Friday 4 November 2011

The Title Art Prize is well underway


The Title Art Prize [BLANKSPACE]
28 October - 27 November 2011, BLANKSPACE, Manchester

THE TITLE ART PRIZE: 28 October - 27 November 2011
EXHIBITION LAUNCH: Thursday 27 October (6-9pm)
AWARDS NIGHT: Saturday 12 November (6-9pm)
WINNING ARTISTS’ TALKS: w/c 21 November
BLANKSPACE, Manchester
Free Entry to all Events
The Title Art Prize Press Pack (Click to Download)

THE TITLE ART PRIZE SHORTLISTED ARTISTS:
(See below for further information)
Bartosz Beda | Christopher Bethell | Anne Charnock | Jamie Crewe | Nick Davies | Lisa Denyer | Hannah Devereux | Joe Doldon | David Dunnico | Susan Francis | Rowena Harris | Calum Johnston | Ami Kanki | Ka Wah Liu | Laura Yolanda Lowe | Kit Mead | Liz Murray | Sachiyo Nishimura | David Ogle | Stella Ouzounidou | David Sargerson | Mark Selby | Richard Stone | Liz West | Jacqueline Wylie

To celebrate 5 years of supporting emerging practitioners, Blank Media Collective is launching an important new art prize in Manchester featuring the nation’s top emerging visual artists.

Blank Media Collective’s Director, Mark Devereux says; “The Title Art Prize encompasses the excitement, support and commitment we [Blank Media Collective] have for emerging practitioners. With works spanning painting, photography, video, installation and sculpture the exhibition showcases some of the best emerging talent from throughout the UK. In the first 2 weeks of the exhibition we are inviting visitors to vote for their favourite piece, with the winning artist receiving the prestigious People’s Choice Award.

I am very excited about the launch of The Title Art Prize this year and sure it will become one of the most recognized art prizes in the coming years. Signaling the end of the first full year at BLANKSPACE and Blank Media Collective’s fifth year, I am proud to be leading such an energetic and forward-thinking organisation working with passionate and talented artists. We are incredibly grateful to our sponsors (ASK Developments, Sandbar and Fred Aldous) for making this and our continuing work possible.”

With a panel made up by Northern Art Prize winner (2009) and Tate Britain exhibiting artist Paul Rooney, Cornerhouse Exhibitions Coordinator Tomas Harold, Arts Council England Relationship Manager Neil Harris, independent Curator Alex Hodby and Sandbar Director Stephen Gingell, the winning artist will receive £500 along with a solo exhibition supported and curated by Blank Media Collective. Three other artists will receive cash prizes aimed at helping to benefit their future creative practices and the winner of the People’s Choice Award will receive art materials and equipment.

“Its great to see artists being pro-active in collectives such as Blank Media. In difficult times such as these we need to pool our resources and help each other as much as we can. I hope Blank Media projects such as The Title Art Prize will provide much needed experience and exposure to artists from the region and beyond.” Paul Rooney

Blank Media Collective has been a constant source of inspiration, support and promotion for thousands of artists both throughout the UK and Internationally ever-since it was formed by Director, Mark Devereux in 2006. Showcasing exhibitions, live music & performance, workshops and a monthly online magazine; Blank Media Collective’s dedicated volunteers are giving creatives much-needed opportunities during difficult times for many creative organisations.

The Title Art Prize launches at BLANKSPACE on Thursday 27 October (6-9pm) with the opportunity for visitors to vote for their favourite piece of work. The winner, three runners-up and People’s Choice Award will be announced on Blank Media Collective’s fifth birthday on Saturday 12 November (6-9pm), with the exhibition continuing throughout and until Sunday 27 November.

FURTHER INFORMATION:
BLANKSPACE | 43 Hulme Street | Manchester | M15 6 AW | 0161 222 6164 | www.blankspacemcr.org
exhibitions@blankmediacollective.org

OPENING TIMES:
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday 1-7pm | Tuesday 1-9pm | Saturday & Sunday 11am-4pm

Participating Artists

Sachiyo Nishimura: www.snishimura.com
There are certain spaces and objects within cityscapes that, located both inside and at the outskirts of most urban circuits around the world, have become almost imperceptible to the casual viewer. These objects and spaces/non-places coexist anonymously, unrelated to any specific local identity, looking quite similar to each other regardless their specific location. Sachiyo Nishamura’s work proposes a mathematical re-composition of their photographic image, using mixed graphic-manipulation operations that are based on arbitrary mathematical formulae of my design, and then extended on a photomontage that sets out a reconstruction of the urban space. By doing this, Sachiyo aims to put forward another version of the cityscape that is more complex than the real referent image.


David Ogle: www.saatchionline.com/davidogle
“The immediacy and linear quality of drawing naturally lends itself to my way of working. A pulse of movement is captured across a surface, with viewers becoming implicated in the works time-based process by visually tracing the forms progression from beginning to end. This build up of a constant form often affords my work illusionary three dimensional qualities, with geometric shapes multiplying to create optical depth across a flat plane.

Growing out of this, my sculptural work aims to take the fundamental properties of drawing (with a focus on flatness and line) and transfer these into new spatial situations. Physical spaces are intersected by lines and forms that optically flatten an environment, each step the viewer takes offering a new perspective on extruding entities that seem to discard any kind of three dimensional physicality.”


Rowena Harris: www.rowenaharris.com
Harris enjoys floating her work in ambiguity, placing it between seriousness and irony, between functional and decorative, between real and fake, made and found. Harris’ work exudes a pre-ironic austerity and seriousness that is synonymous with modernism, yet through the material language, a relationship with a contemporary saleable style becomes apparent and thus this seriousness becomes questionable.


Richard Stone: www.richardstoneprojects.com
Stone’s work materialises in many forms from objects and installation through to site-specific works. These have been shown at Schwartz Gallery and Beaconsfield in London as well as at further galleries and sites in the UK and abroad. He has recently been selected for the Threadneedle Prize 2011.

Stone takes a distinctive approach to recurrent themes of self and place, absence and transience, from mischievously re-casting the dimensions and structural details of gallery and site-specific spaces to recently engaging viewers as participants through the reenactment of a memorial. Materials and found objects are equally intrinsic and seductively reworked or reconfigured, these have included ornaments engulfed in ghostly auras of smooth amorphous wax, carpets unraveled and suspended, erased antique paintings, earth, flowers and other delicate ephemera. Works often appear in physical and conceptual states of metamorphosis and flux, incorporating sharp contrasts of light and dark or are interwoven with grainy expressions of solitude and stasis. Such works have been described as inherently dark and poetic in their range, oscillating in scale from the intimate to the monumental and as resonating with art historical and popular cultural references, from Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s conceptual work to Peter Saville’s Joy Division album covers.


Mark Selby: www.manifesto-art.co.uk
Mark Selby’s practice includes the use of sculpture, installation and film. His work explores notions of failure or dysfunction, particularly in the context of communicative acts, represented though the re-engineering of a space or object. This often develops into large-scale environments that are sinister or disorientating - placing the viewer into the position of physical interlocutor. He was the Recipient of the Clifford Chance / UAL Sculpture Award in 2009 after completing his MA in Fine Art at Wimbledon College of Art. Recent exhibitions include The Electric House, SHIFT Gallery, London., Fig.3, David Roberts Art Foundation, London and Sluice Art Fair. Curatorial projects have included Coming Out of the Woodwork (2010) and Unobtrusive Measures, which will tour to Kunstpavillon, Munich in 2012. Mark is a lecturer in Fine Art at the University for the Creative Arts.


Liz Murray: www.lizmurray.co.uk
Liz Murray works with sculpture, installation, film, video and photography. Recent projects have ranged from large scale, site specific installations (in New York, she tasked the city’s psychics to predict what her new work would look like, rebuilding and filming a full-size cardboard set based on American cop shows), to working with archival material from publications and mainstream cinema of the seventies and eighties. Another aspect of her practice is live art, of which recent performances have included a commission for Highbury Fields in Islington (‘They Came From Nowhere’, 2010), and ‘Hairport’ (2008), at Tate Britain.

Murray completed her MA Fine Art at Chelsea in 2005. Residencies since include Youkobo Artspace, Tokyo (2011), Futura Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague (2010) and The Red Mansion Foundation, Beijing (2006). Recent work has been shown at Karlin Studios in Prague, and Stedefreund, Berlin. Murray lives and works in London.


Liz West: www.liz-west.co.uk
Liz West makes intensely coloured installation, video and photographic works from arrangements of found materials and consumer goods. In the work objects are densely arranged in orders or enclosed within constructed spaces, such as cupboards and shelves or in containers such as shopping trolleys and cabinets to form compacted colour masses or gradations.

West is interested in the aesthetic of densely packed and richly coloured arrangements and displays found in shops, markets and museums. In her work, she creates sensory experiences in the form of richly saturated installations that immerse the viewer in a kaleidoscopic or optical environment.

Systems of ordering, classification and coding are applied in the development and generation of work. Boundaries are established, which determine both what is collected and where it is collected from. West continually searches and collects coloured objects ranging throughout the spectrum. Only purely coloured objects are gathered, disallowing any items that were made of more than one colour. West is interested in the intense and concentrated colour found in synthetic materials and in artificial light. West is concerned with the psychological influence of colour, its effect and sensory impact upon the viewer.


Lisa Denyer: www.lisadenyer.com
Lisa Denyer is interested in capturing a precious, jewel-like quality within my paintings whilst also retaining an abstract feel. She has always been fascinated by natural shapes, silhouettes and simplified motifs. Up until now her practice has solely revolved around escapism; from everyday life into the natural world. However, in recent work her focus has shifted from vast landscape vistas to geometric shapes and patterns. Lisa believes that this adaptation of her practice is due to the fact that, having spent the last two years in a city that she loves, escapism is no longer a major concern within her work. It is aspects of the city, such as repetitive architectural patterns, light reflecting from windows, and shadows cast by buildings that are currently influencing her paintings.

As part of Lisa’s latest project Crystal Abstracts, she has also been looking at microcosm and macrocosm and the idea of universal designs which span the cosmos. She has been especially inspired by crystal formations.


Kit Mead: www.kitmead.co.uk
Kit Mead’s practice has developed through themes and concepts that focus on the understanding and experience of time and memory. Defined by the temporal qualities and specific conventions of the media he exploits, Kit frequently employs cinematic devices to communicate the structures of his outcomes. His work revolves around site, actions and moments, with the pieces relying on and responding to the environments they are located in.


Ka Wah Liu: www.kawahliu.com
Ka Wah Liu’s work pursues the possibility of connecting an uncanny experience in relation to the unconscious of mankind. As a means to evoke the real in a world where people are dissatisfied with the confined model of culture and to deal with one’s initial lack of completeness, she explores the notions of the grotesque and the uncanny, which is strange, hidden, yet familiar. Adopting the methodologies of the early-aged playing with plasticine, which rubbing, squeezing and dismantling applied, she interrupts, damages and shapes the material, creating an abjected human face or body, to project residues of desire and traces of inherently traumatic experience of a vulnerable self.


Joe Doldon: www.joedoldon.co.uk
Joe Doldon’s practice is material led. This is the starting point for all of his work, which is usually modest and of low monetary value. Work materialises through a process of experimentation, following certain formulas through which he aquaints himself with the properties and the potential of the medium whilst constantly thinking about how to detract the material from its everyday use and aesthetic. Joe aims to make work of an optimistic nature, which operates on a subtle level. Recent work has become more abstract and open-ended. He wants his work to speak in metaphors and become ever more conscious about the viewers role in completing the work, bringing their own interpretation and meaning. Simply how perception and visual experience is unique to each individual is an impetus for making work.


Calum Johnston: www.calumjohnston.com
Games are at stake, and in play. In Calum Johnston’s work games function to designate potential ways of perception, which might subsequently be undertaken or may take place only imaginatively. But furthermore the work is characterized by humour, playfulness and in configurations of sometimes-manipulated settings and a well-developed sense of conception. Calum uses normal, everyday materials carefully turned into art works via a distinct deconstruction and reformulation of its simple everyday framework. His intentions are to direct the viewer’s gaze to the details of existence, to invite viewers into a space and challenge them via these transformations, not in order to confuse or alienate, but to suggest connections and open up for other perspectives and on showing the distinctions between art and life.


Laura Yolanda Lowe: www.blankmediacollective.org/portfolios/yolandalowe
Form, space, light and movement are integral parts that make up the world we see everyday. Laura Yolanda Lowe is interested in what happens in this visual world, what we see if we introspect our visual sensations and concentrate on the actual nature of the information that falls on our retinas. The experience of the visual field is to be aware of the fact that you are seeing. Of the four main parts that make up our visual field, the phenomenon of light, which determines brightness, shadow and colour, is what intrigues me the most. The eye owes its existence to light; our sight is dominated by colour. Colour has no physical properties; scientifically it is a product of light. It is our visual system and the interaction of the wavelengths in physical light which creates our perception of colour. We see colour as the colour of something else, on an object for example, it isn’t a natural thing to see colour simply as itself. By allowing ourselves to see perception as the object we can begin to experience the meta-physical sensations of colour and light. Colour is the place where our brain and the universe meet as an energy.


Nick Davies: www.blankmediacollective.org/portfolios/TheTuber
For the project contained within the Title Art Prize, Nick Davies has undertaken the role of a cultural translator. In his practice the ideas drive the form, function and nature of the work undertaken. Most of the work will aim to be a part of the context that creates it, using the gallery space as a place to contemplate the results.

His main interests are our notions of intelligence, creativity, and our values surrounding how we both live, learn and relate to one another. This work is heavily underpinned by philosophy, cultural theory and by his own direct experience within our civic society.

He is heavily influenced by British conceptual artists such as Stephen Willats, Michael Landy, and Jeremy Deller, as well as by the thinking of figures such as Buckminster Fuller and Victor Papanek. Nick currently lives and works from his home in Devon.


Jamie Crewe: www.blankmediacollective.org/portfolios/jamiecrewe
Jamie Crewe is an artist, writer, and nightingale living in Sheffield. His work addresses structures and their discontents, contrasting the formalities of established architectures with acts and objects that undermine, exceed, or desolate them. Using a variety of adopted dialects, including gestures and utterances from cinema, amateur draftsmanship, and the materials of queer theatrics, he builds, empties, disassembles and rebuilds in order to indicate what is elided.

Framed by the structural concerns of the European avant-garde, from Dada to the Lettristes to Oulipo, and moving with the atemporal multiplicity of current technology, he works with video, photography, drawing, objects, texts, and actions to create works that react to each other and their habitat in ways that are lucid, ambiguous, and fragmentary. Particular concerns are gender, desire, and legacies, and the power relations therein. He is also co-organiser of the bi-monthly art event PRISM, which takes place in various venues around Sheffield, and editorial assistant for the Transmission lecture series at Sheffield Hallam University. He is currently introducing André Gide to his sister and building a set of ornamental dog figurines.


Jacqueline Wylie: www.blankmediacollective.org/portfolios/jackie
Jacqueline Wylie uses a variety of materials: wool, digital photography, text and video to paint and draw with, preferring to use simple readily available materials and processes. Her knitted paintings, such as Constellation or Shipwreck (after Mallarmé), refer explicitly to painting practice, but use wool instead of paint, to blur the boundaries between fine art and craft, and consider how value and worth are assigned to materials and processes.

“It is the ideas behind art that interest me most, not the processes, or craft. Hand knitting, is a laborious, obsessive activity rather like painting; the same movements are repeated endlessly to build up pattern and texture. By deliberately positioning banal, undervalued processes and materials within an art context, I direct the viewer’s attention onto the question of how we assign value to art or craft.”

Much of Wylie’s work is site specific, often made in response to historic buildings and landscapes, drawing on her previous employment as an archaeologist specialising in building conservation and vernacular architecture. In Manchester Time Piece, her most recent work with Tern Collective, Wylie used photography and durational performance to explore ideas of time, movement, dislocation, personal journeys, and the bucolic.


David Sargerson: www.blankmediacollective.org/portfolios/davidsargerson
The esteemed artist Ivon Hitchens once said that landscape was ‘a peg on which to hang a painting’. “I understand this to mean that although landscape is the inspiration for the painting process it does not necessarily define the outcome of it. Ivon Hitchens used landscape as the genesis for his painting but was not bound to strict representational concerns. Instead the final image is a result of an exploration in to the method of painting itself. The exploration of composition, line, tone, shape, colour and form are also fundamental to my work and portraiture is very much my peg.”


Christopher Bethell: www.blankmediacollective.org/portfolios/christopherbethell
Christopher Bethell’s current practice places him within the sub-culture of Urban Exploration: exploring what is usually out of bounds. Explorers interpret this in differing ways. Some favour infiltrating the network of drains and sewers deep beneath us, others prefer seeking out ways out onto cranes and the rooftops of city skyscrapers. However, most commonly they explore derelict or emptied buildings: the most popular of these being Britain’s asylums and hospitals.

His work considers the nature of wanting to see the unseen; attempting to evaluate what draws himself and other members of the community to these sites. Christopher tries to communicate the placid atmosphere that is experienced whilst exploring - a feeling that is amplified in such places as (derelict) hospitals in contrast to the noise of active ones.

Photography has changed what is commonly believed to be beautiful. Most would not wish to live (or even be) in these conditions, but once photographed they become an aesthetic fascination. Christopher’s images describe the serene beauty of these buildings that are now devoid of purpose.


Bartosz Beda: www.bartoszbeda.com
Bartosz Beda has graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2011 and takes influences and inspiration from the world around him. Using his personal expression to develop these concepts into his paintings, Bartosz observes and focuses upon ordinary elements of reality to make synthetic summaries.


Susan Francis: www.axisweb.org/seCVPG.aspx?ARTISTID=13808
Susan Francis is a visual artist, born in Belfast but now living in the South of England. Her practice encompasses sculpture, installation and video, often residing somewhere in the spaces in between. It is quiet work, a vocabulary of cast offs, objects, liquids and processes, at times unstable and prone to decay, yet familiar to us all. Peering into the unspoken corners of our condition, the work unfolds as a constant inquiry, an unfinished sentence, a dialogue, if you like, articulated in material, object and space.


Ami Kanki: www.amikanki.com
Ami Kanki investigates the relationships between people, art and museums and proposes how to encourage people to deepen the engagement with museums and art. Visiting a museum is a contemporary leisure activity. We can choose how to spend our leisure time from many choices such as watching films, visiting amusement parks, playing sports and so on. Ami enjoys all these activities but visiting museums, especially art museums, has a different meaning from other activities for me. She considers that adopting art in our life possibly produces a spiritual influence.

The museum is a place to introduce art works and artists and also a representation of the world surrounded with art. Some people see museums as a church, where they can reflect themselves. Ami empathises with their experience at museums. Visiting museums and seeing art works offer her inspiration for her life. This experience makes Ami interested in museums and would like others to be aware of the power of art.


Stella Ouzounidou: stellaouzounidou.blogspot.com
Stella Ouzounidou tries to reassess the products of our cultural waste. She often uses found objects from eBay or other sources. The notion of memory is somehow always interlinked in her work and she deals with it as an inseparable phenomenon of our everydayness. Collecting, archiving and gathering things is part of Stella’s process and often visible in the execution.

‘Our obsessions with memory functions as a reaction formation against the accelerating technical processes that is transforming our Lebenswelt (lifeworld) in quite distinct ways. [Memory] represents the attempt to slow down information processing, to resist the dissolution of time in the synchronicity of the archive, to recover a mode of contemplation outside the universe of simulation, and fast-speed information and cable networks, to claim some anchoring space in a world of puzzling and often threaten heterogeneity, non-synchronicity, and information overload.’ Huyssen, A. in Gere C. 2006


Hannah Devereux: hannahdevereux.co.uk
Hannah Devereux’s practice is an investigation into the abstraction of landscape. An interest in the extraction of reality from photographic images drives the work she makes. Divisions are a prime element within her work, holding a central role in the abstraction of an image. Her work values boundaries; edges which have the ability to considerably minimise an image, eliminating detail and complications, consequently forming something new which may be so pared down that any reference to its source is lost. The concept of comparison is important; this often manifests in the creation of parallel works. Their partnership calls attention to similarities, distinctions and subtleties, establishing that the smallest differences are able to encourage what the image is and how it may be seen.


David Dunnico: daviddunnico.wordpress.com
David Dunnico is a documentary photographer from Manchester. He said of the piece:

“I put the individual breaths together in the order I found them, avoiding any attempt to make the piece melodic or rhythmic, it was supposed to be sounds, not musique concrète”.


Anne Charnock: annecharnock.com
Anne Charnock’s art practice encompasses photography, painting, drawing and text-based installations. For her subject matter she turns time and again to her love-hate relationship with technology. Anne has smashed and burned mobile phones before photographing the charred fragments. She has worked with faulty computer printouts and corrupted data files. Anne’s studio has a stash of broken bits of technology, donated by friends and family on the off chance she’ll find a use for them in her art making. One such donation was a faulty point-and-shoot digital camera. Anne worked quickly to master the camera’s errant behaviour and produced eight portraits before the camera failed completely.

Coloured objects needed for new installation work?


Hello everyone,

Instead of telling you about a new exhibition i'm in, today I am asking for your help! I am in the process of making some new, very exciting, large scale installation work in which I need masses of purely coloured objects. I have been collecting purely coloured objects now for a while myself but have nowhere near enough.

Here are the rules and stipulations I set for making this collection:
1. The objects can be any size, no matter how big or small.

2. The objects can be made of any material, ranging from; plastic, cardboard, glass, porcelain, wood, etc. The sky is the limit, use your imagination.

3. The objects HAVE to be purely one colour. Any other colours present on the item (including black or white) means the object does not qualify. However, in the case of objects like domestic bottles, labels can be peeled off or removed to reveal the pure colour underneath.

4. I collect ALL colours and tones with the exception of black, Including: Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Purple, Orange, Pink, White, Brown, etc.

5. If you a kind enough to gather any objects for me, please hand them to me (or someone who knows me) at either Rogue Artists Studios, BLANKSPACE or my home (all Manchester based).

Thanks everyone...

Thursday 29 September 2011

Shortlisted for The Title Art Prize


After receiving submissions from over 200 visual artists from throughout the UK, Blank Media Collective announce the shortlisted artists for The Title Art Prize of which I am one:

Bartosz Beda | Christopher Bethell | Anne Charnock | Jamie Crewe | Nicholas Davies | Lisa Denyer | Hannah Devereux | Joe Doldon | David Dunnico | Susan Francis | Rowena Harris | Calum Johnston | Ami Kanki | Ka Wah Liu | Laura Lowe | Kit Mead | Liz Murray | Sachiyo Nishimura | David Ogle | Stella Ouzouridou | David Sargeson | Mark Selby | Richard Stone | Liz West | Jacqueline Wylie

To celebrate 5 years of supporting emerging practitioners, Blank Media Collective is launching an important new art prize in Manchester featuring the nation’s top emerging visual artists.

With a panel made up by Northern Art Prize winner (2009) and Tate Britain exhibiting artist Paul Rooney, Cornerhouse Exhibitions Coordinator Tomas Harold, Arts Council England Relationship Manager Neil Harris, Independent Curator Alex Hodby and Sandbar Director Stephen Gingell, the winning artist will receive £500 along with a solo exhibition supported and curated by Blank Media Collective. Three other artists will receive cash prizes aimed at helping to benefit their future creative practices and the winner of the People’s Choice Award will receive art materials and equipment.

The Title Art Prize | BLANKSPACE, Manchester
28 October - 27 November 2011
Exhibition launch: Thursday 27 October 2011, 6-9pm
Awards Night: Saturday 12 November 2011, 6-9pm

Monday 19 September 2011

Open Studios at ROGUE



Time: Friday, October 7 · 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Rogue Artists Studios 66-72 Chapeltown Street Manchester M1 2WH. Behind Manchester Piccadilly Railway Station
More Info: All welcome to Rogue Open Studios 2011. We're open from 11am till 6pm on the Saturday October 8th and between 12 midday and 5pm on the Sunday October 9th. The Opening Party is on Friday October 7th between 6pm and 9pm. See you there!

Wednesday 10 August 2011

Alex Farrar and.... (Leeds College of Art & Design)



Leeds College of Art Vernon Street Leeds LS2 8PH

18 August - 9 September 9.00am - 4.00pm Monday - Friday

Alex Farrar

and Jayne Allen, Keith Arnatt, Jonathan Ashworth, Bob Cobbing, Georgia
Dennison, James Dixon, Lucy Freeman, Hamish Fulton, Joe Hancock, Howard,
Leeds United, Richard Long, Frank Lisle, Claire Macalister Hall, Harry
Meadley, Michael O'Sullivan, Helen Shaddock, Holly Stott, Eric Taylor,
Liz West, Lynn Wray

Catalogue Available

PRIVATE VIEW

17 August 5.00pm - 8.00pm

'Catalogue Available', Alex Farrar proposed that his exhibition
catalogue be expanded to include all the artworks currently in the
Vernon Street College building. The resulting publication reveals a
found-exhibition of 30 works made in the past 50 years by over 25
artists, present at the time of Farrar's solo exhibition.

Featuring the college's hanging collection and ongoing temporary
exhibitions, the catalogue also documents many clandestine projects
which remain in the building long after their makers have left. These
latent exhibits were researched by a group of former students,
responsible for collecting verbal accounts of the mythical works that
persist in the fabric of the building.

The project will be accessible through a single hand-printed book that
will be permanently shelved in the College's Vernon Street library.
During the preview of the exhibition, a one-off tour of the exhibition
will be led by Georgia Dennison.

Wednesday 27 July 2011

THE TOMORROW PEOPLE - ARTISTS OF THE FUTURE NOW 2011

PRIVATE VIEW 6-10pm
FRIDAY 29th JULY

SPECIAL LIVE PERFORMANCE BY ARTIST VICTORIA GRAY 8PM
ARTIST AINE O'DWYER LIVE HARP 9PM

SELECTED BY SNOOZIE HEXAGON AND SIMON REUBEN WHITE THE TOMORROW PEOPLE BRINGS TOGETHER A SELECTION OF THE VERY BEST ART GRADUATES AND EARLY CAREER ARTISTS ON THE CUSP OF ART STARDOM. THE GRAND OPENING WILL COINCIDE WITH THE OPENING OF HACKNEY WICKED ARTS FESTIVAL.

SELECTED ARTISTS 2011

RADHIKA AGARWALA
GARETH BARNETT
JAN HAKON ERICHSEN
VICTORIA GRAY
GIULIA LAZZARO
WILLIAM MARRIOTT
HENRY JACKSON NEWCOMB
AINE O'DWYER
HARUKA ONO
MEGAN ROONEY
LIZ WEST
KIM WILD

Friday, July 29 · 6:00pm - 9:00pm

Elevator Gallery, Floor 5, Mother Studios, Queens Yard, White Post Lane, Hackney Wick, E9 5EN

Wednesday 20 July 2011

Liz West in 'The Tomorrow People'



I have been selected for The Tomorrow People Exhibition at the Elevator Gallery, London.
The emphasis is 'Artists of the future, now'.

PRIVATE VIEW
Friday 30th July 6pm - 10pm
*8pm- Performance by artist Victoria Gray.
*9pm- Performance by artist Aine O ‘Dwyer (experimental harp and vocals)

Normal Exhibition / Gallery Opening hours
Friday - Sunday 12 noon - 5pm

Hackney WickED Arts Festival 2011
The arts festival in Hackney Wick runs alongside our opening. For more information go to the website www.hackneywickedfestival.co.uk

ELEVATOR GALLERY
MOTHER STUDIOS
QUEENS YARD WHITE POST LANE
HACKNEY WICK
LONDON
E9 5EN

www.elevatorgallery.co.uk

Tuesday 19 July 2011

Liz West in new Leeds exhibition 'Copy/Paste'

My work will feature in the new exhibition 'Copy/Paste' in Leeds, opens Monday 25th July at Shine Business Centre.

Shine will launch its new art programme this summer with showcases by emerging and professional artists. Over 30 artists have contributed to the inaugaral show comprising of several solo shows and Shine’s first curated exhibition entitled ‘Copy/Paste’.

‘Copy/Paste’ presents artworks utilising or referencing digital imaging techniques, from artists working in a range of disciplines including graphic design, printmaking, photography, sculptural installation, performance.

Shine Business Centre
Harehills Road
Harehills
LS8 5HS Leeds
United Kingdom
Monday, July 25, 2011 from 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM (PT)

Thursday 7 July 2011

New site-specific installation for Manchester Art Crawl



Liz West has made a new site specific work in Kraak Gallery for Manchester Art Crawl, 2011.

KRAAK Gallery Website
Manchester Art Crawl Website

Manchester Art Crawl is part of the “Not Part Of Festival ” acting as the visual art fringe event to The Manchester International Festival. The MCR | AC takes the form of a visual arts festival revitalising art, non art, abandoned and occupied spaces alike. The driving force behind The Crawl is to create a large scale inclusive platform for contemporary artists living and working in Manchester and beyond in order to stimulate ideas, develop and show work to an international audience at a time when Manchester has the spotlight on less inclusive events.

2011' s Manchester Art Crawl sees a group shown hosted in Kraak Gallery's hidden new loft gallery space of 8 national artists work ranging from installation to sensor prompted moving image to roof top towers.

Opening Times: 12pm- 6pm Daily.

Behind Hula Bar (yellow fronted) on Stevenson Square there is a cobbled alleyway. Down this alleyway, at the narrowest point, there are two doors. Through one door is KRAAK Gallery. Through the other door is KRAAK Venue- go into Kraak venue where the maps and arrows are and go all the way up to the top floor.


Information on artists and work;

Liz West
Red Chamber
“I am concerned with the psychological influence of colour, its effect and sensory impact upon the viewer. In the installation Red Chamber a large collection of red objects are positioned to form an ambiguous landscape, produced using numerous mirrors which multiplied and extended the objects through reflection. My chamber installations can be site specific or incorporated into existing building spaces. The colour red induces feelings of fear and warmth, however it is also associated with warning signs and anger, it is overpowering when used in large quantities.”

Joseph Rowley
A Place Without Purpose Where Purpose Once
An exploration of the ideas of space and non-space and more particularly the idea of a place without purpose where purpose once was. Pallets have no use on their own, they are defined by their contents, and broken pallets have even less use. In conjunction with this a TV screen of static again links to this idea, since a television is also defined by its contents to a large extent.

Nicola Colclough
A Forest
The idea for the piece came from an observational photography series exploring 'things in trees' ranging from mysterious objects such as hula hoops to the more benign everyday sightings of plastic bags and disguarded rubbish. The piece is also a comment on the environmental landscape and the threat of public green spaces as they become more planned and manmade rather then wild open spaces that provoke a sense of freedom.

Caroline Backhouse
Deconstruction
Deconstruction is a large scale installation which immediately grabs you as you enter the gallery space. It can be interpreted on many different levels. “I was particularly interested in investigating ideas of scale and how colour can be revealed through a process of transformation. As you follow the gradual break down of a highly controlled process, the material begins to reinvent itself and construct a new form of its own. I slowly lose control and gravity takes over.” The piece is installed in it's complete form, and then over the process of a couple of hours the woollen hoops are cut and ripped, causing the wool to drop to the floor. There are small silver scissors attached to the hoops to encourage viewers to snip away as they please, and be involved in the creation of the work itself.

Ben Harding
Harding’s practice uses electronics and found footage to deal with our relationship to technology in a consumer society. The imagery references the cyclic, build and destroy nature of consumerism, whilst pointing to the constantly changing landscape of our built environment.

Stephanie Douet
Smoke and Mirrors
An experimental process by which Douet develops a prism through which the objects are refracted and reconstituted, a very low-tech version of Toby Ziegler's computer-mediated work, or a Modernist take on Cubism. “The starting point is when I set up objects together – ply off-cuts, paper cut-outs, lenses, architectural maquettes - and taking a batch of photos. Out of a large number, I select some too print out and make into a collage. This is then made up in 3D from real materials and becomes a large-scale installation/sculpture, which in its turn is photographed and the whole process repeated with whatever variations occur to me.”

Jamie Clough
“my work has become more of an exploration of myself, and my thoughts, rather than specifically my dreams like I used to paint. Internal thoughts and feelings manifest themselves into abstract images, which can no longer be defined as one object, but many combined and mashed together. “

Nick Rhodes
“For the Art crawl I aim to make a set of towers that will vary in scale, out of found wood and plastic objects etc. The tower obsession originated from a train journey to Manchester from Preston. Earlier in the day of the train journey I had heard a story about flooding on radio 4, and its devastating affect on people and their lives. I found it quite devastating and enlightening at the same time. The power of nature is a cruel being. So I set upon thinking about flooding, and how humans may cope in the future. Much of my towers are also about recycling too. I have spotted and collected many many images of tribes and populations around the globe that build living quarters up in trees, and above water, just to house themselves from the elements. Often a lot are made from what ever material they have come across which I love.... Once humans has a limitiation in life, they always produces the loveliest creations. With my towers I try to portray man's fragility, whether it be in the construction/materials or the scale of the stilts/legs that hold up the towers. Its also that sense of getting up there out of the way, that liberation you had when you climb a tree or even go up a tall building and look out of the window. I try to harness that in someway.” Nick Rhode's work at Kraak is linked with a large scale piece that can be viewed from platform 2 at Deansgate Train Station. Once on the platform turn left and look out from the side of the bridge.

Wednesday 6 July 2011

First Solo Exhibition

Liz West is delighted to announce she has been awarded her first solo exhibition at The Muse at 269, Portobello Road, London. Details TBC.

To contact The Muse please email us at
info@themuseat269.com
Address
The Muse At 269
269 Portobello Road
London
W11 1LR

Telephone
+44 (0)20 7792 8588

LINK TO 'THE MUSE AT 269' WEBSITE

Monday 6 June 2011

Liz West in Manchester Arts Crawl

I have been accepted to be part of the Manchester Art Crawl which will run from 2nd-16th July this year!

“This is part of the “Not Part Of Festival ” acting as the visual art fringe event to The Manchester International Festival. The MCR | AC takes the form of a visual arts festival revitalising art, non art, abandoned and occupied spaces alike. The driving force behind The Crawl is to create a large scale inclusive platform for contemporary artists living and working in Manchester and beyond in order to stimulate ideas, develop and show work to an international audience at a time when Manchester has the spotlight on less inclusive events”

I will be installing Red Chamber as part of my Compact Colour Investigation series.

Can't wait!

Wednesday 18 May 2011

Liz West in Hunted Projects Group Exhibition

H U N T E D P R O J E C T S
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G R O U P E X H I B I T I O N
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B O N D N O. 9
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OPENING NIGHT
THURSDAY 26TH MAY
8PM - 1AM

EXHIBITION
27TH MAY - 17TH JUNE
Bond No. 9, 84 Commercial Street, Edinburgh

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Jonathan Freemantle
Charlie Anderson
Alex Maciver
Darren Nisbet
Liz West
Gillian Carey
Ruaridh Crighton

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HUNTED PROJECTS is a progressive exhibitions platform generated to showcase the artworks of national and international artists, aiming to support and expose the works of both up-and-coming and established artists. This multi-disciplinary group exhibition will showcase an array of recent works by artists from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Huddersfield.

The exhibition will launch on Thursday 26th May from 8pm till 1am.
I hope you will be able to come along to show your support.

More details coming soon

Tuesday 17 May 2011

Shortlisted Work - Woolgather Art Prize



I have created a site specific installation as my shortlisted work for the Woolgather Art Prize currently on show in Leeds City Centre, titled Aqua Chroma 2. Members of the public are invited to vote for their favourite work and will be entered into a draw to win all the shortlisted works of the 22 shortlisted artists. Everyone will be able to take away Aqua Chroma 2 in a free for all, however, one person will take away a signed limited edition print of a photograph of the installation.
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I was asked by the Woolgather team to create a special piece for this award that would immerse viewers in an intense blast of pure colour; after discussion with them of how I felt the first time I stepped on a Jim Lambie floor piece years before. I felt sick. so... I asked the kind people from Vitamin Water to supply me with 3000 bottles of their very colourful product in order to make this installation.

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I am interested in the aesthetic of densely packed and richly coloured arrangements and displays found in shops, markets and museums. In my work, I createssensory experiences in the form of richly saturated installations that immerse the viewer in a kaleidoscopic or optical environment.

Systems of ordering, classification and coding are applied in the development and generation of work. Boundaries are established, which determine both what is collected and where it is collected from. I am continually searching and collecting coloured objects ranging throughout the spectrum. Only purely coloured objects are gathered, disallowing any items that were made of more than one colour. I am concerned with the psychological influence of colour, its effect and sensory impact upon the viewer.

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For more information on the Woolgather Art Prize:

E-mail: info@woolgatherartprize.com

31 Bond Street
Leeds, LS1 5BQ
Between Tesco Metro & Pret a Manger


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www.liz-west.com

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Tuesday 10 May 2011

Liz West on BBC2's Show Me The Monet aires Thursday 12th May



Liz West will be presenting her work in front of three renown art critics/judges for BBC2's new daytime 10 part series: Show Me The Monet.

Tune in at 5.15pm on Thursday 12th May on BBC2






Here is the photograph I presented to judges Charlotte Mullins, Roy Bolton and David Lee

'Green Trolley'
2010
C-Type Print

Tuesday 26 April 2011

YORKSHIRE POST Newspaper Article: (25/04/2011)

LINK TO ARTICLE

Award to showcase the best of modern art

Published on Monday 25 April 2011 00:00

A COLLECTIVE of Leeds-based artists has set up a new award to celebrate contemporary art.

The Woolgather Art Prize is an experimental showcase of contemporary artists based in West Yorkshire and has just announced a 22-strong shortlist.

Their work will be presented in Dyson Chambers, Leeds, from May 6. The winners will be decided by the viewing public who are being invited to to vote for their favourite when they visit the exhibition.

First prize is £500, with £250 going to the runner-up and £150 for third. The winners will be announced on May 20.

Organiser John Slemensek said: “As recent graduates in the city of Leeds, we, as artists, are experiencing a situation of, no money, no tangible grasp of a creative job, not enough critical discourse for our work and no easy way of reaching a public audience.

“Through a belief that our city can, and hopefully wants to offer more, the Woolgather Art Prize was set up.

“In Leeds there are not hundreds of creative jobs waiting for you.

“We set up the art prize to make an opprtunity for ourselves and other people who are trying to sell and produce art. We want to set up an artist community and a relationship with the public.”

More than 100 artists entered the competition with the shortlist drawn from Leeds students, local artists and directors.

One of those on the shortlist, Liz West, a self-employed Huddersfield-based artist and former Leeds College of Art student, said: “I liked the ethos of it and thought it was a great way of promoting artists in the West Yorkshire region.”

Profiles for all those on the shortlist are on the Woolgather Art prize website.

Wednesday 6 April 2011

"At Play 3" Exhibition at South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell

Exhibitions at South Hill Park
16 April - 19 June

Opening reception & live performances: Fri 15 April, 6.30-8.45pm - all welcome
Alice Flight: No Work No Play, throughout the reception
Tom Marshman: Knitting without Tears, 8.30pm

At Play 3 (Bracknell Gallery, Mirror Gallery & Atrium)
At Play returns to explore more ideas about play. It re-creates in both adults and children a sense of what it is like to be a child at play. It encourages the viewer to gaze, to remember, to touch, to explore, to trust, to think, to laugh, to peer, to concentrate, to join in, to bend down, to take a chance… and to play. At Play 3 explores ideas about making sense of the world and escaping from it, considering both the pleasurable and the more sinister aspects of play. With Rachael Allen, Carol Coates, Claire Deniau, Nisha Duggal, Alice Flight, Jane Glennie, Frances Greenough, Tom Hackett, Jenny Kiehn, Este Macleod, Tom Marshman, Beverley Matchette-Downes, Penny Matheson, Bithja Moor, Mary Oliver, Steve Perfect , Neil Raitt, Gary Scholes, Cally Trench, Liz West and Mandy Wilkinson.

South Hill Park Arts Centre, Ringmead, Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 7PA.
Directions: http://www.southhillpark.org.uk/aboutUsTravel.jsp

Mansion Spaces & Community Gallery:
Monday to Saturday: 9am-11pm.
Sunday & Bank Holiday: 11am-10.30pm.

Bracknell Gallery:
Wednesday: 7- 9.30pm.
Thursday to Saturday: 1-9.30pm.
Sunday: 1-5pm.

Free admission

http://www.southhillpark.org.uk

Saturday 2 April 2011

Woolgather Art Prize 2011 Shortlist - Liz West - Video




Woolgather Art Prize shortlist announced.

Liz West has been shortlisted for the Woolgather Art Prize 2011. The Woolgather Art Prize is an experimental showcase of contemporary artists based in West Yorkshire. Aiming to provide an accessible platform for artworks and hoping to celebrate the unresolved, the transitional, possibly the ridiculous. Ultimately championing the ‘what if’?’

22 shortlisted artists’ work will be presented in Dyson Chambers, Leeds from 6th May 2011. Throughout the exhibition the viewing public is invited to vote for their favourite, leading to prizes of £500, £250 and £150 being awarded to the chosen artists. The money is a gesture to assist towards the ongoing endeavors of a creative lifestyle.

All shortlisted artists have contributed to a collective development in the form of a publication for the show, as a means of creating a more involving illustration of the event. The website holds profiles for each of the shortlisted artists, aiming to create an active dialogue between the artists and audiences through videos and comments.

The project is self-funded by artists and assisted by the generosity of others. In keeping with this spirit all the exhibited works will be given away to the public, whether to be cherished in the home, or just collect dust in the attic.


Event Opening May 6th, 18.00 - 22.00
Dyson Chambers, Leeds

Open Everyday May 7th - May 20th, 12.00 - 18.00

Awards Night May 20th, 18.00 - 22.00

Saturday 19 March 2011

Show Me The Monet


Lucky Day Productions have been filming a new series for BBC 2 called “Show me the Monet”. Artists from around the country were invited to submit a piece of art to be judged by a hanging committee of renowned art experts to then be shown to the public at the Royal College of Arts in London. The 3 judges were Charlotte Mullins, David Lee and Roy Bolton.

I entered my photograph “Green Trolley” which was shortlisted as one of the final 100 artworks out of over a 1000 applicants, however, despite some very positive comments from the judges, on this occasion it was not what they were looking for.

The filming of my critique took place at the “Walker Art Gallery” a truly unique location, in Liverpool on the 23rd January. I also had the pleasure of being interviewed by BBC’s Chris Hollins, a former winner of “Strictly Come Dancing”.

Despite not being selected, I enjoyed the experience and I may well be shown when the series is televised at at the end of March on BBC 2.

Wednesday 16 March 2011

'Reduction' Exhibition - Broadcasting House, Leeds

A group of 16-19 year-olds curate their own exhibition at Leeds Met Gallery & Studio Theatre

We love the arts. Where would we be without our rich culture of art in the city of Leeds? That’s why we like to see it being supported by people with great ideas and projects – whether it’s fighting the cuts or encouraging a new generation to not only make art but be the brains behind fantastic and inspiring exhibitions.

There’s a project at Leeds Met Gallery & Studio Theatre that’s particularly inspiring. It’s called Young Curators and, as the name suggests, its aim is to give young people, aged between 16 and 19, a practical introduction into how to curate art exhibitions.

Following nine months of gallery visits, conversations with curators, arts professionals and each other, the young curators – Ana, Baptista, Harry van de Bospoort, Livvy Murdoch, Annie Prosho and Kizzy Strodder – host reduction: an exhibition of selected work by artists they find particularly exciting or relevant.

The reduction exhibition runs until 25th March. Part of the young curators’ inspiration was their concerns about the potential erosion of the art scene. As a result, they selected works reflecting themes of commercialism and value and loss, including pieces by Greta Alfaro, Indya Mealing, Kiwoun Shin, Elizabeth West, Katherine Johnson and Stacey Allen.

Shelley Hollingdrake explains: “For the project we piloted a commissioning process by which artists submitted work in response to a theme set by the Young Curators. Not only have the Young Curators risen to the challenge of creating a thought-provoking and intelligent exhibition, they have echoed the call to arms set by the art world in trying to preserve and save the arts.”

This is the second year the project has taken place. In 2008 six young people from Leeds took part in the Gallery’s pilot project of Young Curators. Over nine months they visited exhibitions including the Liverpool Biennial, created a brand with a professional brand manager, selected works form the Arts Council Collection and hosted events as part of their own exhibition at Leeds Met Gallery.

The majority have since gone on to pursue Higher Education studies in arts practices from architecture to fine art and curating. They have also since returned to the course to mentor the new batch of Young Curators, talking to them directly about the benefits of the project and how it changed their outlook.

“The hope is that reduction will be a catalyst for debate and offer the viewer a chance for reflection on the current state of affairs our country finds itself in.”

Until 25 March, Concourse Gallery, Broadcasting Place, Leeds Metropolitan University, LS2 9EN; www.leedsmet.ac.uk/arts

Posted on Monday 28th February 2011
SH

Leeds Met Gallery & Studio Theatre

G12 Northern Terrace, Leeds Metropolitan University, Queens Square Court, Leeds, LS2 8AG

Saturday 5 February 2011

Shortlisted for the Woolgather Art Prize 2011



LINK TO WEBSITE

Liz West has been shortlisted for the Woolgather Art Prize 2011.
-
The Woolgather Art Prize is an experimental showcase of contemporary artists based in West Yorkshire. Aiming to provide an accessible platform for artworks and hoping to celebrate the unresolved, the transitional, possibly the ridiculous. Ultimately championing the 'what if' ?
-
Submission is free and a selection of shortlisted artists' work will be presented in a Leeds city centre show in the spring of 2011. Throughout the exhibition the works will be voted for by the viewing public, and then prizes of £500, £250 and £150 will be awarded to the chosen artists. The money is a gesture to assist towards the ongoing endeavors of a creative lifestyle.
-
All shortlisted artists will contribute to a collective development in the form of a publication for the show, as a means of creating a more involving illustration of the event. An engaging website will also be available, aiming to create an active dialogue between the artists and audiences through videos, blogs and comments.
-
The project is self-funded by artists and assisted by the generosity of others. In keeping with this spirit all the exhibited works will be given away to the public, whether to be cherished in the home, or just collect dust in the attic.

Tuesday 1 February 2011

Colour Exhibition - Beldam Gallery, Brunel University, Uxbridge



Colour

A group exhibition celebrating the use of colour in contemporary art.
Liz West has made a new installation as part of the exhibition 'Colour' at Brunel University's Beldam Gallery. Open now until 29th March.

Beldam Gallery
24 January – 29 March 2011.
Open weekdays Monday to Friday 10.00am – 5.00pm



Alex Darcy
Pip Dickens
Stig Evans
Ian Johnson
Metron: Diane Jones-Parry and Annabel Ralphs
Geoff Diego Litherland
Mark Parkinson
Dai Roberts
Nina Rodin
John A. Walker
Ian Watson
Liz West