Portobello Road Arts Project
The Portobello Road Arts Project is a series of year-round
artist commissions for the Portobello Road North Wall linking North
Kensington’s Portobello Road and Golborne markets.
The project aims to help regenerate the Golborne area through
creating a visual link between Portobello Road Market and Golborne
Road Market. The project hopes through this to encourage visitors
to continue their journeys further up Portobello Road to discover
the vibrant Golborne area.
Call for proposals
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is announcing the
next commission for the Portobello Road North Wall public art
project. The theme for the installation is "The Spirit of
Youth" and we are keen to encourage submissions across a
wide range of appropriate visual arts media.
The work will be installed for six months, with a provisional
launch date of 1 November 2013.
Proposals must be submitted by email by 12 noon
on Friday, 28 June 2013
Please refer to the commission
brief and guidelines [PDF] (file size 149Kb)
Current commissions:
Fiona Hawthorne
Aspects of Carnival
‘Aspects of Carnival’ by locally-based artist Fiona Hawthorne
captures a particular aspect of the distinctive life and the
vibrancy of North Kensington and celebrates the legacy of Notting
Hill Carnival.
The new multi-media artwork is a celebration of life in the
Portobello area through fourteen striking panels, portraying the
people that live there, capturing diversity and with a focus on
Carnival.
Fiona uses digital paint software which enables innovative
juxtaposition of bright colours merged with photos, patterns,
textures and unconventional marks.
‘Aspects of Carnival’ is the seventh in a series of original art
installations on the Portobello Road North Wall and will remain in
location for six months.
Fiona Hawthorne has a history of involvement in street art.
Featured in the Thames and Hudson’s book "Design After Dark" she
was painting the young London jazz scene at the same time as Derek
Yates was creating album covers for Soul II Soul, and Ian Wright
creating xerography portraits of Grandmaster Flash for NME.
Fiona first painted the actor Colin Salmon when he was a busker
on Portobello Road. Her art also featured in the fly-posting
campaign to Save the Electric Cinema. Her recent portrait of Barack
Obama hangs in the Library of Congress. More information here.
Nadia Hammoud
Tea and Coffee
A co-commission with Nour Festival of Arts, this work is a mix
of documentary photography and scenes of fiction. Covering
different periods in history, it offers an insight into the journy
of teas and coffees from the countries of their source to the
current cafés of Ladbroke Grove, paralleling journeys made to the
UK by past and present North African and Middle Eastern residents.
’Tea and Coffee’ celebrates the drinks of first meetings and old
reunions, rivals and lovers, enemies and friends, the poor and the
affluent. The smell and taste can remind of you of home, holidays
and endless moments.
Previous shows
Atom Rooms
2 April 2012
After a three month absence, The Atom Rooms
was recently restored to the North Wall of Portobello
Road.
The 40 panel, 100m artwork, which was removed in January
following a spate of vandalism, will now remain in place until May
2012.
It forms part of the Council’s Portobello Road Arts Project, a
series of temporary commissions for the North Wall which links the
Portobello with Golborne market.
The Atom Rooms is the fifth in the series and replicates the
works of artists formerly exhibited at the nearby gallery of the
same name.
Amongst other things, the Portobello Road Arts Project aims to
promote the work of local artists and encourage visitors to
continue their journeys up the Portobello Road so that they
discover the lesser known but equally vibrant Golborne market.
Natasha Mason and Teresa Crawley
Portobello ReCollection
14 October 2010
The fourth commission of the Portobello Road Arts Project is
‘Portobello ReCollection’ by the artists Natasha Mason and Teresa
Crawley.
The artwork transforms the 100-metre long wall at the northern
end of Portobello Road into W11's own private record collection - a
giant shelf of records representing the defining songs of Notting
Hill, as identified through collaboration with DJs, musicians,
record labels, stall holders and local historians.
Creating an explosion of colour and type design, this
celebration of the rich musical heritage of Notting Hill emphasises
the connection between the place, its people and its music.
Please visit Portobello
ReCollection.
Claire Morgan
Mandala
1 April 2010
The third commission of the Portobello Road Arts Project is
‘Mandala’ by the artist Claire Morgan.
Morgan’s work is made up of around fifteen images, taken of a
sculptural work made by the artist and consisting of fresh fruit
from the Portobello market suspended in symmetrical patterns and
photographed over a period of two weeks as it decays.
The images paint a simple metaphor, of life leading to decay and
ultimately leading to new life in turn, a theme reflected in the
title Mandala – translated from the Sanskrit word for circle.
Liane Lang
La Muralla
15 July to 14 September 2009
The next commission to be displayed on the wall is by local
artist Liane Lang.
Lang’s work consists of a 60 metre long vinyl print displaying
fifty consecutive images akin to film stills. The images show the
Dominican Convent, now the Spanish School and the wall that
surrounds it, which is opposite the site of the work. The images
display fleeting scenes of the street taken from sunrise to sunset
on Valentine’s Day 2009.
The only steady feature in the images is a figure, reclining on
top of the wall, which remains unmoving throughout and the images
depict varying responses from passers by. Some stride by, some
pause, point or pose with the lonely figure, which is just out of
reach. The result is a series of accidental portraits, capturing
market traders, residents, shoppers, council workers and tourists
who happen to pass this long stretch of road between the two walls
that lead from Portobello Road Market to Golborne Road Market.
Hew Locke
Share
24 April to 26 June 2009
The first commission to be displayed on the wall was 'Share' by
the artist Hew Locke.
'Share' featured a series of giant share certificates with
relevance to the mix of cultures, businesses and produce available
in the local area.
The certificates have been investigated and transformed by the
Locke to provide a commentary on the fascinating history and
movement of money, power and ownership across the globe, linking
our home and consumption with lands far away.
Please email arts@rbkc.gov.uk with any comments or
feedback.