Latest news with #Frameless
Scottish Sun
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Nepo baby with Hollywood A-list parents lands huge movie role – can you guess who she is?
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A nepo baby with Hollywood A-list parents stunned on the red carpet this week - but can you guess who she is ? The star is following in the footsteps of her famous actress mother and is set to have a huge role in an upcoming Hollywood film. Sign up for the Entertainment newsletter Sign up 5 Nepo baby with Hollywood A-list parents stuns on the red carpet Credit: Getty 5 The star is following in the footsteps of her famous actress mother Credit: Getty Nico Parker wowed on the red carpet at the Train Your Dragon Immersive Experience screening at Frameless in London, this week. The 20-year-old showed up and showed out in an elegant cream and pink dress with sheer laced sleeves and back which draped to the floor. The British actress paired the look with some pointed nude heels and some simple jewellery. If you haven't already guessed Nico is the daughter to none other than actress Thandiwe Newton and famous director Ol Parker. Thandie and Ol also share 24-year-old Ripley and their youngest son Booker. Nico shot to stardom at just 14-years-old with her Hollywood debut of the remake of Disney's classic live-action Dumbo. She has gone on to have notable roles in HBO's hit series The Last Of Us and Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy. Now, the actress is set to star in her biggest role to date as Astrid in the upcoming live-action remake of the 2010 film How To Train Your Dragon. The film is set to release in the UK on June 9. The story will follow Hiccup played by standout actor Mason Thames on his journey bonding with a dragon, Gerard Butler will also be starring in the film as his father Stoick. How To Train Your Dragon Trailer (2025) official trailer This week, while promoting the film, Nico opened up about her famous mum and dad, on ITV's Lorraine, and revealed how "supportive" they were about her career. "My parents, the really lovely thing about both of them is that their advice is predominantly about, you know, how to be a good person, rather than, you know, how to behave on a film set," she said. "And I think that what's lovely about that is that the two kind of bleed into one another, because I think it's much more important to be a nice and normal person and be kind to others, rather than, you know, know what angle best suits you. "So, the advice that I get from them feels very, very much more so about life and things like that. 5 Nico is the daughter to none other than actress Thandiwe Newton Credit: Reuters "And the wonderful thing about that is that you can then take it on to work and wherever you go." Back in 2018, Thandiwe appeared on UK daytime show This Morning and spoke about how she manages her daughter entering the acting world. She said: 'Having a mother and father in the industry… she's been on endless sets. It's not that she takes it for granted, but it's not a world that she feels she's not entitled to be in. '(Plus) she has her mum right there like a lioness checking that everything is looked after. You can't stop the industry operating the way it has unless the truth comes out. 'I feel this great relief, excitement for the women coming into this industry now,' she added. 5 Nico's dad is famous director Ol Parker Credit: Getty
Times
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
The National Portrait Gallery is on tour (but it'll cost you more up north)
Taking over a failing institution is obviously challenging. But taking over one that's riding the crest of a wave must be daunting too. How do you make your mark without making it worse? So far, after six months as director of the National Portrait Gallery, Victoria Siddall hasn't put an elegant shoe wrong. Her predecessor, Nicholas Cullinan, departed to run the British Museum after masterminding a £41 million revamp that was acclaimed by nearly everyone. Siddall, 47, was appointed after directing and expanding the fashionable art fair Frieze for more than a decade, but with no experience of managing a publicly funded arts organisation. 'The mindset is very different,' she admits. Yet already she has conjured up the one essential thing the NPG regularly needs: a photocall at the gallery with its royal patron, the Princess of Wales, surrounded by lots of tiny tots. And now she has launched two initiatives signalling a new way forward for the NPG. One, opening at MediaCity in Salford, is billed as 'the first immersive art experience of a UK national collection'. Called Stories — Brought to Life, it's a walk-in-and-gawp show of digital projections. Based on 19 portraits from the NPG collection, ranging from Elizabeth I, Darwin and Shakespeare to such mandatory modern cultural icons as Amy Winehouse and Grayson Perry, it surrounds visitors with sound and visuals, whisking through the lives of the chosen subjects. A portrait of Amy Winehouse at Stories — Brought to Life DAVID PARRY A portrait of Mary Seacole at Stories – Brought to Life DAVID PARRY It has been put together by the NPG in association with Frameless, a commercial company specialising in immersive art experiences. Who approached whom? Siddall seems surprised by the question. 'Work has been going on for some years and predates me,' she replies. 'There was a desire on the part of the NPG to look at innovative technologies and how these could be harnessed to share the collection in new ways. Frameless has been doing this successfully for years.' So who chose which portraits to use? 'That's another great question,' Siddall replies, without answering it. 'The show covers a wonderful range of people and beautifully illustrates the diversity of voices who've made up UK history.' And the point of the project is? 'The challenge of being a national museum in one building in one city is how you can be truly national and show the collection all over the country,' she says. 'Because, of course, the collection is owned by everybody. So the main driver is this desire to take the collection out and reach new audiences in this very different new format.' But isn't there a flaw in this thinking? People who are able to visit the NPG in London get free admission. That's very much not the case with Stories — Brought to Life, which runs in Salford all summer before touring other UK venues. In fact the ticket prices seem steep, especially as the show is over in 45 minutes. 'They are very much in line with other immersive experiences,' Siddall replies. 'We want everybody to be able to see this.' Really? When I went online to book for this weekend I found adult (over-16) tickets priced at £29.95, children's tickets at £19.95, and the family ticket (two adults, two children) a hefty £80. It's not exactly flinging open the doors to the poor of Salford and Manchester, is it? 'Yes, at peak times it will be more expensive,' Siddall concedes, 'but there's quite a range of pricing there for people to work with.' How is the ticket revenue being divided between the NPG and Frameless? 'We have an arrangement with Frameless that I can't delve into,' she says. She points out that this project is not the only way in which the NPG will reach out to the country in the coming year. J oshua Reynolds's magnificent Portrait of Mai, which the NPG helped to buy for a jaw-dropping £50 million in a unique 50/50 sharing deal with the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, embarks this month on a national tour — Bradford (for its City of Culture year), Cambridge and Plymouth — with what Siddall describes as a 'fantastic learning and engagement programme built round it'. Her other recent initiative demonstrates how important it now is for directors of arts institutions to have friends in wealthy places — something that Siddall undoubtedly put into practice during her time at Frieze and, before that, the auction house Christies. She has persuaded Anastasia and Igor Bukhman — Russian-born billionaires living in London with Israeli passports and a fortune made from an online gaming business — to donate £1 million so that that NPG can start a new fund, Collecting the Now, to buy 'major contemporary artworks'. It will run for three years and the first two artworks have already been acquired: a self-portrait by Sonia Boyce, and a satirically embellished portrait bust of Edward VII by Hew Locke. 'It's particularly important for museums like the NPG to collect works by living artists, reflecting our times, before they become too expensive,' Siddall says. 'This fund will enable us to think more strategically and be more nimble about acquisitions. Making quick decisions is sometimes essential when buying contemporary art.' Also essential, one imagines, is the knack of wooing art-loving, m ega-rich individuals like the Bukhmans, especially at a time when (if you believe the newspapers) thousands of multimillionaires are quitting Britain for less taxing regimes. 'Oh, there are still a few around,' Siddall says with a laugh. 'But yes, that's really critical. I hope they [the Bukhmans] will be an inspiration to others. We have such high ambitions for the NPG. There are so many things we would love to do, whether it's learning programmes, exhibitions, building the collection or taking shows round the country. But we do need financial stability and donors to achieve those.' • Nicholas Cullinan, British Museum boss: 'I won't conform to political agendas' It could be that Siddall has a self-inflicted problem, however, when it comes to attracting potential sponsors. Five years ago she co-founded Gallery Climate Coalition, committing all its member galleries to a 50 per cent reduction in their carbon emissions by 2030. The following years she raised over £5 million for the environmental charity ClientEarth by persuading artists to donate works. She then founded Murmur to champion the idea that 'the arts industries have the potential to ignite a critical mass of action on the climate crisis and to be leaders on this vital issue'. Unsurprisingly the anti-oil pressure group Culture Unstained, which ferociously denounces sponsorships such as BP's £50 million to the British Museum, announced that it was 'encouraging' to see Siddall appointed to the NPG. Were the eco-warriors right to be encouraged? A portrait of Malala Yousafzai at Stories – Brought to Life DAVID PARRY A portrait of Emmeline Pankhurst at Stories – Brought to Life DAVID PARRY 'Like many of us, I care about the future of the planet,' Siddall replies, 'and it's right that we look at the sustainability of our own building. But in terms of support from sponsors for institutions, it's vital to be able to achieve what we want to do, and I'm very grateful for the corporate partners that we do have.' What would she do if she was offered sponsorship by, say, Baillie Gifford, the investment giant that has tiny links to fossil-fuel companies yet was dumped as a sponsor by various literary festivals? 'It's hard for me to comment because it's another organisation and I wasn't involved,' she replies. 'But I would definitely encourage corporates and individuals to think about how they can help our sector continue to flourish.' Should the UK's national museums still have free admission? No other country does it. 'Yes, it creates this incredibly democratic access to culture,' Siddall replies. OK, what about London imposing a hotel or city tax on visitors, to be spent on culture? At least tourists would then be contributing something towards the huge cost of running the museums they are free to enjoy. 'I'm sure those conversations are underway,' she says. She is clearly already skilled in the corporate art of giving absolutely nothing away. She will go far. Stories — Brought to Life is at MediaCity, Salford Quays, from May 2 to Aug 31,
Telegraph
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Look up: creative ceiling design inspiration
We can devote anxious hours to choosing the precise shade of paint colour or wallpaper pattern to use on our walls. Yet for most of us, the ceiling is an afterthought. A few dabs of filler, a coat of white emulsion, and the job is done. But that's changing. Once the Cinderella of surfaces, the ceiling is now getting the attention it deserves as designers shift their attention to the fifth wall, experimenting with colour, texture and form for atmospheric effect. Reflective layers of gloss paint, the eye-teasing trickery of a trompe-l'oeil cloudscape, wallpaper or sculptural plasterwork are all encouraging us to look up. Colour consultant Fiona de Lys has a theory about this. She draws a line between the emergence of the ceiling as a decorative feature in its own right and the current popularity of digital art shows such as Frameless, or Van Gogh: the Immersive Experience. These immersive installations, says Fiona, are making us aware of the impact of colour – and pattern – on our senses. 'The space above us has become something to admire,' says Fiona who also approaches colour as a 'three-dimensional' experience; 'I'm interested in how we respond to colour; how light and shadow interact to contribute to a mood and feel.' The ceiling deserves our attention, says Fiona, who originally trained as a set designer, because it can transform the feel of a space. 'When I'm choosing colours I'll draw on all influences – furniture, furnishings, art, or the quality of light in a room,' she says. One ploy is to paint the ceiling in a deep gloss, to bounce light across a space: 'The smallest room in the house can feel like the largest.' Fiona mixes her own paints using pigments in nuanced ways, often to connect interiors with the outside. It might be an undercurrent of green to echo the foliage in the garden, or a whisper of rose to mimic the red brick of the house opposite. For designer Angelica Squire, co-founder of Studio Squire, the fifth wall offers a chance 'to do things differently'. She cites a project in Barnes lined in contrasting materials: dark cork for a cocooning study, raffia and printed wallpaper clambering over the eaves of a bedroom. Even developers are cottoning on. For an apartment at Chelsea Barracks, where the brief was for 'not another show flat'; Angelica 'softened' the loftiness of the angular architecture by painting walls and ceilings in an airy blue: as enveloping as cloudless summer skies. An interesting ceiling, says colour consultant Harriet Slaughter (who trained at Farrow & Ball) makes 'the difference between an ordinary and extraordinary interior'. Her tips? Angelico Pink from Francesca's Paints 'is flattering against a warm neutral; everyone looks good in a pink light'; or the 'Swedish-style' contrast of a dusty blue ceiling above white walls. Panelling an attic room in tongue-and-groove painted in a warm gloss or eggshell conjures 'a cosy feel'. Specialist paint techniques like trompe l'oeil, can also be used to disguise the imperfections of difficult spaces. 'As a designer, you work in a liminal space: between the whimsical and romantic – and the practical. Creative solutions are often the result of technical challenges,' says Lucy Hammond-Giles of Sibyl Colefax & Fowler. For a dining room in West London, she commissioned a ceiling inspired by a mix of Pitzhanger Manor, Sir John Soane's country house in Ealing, and holiday snaps of a spiral staircase, in the eclectic 18th-century Chinese Palace in Palermo in Sicily. Magdalena Gordon, of Atma Decorative Arts, painted the ivy-festooned trellising. The vaulted effect adds an illusion of height and light in a small, 'awkward' room, says Lucy. In a 'featureless' London basement sitting room, Studio Vero, whose co-founders Romanos Brihi and Venetia Rudebeck favour art-led interiors, recreated a circus tent – in paint. The billowing, big-top stripes unfurling from an emerald-green pendant light, detract from the lowering ceiling. 'It was also a way of customising the space, adding an exuberance,' says Romanos, 'which matches our client.' For a wallpaper alternative, Iksel 's ceiling coverings include coffered and romantically tented effects, which can be customised to fit. Designer Natalie Tredgett also used the ceiling as the starting point for the sitting room of an apartment in a 1960s west London block. To offset the typically mid-century low proportions, she bathed the walls and ceiling in a warm, saffron gloss. Painted sunbeams, radiating from the light fitting, expand the space. So too does the kitchen ceiling in her own home. The Pompeian-red, swirling fresco effect is an eye-drawing foil to utilitarian storage below. It gives the walk-through space 'presence' says Natalie. Craftsmanship is also resurfacing overhead, to modern effect. A sculptor by training, plaster artisan Geoffrey Preston draws on traditional pargetting techniques for his embellishments which are made by hand, not pressed from moulds. His fellow plaster artisan Dolcie Ross Keogh (@dolcierossstucco on Instagram), who works all over the world, derives inspiration from the 'free, and often wild' 18th-century stucco work in her native Ireland. Classical motifs, like agapanthus or oak leaves are an option, but clients are encouraged to pick personalised motifs: your favourite pet, perhaps the froth of wisteria on a garden wall. 'I think we've all been missing a trick or two,' says Dolcie. 'The ceiling is a canvas. A space where you can be playful – and really experiment.'
