BAFTA nominated actor, comedian, musician and presenter, Billy Connolly, CBE, unveils the results of a five year foray into the world of contemporary art with the launch of “Born on a Rainy Day”. The exclusive video features Billy talking about his inspirations behind his work as well as responses from visitors.
In 2007, on a dull, cold and rainy day in Montreal, Connolly came across an art shop, which was where he was very first inspired to create his own work. Several hours later, back in his hotel room, he began to sketch desert islands. At every opportunity since, he has sketched and drawn characters from his imagination. In 2010, he began to create the “Born on a Rainy Day” collection, this launched to the world on 14th March 2012, at the Halcyon Gallery, London.
This is his first published art collection, and the first time it has been seen in public. It will be launched around the country in Castle Art Galleries and some other smaller independent galleries from the 17th/ 18th of March.
Ben Austin studied History of Art at Reading University. He started Catto Contemporary in Shoreditch where he was responsible for helping to launch the careers of several artists and showed Anthony Micallef and Banksy in a curated exhibition entitled ‘Perverse Pop’ back in 2001. Austin has worked at Art Review, before setting himself up as an independent curator and through Austin Enterprises he staged the legendary Frieze opening night show/party entitled ‘Decadence, Decay and the Demimonde’ at Home House in 2007, which featured art on loan from the Saatchi Gallery (Marcus Harvey, Liz Neal and Barry Reigate). He has also curated exhibition at the Blouin Foundation – ‘After Dark’ series, featuring acclaimed artists such as Alice Anderson. He has been on the judging panel for the ‘Young Masters’ prize. More recently he curated ‘Art Britannia’ during Miami Basel featuring a collection of contemporary British artists and acted as the initial curator and advisor the The Dot Project Gallery in Fulham. Ben Austin acts as an art advisor and dealer. He writes for numerous publications including Artlyst and FAD.
