"In this world, we walk on the roof of Hell, gazing at flowers" Kobayashi Issa
MONSTROUS! is a Belaruskian takeover of the notorious Flaxon Ptootch Gallery in Kentish Town, London. Her first solo show in a number of years, the artist brings together an entirely new collection of paintings, drawings and installation art (plus a few golden oldies thrown in), pulling together myth, legend, and fairytale, then holding it against the rawness and grit of real life. Belaruski presents her take on the both the physical and metaphorical monsters we see and those we don't, continuing to explore her favoured themes of love, life and death in the modern world.
BIO
Born in Northern Ireland and living in London, Joni Belaruski can either be found making art or making music.
Using figurative form of both humans and animals to devilishly blend the disjunction between her own reality and fantasy to devastating effect, the artist fuses darkness with light to create signature striking original artworks like no other.
Joni's work varies from personal projects on paper, canvas, drumskins and board to commissioned walls, festival installations and illustrations for books and the music industry.
A touring drummer with punk folk favourites ‘The Great Malarkey’, Belaruski has extensively toured as a musician and exhibited as an artist as her following continues to grow in the UK and abroad.
‘I believe in beauty, faces as a window of expression and I draw with both dream and nightmare, splattered with the rawness and imperfection of what I see’
But wait....as if a visual feast weren't enough to satisfy ravenous senses, Belaruski's band THE GREAT MALARKEY will be hitting the floor as the evening's aural entertainment...and entertain they will.
“Rambunctious and right on the edge of control... one of the freshest sounds I’ve picked up this year” - Music-news.com
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is The Great Malarkey.
Releasing their second album in early 2017 on Batov Records, ‘Doghouse’ delivers not only the continued raucous energy of their live shows, as showcased in their first album ‘Badly Stuffed Animals’, but the eventual bruising, vulnerability of the morning after the night before.
Influenced by the likes of Tom Waits, The Pixies, The Pogues, Beirut, Nick Cave, Fanfare Ciocarlia, Manu Chao, The Dead Brothers and Toots and the Maytals (the latter of whom they supported with only their third gig), The Great Malarkey are riotous mix of musical styles and genres delivered in a “multicultural train of fast beats and trembling slams of punk-folk spirit”. (rhythmpassport.com)
Drawing on their experience of over six years of extensive touring, with shows at Bestival (UK), the London Olympics, Boomtown (UK), Colours of Ostrava (CZ), Tønder Festival (DK), to name but a few, and mainstream airplay in both the UK and Denmark, The Great Malarkey continue to delight audiences across the UK and Europe with their explosive, “balls to the wall”, high energy live shows.
The Great Malarkey do not disappoint. They bring their whole heart (all eight of them!) to every song, every show, every album and anyone who wants to listen.
VENUE
Flaxon Ptootch
237 Kentish Town Rd
Kentish Town
London NW5 2JT
Opens at 6pm, band starts at 9pm