Head & Whole
Head & Whole I – Abbey Walk Gallery, 8th August – 3rd September, 20II
The inaugural Head & Whole exhibition and programme of events will take place at Abbey Walk Gallery, August – September 20II. Curated by Linda Ingham, the show will be the first in a series, concentrating on the subject of human form in contemporary visual arts practice. There will be a programme of events, including artists talks and workshops, as well as the first ever AWG Summer School week.
The show will work around two concepts – first, the tradition of artists making studies of fellow artists and the nature of reciprocity; second – ‘No Fixed identity’ – on the slippery stuff of portrayal and self-portrayal as concept and image.
The work will pivot around the only historical image in the show – a painting believed to be of van Gogh, by his friend, Jeanne Donnadieu, entitled The Misunderstood – on loan from a private collection; two times BP Portrait Award finalist, Wendy Elia exhibits a painting of her dear friend Maxime, a performance artist whose practice explores the nature of identity, and John Devane’s portrait of artist Alison Lambert.
Linda’s current work-in-progress, Pore project, will also be on exhibition.
Exhibiting Artists: Wendy Elia, Corrie Chiswell, Anna Gillespie, John Devane, Margaret Ashman, Maggie Cullen, Linda O’Grady, John Wild, Bren Head, Eileen Bunn, Charles McGill and Dovrat Amsily-Barak.
Head & Whole - Exhibition Tour
An informative look at the work in the exhibition, with artist-curator Linda Ingham. Special guest Mandy Cruckshank will give a fascinating insight into the only historical piece in the show, a painting believed to be of van Gogh, by his friend, Jeanne Donnadieu.
Saturday I3th August - Ipm - £2.50 on the door
Linda Ingham - Portrait Summer School
An opportunity to spend some time exploring the potential of portraiture for a whole week. A practical rather than theoretical workshop, during which Linda Ingham will support and guide participants through a short series of exercises and studies in drawing and painting, before going on to build a portrait working from model Elanor.
Monday I5th - Friday I9th August - £I85 - pre-Booking Essential - pre-Course infromation available.
Margaret Ashman - Printmaking with Card
Through talk and demonstration, margaret will reveal how she makes her life-size photo etchings, before leading a practical workshop where participants will make prints on a smaller scale. Margaret will provide collographe card, ink, craft knives and paper.
Friday 26th August, 6pm - 9pm, £25 plus materials - Booking Essential
Linda Ingham - Portrait Summer School
A Day of Talks
John Devane, Margaret Ashman and Maggie Cullen will present their work, providing insight and inspiration, in this day of talk, introduced by Linda Ingham.
Saturday 27th August, IIam – 3pm, £I0 – Pre-Booking Advised
John Devane
Biography: John Devane is a figurative painter and printmaker and since graduating from the Royal College of Art in I980 he has exhibited widely in the UK and abroad, most notably at the National Portrait Gallery as part of the BP Portrait Award in I995. He was finalist in the Garrick Milne prize for Painting in 2005 and has work in a number of private and public collections including: the Unilever Collection, the Imperial War Museum, The British Council, Ocean Transport and Trade PLC and Coventry University. His work is referenced in the Dictionary of British Painters and Sculptors. His work is also included in: Oil Paintings in public ownership published by the Public Catalogue Foundation and is referenced in 'The War Artists' by Merion and Suzie Harris.
John Devane is currently Head of Department of Design and Visual Arts at Coventry School of Art & Design, Coventry University. The department has twenty-five academic staff and comprises eleven courses across a range of subjects including: Fine Art, Illustration & Animation, Graphic Design and Contemporary Arts Practice.
Talk: Fragments of truth: The status of the original work of art in the digital age.
Touching the Ctrl-Alt-Delete buttons on a computer keyboard allows the artist myriad possibilities in terms of generating, constructing and extracting visual information hitherto unknown in previous eras. However, has the ease with which we encounter such a plethora of visual imagery anaesthetised our senses, and indeed diminished our receptiveness to original works of art and in particular, paintings?
This talk will consider the activity of painting in the context of a culture increasingly understood through the mediating prism of digital technology. I will consider whether painting can still be a viable form of creative practice, or whether it will be increasingly viewed as a largely anachronistic form of default activity. Can painting still occupy a culturally compelling position in a contemproary discourse and if so, must it function as part of an extended practice rather than as a discreet activity?
Devane's research interests are related to the practice and 'craft' of painting in the digital age. Essentially, Devane is interested in the deptiction of human form, and deliberately utilises pre- modernist techniques and associated naturalistic conventions in order to construct images which owe something of their allegiance to the art of previous centuries, whilst at the same time referring to the ubiquitous nature of the photographic image.
Devane's influences are wide and varied and included the work of many painters and photographers including: Courbet, manet, Degas, Whistler, Sickert, Blathus, Bacon, August Sander, Neo Rauch, Francesca Woodman, Michael Borremans, Adrian Ghenie and Odd Nerdum to name but a few. He presented a paper entitled 'Fragments of thruth: the status of the original work of art in the digital age' at Sydney College of the Arts, the University of Sydney in July 20I0. The Abbey Walk Gallery 'Head & Whole' talk will explore some of these themes in the context of the works exhibited in the gallery.
Margaret Ashman
Biography: Margaret Ashman is an experience printmaker specialising in Photo etching and screenprinting. She trained at the Universities of Hertfordshire and brighton and is also an Oxford graduate. She is currently a member of the RE, the printmakers Council and The Greenwich Printmakers.
Ashman has developed strong themes within her practice based on the photographic image. Her studies of people signing, have led to work in which she addresses issues of religious fraith, sprituality and emotion. hands feature as a recurring theme in her images, whether re affirming positive qualities od human nature or as a means of expression.
The series 'A Time for Everything' was created from photo shoots of the Japanese choreographer, Chisato Minamimura.
Talk: Fragments of identity and the Unconscious Mind
An illustrated talk, looking at the use of fragments withing Margaret's work - the appropriated images of birds, etc. that are incorporated within her works in terms of theories such as post- structuralism, allegory, intertextuality and the I-Ching - considering their implications in terms of identity and the personal. We will consider the range of mechanisms which transfer emotion between art work and viewer in the context of Margaret's life size portraits: theoretical art approaches versus biological, neurological processes in the unconscious mind and memory.
Maggie Cullen
Biography: Maggie studied at Exeter College of Art and has an MA from the Royal College of Art. During this time she lived within an Acme housing community for artists in Bow, London, befire moving to live near Wirksworth in Derbyshire in the I980s with her family. In London, Maggie worked at Berkshire College of Art and Design in Maidenhead, Lavender Hills Arts Centre in Battersea, Stepney Green Amenity Arts Centre for children and for London Borough of Tower Hamlets in Mile End.
Talk: Rituals
An illustrated talk taking in why make figuarative art? Maggie will talk about how she began and explore the reference material that inspires her pieces, whilst describing how those on show have evolved. This, together with the reasons behind scale, choice of materials, etc. provides a valuable and informative insight into Maggie's work.
Linda Ingham
Biography: Linda lives and works fom her coastal studio in North East Lincolnshire, where she also has a studio at Abbey Walk Gallery. She has an MA in Fine Art from Lincoln University, and has been curating projects with the Gallery since 2008, alongside her studio practice, through which she focuses on aspects of self-portrayal, process and paterials. Her own parctice currently concentrates around two main bodies of work: a long-term, large-scale work in progress entitled 'Pore' - a composite installation expected to number 300 pieces by its completion in 20I2; and the 'Open' Series - an exploration of selfhood in relation to place, arasing from her recent curatorial project, The Nature of Landscape. Both 'Pore' and 'Head & Whole' are supported by The Arts Council England.
Linda has exhibited extensively, and as a teacher concentrates upon the practicalities and theories concerning drawing and painting based mainly around prtraiture' life drawing and human form, fascinated by the imagery of human form as she is. For her current and future teaching schedule, please search within the website or enquire within the gallery.
Wendy Elia - Workshop: Life Drawing
A unique opportunity to work with a BP Portrait Award finalist. Wendy will begin the workshop with quick drawings to explore and activate eye-hand-brain co-ordination and its relationship to observational drawing, going on to a sustained pose with the life model for the remainder of the evening. She will talk to each person individually to discuss their drawing aims and objectives, throughout the session. Paper and graphite will be available at extra cost - no charcoal, please.
Friday 2nd September, 6pm - 9pm, £25 - Pre-Booking Essential
Biography: Wendy Elia studied at St Martins in London. She has exhibited extensively, and has twice (and Current) been a finalist in the BP Portrait Award, the Threadneedle prize and the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize. Mainly choosing to work with people she knows rather than accepting portrait commissions, Wendy deversifies somehwat in her practice and has collaborated with performance artists as well as working mainly in what she sees as two 'painting languages':
"There's the series I do that are my friends and family in my studio with the boarded up fireplace and the laminate floor that are very intense. Within those images that are painted mostly from observation there are lots of small images, which is almost like the outside world coming in. All of these are private, this is the inner world, this is the world that we are reduced to, in a way, shut in the studio coming up with painting . . . The other strand of work that I do is a series that I've been working on for some years now called 'It will Happen When You Least Expect It' and it's a series of film stills, CCTV stills, photographs from the outside world where I am an observer, we're all observers.
(Saatchi Online Magazine - Wendy Elia in Converstaion with Laura Bushell)
Talk: I am not just a sad mad old bat, I have important things to say!
Wendy will show digital images of the development of her work, talk about her practice and answer questions. the emphasis will be on contemporary signifiers and feminism.
Saturday 3rd September, Ipm - £5 - Pre-Booking Essential.
The Nature of Landscape
2009 - 20II
Supported by funding from The Arts Council England, The Nature of Landscape project is a series of exhibitions and events, which pulls together the work of David Ainley, Jeremy Leigh, Judith Tucker, and Richard Kenton Webb, alongside Abbey Walk Gallery Artists Group.
The concept behind the project lies in the contrasts between the four artists work, and then on from that their ability as thinkers and communicators or educators – this is a project which raises questions – see Curator’s Statement.
On from the nature of the work being shown, it has been important that the project also acts as a developmental opportunity for the art and careers of the members of The Abbey Walk Gallery Artists Group. All have had the opportunity for one-to-one tutorials with the lead artists, as well as being included in shows and the resulting publication. Linda and the gallery also work with East Coast School of Art & Design to give opportunity to second- and third-year degree students, as well as put on a very well attended seminar.
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The final show in the project is set for March 2011, at Surface Gallery in Nottingham.