Christmas 2017

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Breed’s annual round robin

It’s that time again, and we’re back with the second Breed round robin, for you to read over a gently-warmed mince pie and mulled wine. No tales of the triumphs and tribulations of obscure family members, though. We’re here to remind you of a few highlights of all that our artists, illustrators, photographers and film-makers got up to over the course of 2017. And it is just a taste of what turned out to be a very busy year.

January

We started the year by welcoming Petra Börner to our ranks. Working in finely-detailed cut paper although rapidly expanding her skills to working in ceramics, Petra soon started making an impact and headed off on her own tour of Europe. But more of that later.

Breed also made their way to San Francisco for Connections, a series of trade shows for artists and their representatives, put on by Le Book, the annual creative industry directory.

February

Neal Murren popped up this month with an extraordinary personal piece called ’The Letter D’. It had the look of an intricately detailed ancient map. Whether it leads to treasure or should simply be treasured is for the beholder to decide.

Buenos Aires-born Paula Castro was commissioned to create a guide to Madrid for annual contemporary art fair ARCOMadrid, running across 200 galleries in the Spanish capital. This year the fair was showcasing Argentinian art, with 12 galleries from Buenos Aires taking part.

March

March marked our 10th birthday, a fact we celebrated in some style at Bistrotheque in east London, its walls adorned with specially created 10th birthday artworks. A good time was had by everyone, though with dignity at all times, of course.

At the end of the month, Steven Wilson was involved with She Lights Up the Night – an initiative which saw contemporary art being auctioned in aid of Refuge, a charity providing support for women and children affected by domestic violence. Andy ended up making his piece using Corian®, a material more normally used for kitchen work surfaces.

April

As spring got underway, Danny Sangra decided it was safe to back into the waters of film-making, and produced, as well as wrote and directed, ‘Shark!’, for Miu Miu and mytheresa.com. It tells the story of two young women at a swimming pool, and how one of them overcomes an understandable fear of the water: dannysangra.com

Andy Gilmore has been producing new work constantly throughout the year, sometimes striking out in new directions. This month saw a series called ‘Rays’ in characteristic geometric style, followed by ‘Golden Section’ the following month. But then, he broke off to create some new images of animals and birds using coloured pens and pencils.

May

Anna Bu Kliewer turned up this month in Boys by Girls, illustrating three poems by Christopher Raley. a magazine. Boys by Girls is a magazine which offers female artists the chance to explore the male form through fashion, art and documentary.

June

Craig & Karl turned up at a petrol station in White City as summer began. They’d transformed an old closed station in Wood Lane, just by the BBC’s old home Broadcasting House, into a psychedelic spectacular of brightly coloured lines and chevrons. It was a piece called ‘HERE AFTER’, the first stage of a transformation of the building into a pop-up venue, as part of an £8 billion regeneration of the area.

July

James Joyce played Glastonbury this year, or at least some of his posters did, appearing in the Shangri-La area. They bore messages relating to environmental and economic activism, as you might expect at Glasto. James also made an appearance at the Vauxhall Art Car Boot Fair this month.

August

Matt Blease also started exploring a new medium for his work this month – sweets, specifically Mentos. He worked with ad agency BBH on a continuing campaign called ‘A nicer way to say hello’, that saw him adding a variety of greetings to Mentos as illustrations and messages which you could use as an ice breaker to make new friends.

September

James Joyce enjoyed the experience of the Vauxhall Art Car Boot Fair in July so much, that he went along to the one in Folkestone this month, as well.

Petra Börner, meanwhile, returned from her long trip through Europe this month, having spent time in Italy, Denmark and France and taking the time wandering their galleries seeking inspiration for new works to come.

And, in case you don’t know what a kass-kass is, Paula Castro included an illustration of this African instrument alongside others for a project with Barcelona-based design studio Todojunto.

October

Danny Sangra’s new relationship with Burberry really took off this month. He’d already reworked some of their old ads in his own style on social media, established Danny’s World on their app, and began to plan a series of live events in Burberry flagship stores around the globe that would take him into December.

November

Cat Garcia’s exhibition ‘Quarterly’ ran this month at Leica Studio Mayfair. The photos Cat selected for the exhibition showed the changes in nature, and the people who work closely with nature, through the seasons of the year.

Meanwhile, Natasha Law got involved with the yachting set, illustrating an article offering slightly tongue-in-cheek advice on buying a new boat for the US edition of Boat International.

December

Kate Moross consolidated her ongoing relationship with Kiehl’s Since 1851 by creating exclusive packaging for Kiehl’s Holiday Season range. Even more exciting, she produced a second range for Christmas featuring Mickey Mouse, in an unprecedented joint venture with Disney. In recent weeks, Kate has been involved in live events in Kiehl’s Since 1851 stores in Tokyo and London to promote the range.

We were also pleased to welcome Devon resident Phillippa Mills to our ranks this year. And you’ll be seeing more of her work at the start of the New Year .

We’ve been pretty busy at Breed HQ, too. We’re just back from Le Book Amsterdam, the follow-up to the creative gathering we started the year with, in San Francisco, and another one that took place in Milan later in the year. I know, tough life.

In closing, we would all like to wish you all a very happy Christmas, and look forward to sharing all sorts of colour, magic, sketches and surprises with you in 2018.

Olivia and all at Breed

(Image by Steven Wilson)