AIR Open 2024 Announcement

Thrilled to hear I have made the final selection of 60 artworks for the AIR Open 2024. A big thank you to the judging panel (Alan Baker, Jude Wainwright, David Gledhill and Mike Chavez-Dawson) for selecting my piece ‘Salty’ from over 1,300 pieces of work. Feeling humbled and truly honoured!

The exhibition launch will take place on Thursday 15th August at Rogue Artist Studios from 6-9pm with all welcome to attend. If you’re free then I hope to see you there!

Other artists in the line-up include:

Aimee Spilsted, Alex Aiton, Amelia Frances Wood, ANDI, Archie Leigh-Jones, Becky Moon, Bethan Hamilton, Bill Psarras, Chris Lewtas, Ciarraí MacCormac, Craig fisher, Daniel H Bell, Enxi Liu, Gareth Cairns, Hang Zhang, Helen Davies, Jay Ottewell, Julie Cassels, Justine Lesage, Kate Street, Katy Mason, Kelan Andrews, Laura Nathan, Lucy Ridges, Lucy Waters, Lois Hopwood, Luke Skiffington, Lula Braimbridge, Marc Remshaw, Marie Jones, Nicola Bolton, Nigel Grimmer, Nisaa Saeed Raja, Rachel Ackroyd, Ramon Omolaja Adeyemi, Ruby Tingle, Sam Owen Hull, Sara Hindhaugh, Simon Leahy-Clark, Steve Sutton, Tom Motley and Vincent James.

Huge congratulations to you all! I can’t wait to see your work at the show.

AWOL / Comme Ca Open 2024 – First Prize Winner

Thrilled to share the news from this evening that I am the recipient of AWOL / Comme Ca Open 2024 First Prize award. It was such a wonderful surprise! Many thanks to the selection panel and the judges Sean Williams, Ceri Morgan and Short Supply for the honour, it is greatly appreciated.

Also a big thank you to all at AWOL and Comme Ca for the seamless curation of work and making the event one to remember. Special mentions for David French, Jude Wainwright, Claire Turner and last (but by no means least), Cass Art for the fantastic goodie bags you provided to all artists, the vouchers I received as part of my prize and the opportunity to show in your Manchester gallery (can’t wait to get planning!).

Delighted for the lovely Laura Nathan too with her highly commended award! Many congratulations to her; very well deserved for her strikingly beautiful and poignant piece.

Photo appears courtesy of Jude Wainwright.

AWOL / Comme Ca 2024 Open Call Preview

A few pictures from the AWOL/Comme Ca Art Open 2024 preview. Had such a fantastic evening! Many great conversations with beautiful people amongst a gorgeous, eclectic selection of work. It must’ve been a huge challenge to narrow down the 200 odd entries to 22 artists!

 

The show is open to the public at Hope Mill from the 18th May and runs until Sat 22nd June 2024 (Opening times are Wednesday and Thursday 11-4pm & Sat 11-2pm). Plenty of time to catch it if you are about in the area! If you are new to the space, the gallery at Hope Mill is amazing too – great light with wonderful views of Ancoats and beyond. Highly recommend a visit!

Selected for AWOL / Comme Ca 2024 Open Call

Delighted to announce that I have been selected along with 21 others for the AWOL / Comme Ca 2024 Open Call. Many thanks to Short Supply, Sean Williams and Ceri Morgan for including my work in the show!

Really looking forward to the preview which will be held in Comme Ca’s gallery space at Hope Mill, Ancoats on 17th May 2024 (which is when the overall winner and highly commended prizes will be announced). The lucky first prize winner will receive £2,000, £150 in Cass Art vouchers and an exhibition opportunity at Cass Art in Manchester. The highly commended prize winner will receive £500.

Exhibiting artists are as follows: Aimee Spilstead, Anna Stevens, Catherine Hill, Christopher Rainham, Daniel Hester, Dotto, Georgia Noble, Hanzhi Zong, Helen Davies, James Bloomfield, Jamie Kirk, Jon Pountain, Kay Shah, Laura Nathan, Luke Armstrong, Michael Mackenzie, Niamh Murphy, Olga Mun, Sarah Grant, Sharon Howarth and Simon Blackley.

Manchester Open 2024, HOME

Wonderful evening catching up with a number of familiar faces and meeting new ones at the Manchester Open 2024 (a few of whom are captured here).

It was too busy to really see the work properly so I will head back in the not too distant future for a closer look! The show is open until Sunday 28th April so there is plenty of time to see a snapshot of what Manchester’s creative scene has to offer. A catalogue of participating artists is available here.

Many thanks to Ruby Knopf who has kindly given me permission to share a couple of her photos of the evening.

Selected for HOME’s Manchester Open 2024

I am thrilled to announce that I have been selected for the Manchester Open 2024 at HOME. My work will be on display in the gallery space along with 480 other creatives from Saturday 3rd February until Sunday 28th April. It promises to be a huge celebration of the creative talent Manchester has to offer and I am very much looking forward to taking part.

Stay tuned for more information!

Open 2023, Preview at Bury Art Museum and Sculpture Centre

Really enjoyable and absolutely packed preview this evening for the Open 2023. Huge thank you to the judges Paulette Brien, Mike Chavez-Dawson, Tony Heaton and Jez Dolan for selecting my work and to all the team at Bury Art Museum for their hard work in bringing everything together so beautifully!

If you weren’t able to make it to the preview, there is still plenty of time to catch the pieces there as the show is on until the 3rd February 2024.

Two works selected for Bury Open 2023

Really happy to have received news that a couple of my works have been selected for Open 2023 at Bury Art Museum. This is the museum’s first ever open exhibition and it will be showing the best of the North West as selected by a panel of highly esteemed judges:

Paulette Brien (Curator – Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool), Mike Chavez-Dawson (Artist/Curator), Jez Dolan (Artist) and Tony Heaton OBE (Artist).

The OPEN 2023 Preview & Prize Giving is due to take place on Friday 20 October from 18:00-21:00. The show will run from 21st October 2023 – 3rd February 2024 with most works available to purchase.

Tees Preview at Rogue Artists’ Studios

 

Doors opened at Rogue Studios this weekend for the Tees “shop”. If you have been unable to make it this weekend, the show is open by appointment or between 12-4pm on Saturdays. All T-shirts are available to purchase (including the ones I made).

The catalogue from the show is available here (although the information I supplied did not make it in for some reason so I will supply it here instead).

Title of the diptych and medium:

“Mind the Gap”, unique recycled fabric embellishments on sustainable cotton shirts.

What was the idea behind the T-shirt: 

Language is a powerful tool. When adopted by artists, it is utilised to interrogate the political, social and cultural landscape. Its position on t-shirts is no different. Through the use of text, we are drawn to question how we think, feel, function, judge, and differ from one another.

With this premise in mind I was inspired to create a piece exploring text as a direct (or rather indirect) form of communication. I was interested in how material usage and approach can be harnessed to create emphasis, drawing subtle references for those who decode it.

I decided to recycle and repurpose fast fashion slogan T-shirts sourced from charity shops, in order to highlight the waste generated by the industry through such “joke” products and comment on the duplicitous actions of some suppliers.

Price of T-Shirt:

£200 each