World Press Photography 2012

The World Press Photography competition photos are displayed each year at the Southbank Centre. The photographs featuring this year focused on events that took place in 2011 with the tsunami in Japan, the conflict in Libya and protests in Egypt all featuring prominently.

 Japan after the Tsunami, photograph by Paolo Pellegrin from Italy

 Japan after the Tsunami, photograph by Koichiro Tezuka from Japan

Demonstrators kneeling for prayer near Tahir Square in Egypt, photograph by Jan Dago from Denmark

 Dakar Fashion Week, photograph by Vincent Boiset from France

Moscow, photograph by Alexander Gronsky from Russia

 Traditional dress worn by a tribal elder in Papua New Guinea, photograph by Brent Stirton

Ritual cleansing in Kazakhstan, photograph by Pavel Prokopchik from the Netherlands

Adanami Shobo

Adanami Shobo is a little shop on Brewer Street in Soho that sells second-hand Japanese manga books.

Contemporary Japanese Photobooks

Japan has a culture of creating beautiful photo books and the Photographer's Gallery displayed 200 of these in a recent exhibition.

Masters of Transvangarde

Transvangarde is a type of post avant garde art.  And your guess is as good as mine as to what that actually means.

I wonder if there is a link between the October Gallery and the British Museum as I have seen three artists (El Anatsui, Owusu-Ankomah and Rachid Koraichi) exhibiting in both places.

In this exhibition there was work by the following artists:

El Anatsui, Ghana
Ninenna Okore, Nigeria
Owusu-Ankomah, Ghana
Willian S Burroughs, USA
Brion Gysin, England
Gerald Wilde, England
Kenji Yoshida, Japan
Rachid Koraichi, Algeria
Golnaz Fathi, Iran
Govinda Singh, Nepal
Lala Shawa, Palestine
Julien Sinzogan, Benin
Aubrey Willians, Guyana

007 Around the World

The Barbican is currently hosting a James Bond exhibition until September 2012.  These posters advertising the films around the world decorate the entrance hall.

Kokoro The Art of Horiyoshi III

This exhibition will be showing at Somerset House until 1st July 2012.  Kokoro can be translated as 'the heart of things' in English.  Horiyoshi III is a Japanese tattoo artist who used traditional Japanese tattooing techniques to create works of art on human bodies.

Traditions Revisited

The Brunei Galley just had 3 Japanese exhibits which finished on 24-3-12:

- Traditions Revisited - Japanse fans from the Ishiyumi Family Collection.
- Tohoku - Images of Disaster
- One Thousand Pots, One  Thousand Thoughts

 One Thousand Pots, One Thousand Thoughts in the Brueni Gallery Japanese roof garden

The Brunei Gallery: A venue for Asian, African and Middle Eastern Art in the Heart of London

The Brunei Gallery was opened in 1995 following a donation to the School of Oriental and African Studies by the HM the Sultan of Brunei Darussalam (hence the name of the gallery).

There is the small Japanese garden on the roof

Brazilian Churros

At Greenwich market there are range of stalls selling food from different countries. I'd just had lunch but managed to find room for a tasty brazilian snack, rolled in cinnamon sugar and filled with chocolate and caramel sauce.  These churros seem to be different from Spanish ones in that they are much bigger and hollow so that you can fill them with chocolatey goodness.

You can also try food from Japan, China, Thailand, Portugal and Ethiopia (below),

International Art Fair

2) Japan

Ex Friend by Norihiro Usui

Work by ohtsu Kazuyuki

Modern Japanese Art

It's not just the Africa Gallery that exhibits modern art at the British Museum. You can also see some Japanese from the last 50 years.

My favourite pieces:

 Great Tree Binding the World by  Kiyota Yuji

Rainbow Hokusai by Ay-O

 A print from the Astro Boy manga series by Osamu Tezuka

 Eligy for a new recruit: Sentinel by Hamada Chimei

There is also currently an exhibition by manga artist Hoshino Yukinobu.

Japanese corner in West Acton

If you come out of West Acton tube station you'll find:

Yoyo's Sushi
A branch of London/Tokyo property services
Atari-Ya Japanese shop

London's dining trend of 2012: Brazil and Peru

The London Evening Standard's Nick Curtis claimed in Thursday's newspaper that Brazilian and Peruvian restaurants are going to be the hot new trend in the capital in 2012.

I'm very pleased to hear this, as I've found South American restaurants in general rather difficult to find.

According to his article the following restaurants will be opening soon:

Cabana in Westfields and St Giles (Brazilian)
Ceviche on Frith Street (Peruvian)
Lima London in Fitzrovia (Peruvian)
Sushi Samba (fusion of Peruvian/Brazilian and Japanese) in the City.

I will keep my eyes peeled!

Cybercandy

Cybercandy has 4 shops (Covent Garden, Islington, Brighton and Birmingham) selling some crazy sounding sweets, chocolates and soft drinks from a range of countries: Australia, Austria, Canada France, Finland Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand, USA.