, an online store and offline publishing house specializing in Artists' books and zines. Café was started by Atkinson and his partner Joanne in 2006. Right now he's got shows at Ceri Hand Gallery and Lab101 in LA and at the Edinburgh at Collective.

The Gist

Online shows are difficult because of their very nature. Things can often look better or worse on-screen. Texture is never really 'felt' on a monitor, and colour is never the same when back-lit. But the gist is the important thing here. I normally fall for work of a less-is-more nature. The simple lines and reduced colour in Ky Anderson's drawings elude witchcraft or Woodstock posters. Sacha Eckes and Arielle Sandler combine paint and drawing to create sumptuous abstracted forms. Lisa Solomon, Sarah Thibault and Fabian Geyrhalter focus here on the banal: Cakes, hotel rooms and an ironic shot of a red wall with 'PAINT' daubed in white.

These things interest me because they are the everyday, the things that aren't important enough to focus on are the focus. Christopher Reiger is the exception to my less-is-more approach. His piece is excessive, there's too much of everything. like a home-made ice cream sundae, once in a while I quite like excess! Ian Dingman's drawing reminds me of being at school. The only way to pass the never-ending forty minute lessons was to draw in the back of my text books.

View Slideshow