A Printmaker’s Journey
I'm delighted to share news of a forthcoming exhibition that I have curated for Hampshire Cultural Trust, A Printmaker's Journey, which opens in Winchester on Saturday 11th March and then tours Hampshire until early November 2017.
A Printmaker's Journey includes work selected from a wide range of disciplines and periods which will lead the visitor through the inspirations and affinities which have influenced my journey as a printmaker and designer. Paintings, textiles, prints, posters and ceramics by artists and designers including Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden, Mark Hearld, Alan Reynolds, Emily Sutton and Paul Morrison will be displayed alongside work from various stages of my career.
I'll be at The Gallery, Winchester Discovery Centre on and off throughout the opening day, Saturday 11th March. I hope that you might be able to visit. Find out more
For those of you further afield, over the next few months I'll share details of some of the works selected and their significance to me. Keep an eye on my Instagram and Facebook pages for updates.
A Printmaker's Journey runs from 11 March – 30 April 2017 at The Gallery, Winchester Discovery Centre then tours until early November 2017. Find out more
Angie Lewin 'Sollas Sands' linocut, 2015
Edward Bawden 'The Road to Thaxted' linocut, 1956
Lizzie Farey 'Almost Spring' woven willow, 2017
(photograph by Shannon Tofts)
Eric Ravilious King Edward VIII Coronation Mug, 1937 (originally designed in 1936)
Angie Lewin 'Festival Mug' lithograph
Emily Sutton 'Olive Cook's Settle' watercolour, 2013
Edward Bawden 'Church and Dove' wallpaper, 1925
Sussex Modernism at Two Temple Place
Looking forward to visiting the latest exhibition at Two Temple Place in London where Sussex Modernism - Retreat and Rebellion has just opened.
Created by the Bulldog Trust in partnership with nine museums and galleries based in Sussex (including Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, Charleston, De La Warr Pavillion, Towner Art Gallery and Pallant House Gallery) the exhibition examines why artists and writers were drawn to the rolling hills, seaside resorts and villages of Sussex in the first half of the 20th century, creating artistic communities whose innovations developed alongside political, sexual and domestic experimentation.
Curated by Dr Hope Wolf, Lecturer in British Modernist Literature and co-Director of the Centre for Modernist Studies at the University of Sussex, the exhibition runs until 23rd April 2017. Visit the Two Temple Place website for opening times.
David Jones The Garden Enclosed, 1924
Oil paint on canvas © Tate, London 2015
John Piper View of Chichester Cathedral from the Deanery, 1975
Ink, watercolour and crayon on paper © The Piper Estate / DACS 2016
Eric Gill Icon (for Divine Lovers), 1923
Courtesy of the Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft
Barnett Freedman
I'm currently curating an exhibition which will open at Winchester Discovery Centre on Saturday 11th March 2017. A Printmaker's Journey will then tour Hampshire until the end of November.
The exhibition will include work selected from a wide range of disciplines and periods which have in some way influenced my work as a printmaker and designer. Paintings, textiles, prints, posters and ceramics by artists and designers including Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden, Alan Reynolds and Paul Morrison will be displayed alongside examples of my own work.
Full details of the exhibition will be announced soon - do subscribe to my newsletter if you'd like to find out more.
I'll be including two works by artist and illustrator Barnett Freedman, a contemporary of Bawden and Ravilious.
Over at Spitalfields Life, author David Buckman takes a look at the work of this prolific artist and illustrator...
"Barnett Freedman is among my top candidates for a blue plaque, as one of the most distinguished British artists to emerge from the East End. There was a 2006 campaign to get him one in at 25 Stanhope St, off the Euston Rd, where he lived early in his career, but English Heritage rejected him, along with four others as of “insufficient stature or historical significance” – an unjust decision exposed by the Camden New Journal. The artist and Camden resident David Gentleman was one among many who supported the plaque, writing “He was a very good and original artist whose work deserves to be remembered. He influenced me in the sense of his meticulous workmanship. He was a real master of it.” Read David Buckman's article in full
A portrait of Barnett Freedman
Advertisement for Shell, 1951.
Barnett Freedman’s ‘Claudia’ typeface.
Lithographs for ‘Oliver Twist,’ published by the Heritage Press in New York, 1939.
Barnett Freedman works courtesy Special Collections, Manchester Metropolitan University
Emergent Landscapes
Over the past couple of years we've had the pleasure of working with artist, writer, musician and cultural geographer Rob St. John on several projects. Rob and Tommy Perman contributed to our Random Spectacular No. 2 journal, discussing their Water of Life project and we've since collaborated on the Concrete Antenna 12" vinyl/print release and the Creative Edinburgh Awards shortlisted Score Tae The Toor book/CD.
Emergent Landscapes is a collaborative installation at Tate Modern Switch House, exploring the boundaries between art, geography and the Anthropocene. Between 9th-11th December 2016, Rob invites the public to participate in the creation of new visual and sonic sculptures that will continue to evolve beyond the Tate Exchange space.
From the layering of a soundscape echoing visitor contributions, reflections and perceptions to the collective construction of a cairn, piles of stones that historically act as markers of time and space, Emergent Landscapes will act as a beacon; marking the newly-built Switch House and re-situating its emergence within an ever-changing London landscape.
Once the installation period is over, the whole structure will then be transported to Hooke Park woodland in Dorset, where in collaboration with the Architectural Association and Common Ground charity, it will be made freely accessible to visitors and documented for years to come. Over months and years, the spores and seeds ‘painted’ onto the cairn materials will germinate and grow; to emerge, pattern and even destroy the structure created together.
On 10th December 2016 between 17.00 and 18.00 Rob will introduce the project with an artist's talk and on 11th December between 16.00 and 17.30 Rob will discuss the future of the project with writer, curator and artist Amy Cutler.
Find out more about the project and the free (but ticketed) talk and discussion.
Katy Hackney
We're delighted that jeweller Katy Hackney is taking part in our current Editions & Objects exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park which runs until the end of October 2016.
For the exhibition Katy has created a limited edition of ten box wood pendants, each individually decorated and numbered.
Born in Dundee and now based in London, Katy Hackney received a BA at Edinburgh College of Art and a MA at the Royal College of Art, London. Continues below...
Hackney’s practice is driven by the materials she’s excited by. Materials she uses include woods, plastics, precious and non-precious metals, found objects, paint, formica and enamel. Her current influences include vintage toys and folk art.
Her work can be seen in the permanent collections of the London Crafts Council, Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts, Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, and the Ulster Museum, National Museum of Northern Ireland.
We took the opportunity to find our a little more about Katy's work and current activities...
Can you tell us how to came to designing wearable works of art?
When I left the RCA I set up in business and designed and made more commercial production silver jewellery which sold well but it was tedious work.
Then I discovered cellulose acetate which spectacle frames are made from, began to experiment with it, and my work became larger and more colourful and I became interested in finding other materials to use, such as wood, Formica, other found plastics… colour! Continues below...
You also teach at Central St Martins; how does this impact on the type of work you create?
I don’t notice that it does, something must seeping in?
It does keep me up to date with what is going on the jewellery world as we have a great programme of lectures.
I enjoy passing on knowledge and working with students from all over the world, and working with an amazing team.
What are your major influences?
Everyday things, I often get an idea from something I see in the street on my journey to college or on holiday or trips abroad.
I use my Instagram account as my visual diary, I often go back to it and print out photos of textures, colour combinations, shapes.
Working on lots of other things also feeds in to my work.
I love old toys and objects with a 'story' showing in their wear and tear - doors, tiles, tools and peeling paint.
What is a typical day for you?
My days are fairly varied. As well as teaching I work with knitwear designer Jo Gordon as colour consultant, helping to design her collections each year.
I also work as a picture researcher for costume in film, a job I started a few years ago and love. It definitely informs my work and I am learning something new all of the time.
Most recently I was the costume researcher on Suffragette and I’m working on other projects that are in production.
What is your preferred material of use?
At the moment it's wood.
You use an incredible array of materials, how do you decide which to use in a project?
I have boxes of bits that I gather along the way from all over and I work in a 'collage' sort of way with lots of pieces on my work table. I’ll move these around and arrange, cut then rearrange until I get something I like.
It gets really messy and I have to have a big clear up then I begin all over again! Continues below...
You work as a colour advisor to Jo Gordon Knitwear; how does this impact on your work?
It definitely does as we do research on different ways and I end up looking at textiles which I didn't really before.
The costume research really influences and helps in both jewellery and design work for Jo. I'm currently researching clothing in 1950 to 60s for a job. The colours and patterns of dresses then were amazing. This will all feed into my brain and re-emerge somehow in my jewellery!
What is your favourite colour?
Yellow
What can you see from your studio today?
Usually it my neighbour’s wall!
But today from my balcony in Barcelona I can see a narrow street filled with little balconies covered in colourful washing, a man delivering a cooker and a tiny barking dog having a pee.
What single tool would you consider essential to your work?
My jeweller’s saw and my camera (usually on my phone).
What are you working on now and what is coming up next?
The staff of St. Martins are having a show COUNTERCURRENT in Arthur Beales, Yacht Chandlers in Shaftesbury Avenue. My response to the shop was to collect, borrow and steal Nautical themed jewellery and fill a little cabinet with it, we installed in amongst the shops stock... I'm also researching for a costume project. Teaching will begin in October and so will working with Jo.
Editions & Objects at Yorkshire Sculpture Park continues until Sunday 30th October 2016. Find out more about the exhibition or take a look at all the available works online including Katy Hackney's box wood pendant.
Portrait photography by Jenny Lewis.
Modern Studies
Our friend and collaborator Rob St. John (who we've had the pleasure of working with on Random Spectacular projects generated from Rob, Tommy Perman and Simon Kirby's Concrete Antenna sound installation) has just released a new album as part of chamber pop quartet Modern Studies.
Their quietly experimental landscape songs are played on analogue synths, cello, double bass, drums, guitars, a wine-glass orchestra and, at the creaking centre of things, a Victorian pedal harmonium. The band came together in early 2015, when Glasgow songwriter Emily Scott recruited old pals and collaborators Pete Harvey (King Creosote, The Leg), Joe Smillie (boss of Glasgow’s The Glad Cafe) and Rob St. John.
Modern Studies have created a short trailer for the album, shot on a Super 8 camera at Port Eliot festival in Cornwall in July 2016, where the band played for Caught by the River.
We'd definitely recommend that you order a copy of the album (on CD or vinyl) via Song, By Toad Records.
Clive Hicks-Jenkins
Artist Clive Hicks-Jenkins is currently exhibiting a series of new works at the Martin Tinney Gallery in Cardiff.
Perhaps best know as a painter, Clive has recently been creating a series of limited edition screen prints, working with Dan Bugg of The Penfold Press.
The duo are currently working on a series of prints based on the theme of Gawain and the Green Knight, which was vividly translated for the 21st century by Simon Armitage.
The exhibition features the prints created to date alongside paintings and drawings.
Looking at 'The Green Knight Arrives' author James Russell explains...
"Clive looks beyond the poetry to explore the character and cultural implications of Gawain’s nemesis, in an intense portrait of mingled power and vulnerability. The upper body of the Green Knight fills the frame, his statuesque head and massive arm suggesting the might of an ancient god – but in a sensitive pose reminiscent of Rodin. That flowing beard hints at the graphic gravitas of a playing card king; look again and it is a river flowing through a tattooed forest. Our 21st century Green Knight is a modern primitive, whose identity is etched into his skin."
We were delighted that Clive contributed a series of illustrations to our second Random Spectacular journal and we're currently working on an expanded version of his interpretation of the Hansel & Gretel fairy tale which we will publish in November. Sign up for our Random Spectacular newsletter for details of this.
We'll also exhibit a selection of Clive's prints, in association with The Penfold Press, at our next St Jude's In The City exhibition at the Bankside Gallery in November.
Gawain and The Green Night: Clive Hicks-Jenkins and The Penfold Press continues until 1st October 2016 at Martin Tinney Gallery, 18 St Andrew's Crescent, Cardiff, CF10 3DD. Find out more
'The Green Knight's Head Lives' by Clive Hicks-Jenkins
Gouache and pencil on board, 55cm x 55cm
'The Green Knight Arrives' by Clive Hicks-Jenkins
Screenprint, 55cm x 55cm
