Today I went on an “art walk”. Since the first Thursday of each month many art galleries in London remain open until late and host special events (an awesome initiative). Unfortunately I left quite late from the office, but I was working on a very special deal, so I could not leave earlier.
First I visited Boxpark Shoreditch.
“Situated in the heart of east London’s fashion and art district, two floors of sixty shipping containers began as the world’s first pop up mall.
Yesterday Mykal invited me to the University College London’s Mechanical Engineering Summer Session at Student Central.
It was a blast. A geek blast. Many featured projects, such as giant drone, hydrogen racing car prototype, alternative transportation infrastructure, robotic fish, or improved artificial heart valve design, along with entertainment: giant Scalextric racing, giant jinga, FIFA 15 tournament, impact simulators, pool, and a live concert by Cable Street Collective.
[Note: Congratulations on launching the UK’s first fully Open Access university press!
On Sunday I went to the Southbank Centre for a number of reasons:
The Poetry Comics exhibition at the Saison Poetry Library (Royal Festival Hall) – the largest poetry library in the UK.-
Amazing as the library itself is, this exhibition co-curated by Chris McCabe and Chrissy Williams made it even more so. Featuring works by William Blake, Derik Badman, Bill Berkson / Joe Brainard, Kenneth Patchen, Oliver East, Kenneth Loch, Bianca Stone, Paul K.
Yesterday I was invited to the London Global Art Fair 2015, which takes place May 21-23 at Olympia, Kensington, London.
With 150 galleries from 40 countries exhibiting works by over 500 artists, aged 25 (Nicole Wong and Vivien Zhang) to 93 (SH Raza) from 63 countries across the globe, in walling that would wrap over 13 times around the Royal Albert Hall, London Global Art Fair is as much a market as it is a celebration of creativity, art and culture.
Living in London means being surrounded by culture. For example, in less than 5 minutes’ walk from our apartment, and without even crossing the London Bridge, we have the Tate Modern (Britain`s national gallery of international modern art), Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, Southbank Centre (Europe’s largest centre for the arts: theatres, concert halls and a cutting edge art gallery presenting over 1200 events each year), and BFI Southbank (the leading repertory cinema in the UK, specialising in classic, independent and non-English language films, operated by the British Film Institute).
On March 23rd I was named Technology Advisor to the 250 year old Saint Charles Royal Academy of Fine Arts by its 56th president, Dr. Manuel Muñoz.
The Royal Academy has the second largest and most important classical painting collection in Spain, after Madrid`s Museo del Prado.
Technology and Art are two of my passions, so combining the two sounds like a very exciting proposition.
March 7th my wife and I traveled to Rome for a few days, since last summer’s cruise visit was too short and left us wanting more.
First we stayed at the Splendide Royal hotel. A “grand dame” with baroque decor and a fancy restaurant full of business people, rich Eastern Europe oligarchs and their lovers.
On the 9th we moved to the Kolbe Rome hotel, a monastery (part of it still in operation) located right next to the Circo Massimo and the Colosseo, where my in-laws joined us from Canada.
