Liz West to be included in Drawing for Scuplure exhibition at 20-21 Visual Arts Centre

Drawing for Sculptre
20-21 Visual Arts Centre
Exhibition opens 10 June - 7 October 2017  

Featuring everything from rough sketches and experimental artworks to detailed technical drawings and three-dimensional digital models, Drawing for Sculpture includes work from over 20 sculptors who use drawing as part of their creative process. Encompassing a wide range of materials and techniques, the show includes well-known names from Peter Mountain to Liz West.   

For many artists the disciplines of sculpture and drawing as inextricably linked. Some sculptors use drawing as a way of experimenting with ideas without the constraints of having to produce completed 3D objects, while other’s produce drawings as objects in themselves, embodying the same engagement with shape and material that they explore in their sculpture. Drawing for Sculpture features maker’s drawings across a wide variety of approaches, materials and techniques, accompanied by a series of maquettes and small sculptural objects in the gallery showcase. More information HERE.  

20-21 Visual Arts Centre 
Church Square 
Scunthorpe 
DN15 6TB

Liz West to be included in major exhibition at Compton Verney

Seurat to Riley: The Art of Perception
Compton Verney
Exhibition opens 8 July - 1 October 2017  

Liz West's work is to be included in Compton Verney’s summer exhibition which will take you on a fascinating and stimulating journey that looks at the ways in which our visual perceptions have been explored by artists.   

From the Impressionists onwards, artists have been inspired by the colour theories of scientific thinkers such as Michel Eugène Chevreul. The most famous examples are the pointillist works of Georges Seurat and his associates, in which colours other than those actually painted on the canvas are generated in the eye of the beholder through the application of small dots of primary colour.   

During the 20th century, and culminating in the famous Op art movement of the 1960 onwards, the scientific and philosophical interest in perception extended into ways of communicating movement via static art forms. Early explorations of this can be seen in work by artists such as Helen Saunders, M.C. Escher and Josef Albers using tessellation, pattern, line, mathematics and colour, and sometimes optical trickery, to convey the sensation of movement.   

This fascination with the optical in art remains strong amongst artists and makers today and this wide-ranging show features of the works of artists working since the 1960s, such as Jim Lambie, Christiane Baumgartner, Daniel Buren, Liz West and Lothar Götz. Their work is shown alongside later works of those who became stars of the ‘Op art’ movement in the 1960s and who continued to develop and explore new possibilities:  Bridget Riley, Victor Vasarely, Jesus Rafael Soto, Julio Le Parc, Peter Sedgley, Jeffrey Steele and Carlos Cruz-Diez. More information HERE.  

Compton Verney 
Warwickshire 
CV35 9HZ

Liz West Introduces her new Studio Manager: Emma Colledge

I am so proud to introduce to you to my new studio manager Emma Colledge. She is an huge asset to my studio team. I thought you would like to get to know her a little so I asked her to answer some questions about what makes her tick... Enjoy!

DOB: 27.06.1992
From: Preston, Lancashire  

1.  Do you have a favourite colour? Why? 
Purple. Fun fact: purple dye was discovered when trying to invent a cure for Malaria.  

2. Which is your favourite work of Liz's? Why? 
Through No.3. I experienced it first hand on my daily commute to work and it never failed to brighten my day.     

3. Where do you find inspiration? 
In people, rather than places. I read a lot of autobiographies by funny people or have a rant with friends.      

4. What did you train in? 
I studied Drama at University of Manchester, focusing on production and playwriting.   

5. What did you do before? 
I’ve worked as a producer for a site-specific theatre company and as a project manager for visual arts events. 

6. What do you do in your spare time? 
I started climbing (bouldering) last year, so spend a lot of my spare time trying not to fall off walls.  

7. Do you have a favourite quote? 
“Decide what your currency is early. Let go of what you will never have.” (Amy Poehler)  

8. What song is your current obsession or what music are you listening to? 
I listened to Wanderer Wandering by Slow Club roughly 15 times yesterday. The rest of the time I’m listening to a back catalogue of Woman’s Hour and Desert Island Discs podcasts, because I’m slowly turning into my mother.  

9. In your opinion, what is the most important issue facing the arts today? 
Across the sector, it’s funding and how broader cuts are undermining the value contributed by the arts. But ensuring your practice is commercially viable can be both a necessary evil and a source of creative opportunities.    

10. What is the biggest risk you have ever taken? 
Often putting adventure before stability – but you only live once!  

11. Have you ever experienced creative block? If so, how did you overcome it? 
Yes, all the time. For me, it’s accepting defeat, taking a step away from it and trusting that you’ll get it when you come back to it refreshed. Even if that has to be 6am the following morning.  

12. Who are your favourite artists or practitioners? 
Two physical theatre companies, Rash Dash and Theatre Ad Infinitum.

Liz West presents new body of work in Leeds College of Art alumni exhibition

Liz West | Colour Wheel
Vernon Street Gallery, Leeds College of Art
Exhibition opens 15 December 2016 - 27 January 2017   

Leeds College of Art alumni close 170th year with a special ‘Colour Wheel’ exhibition

Throughout 2016 Leeds College of Art has been celebrating 170 years of delivering art education in Leeds. The College’s final alumni exhibition of the year features a trio of female contemporary artists, Georgina Starr, Liz West and Georgia Lucas-Going, who all studied at Leeds College of Art and have gone on to have highly successful careers. Working with colour, performance and sound, these three artists continue to demonstrate the reach, ambition and values of the College.     

The exhibition takes its overarching title from Liz West's planned installation 'Our Colour Wheel.' West wanted to go back to the literal and pedagogical 'Foundation' of her practice - the colour wheel as a teaching tool. She has invited 17 other artists, curators, teachers and friends from her past to submit their personal vision of a colour wheel to her. They will all be framed identically and installed as a grid format.     

This exhibition is the final installment in a programme of alumni group shows that have been held throughout the year at the Vernon Street Gallery in the College’s historic 1903 building, celebrating the diverse and ground breaking careers of past students and staff over the last 170 years. 
 

Our Colour Wheel, 2016. Image credit: Liz West / Fiona Grady

Our Colour Wheel, 2016. Image credit: Liz West

Our Colour Wheel, 2016. Image credit: Liz West / Helen Shaddock

Our Colour Wheel, 2016. Image credit: Liz West / Ric Warren

Our Colour Wheel, 2016. Image credit: Liz West / Garry Barker

Liz West presents new exhibition Autumn Lights at the National Trust's Little Moreton Hall

Liz West | Autumn Lights
Little Moreton Hall

Exhibition open 9 September - 17 November 2016  

Ancient hand blown glass in the windows of 16th century Little Moreton Hall is the inspiration behind the Hall’s first ever contemporary art exhibition, which opens this autumn. 

Autumn Lights, by British artist Liz West, has been commissioned by the National Trust as part of its Trust New Art programme, and is the start of an ongoing programme of work by contemporary artists taking place at Little Moreton Hall under the title The Senses.

“By bringing contemporary art installations into historic buildings such as Little Moreton Hall, we hope to add a new and exciting layer to our visitors’ experience” says Hannah Pierce, the Trust’s Contemporary Arts Programme Manager. “It also enables young, dynamic artists to create new work in spaces which wouldn’t normally be accessible, which can inspire and challenge their creative process.”   

Liz West has chosen to explore sight and vision, drawing inspiration from over thirty thousand lead window panes at Little Moreton Hall – and in particular, the glass they contain. “The ancient hand blown glass in the windows of Little Moreton Hall is tinted – very subtly – by trace impurities of copper, iron and magnesium” says Liz. “These historical ‘colourways’ will be the starting point for my artwork which will use natural light to visually alter visitors’ perceptions of the Hall’s many different spaces. These spaces can differ dramatically in atmosphere depending on the amount of light that’s present.”   

“By using prisms, filters, refraction and reflection, I want to create a spatial light trail through the Hall which will highlight elements of its architecture that are usually unnoticed or overlooked. This interplay of architecture, light and colour will constantly change as the sun’s natural light shifts through the Autumn season.”   

Autumn Lights, by Liz West opens at Little Moreton Hall on 9 September and runs until 27 November on days when the house is open. Find out more at www.nationaltrust.org.uk/littlemoretonhall.

Liz West makes new work Our Colour for Bristol Biennial

Liz West | Our Colour
Bristol Biennial

Exhibition open 10am - 7pm until 10 September 2016

What does it feel like to be inside a colour? Does colour change the way you feel? For the 2016 edition of the Bristol Biennial Liz West invites visitors to drench themselves in the spectrum.

West has transformed architectural space and turned colour into an immersive and embodied experience by refracting light through carefully arranged coloured theatre gels. A vivid world is created, exploring our individual visual perception and how colour affects our senses.

This new artwork is part of a series by artist Liz West under the umbrella title Your Colour Perception that began in a residency at Castlefield Gallery’s New Art Spaces Federation House last year in Manchester. Our Colour is an immersive light installation, developed with experts and designed as an experiment in human colour perception. Using light as a sculptural material, the artist explores the physical, emotional and psychological effects of colour within a space.

Liz says “Most people rarely have the experience of being completely immersed in pure colour. I observe that after moving through the space – walking, running, dancing – and experiencing every colour, people often go back to the colour they find most comfortable; they will then stand, sit or lay there for some time to reflect.”  

For further details about Our Colour, opening times and information about the future projects please visit www.liz-west.com or bristolbiennial.org

Bristol Biennial
The Pithay
Bristol
BS1 2LZ

Free Entry
#OurColour

Worldwide press coverage of Our Colour Reflection

I am delighted that my current exhibition Our Colour Reflection at the 20-21 Visual Arts Centre in Scunthorpe has been receiving a phenomenal amount of press coverage from all over the world. Below is a selection of some of the articles: 

 

- The Times (page 4. Saturday 21st May)

- Creative Boom - http://www.creativeboom.com/inspiration/artist-transforms-a-former-church-into-a-colourful-space-by-using-hundreds-of-mirrors/

- The Creators Project - http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/cathedral-rainbows-colors-mirrors

- urdesignmag - http://www.urdesignmag.com/art/2016/05/16/liz-west-fills-a-former-church-with-hundreds-of-colors/

- Free York - http://freeyork.org/architecture/artist-transforms-neo-gothic-church-colorful-space-using-hundreds-mirrors

- Design Boom - http://www.designboom.com/art/liz-west-our-colour-reflection-20-21-visual-arts-centre-05-17-2016/

- Journal du Design -  http://www.journal-du-design.fr/art/installation-our-colour-reflection-au-20-21-visual-arts-centre-par-liz-west-76378/

- The Space - http://thespaces.com/2016/05/17/artist-liz-west-casts-scunthorpe-church-myriad-colours/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=twitter&utm_content=v1buttons

- Scunthorpe Telegraph - http://www.scunthorpetelegraph.co.uk/Colourful-Scunthorpe/story-29260311-detail/story.html

- Illumni - http://www.illumni.co/liz-west-our-colour-reflection/

- This is Colossal - http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2016/05/reflective-pool-of-multi-colored-orbs/

- Inhabitat - http://inhabitat.com/former-19th-century-cathedral-is-bathed-in-gorgeous-rainbow-light/

- Frame - http://www.frameweb.com/news/liz-west-paves-a-church-nave-with-a-pool-of-rainbow-reflections

- Archilovers - http://www.archilovers.com/stories/13989/our-color-reflection.html

- Curbed - http://www.curbed.com/2016/5/18/11700872/liz-west-church-art-installation-mirrored-discs

- Huffington Post - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/our-colour-reflection-liz-west_us_573e052ce4b0646cbeec72f2?wvmykmbt4r0zlg14i

- Cool Hunting - http://www.coolhunting.com/link/artist-liz-west-filled-this-uk-church-with-rainbow-mirrors

- The Vandalist -  http://thevandallist.com/lets-talk-colors-with-liz-west/

- My Modern Net - http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/list/tag/liz+west

- stupidDOPE - http://stupiddope.com/2016/05/20/color-reflections-our-color-reflection-by-liz-west/

- Glass is more! - http://www.glassismore.com/core/content.php?option=viewitem&id=74&le=11&rd=3284

- Roomed - http://roomed.nl/voormalige-kathedraal-krijgt-een-kunstige-vloer-alle-kleuren-van-de-regenboog/

- Lost At E Minor - http://www.lostateminor.com/2016/05/20/700-mirrors-create-colourful-pools-inside-historic-cathedral/

- Architectural Digest - http://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/one-artist-installed-700-mirrors-in-church

- Art Vibes - http://www.art-vibes.com/art/liz-west-our-colour-reflection/

- Designer HK - http://www.designerhk.com/forum/post/18998

- Where Cool Things Happen - http://www.wherecoolthingshappen.com/classical-church-turned-massive-color-reflection-edifice/

- Materialicious - http://materialicious.com/2016/05/our-colour-reflection-by-liz-west.html

- Office et Culture - http://www.office-et-culture.fr/evenements/lumiere/our-colour-reflection

- Design Ideas - https://www.designideas.pics/our-colour-reflection-liz-west/
- CNN - http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/29/arts/liz-west-color-church/

Liz West - Coming up this Spring

Through No. 3, 2015. Photo credit: Adam Pester Photography

Spring is coming... 

I have been overwhelmed with your kind responses to my first public art commission Through No. 3. Originally destined to only be shown for 6 weeks over the Christmas period, the work is on view indefinitely in Spinningfields, Manchester. If you are in Manchester over the next few months, be sure to track it down, especially if it is a rare sunny day! 

I am delighted to have recently been shortlisted for this years Aesthetica Art Prize and will be exhibiting work in the Art Prize exhibition Opening on 13 April at York St. Mary's. Having been chosen to receive one of the RBS Bursary Awards, I will be showing brand new work in the Royal British Society of Sculptors Bursary group exhibition, previewing on 16 March. Also, I am honoured to have my work presented in a new Thames & Hudson publication 'Lumitecture: Illuminating Interiors For Designers & Architects' by Anna Yudina, which is out now. 

Over the Spring months there will be several opportunities to see and experience my work. Below I have listed some upcoming opportunities that you may be interested in. You can find more information about my work by visiting www.liz-west.com.

New Site-Specific Installation



Liz will be artist-in-residence and unveiling a brand new installation at Light + Building in Frankfurt on 14th and 15th March.

Complementary Saturation is a new site-specific spatial installation exploring the relationship between complementary colours and on the people experiencing them. The work has been commissioned by the International Association of Lighting Designers and sponsored by Lumenpulse.

Liz will be giving a free artist talk as part of the IALD's Lighting Perspectives seminar at 10.45am on 14th March. Click HERE for more information.












 

Upcoming Group Exhibition

Liz will be showing new works in the Royal British Society of Sculptors (RBS) Bursary exhibition. Each year the RBS Bursary Awards are given to 10 early career artists working in 3 dimensions judged to be of outstanding talent. Integral to the society’s aim to promote the diverse language of contemporary sculpture, the Bursary Awards provide a platform to emerging sculptors to realise their full potential in the professional sphere.  

Preview: 16 March 2016, 6.30 - 8.30pm. Open from 17 March - 20 May 2016, Wednesday - Friday 12.30 - 5.30pm (or by appointment).


 

Shortlisted for Art Prize

Liz has been shortlisted for this years Aesthetica Art Prize and exhibition. Showcasing cutting-edge practice from today’s ground-breaking contemporary artists.

Celebrating individual mediums whilst recognising the richness of interdisciplinary practice, the 2016 selection is distributed across the categories of Photographic and Digital Art; Painting and Drawing; Three Dimensional Design and Sculpture, and Video, Installation and Performance. Open from 14 April - 31 May 2016 at York St. Mary's.




Work in New Publication

Liz has work presented in the new Thames & Hudson publication Lumitecture: Illuminating Interiors for Designers and Architects which was released on 29 February. Author Anna Yudina not only pursues the question, "What is light?" but also offers insight on 200 projects that demonstrate its transformative power.

Yudina has organised the book around three sections. First, there's light as it transforms space. Second, Yudina addresses lighting that alters one's perception of time. Finally, the author taps into light's power over emotion. Within each section, sub-categories like "color power" and materialization, daylight and contrast, all factor in. The work is comprehensive and up-to-date but its most powerful attribute is the revelation of light's true potential.







Commission Awarded

Take A Part CIC, Stonehouse Action and Stonehouse community members are thrilled to announce that artist Liz West has been commissioned to develop a new exciting public artwork to respond to the diversity and heritage in Stonehouse, Plymouth.
Liz West was selected via a co-commissioning process with Take A Part CIC, Stonehouse Action and Stonehouse Action’s community members leading to a co-written artist brief which outlined the aims of a commissioned public artwork - the need for humour, warmth, playfulness, spectacle and permanence. Out of numerous applications from the UK and Europe, Stonehouse Action members selected the artist Liz West."

Take A Part CIC Director Kim Wide says, ‘We are thrilled to have Liz working with us on this project which will be vibrant and reflective of the area’s past and future.’ The commission will be completed by June 2016.







 

Exhibition Announcement

Liz West has been awarded Arts Council England Grants for the Arts funding towards a forthcoming major solo exhibition Our Colour Reflection at 20-21 Visual Arts Centre in Scunthorpe, opening in May 2016.  

For Our Colour Reflection Liz will present an ambitious new installation using hundreds of coloured mirrors to transform the Neo-Gothic interior of the former St John’s Church building. The work will both reflect viewers as they look  at the work, and send colour up into the roof-space of the historic building – creating a dialogue between viewer, artwork and architecture. Exact dates and more information to follow shortly.


In the Press
Liz's work has recently been featured in several international publications and online editorial. Here are links to a few articles that have featured work which you might be interested in reading:

Mondo*Arc Magazine p.35-36
Total Lighting Magazine p. 20-21
ATTITUDE Interior Design Magazine
Architectural Lighting Magazine
The Creators Project
FRAME Magazine
Young Artists in Conversation (YAC)