Hasta La Ideas

Concrete Hermit was one of the first graphic art gallery boutiques to grace the environs of a now thriving Redchurch Street in London’s Shoreditch, opening originally back in 2007 on Club Row. Knowing it’s been closed for months we feared it had become a victim of the recession, and so we’re pleased to learn that Concrete Hermit has now re-opened and today launches Four Floods, a new exhibition of screenprints by a six artists all using a palate of pink, blue, yellow and black…

by Otecki

The six artsits, Dan Sparkes, Heretic, Joe Wilson, Otecki, Sarah King, and The Pit, were encouraged to “explore and challenge the possibilities of the process” of screenprinting, and the six resulting artworks have been produced in editions of 35 hand pulled screenprints. They are for sale in the shop and also online on the Hermit Editions website.

by Sarah King

by Heretic

by Joe Wilson

We asked Concrete Hermit’s Chris Knight about the re-opening of its Club Row gallery and shop:

CR: Since you brought the Concrete Hermit shop experience to this year’s Pick Me Up graphic art fair at Somerset House in March, you closed both the Shoreditch and the central London Concrete Hermit shops. Tell us a bit about what’s been going on at Concrete Hermit HQ.

Chris Knight: It has always been my intention that Concrete Hermit should be an entity that actively engages with art, design culture and fashion. That we produce things; clothing, books, prints and exhibitions rather than just being a ‘reseller’ of interesting things being produced elsewhere. Towards the end of last year I looked back over everything we had done in the past 6-7 years and realized that a lot of the goals I’d set out with, I had achieved – opening the gallery / shop space, exhibiting overseas, publishing books, working with a great range of artists, seeing the clothing and books stocked in shops around the world.

In September we had the opportunity to take on a shop space in Kingly Court, just off Carnaby Street in central London, on a 6 month basis, so we took that up for a new challenge. But it meant that we were spread a little thin keeping two spaces open. It had also got to the point with the exhibitions at Club Row that we were finding ourselves looking to fill space in the calendar rather than being able to spend the time to properly curate the shows and work closely with the artists in the way that I would want to.

CR: So it was time to regroup?

CK: Precisely. Following the close of the Central space we decided to try to define more clearly the different areas that we work in and to strike the right balance between making, selecting and selling. This meant that we set up two distinct ‘project’ websites, Hermit Editions and The Hermit Store. These are both ‘curated’ by Concrete Hermit and take over from the online shop [that sat within] the Concrete Hermit website. This frees up Concrete Hermit as a label in itself, to get back to producing things. We have various projects in the pipeline for Concrete Hermit products, keeping the ethos of design and collaborations going.

Four Floods runs until October 16 at Concrete Hermit, 5A Club Row, London E1 6JX

concretehermit.com
hermiteditions.com