The Vagaband and Michael Farrant

Here at Art in the Underbelly we are very excited to announce that we have just confirmed Norwich legends The Vagaband to play the launch night of our next show. Having played around the country, at Glastonbury and across East Anglia they will be squeezing into the Underbelly to play for us with support coming from acoustic singer/songwriter Michael Farrant.

Check them out here and check out Michael here and we'll see you on Wednesday the 6th of October, in the Underbelly for some art, drinking and music!

Submit & Exhibit - Submissions wanted

The first Art in the Underbelly Open Submission show is now open for applications, taking place at the end of the year and running for two months through December into January 2011. We are seeking work that explores the following themes: the underground, the hidden, a sense of intrigue, antiquated, aged, wall art, work responding to the space. We are looking 2D work but submissions of small scale 3D work and hanging work will also be considered as will submissions from performance artists or groups for performances to take place on the launch night. For details on how to apply, please email us. The deadline for submissions is November 20th, 2010.

Open Submission Show, Live Art and Ryan Watts

Here at Art in the Underbelly, we're working hard to bring you even more new and exciting shows. Coming up in October, we'll be showcasing the photographic talent of Ryan Watts. Ryan works professionally as a photographer and recently worked for the Norwich & Norfolk Festival.

For this show, Ryan will be showcasing his captivating band photography featuring local and national acts. Ryan captures the moments that flash by in an instant, that the audience sees but often misses. he has photographed The Duke Special, The Brownies, Violet Violet, Epichunt, Spidermilk and The Vagaband and this show will feature a selection of the finest shots from those shoots. To take the audience one step closer to the energy that is captured in the images, Ryan will be curating two evenings of live music from some of the bands he has captured over the last two years.

In other news, we are currently plotting the first ever Art in the Underbelly Open Submission show where we will be aiming to fill every available wall space with work, if you think you'd like to submit some work then send us an email. We are also planning on expanding the 'work made onto walls' aspect of our shows by organising a live art event where people will have the opportunity to watch artists making work directly onto the walls of space, more details to follow on that one but it will hopefully feature the work of this talented young lady.

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Our Current Show...'Samboosluga' Collage by Phil Cooper and Digital Prints by Sammy Merry

To kick off our new blog, we'd like to introduce you to the latest show at Art in the Underbelly. Its been our best received and attended show to date and showcases the work of Phil Cooper and Sammy Merry.

United by an interest in collage, found images, illustration and graphic design Sammy Merry and Phil Cooper explore similar but individual themes throughout their work. Sammy's work wanders through a Poland that sits uneasily in front of its communist past, stops briefly in a disbanded utopian estate deep within the Krakow suburbs before leaving with the sounds of eastern European music ringing in his ears and the residue of post-communist art and architecture in his mind. Phil Cooper's speaks through commercial, artistic and ritualistic forms of communication but always leaves an ambiguity that leads the audience to make their own way towards a hidden centre that is shrouded in elements of astronomy and nature.

For their show, Phil created collage works directly onto the walls of the Underbelly in response to several of Sammy's framed digital prints thus uniting both the finished pieces and the processes used to create them. An accidental alignment of colour occured when the work was completed, with Phil's collage colour scheme almost perfectly matching the Underbellys wall and ceiling colours. To see more photos of the exhibition, head over to our Facebook page or why not come down and see the work in the flesh?