Today's idea - Cream12 at the Crane Kalman Gallery

If you've recently wandered down Kensington Gardens past the Crane Kalman Gallery, a place that looks suspiciously too much like an expensive photography store than a gallery to warrant a visit, you may have noticed a change in display. Until the 4th of April the gallery will be displaying a Showcase of Graduate Photography Talent, titled Cream12. It follows last year's display with BA photography graduates of 2008, and they seem keen and excited to feature more interesting, diverse, and people-pulling photographs on their mass of white walls.

"The exhibition includes graduates from the most prestigious universities and colleges the length and breadth of the country from Westminster to Glasgow; Derby to Newport" with work from Tigran Asatrjans, Laura Ruutel-Ball, Leah Bartczak, Berenice Bassett, William Edward Head, Shiho Kito, Yngvild Mehren, Arthur Molyneux, Ceridwen Olofson, Josh Pollen, Carole Suety, and Jayne Taylor.

From a short walk past, the picture in the windows, as all good window pictures should be, looks intriguing and lovely and the free area definitely worth a pop into, fulfilling an arty category during a stroll into town.

The gallery's open Mon-Sat 10am-6pm, and Sun 10.30am-4.30pm.

Today's idea - Rock Archive 2010 Collection

Keeping to a worldwide tradition of staring at rock celebrities, a Rock Archive 2010 exhibition is currently posted at the Crane Kalman Gallery with classic photos of 'music's greatest names' which can be briefly summarised as such: Ella Fitzgerald, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, David Bowie, Marvin Gaye, The Clash, and Jimi Hendrix. The exhibiton's made up of a mix of photos from various esteemed practitioners including David Corlo, Storm Thorgerson, Jill Furmanovsky, Gerard Mankowitx, and Sheila Rock. In non-art terms this means some lovely massive black and white shots.

The project began with Jill Furmanovsky's selection of 30 shots from her 30 year archive (quite appropriate) to be made into an edition of 30 darkroom prints. The project's expanded to more than 50 photographers and art-directors amassing 500 photos amongst themselves.

The rock array brings a collection of live shows, photos from collaborations with the musicians (i.e. they pose directly for the camera), and documentary images. The Crane Kalman Gallery resembles a photography store more than a gallery (perhaps essentially the same thing) nestled into Kensington Gardens. Photos tend to be good, massive things, worth a look at.

Times: 10am-6pm Mon-Sat, 10:30am-4:30 Sundays.

Today's idea - The Polyarnye Nochi (Polar Nights) Exhibition

Ah yes, another exhibition. There's alternatives today such as the happy-sounding Motown Dancing In The Streets at the Theatre Royal, but this costs from £14-28.50 and we thought we'd recommend something cheaper.

Similarly to yesterday's exhibition, this one by Simon Roberts focuses on cold-sounding places. This time though it's all photo based and some are really rather nice. It's held at the Crane Kalman Gallery, big on local artists and contemporary good stuff. In fact the pr blurb covers it all really quite well.

"So you think you’ve got it tough? Take your chilblains down to the Crane Kalman Gallery to see what it really means to shiver. Polyarnye Nochi focuses on winter in northern Russia, finding a region shrouded in darkness nearly 24 hours a day, a phenomenon known as Polyarnye Nochi (Polar Nights). Throughout December until mid-January, the sun remains below the horizon and there is only a faint glow of light visible around midday. One third of Russia's population live and work in these inhospitable climatic conditions. It is perhaps miraculous that factories, apartment blocks, towns and entire cities have been constructed in what should be a deserted, Arctic wasteland."

The Crane Kalman Gallery can be found on Kensington Gardens of the North Laine variety (Google Map link here) and the exhibition runs until the 7th of February.