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.
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.
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
Exciting news to share… I have been invited to take part in Tees at Rogue Studios; an exhibition exploring the t-shirt as art form. Taking ‘Article 19’ as its point of reference, the show poses the question: “Protest / Self-expression, what is the difference?”. It will feature work by Sir Peter Blake, Jeremy Deller, David Shrigley, Bob and Roberta Smith and artists from Rogue, Paradise Works, Suite (my studios), Bankley, AWOL, Islington Mill and beyond.
The preview is due to take place on 30th September 2023 from 2-5pm (to coincide with an open studios event). You can catch the show until 31st October 2023 (opening times are between 12-4pm on Saturdays or by appointment.
The exhibition is curated by Mike Chavez-Dawson and assisted by; Jamie Kirk, Grecia Balassone, Vincent Patterson, Maggie Stick and John Paul Brown.
Really lovely to be invited to speak and share slides of my work at Manifest Calling. Quite possibly the most compact talk I have given but heaps of fun to deliver. They provided a brilliant insight into what is happening in the region.
The event was introduced by Kate Jesson and took place in Manchester Art Gallery’s Lecture Theatre. Other talks were given by Rachel Connor, Amanda Sutton, James Roper, Lucy Ridges, Rachel Goodyear, Richard Shields, Neil Greenhalgh, Mike Chavez-Dawson, Jude Wainwright and Ruta Skudraite.
Pictures appear courtesy of fellow Wellington Studio member Karol Kochanowski.
Just a quick note to let you know that the Manifest Arts have launched the Manifest Calling event I will be speaking at on Eventbrite (as well as on Facebook). It is free to attend but ticketed, and I have been informed that there are roughly fifty left of the 100 available.
Taking place on Sunday 21st July from 2pm onwards, the talk will house 10 speakers (each with 7 minutes allocated). It has been designed to provide a quick snapshot of the diverse art being produced in the region. With a healthy mix of arts organisations, painters, photographers, performers, installation artists and sculptors as well as leaders of outsider art projects, it is guaranteed to be informative, educational, and enjoyable!
I am pleased to announce my participation in Anniversary at Saul Hay Gallery in Manchester (30th September-12th November). October 2017 marks their first anniversary of opening and they have invited thirty-five artists who have exhibited at the space over the past year to showcase work. The preview for the show will be held on 29th September from 18:00 until 20:30.
Other artists exhibiting in the show are as follows:
Omid Asadi, Alyson Barton, Julian Bovis, Paul Brotherton, Margaret Cahill, Mike Chavez-Dawson, Lisa Denyer, Tracey Eastham, Jane Fairhurst, Rachel Grimshaw, Gareth Griffiths, Susan Gunn, Catherine Harrison, Steven Heaton, Pete Hoida, Karol Kochanowski, Josie Jenkins, Enzo Marra, Melinda Matyas, Andrew McIntosh, James Moss, Martin Nash, Georgia Noble, Jen Orpin, Mandy Payne, James Roper, Sabrina Schmid, Stephen Snoddy, David Stanley, Jo Taylor, Jason Thompson, Diana Terry, Patricia Volk and Olga Woszczyna.
