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Exhibition: Roots

Exhibition view. To view the show: Click image.

My first exhibition this year is titled ROOTS and it is obviously different like everything else … I am showing at the Vinothek of long time friends and partners from Weingut Tesch, and while my artwork is really there it will be tricky (but not impossible) to see it live. But there’s an interactive 360 degree view of the show so you can experience it from your home office or couch or … check: weingut-tesch.de/roots . The exhibition is curated by Melvin / heliumcowboy.

I am really looking forward to the online opening on February 3rd (8:15 pm), I will be in my studio and Martin Tesch in the exhibition and we will talk (in German) about my work, you can hang out with us live on instagram, Facebook and YouTube. You can of course also purchase the art online.

If you didn’t know already, this vinery is very different from most others, Martin Tesch is very close with German Punk heroes Die Toten Hosen, producing their tour wines for a very long time now, and he is also the supplier of the official wine of the Wacken Festival. Martin is the Rockstar among winemakers and he is known to support progressive culture, like he is supporting heliumcowboy for close to a decade now.

With this exhibition he is bringing a few other partners that are all connected to the virtual table as well: there will be online tastings with Kehrwieder Kreativbrauerei, whose label artist I am since 2014, and with Uerige Hausbrauerei from Düsseldorf, who are brewing collaboration beers with Kehrwieder and the Toten Hosen. There is a wine/beer package you can order for these tastings at the Tesch-website.

So, please support the arts, support the small manufacturers of beer and wine, and generally enjoy different cultural and sensory experiences while being in lock down.

"HOPPY WATERS" | new print edition

Together with Kehrwieder Kreativbrauerei I launch a special edition print on FRIDAY, August 7th, starting at 10 am. You can get it online, of course, but if in Hamburg - heliumcowboy is open Friday from 10 am - 6 pm.

ABOUT THE EDITION:

Special silk screen print edition celebrating friendship - and alcohol free craft beer. It is exclusively available as standalone print at the heliumcowboy online store and the gallery, or packed into an 18-bottles ü.NN-beer box at shop.kehrwieder.beer (or directly at the brewery). In connection with the beer, the print is reduced in price (10 € less). The proceeds from the complete print run will be shared between Kehrwieder & heliumcowboy because, you know, as friends more than business partners we support each other.

The artwork is an adaption of the label created by Alex Diamond for ü.NN, the celebrated and award winning alcohol free beer of the Kehrwieder Kreativbrauerei in Hamburg.

It is called „Hoppy waters“ and was printed in an edition of 80. There are 6 additional prints available that are hand embellished by the artist (see below). You can purchase them online and at the gallery as well.

Print details:

Edition of 80
Paper size: 30 x 24 cm
3-color silkscreen print on Canson Edition
320 g/qm paper
Signed & numbered by the artist
Embossed with the artists’ seal

Hand-embellishing one of the prints of the edition for Kehrwieder Kreativbrauerei by drawing over them. I did that with six of the additional prints, if you are looking for that extra special special edition …

New Print Edition - Coming soon.

Alex Diamond Print Edition "ü.NN" / Kehrwieder Kreativbrauerei from alex diamond on Vimeo.

We are almost ready to launch the ü.NN-print edition! From August 7 you will be able to purchase my newest silkscreen print either inside a box of the best alcohol free beer on the planet (ü.NN by Kehrwieder Kreativbrauerei) via the brewery or just the print through us. More details soon!

In the video I am embellishing one of the prints by drawing over them. I did that with six of the additional prints, and these will be offered as well Aug 7, if you are looking for that extra special special edition …

New label for Kehrwieder Kreativbrauerei

Always happy like a little child on Christmas when I hold one of the beers by Kehrwieder Kreativbrauerei with a new label created by me in my hands! The latest one is for FOFFTEIN, a blonde Ale that Oliver Wesseloh created jointly with Dominik Großefeld, the owner of the legendary St. Pauli bar Silbersack as their house brew.

It is the most-Hamburg-related label I created for Kehrwieder so far, and I am superhappy with the result. And the beer is super nice as well, as always with the beers that master brewer and beer artist Oliver produces!

Enjoy responsibly!

Hands and carburetor by my buddy Mario Kleinschmidt / Kleinschmidt Kustoms.

The Love Me Or Die - Launch delayed by authorities

Unfortunately there is no really satisfying update on the delay of the launch of our 2018 artist beer edition "The Love Me Or Die". This years' collaboration brew with Kehrwieder Kreativbrauerei is still on hold at the german authorities, bureaucracy ist preventing us from selling it until we get the necessary okay on the paperwork back.

We are very sad about this, not just because this is a passion project of master brewer Oliver Wesseloh & Alex Diamond that took a very long time to realize, but also because this is a more or less uncommercial project that only costs us money as long as we can't move the product. You can pre-order the beer boxes by mail, but that is all we can offer at the moment (please send a note to info@heliumcowboy.com if you are interested).

Please stay with us, we'll let you know once the beer is going to market. It will at some point, but until then we still have to haggle with the - hold your breath, english speaking friends - "Behörde für Gesundheit und Verbraucherschutz Hamburg, Fachbereich Lebensmittel- und Futtermittelsicherheit" ...

The Love Me Or Die - Launch on September 14

The launch of my latest artist beer with Oliver Wesseloh / Kehrwieder Kreativbrauerei draws nearer. While the beer still needs to be labeled, the limited edition Screen Print just arrived from Berlin's finest printer, Dolly Demoratti (motherdrucker.de). It looks AMAZING!

On September 14 we will officially launch "The Love Me Or Die" with a "Beernissage" at the heliumcowboy gallery. This event takes place during the Drunter & Drüber - Neustadt-Festival 2018 on September 14, 2018, from 4–9 pm.

This is the unique first chance to taste the beer and get the limited edition beer box including six 0,33l bottles of "The Love Me Or Die" Spiced Triple and the 8-color silk screen print of the original label artwork that's ONLY available in this box. The edition is limited to 100 boxes/prints.

Here's a link to the facebook invitation with more info.

Coming soon: The Love Me Or Die - new limited edition artist beer!

Here's a little sneak peek, a little glimpse at the creation of the label and print artwork for the soon to be released "The Love Me Or Die", the 2nd limited edition artist beer I recently brewed up together with my man Oliver Wesseloh, head honcho at Kehrwieder Kreativbrauerei in Hamburg ... stay tuned!

PS: The beer will be released in a limited edition of 100 six-bottle-boxes including an 8-color silk screen print of the artwork ... printed again by the wonderful Dolly Demorrati / Motherdrucker Berlin. A bunch of single bottles will be available too.

PPS: The beer edition will be launched Friday September 14, 4–9 pm, at the heliumcowboy gallery.

PPS: The name of the beer 'The Love Me Or Die' is the title of a song by C.W. Stoneking that was part of the inspiration for this brew and the artwork. Listen to the man! He is incredible!

PPS: Yes there is already a larger and pretty complex woodwork of mine with the same title - it was part of an exhibition last year and already showed my obsession with the story of this particular song. The label artwork is basically the same, only not carved, and flat, and with more skulls … (here's more about the original artwork).

The Love Me Or Die

„The Love Me Or Die“ is a sculptural woodcut I created in 2017. It is loosely based upon a song by C.W. Stoneking of the same name (you can listen to the song below). The story told is about desire, love, betrayal, magic and evil. It is a the name of a voodoo spell - if you don’t love me I will put a magic voodoo under your floor and see if this makes you fall in love … or not. The result is in the title.

From the song, I am mainly quoting the part
„Standin in the weeds early next day,
I saw the meat wagon rollin away,
I seen Matilda layin in the back,
Her old mother wearin a suit of black“,
which describe the failure of this delusional attempt to magically influence true feelings.

It is not literally about the song, but what you can read between the lines - or the layers, as my artwork is built in multiple levels and set up like a theatre stage or a diorama. Everything is carved or cut out of wood, painted in different stages of the process and finally assembled. If hung of a wall, it stands out into the room (you can even turn the wheels).

For me, an artist who gets a lot of inspiration through popular culture such as music and film it is a wonderful thing to be touched so deeply by a song that it sticks in my head the whole time I spent creating an artwork. It is like a soundtrack in a loop. I even went and started playing it on the guitar and singing it - in my very own way of course, as there is noone I know who could possibly sound like the incredible Mr. Stoneking.

PS: There’s another, completely different angle to this piece of mine - it will also become the central artwork for my new „artist beer“ I am brewing up together with Oliver Wesseloh (Kehrwieder Kreativbrauerei) with special support by Scott Jennings (Sierra Nevada Brewery). After we released the first artist beer, „The Dirty Hands Of Alex Diamond“ in 2016, the general idea of the recipe is taking the story of my woodcut and the song into a drinkable version. We hope that C.W. Stoneking allows us to use the title of the song for the name of the beer. More later, once we get closer to the final stages of producing this very limited, special artist edition of a beer.

Details & Production:

C.W. Stoneking: The Love Me Or Die

The Dirty Hands Of Alex Diamond: Release exhibition

The Dirty Hands Of Alex Diamond meet the REAL dirty hands of Alex Diamond ...

We successfully launched THE DIRTY HANDS OF ALEX DIAMOND, the limited edition artist beer I created with Oliver Wesseloh from Kehrwieder Kreativbrauerei in Hamburg - you can read the story behind it here.

I embedded the presentation of the beer into a small solo exhibition at the heliumcowboy gallery, combining some brand new, never seen before woodworks with other important pieces of mine. The exhibition is on display until October 29, Thursday–Saturday 2–7 PM (Bäckerbreitergang 75, 20355 Hamburg).

You can purchase the limited edition beer box directly at at heliumcowboy or in the galleries' online store.

Below are some images from this exhibition and from the fantastic night of the opening (by Frank Meyer, jumpallintheair.com).

THE EXHIBITION

THE LAUNCH PARTY

The Dirty Hands Of Alex Diamond

This is so special. I cannot emphasize enough how stoked I am about this collaboration: My very first beer is about to hit the shelves: THE DIRTY HANDS OF ALEX DIAMOND will be launched October 13 (more info about the event here).

A couple of few years ago I was introduced to Oliver Wesseloh. A veteran brewmaster and a pioneer in a crisp young Craft Beer scene that just started to develop in Europe, he opened his own brewery Kehrwieder Kreativbrauerei in Hamburg. It was one of the first truly independent small breweries in Germany. For some time now I was looking for like-minded people and craft beer experts, because I considered to open "The Alex Diamond Brewing Company" ... and that is how I met Olli.

We shared a common passion. Not just for beer. Also for the arts. And for traditional craftsmanship, which we both take pride in excercizing in our professions. So I quickly tossed the idea of opening my own brewery and Olli and I started to make plans to collaborate and blend both our talents on very special projects.

The first result is now bottled and labeled. THE DIRTY HANDS OF ALEX DIAMOND is s strong and powerful "Workman's Porter". Olli and I created the recipe last year, we tested and improved it along the way, and finally started brewing this summer. Of course, there is his craft and my craft. We combined Olli's experience and professionalism as not only a master brewer but also as the World Champion of Beer Sommeliers with .. well, the things I do and know best. Our goal was to make a beer that is inspired by my art, and where the artist is not only involved in designing a lovely label but also in creating and producing the beer.

Jointly, side by side, we got our hands dirty.

Ah. Yes. The name. Well:

Many years ago I was asked by the editor of an international art magazine to describe my motivation, my work ethics, and how I would explain it to my kids. I told her this:

"Be true. Be honest. Do it with passion or don't do it at all. And always get your hands dirty."

I believe Oliver and I share this approach. When we sat down to think about what kind of beer we want to make, it was very important for him to capture my art and the energy and relentlessness we bot put into our work.

It is a lot to ask from a drink made from water, grain and hops. But I believe we achieved much in this first collaboration (yes, this is just the beginning).

There is more to it obviously than "just" the beer. We will launch a limited edition 6-pack box with a super fine screenprint of the label artwork. 11 colors on 24 x 18 cm - a task for the fabulous Dolly Demoratti and her mad print shop motherdrucker.de. And I will also publish one of my very rare woodblock prints on the occasion of the launch of the beer. The last one I did was in 2013!! This one is a beast, a five-color hand-pressed edition of 20.

We will launch the beer at the heliumcowboy gallery October 13, from 6-10 pm. We will also launch the boxed edition with the small screenprint (single bottles will hit the stores November 1st) and publish the larger woodblock print that night.

If you cannot make it to this event, you can of course get in touch with us and order both:

You can order the beer box and the print in the heliumcowboy online shop.

Prost!

Jörg Heikhaus aka Alex Diamond

Order the limited edition beer box online by clicking on this image.

Here's a look at the woodblock print edition of The Dirty Hands Of Alex Diamond: Edition 20 hand-pressed, 5-color prints on handmade Okashi paper (Size: print 40 x 30 cm, paper 61 x 45,5 cm). Check out the heliumcowboy online shop (click image), it … — Here's a look at the woodblock print edition of The Dirty Hands Of Alex Diamond: Edition 20 hand-pressed, 5-color prints on handmade Okashi paper (Size: print 40 x 30 cm, paper 61 x 45,5 cm). Check out the heliumcowboy online shop (click image), it will be available there Thursday, October 13, at noon.

PS: Below are some images from brewing the beer ...

The mud and the blood and the beer ...

'The mud the blood and the beer' - my T-shirt design for Hamburg based craft brewery Kehrwieder Kreativbrauerei is available online (click image to visit the online store).

Those of you who know me most likely are aware of the fact that I have been a fiery advocate for the return of great beer in Germany for a very, very long time. Well, it is happening. What has been aptly labeled as the "Craft Beer Revolution" is in full effect in our country, and I feel privileged to seeing it grow close up from the early beginnings over the past few years.

By now there are many great new brewers and breweries and superb craft beers in Germany. And more will come. However, my favorite brewery is my friend's Oliver Wesseloh's Kehrwieder Kreativbrauerei from Hamburg. A lot has been said and published about Olli and his amazing beer, and you can get a glimpse of the praise and attention that the "World Champion of Beer Sommeliers" has been getting lately by visiting the brewmasters' website - or simply google him. He makes sensational beer and taught me many things about my preferred drink.

I am extremely proud that I have been asked to design one of the two very first Kehrwieder Kreativbrauerei T-shirts. My design is paying tribute to great beer and some of the coarser circumstances that we like to drink it under, and quotes an all-time favorite Johnny Cash song: 'A boy named Sue'. Maybe a bit hard to read in its (late) 60ies inspired colors and the hand drawn type, the text on the front says "The mud the blood and the beer" - a line from the song.

And you all know I like to get my hands dirty, work hard and fight - and what could be better than already holding a Prototyp or SHIPA in one of them ...

Support the Craft Beer revolution and go get yours, this first edition is pretty rare! There is a limited amount of shirts available at the heliumcowboy online store, but you can also order them via the Kehrwieder Brewery website if the shop should run out of your size.

Klaas Twiemeyer wearing his T-shirt for Kehrwieder Brewery. Also available at their website.

PS: The second Kehrwieder-shirt has been designed by Klaas Twietmeyer (formvermittlung.de), is at least as beautiful as mine and also available at the Kehrwieder website. The shirts are printed by dreihundertprozent.de on fair traded and ecologically correctly grown 100% cotton.