WORKPLACE

Cecilia Stenbom: "Festival for Expanded Media" Stuttgart, Germany

2012-01-19T21:02:00.001Z

Cecilia Stenbom
The Rescue, 2010
Single Channel HD Video
Duration 3:57 Minutes

The 25th Stuttgart Film Festival incorporating the Festival for Expnaded Media runs from 19 to 22 Film in January 2012 in Stuttgart, Germany. The festival promotes an interdisciplinary approach to film, visual arts and new media. It is a combination of multimedia installations, video art, screenings of feature, documentary and short films.

Independent Jury's have selected from more than 70 films and video works along with installation works around the themes of Network Culture and how role models for men and women are treated in mainstream media.

In The Rescue Stenbom has taken interview extracts from "Rescue 911", an American docu-drama of the 1990s about real life rescues, and remade them with her playing all the interviewees: the 911 dispatcher, the police officer, the paramedic, the fireman, the doctor and the nurse.

For more information visit:

http://www.wand5.de/wand5cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=48&Itemid=410

Richards Rigg: "GLAMOURIE" at PSL, and Northern Art Prize at Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds, UK

2012-01-19T12:58:00.001Z

Richard Rigg Two Writing Desks, False Drawer, 2009 Wood, Brass, Adhesive Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

GLAMOURIE is an introduction to a more-or-less affiliated group of too-little-known contemporary British artists. An accompanying publication will be released in March.

14 January - 31 March 2012
Private View Friday 13 January 2012, 6-8pm

Curated By David Steans featuring Simeon Barclay/ Joseph Buckley/ Sophie Carapetian/ Kitty Clark/ Matthew Crawley/ Chris Evans/ Johannes fa/ Josephine Flynn/ Jason Forrest/ Pil & Galia Kollectiv/ L Foundation/ Joseph Lewes/ Ant Macari/ Rory Macbeth/ Paul McDevitt/ Harry Meadley/ Harold Offeh/ Hardeep Pandhal/ Richard Rigg/ Leon Sadler/ Stefan Sadler/ Rhiannon Silver/ Iona Smith/ Paul Smith/ David Steans

www.glamourie.co.uk

Richard Rigg has been shortlisted for the 2011 Northern Art Prize along with Liadin Cooke, Leo Fitzmaurice and James Hugonin. The winner will be announced tonight at 6.45pm at Leeds Art Gallery.

Workplace Gallery at Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Solo Presentation by Mike Pratt

2012-01-12T14:11:00.002Z

Image: Mike Pratt Back Drop, 2011, Oil and Sericol on Canvas, 280 x 220 cm (111 x 87 Inches) Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

Workplace Gallery is pleased to present a solo booth of works by

Mike Pratt

Art Los Angeles Contemporary
January 19 - 22, 2012

The Barker Hangar
3021 Airport Avenue
Santa Monica, CA 90405
http://artlosangelesfair.com

for a full list of available works please email: info@workplacegallery.co.uk

Seasons Greetings from all at Workplace Gallery

2011-12-19T13:39:00.001Z

Image: Eric Bainbridge Untitled, Collage, 29.6 x 21 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

Seasons Greetings from all at Workplace Gallery

We are pleased to confirm that our current solo exhibition by Paul Merrick is extended until Saturday 21st January 2012.

To view the exhibition on our website click here
http://www.workplacegallery.co.uk/exhibitions/_36/

Opening times;
Tuesday - Saturday, 11am - 5pm (or by appointment)

Seasonal opening times;
Closed from Thursday 22nd December 2011 - Tuesday 3rd January 2012

Workplace Gallery at NADA Art Fair Miami 2011

2011-11-25T11:17:00.001Z

Image: Marcus Coates Intellegent Design, 2009, Single Channel HD Video (16:9) Duration 8:00 minutes. Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

Workplace Gallery at NADA Art Fair 2011

Booth 804, Le Jardin

NADA Art Fair Miami
The Deauville Beach Resort
6701 Collins Avenue
Miami Beach, FL 33141

1st - 4th December
http://www.newartdealers.org/

Eric Bainbridge
Darren Banks
Sophie Lisa Beresford
Marcus Coates
Jo Coupe
Laura Lancaster
Paul Merrick

Mike Pratt
Cecilia Stenbom
Matt Stokes

for a full list of available works please email: info@workplacegallery.co.uk

Richard Rigg: The Northern Art Prize, Leeds Art Gallery, UK

2011-11-23T14:49:00.001Z

Workplace Gallery is very pleased to announce the participation of Richard Rigg in this years Northern Art Prize Shortlist.

Northern Art Prize 2011

25th November 2011 - 19th January 2012

Private View - Thursday 24 November 2011
6pm at Leeds Art Gallery

Shortlisted artists:

Liadin Cooke
Leo Fitzmaurice
James Hugonin
Richard Rigg

The Northern Art Prize 2011 exhibition takes place at Leeds Art Gallery from 25 November 2011 to 19 February 2012. The winner will be announced on 19 January 2012 and will receive £16,500, with each of the runners up receiving £1,500.

Now in its fifth year, the Northern Art Prize is an annual prize for contemporary visual artists of any age or nationality, working in any media and living in the North of England. Celebrating the quality and diversity of artists working in our region, the Northern Art Prize exhibition at Leeds Art Gallery showcases the work of the four shortlisted artists Liadin Cooke, Leo Fitzmaurice, James Hugonin and Richard Rigg.

The winning artist will be selected by this year%u2019s judges %u2013 Caroline Douglas (Head, Arts Council Collection), Tim Marlow (Broadcaster, Art Historian and Director of Exhibitions, White Cube Gallery), Simon Starling (Artist and Turner Prize Winner), Simon Wallis (Director, The Hepworth Wakefield) and Sarah Brown (Curator of Exhibitions, Leeds Art Gallery).

www.northernartprize.org.uk

Image: Richard Rigg, I forgot what was said when we were outside, stood empty, now without those words I fell back, 2010, Telegraph poles, Wire, 672 x 15 cm and 660 x 14 cm. Private Collection, USA/UK. Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

Paul Merrick: Preview - Friday 18th November, 6-9pm at Workplace Gallery

2011-11-15T12:57:00.001Z

Image: Untitled (Blue) 2011 (detail) Aluminium, Dust, 69 x 78 courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK.

Paul Merrick

Preview: Friday 18th November 2011 , 6 - 9pm

Exhibition continues:
19th November - 17th December 2011
Tuesday - Saturday, 11am - 5pm
(or by appointment)

Workplace Gallery are pleased to announce our first solo exhibition by Paul Merrick.

Paul Merrick combines painting with sculpture, and the made with the ready-made. Investigating colour, form, and architectural and spatial arrangement in relationship to Painting as a subject and discipline in and of itself; Merrick's new work is the result of a sustained interrogation of painting and process in relation to the found object.

Untitled 2011 is a commanding steel structure that refers to a found metal armature. Merrick has played with status of the original object, first simplifying its linear form then amplifying it to create an oversize almost comical object, which loses its function entirely. Finished with an industrial yellow powder coat paint finish, an oversize leatherette cushion upholstered in the style of Mies Van Der Rohe's Barcelona Chair, and inserted planes of sterling board that serve both to delineate and interrupt the space within the structure, and as proxy to painterly brushstrokes. Untitled invites us to reconsider our initial haptic and perceptual encounters with objects whilst proposing a reassessment of the semiological status of material and form in relation to design, style and function.

Merrick's light works again substitute found and functional material for painterly mark and gesture. Untitled (Big Plate) 2011 is a drawing of a found glass plate using fluorescent green strip lights. The plate has been removed creating a simple frame of light interrupted by the black rubber flex looped across the picture plane. In Merrick's work the accidental and contingent mark is given status that is knowingly bartered with the historical canon of modernity. This approach is extended in Merrick's new series of 'Found Paintings'. Carefully selected objects such as used and discarded scrap metal, table tops, and dusty panels are presented as Paintings, challenging the viewer to look beyond speculation about former use and action, towards acceptance of each object and surface as aesthetically final and complete, a reclamation and assertion of Painting through the artistic legacy of the found object.

Merrick's works draw influences from disparate sources, referencing the luxury of 50's and 60's interior design of West Coast America, the murder scenes of Helmut Newton, Color Film Noir, and the post industrial landscape of North East England. Salvaged form the local scrap yard these works lead a double life: both as autonomous objects and as Mise-en-scène. As such they imply an event or act that occurs outside of the work, ambiguous and with no substantiation except for the intimated luxury or seediness of material and colour the works become both sinister and erotic.

Paul Merrick was born in 1973 in Oxford, UK. He lives and works in Gateshead and Newcastle, UK.

The next exhibition at Workplace Gallery will be a solo exhibition of new work by Cath Campbell opening in 2012.

To celebrate the opening of Paul Merrick please join us afterwards at Central Bar in Gateshead.

Workplace Gallery was founded in 2005 by artists Paul Moss and Miles Thurlow. Based in Gateshead UK, Workplace Gallery represents a portfolio of emerging and established artists through the gallery programme, curatorial projects and international art fairs. Workplace Gallery is currently at The Old Post Office, Gateshead; a listed 19th Century red brick building built upon the site where the important British artist, engraver and naturalist Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) lived and died.

Kindly supported by

Catherine Bertola: 'From Trash to Treasure' Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Germany

2011-11-12T00:19:00.000Z

Catherine Bertola, After the Fact, 2006, Found dust and sound, Dimensions Variable, Courtesy the artist and Workplace Gallery

From Trash to Treasure

Kunsthalle zu Kiel

5th November 2011 - 5th February 2012

Arman
Catherine Bertola
Joseph Beuys
Karsten Bott
George Brecht
Jürgen Brodwolf
Pavel Büchler
Peter Buggenhout
Christo
Tony Cragg
Jürgen Drescher
Marcel Duchamp
Sylvie Fleury
Gilbert & George
Natascha Sadr Haghighian
Tina Hauser
Jan Henderickse
Robert Jacobsen
Ray Johnson
Asger Jorn
Arthur Køpcke
Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky
Korpys/Löffler
Alicia Kwade
Urs Lüthi
Gordon Matta Clark
Olaf Metzel
Bruno Mouron & Pascal Rostain
Wilhelm Mundt
Vik Muniz
Raffael Rheinsberg
Gerd Rohling
Dieter Roth
Karin Sander
HA Schult
Kurt Schwitters
Daniel Spoerri
Johann Strandahl
Philip Topolovac
Jacques de la Villeglé
Wolf Vostell
Robert Watts
Diet Wiegman
Markus Zimmermann

The state of a civilization may be read from the way it deals with trash, as Jean Jaques Lacan put it. We are, so to speak, what we throw away. Degrading an object, a topic or a situation by labeling it trash, is a long-established strategy affecting all layers of society, and it is also a part of our contemporary everyday culture.

The recent financial crisis was accompanied by talk about trash papers, there is talk about trash slicks on the oceans, of space trash and trash culture. At the same time, issues like recycling, revaluation and diversified use of these residues are moving more and more into focus.

The exhibition From Trash to Treasure. The Value of the Worthless within Art presents a selection of artistic strategies dating from the early 20th century until today, altogether dealing with trash - a topic equally hot politically, economically and culturally - with its definition, its potential and its utilization.
http://www.kunsthalle-kiel.de/ausstellungen/trash.html

WORKPLACE GALLERY AT ARTISSIMA 18 | SOLO PRESENTATION BY ERIC BAINBRIDGE

2011-10-31T15:20:00.000Z

Image: Eric Bainbridge The Mind of the Artist (Exposed), 2011 Steel, Blanket 127 x 190 x 190 cm Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

Workplace Gallery is pleased to present new work by

Eric Bainbridge

Stand 13: Azzurro/Light Blue Corridoio/Hall

Artissima 18
Oval Lingotto Fiere - Turin
4th - 6th November 2011

http://www.artissima.it/

for a full list of available works please email: info@workplacegallery.co.uk

Workplace Gallery at The Manchester Contemporary , UK. 27 - 30 October 2011

2011-10-25T20:44:00.001+01:00

Image: Richard Rigg Cloth Arranged to Look Like a Jacket (Self Portrait) 2010, Cloth, 10 x 60 x 44cm. Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

Workplace Gallery is pleased to announce our participation at The Manchester Contemporary

Works by:

Sophie Lisa Beresford
Jacob Dahlgren
Laura Lancaster
Richard Rigg

The Manchester Contemporary
Spinningfields, Manchester, UK

http://www.themanchestercontemporary.co.uk/

27 - 30 October 2011

For a full list of available works please contact info@workplacegallery.co.uk

Banks, Bainbridge, Bertola, Campbell, Coupe, Douglas, Lancaster, Merrick, Pratt: "Business Collectors Network" Globe Gallery, Newcastle, UK

2011-10-19T15:19:00.000+01:00

Business Collectors Network Exhibition
Globe Gallery, Newcastle
15th October - 26th November 2011

Darren Banks
Eric Bainbridge
Catherine Bertola
Cath Campbell
Alex Charrington
Jo Coupe
Jennifer Douglas
Jorn Ebner
Dan Holdsworth
Ben Jeans Houghton
Laura Lancaster
Paul Merrick
Jock Mooney
Michael Mulvihill
Stephen Palmer
Simon Parish
Mike Pratt
Anne Vibeke Mou

This show brings together all of the Business Collectors Network's aquisitions for the first time. All artists in the collection are either living or working in the North East of England.

The Sponsors Club works to increase private sector engagement in culture in the North East by advocating, researching, creating and developing partnerships to support individuals and businesses to engage, give money, time and expertise; and give cultural partners skills, structures and engagement tools. The Business Collectors Network is one of these partnerships.

The partners in the network are:

Arup, Blue River, The Express Group, NewcastleGateshead Initiative, Ryders, Sage plc, Ward Hadaway, Banks Group and Xsite Architecture.

Image:
Mike Pratt
Snakes On A Plane (Cumberland Sausage), 2009
Oil and spray paint on canvas
228 x 170 cms
89.83 x 66.98 inches
(MP0107)

Darren Banks: "Seeing in the Dark - A Group Show" CIRCA site, Newcastle, UK

2011-10-19T14:39:00.000+01:00

Seeing in the Dark
- A Group Show

Preview: Wednesday 19 October, 6 - 9 pm
Exhibition continues: 19 October - 12 November 2011

CIRCA
Curtis Mayfield House,
Newcastle upon Tyne

Featuring work by

John Adams, Kevin Atherton, Darren Banks, Jon Bewley, Ian Breakwell & Mike Leggett, Noel Clueit, David Critchley, Benedict Drew, Mat Fleming, Ken Gill, Richard Grayson, Emma Hart, Tina Keane, John Kippin, Hilary Koob-Sassen, Stephen Partridge, Heather Phillipson, Peter Todd, Maria Theodoraki, Belinda Williams

Seeing in the Dark is an exhibition and series of events inspired by artist run groups from the 1970s and '80s, such as Newcastle's Ayton Basement and Basement Group, and London's 2B Butler's Wharf. These groups were formed by artists with diverse practices (music, performance, film and video) inhabiting vacant industrial spaces to produce opportunistic and eclectic events.

Over four weeks Seeing in the Dark will occupy one floor of Curtis Mayfield House, a one time industrial space a stone's throw from the original Basement Group venue, to celebrate the influence and legacy of those artist-run spaces, extending this into the present with a contemporary focus. The exhibition will revisit key works from the '70s and '80s by artists associated with those groups among others, alongside contemporary media and performance artists' work, bringing together moving image and live performance by some of the most innovative artists working in the UK, from the past thirty years to the present day.

These are hybrid cross-disciplinary, sometimes collaborative works that reverberate with a spirit of playfully serious enquiry and exploration; they are often wry, humorous and irreverent, revelling in language and wordplay, realised through film, video, spoken word, musical performance and installation.

image:
Darren Banks
Clusterfuck 2 (Don't Look In The Basement Remix), 2011 (Still)
Video
Duration 05:10 Minutes (Looped)
(DB0066)
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Sophie Lisa Beresford: 'Empty Orchestra', Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK

2011-10-19T14:37:00.000+01:00

**Sophie Lisa Beresford, Pizza Shop Dance, 2008, Single Channel Video, 04:06 minutes looped, Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery**

Empty Orchestra

Curated by Georgie Park & Samuel Rodgers

13 - 23 October,

Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK

Empty Orchestra is the literal translation of karaoke. This Second Gallery exhibition will be a working lounge bar including works by Dom Allen, Sophie Lisa Beresford, Stephen Cornford, Petra Cortright, Flat Soufflée, Rob Gawthrop, Christopher Gladwin, Laura James & Samuel Rodgers, Maria Minerva, Pete McPartlan, Oneohtrix Point Never, Alex Peverett and Gillian Wylde.

Artists interrogate, dismantle, displace, replace and rebuild the tools and contexts of musical performance. From the use of instruments in extended ways, and playful explorations of audio/visual interferences, to work that abandons precision to embrace 'shoddiness', the exhibition brings together the slick and the shabby, the engineered and the experimental.

Performances:

7-8.30pm Saturday 15 October
Jack Harris & Samuel Rodgers / Robert Curgenven & Katrin Bethge

7-9pm Friday 21 October
Dom Allen / Flat Soufflée / ICASEA-Yperdimensional Taikyokuken

7-8.30pm Saturday 22 October
Rob Gawthrop Pete McPartlan

Part of The Event and Supersonic Festival

http://the-event.org/
http://supersonicfestival.com/
http://emptyorchestra.org/

Wolfgang Weileder: "Stilt House" hub to hub, Singapore ArchiFest 2011, Singapore

2011-10-19T12:49:00.000+01:00

Wolfgang Weileder

STILT HOUSE

Hub to Hub consists of 7 Multidisciplinary teams from Singapore and around the world, made up of architects, artists, designers, technologists and businessmen, are selected to participate in the Hub-to-Hub public art program. They will develop 7 temporary installations and provide alternative ideas of public spaces and programmes to enliven the City's urban and forgotten spaces in Bras Basah.Bugis - the Arts, Culture, Learning and Entertainment Hub of Singapore. These projects will animate the various chosen sites during the Singapore ArchiFest 2011, and demonstrate the ability of temporary interventions to act as agents to interrogate public space and present new possibilities for physical and programmatic use.

Date of Exhibition: 14 Oct to 4 Nov 2011
Venue of Exhibition: Bras Basah.Bugis

TEAM EUROPE / DHOBY GHAUT GREEN

TEAM

Prof Wolfgang Weileder (Art, UK), Prof Simon Guy (Architecture, UK), Oliver Heidrich (Recycling Technology, UK)

DESIGN STATEMENT

STILT HOUSE is a site-specific artwork consisting of two interconnected structures that are made from recycled plastic waste. Sited at Dhoby Ghaut Green, the architectural installation offers, through it's perforated black walls, an elevated and translucent perspective on the surrounding land and cityscape. By reinterpreting this traditional housing typology, that was originally made from sustainable local materials and was ecologically adapted to the specific climate and landscape, the STILT HOUSE encourages us to rethink our relationship with the environment we inhabit. It also confronts us with the debris of our consumer society in the unexpected form of an innovative building material that translates waste into new productive and aesthetic uses.

JURY CITATIONS

Jury Citations: The Malay stilt house typology is very interesting in terms of environmental sustainability. It is thus relevant to the local context, questioning our cultural and environmental awareness as there are not many stilt houses left in urbanised Singapore.

2011-10-08T14:54:00.002+01:00

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/the-worlds-best-secret-art-galleries-2365943.html

Darren Banks: "The Art of Fear" Nighthawk Cinema, Brooklyn, NY

2011-10-04T10:54:00.000+01:00

The Art of Fear

Takeshi Murata
Darren Banks
Jamie Shovlin
My Barbarian
Aida Ruilova
Marnie Weber

Previews: Wednesday 9th & Wednesday 15th October 2011

The infectiousness of horror cinema has spawned a generation of artists who explode conventional expectations of how horror is expressed and consumed. Hosted by Nighthawk Cinema in Brooklyn, The Art of Fear exposes this provocative relationship between horror film and visual art in a program of video and film works by international contemporary artists who glean from the structural, narrative and aesthetic style of horror cinema.

'Double, Double' - Preview: Friday 30th September, 6-9pm Workplace Gallery, Gateshead, UK

2011-09-27T11:48:00.000+01:00

Image: Rachel Lancaster Curtains 2011 (detail) colour photograph, 8 x 10inches, Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

Double, Double

Eric Bainbridge
Noel Clueit
Marcus Coates
Jo Coupe
Jacob Dahlgren
Rachel Foullon
Dean Hughes
Rachel Lancaster
Eftihis Patsourakis

Preview: Friday 30th September 2011 , 6 - 9pm

Exhibition continues:
1st October - 5th November 2011
Tuesday - Saturday, 11am - 5pm
(or by appointment)

Kindly supported by

Matt Stokes: "Cantata Profana" Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK

2011-09-21T14:43:00.000+01:00

Matt Stokes
Cantata Profana

BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
Gateshead Quays South Shore Road
Gateshead
NE8 3BA UK
www.balticmill.com

24 September 2011 - 7 October 2011
19, 20 and 21 of October 2011

Matt Stokes' remarkable video and audio installation takes the form of an amphitheatre of screens presenting a new musical composition, created in collaboration with the leading British composer Orlando Gough and six grindcore vocalists. Cantata Profana interweaves extreme metal music culture with classical choral traditions, resulting in this unexpected union. The intense sound and body movements of the vocalists together with the backdrop of the outdated GDR radio studio in which the piece was filmed, all contribute to the atmosphere of this unique and immersive work.

image:

Matt Stokes
Cantata Profana, 2010
Six-channel HD video and audio transferred to synced hard-drives
Duration 06:48 minutes, looped
Commissioned by Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Germany. Produced by Forma, UK. Supported by De Hallen Haarlem, Netherlands and Arts Council England.
Photo: Nils Kilinger
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

Mike Pratt & Cecilia Stenbom: New Lights, Mercer Gallery, Harrogate, UK

2011-09-21T13:10:00.000+01:00

Workplace Gallery is pleased to annouce that Mike Pratt and Cecilia Stenbom have been shortlisted for the first New Lights Arts Award.

The Valeria Sykes Prize exhibition will be held at

The Mercer Art Gallery

Swan Road

Harrogate

HG1 2SA

Visit http://www.newlights.org.uk/prize for more details.

Paintings by 24 artists have been shortlisted from 232 entries for the £10,000 New Lights award by a panel of independent judges. The judges are Kate Brindley, Director of Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima) and a National Advisor for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Art Funding Programme; Paul Hobson, Director of the Contemporary Arts Society, and the artist William Tillyer.

The winner will be announced on 22 September. The prize comprises a mixture of money (£10,000), guidance and mentoring. The 2011 prize is named the Valeria Sykes Prize, after the main sponsor, was open to artists aged 23-35 who either live or gained an arts degree in the North of England.

images:

left:

Mike Pratt
Cobra, 2011
Oil and enamel on canvas, Heineken cans
280 x 220 cm

Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

right:

Cecilia Stenbom
You've Had Me Again, 2010
Acrylic Paint on Perspex

180 x 220 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

Eric Bainbridge - Video Show, CIRCA Screen, Sunderland

2011-09-16T17:18:00.000+01:00

Eric Bainbridge 'One Sausage' 1993, single channel video, Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Eric Bainbridge

- Video Show

21 September - 21 October

Preview
Tuesday 20 September 6 - 8 pm

CIRCA Screen
ThePlace, Atheneaum Street
Sunderland SR1 1QX

circaprojects.org

Join Eric Bainbridge In Conversation with British Art Show 7 artist & Modern British Sculpture co-curator, Keith Wilson
To book a place at the In Conversation event on the preview night, please email rebecca@contemporaryartsociety.org

The exhibition Video Show is the first time Eric Bainbridge has shown his works in this medium as stand-alone projections presented in a cinematic context. Previously, these works have been presented as objects themselves, on gallery monitors amongst other three dimensional work. Whilst his three dimensional works are internationally renowned, Bainbridge's videos remain a relatively unconsidered aspect of his extensive body of work. Bainbridge first began using video to document objects and incidents in the studio nearly twenty years ago, at a time when his entire way of working was changing dramatically.

The process of making video has played a key part in Bainbridge's thirty-five year long career, marking a turning point between his fur-clad sculptures of the 1980s, and his experimental and increasingly complex work during the 1990s.

Bainbridge's early videos use the static shot to show sculptural works in time; inviting us to look again at what a sculpture is and can be as well as thinking deeper about the act of looking.

In later videos, more incidental moments are captured with equal amounts of humour and philosophical play.

Over the past 35 years, Eric Bainbridge has created an extensive body of work and become best known for his sculptures and collages, which have been exhibited internationally, including at Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis (1986), The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1989), Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2003) mima, Middlesbrough (2007), and recently in Modern British Sculpture at the Royal Academy, London (2010).

CLUB PONDEROSA / FRI 26TH & 27TH AUG, 8PM - 12AM / SILVER FOX / D'ASTRO / CATH & PHIL TYLER / NWAVI / MAN WITH FEATHERS / DJs

2011-08-22T23:06:00.001+01:00

CLUB PONDEROSA presents:

FRIDAY 26TH AUGUST, 8PM-12AM

SILVER FOX
D'ASTRO
CATH & PHIL TYLER
BRITANIC GAMMA LANTERN (DJ SETS)

Making waves up and down the coast, Newcastle's all female band Silver Fox will 'break your hearts and blow your minds' with their mix of noisy lo-fi pop, minimal beats and wistful lyrics. Now imagine a surf band when the only surf they have ever witnessed is off a sewage-streaked radioactive beach in the northwest of England - and you have d'Astro. Sarcastic barking and discordant guitars compete with a stampede of drummage to make an entertaining post-punk racket. Firmly back on land, and needing no introduction, local Anglo-American duo Cath & Phil Tyler offer their unique blend of traditional and experimental folk music combined into a beautiful, raw, heartfelt sound that will ripple through your head long after the night is over. For your enjoyment, the evening will be accompanied by DJ sets from Britanic Gamma Lantern.

SATURDAY 27TH AUGUST, 8PM-12AM

NWAVI
MAN WITH FEATHERS
PHIPPS (DJ SETS)

A rare chance to hear live sets from both Nwavi (Peter J. Evans) and Man With Feathers (Adam Parkinson) under the same roof ... with Phipps providing the excursions on vinyl ...

Both nights are FREE ADMISSION & with Donation Bar

CLUB PONDEROSA is located at:
Workplace Gallery
19/21 West Street
Gateshead
NE8 1AD

Entrance is behind Lloyds TSB bank on Lambton Street

Travel info:
Metro: Gateshead: 1 minute walk
Bus: Gateshead Interchange: 1 minute walk
By car, bike and foot: as long as it takes, nearby street parking and council car parks

Club Ponderosa is a hybrid space designed by Matt Stokes to operate as part meeting house, nightclub, theatre, village hall and social club. Stokes first established Club Ponderosa during an artist's residency at 176, London. Drawing from the history of the building which was formerly a Methodist Chapel, and once home to the famous London Drama Centre, the aim of the club was to create an informal and flexible social-space that would foster new encounters between groups, and act as a catalyst for the creation of events designed and programmed in collaboration with people living or working in the Camden area. Club Ponderosa is also home to MASS, a sound system fabricated from donated parts and online speaker designs, which is pivotal to the functioning of the club.

NADA Hudson: Laura Lancaster - New Sculpture, July 30-31, Hudson, NY, USA

2011-07-25T15:38:00.001+01:00

Image: Laura Lancaster, Untitled, 2011, Plaster and Enamel, 99 x 32 x 22 cm, 39 x 12 5/8 x 8 5/8 in (LL0446)

Workplace Gallery presents New Sculpture by Laura Lancaster at NADA Hudson 2011.

Laura Lancaster's work is extracted from an archive of anonymous photographs procured from thrift stores and flea markets. Mediated through painting, and most recently sculpture, her work transposes the forgotten and discarded snap-shots of strangers' lives into a ambiguous territory between abstraction and figuration. Divorcing her subjects from their specific context and time, Lancaster relocates them to a place of collective memory and experience that resonates with our own. Laura Lancaster's work oscillates between the nostalgic sentimentality of the celebratory moment, and the melancholic poignancy of the past.

In front of the photograph of my mother as a child, I tell myself: she is going to die: I shudder, like Winnicott's psychotic patient, over a catastrophe which has already occurred. Whether or not the subject is already dead, every photograph is this catastrophe. This punctum, more or less blurred beneath the abundance and the disparity of contemporary photographs, is vividly legible in historical photographs: there is always a defeat of Time in them: that is dead and that is going to die.

Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida

Laura Lancaster was born in 1979 and lives and works in Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK. Recent exhibitions include Workplace Gallery, Gateshead (2010), Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle (2010), Hilary Crisp, London (2009). Green On Red Gallery, Dublin (2009), Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland (2008), Museum of Modern Art St Etienne (2008), Palazzo Della Arti Napoli (2006), Museum of Modern Art Oxford (2006) Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (2005).

For further information or enquiries please contact: miles@workplacegallery.co.uk

NADA Hudson

July 30-31, 2011
11am - 7pm

110 South Front Street
Hudson NY, 12534

Admission is free and open to the public.

The New Art Dealers Alliance and Basilica Hudson are pleased to announce NADA Hudson, a large scale exhibition featuring 51 projects presented by NADA members and affiliates. NADA Hudson is not an art fair, but rather a site-specific project for the New Art Dealers Alliance, which will build upon the character of a historic venue in showcasing contemporary sculpture, installation and performance.
The Basilica Hudson, built in 1884 as a foundry and forge for the manufacture of steel railway wheels, is the last great 19th century building on the Hudson waterfront. NADA is grateful for the team at Basilica Hudson who offer a home for the artistic and cultural community at large.
NADA Hudson will occupy nearly 8,000 square feet of indoor space, a theatre space and well over 10,000 square feet of outdoor space. Hudson, New York is becoming a popular satellite city for cultural activity. Hudson is home to many dealers specializing in antiques and decorative arts, while also attracting international artists like Marina Abromovic and Jason Middlebrook. Hudson is very accessible to visitors from New York City. Trains run frequently to Hudson about every hour leaving from Pennsylvania Station and the ride is about 2 hours. As always NADA Hudson will be free and open to the public.

NADA Hudson includes projects presented by:

Audio Visual Arts (AVA), New York
Jeff Bailey Gallery, New York
Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York
BIPOLART, New York
Brennan & Griffin, New York
Bureau, New York
Callicoon Fine Arts, Callicoon
CANADA, New York
Christopher Crescent, London
Clifton Benevento, New York
DCKT, New York
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, Los Angeles
Ditto Device, New York
DODGEgallery, New York
Dunham Place Salon, New York
Derek Eller Gallery, New York
Evil Freaks II, New York
Feature Inc., New York
Zach Feuer Gallery, New York
James Fuentes LLC, New York
Golden Gallery, Chicago/New York
Graham, New York
Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York
Jack Hanley Gallery, New York
(hi)story labor(atory), Hudson
The Hole, New York
Humble Arts Foundation, New York
Invisible-Exports, New York
La MaMa Gallery, New York
Allegra LaViola Gallery, New York
ltd los angeles, Los Angeles
moniquemeloche, Chicago
The Movement Party, Brooklyn
Museum 52, New York
Newman Popiashvili, New York
New York Fine Arts, Brooklyn
NON, Istanbul
Parlor Gallery, Asbury Park
Franklin Parrasch, New York
Pianissimo, Milan
Ramiken Crucible, New York
Rawson Projects, Brooklyn
Regina Rex, Brooklyn
Second Floor, New York
Silverman Gallery, San Francisco
Taxter Spengemann, New York
Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York
Untitled, New York
Kate Werble Gallery, New York
West Street, New York
Workplace Gallery, Gateshead

Matt Stokes: "Nuestro tiempo (Our Time)" Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (CAAC), Seville, Spain

2011-07-22T10:09:00.001+01:00

Matt Stokes
Nuestro tiempo (Our Time)

Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo(CAAC), Seville, Spain
Date: 21 July - 6 November 2011
Exhibition Session: Song as a Force of Social Transformation
http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/cultura/caac/

Exploring notions of collectivity, lifestyles and beliefs that emerge out of musical encounters, is what characterizes the work of Matt Stokes (United Kingdom, 1973). Enquiry is a fundamental part of his methodology, whereby works are initiated through undertaking meticulous research that enables him to familiarize himself with the music scenes he explores. Stokes makes contact with groups that interest him and investigates their origins, histories and values. He seeks out the characteristics of each location - folk music in Camden and Newcastle, England, Northern soul in Dundee, Scotland, punk rock in Austin, Texas - and gets involved with each community in order to question, celebrate and transform aspects of these influential scenes into artworks. Collaboration and collective authorship are two of the central pillars of this working process, a collection of impressions, stories and materials which he draws on to create films, installations, musical works and events.

Nuestro tiempo (Our Time), Matt Stokes's first solo exhibition in Spain, offers a selection of his most emblematic works. Real Arcadia (2003) documents the acid house raves held in isolated rural settings (the so-called "cave raves") in the Lake District region of Great Britain in the late 1980s. Long After Tonight (2005) focuses on Northern soul, a music and dance genre which emerged during the 1960s in the north of United Kingdom. these are the days (2008-09) explores the efficacy and actuality of punk rock as a widespread phenomenon in Austin, Texas (United States). The Gainsborough Packet (2008-09) is a film set in the early 19th century, against the backdrop of the dramatic transformation of urban life brought about by industrialization, where the dialog is sung and presented in folk-pop style. Finally, Cantata Profana (2010), the multi-screen video installation that concludes the exhibition, features six extreme metal vocalists performing an immersive choral composition.

image:
Matt Stokes
Cantata Profana, 2010
Six-channel HD video and audio transferred to synced hard-drives
Duration 06:48 minutes, looped
(MS0048)
Photograph: Nils Klinger
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

Sophie lisa Beresford: "Friendship of the Peoples" Simon Oldfield Gallery, London, UK

2011-07-01T15:45:00.001+01:00

Friendship of the Peoples

Club Ponderosa at Workplace Gallery, Friday 24th June 8pm - 11pm

2011-06-22T13:56:00.001+01:00

Club Ponderosa at Workplace Gallery

Bong

Skull Kontrol

Totem Recall

plus DJ's

24th June 2011
8pm - 11pm
admission free

Club Ponderosa is a hybrid space designed by Matt Stokes to operate as part meeting house, nightclub, theatre, village hall and social club. Stokes first established Club Ponderosa during an artist's residency at 176, London. Drawing from the history of the building which was formerly a Methodist Chapel, and once home to the famous London Drama Centre, the aim of the club was to create an informal and flexible social-space that would foster new encounters between groups, and act as a catalyst for the creation of events designed and programmed in collaboration with people living or working in the Camden area. Club Ponderosa was also home to MASS, a sound system fabricated from donated parts and online speaker designs, which was pivotal to the functioning of the club. Reworked for Workplace Gallery as part of Stokes' solo exhibition as a more sculptural experience Club Ponderosa and MASS will be activated by live performances by local bands and performers during the exhibition as well as incorporating footage and ephemera from previous events.

Matt Stokes - Preview: Friday 24th June, 6-8pm plus Club Ponderosa 8pm - 11pm

2011-06-21T22:25:00.001+01:00

Image: Jubilee Dancer, 2010, 16mm film with audio, Duration: 01:30 minute loop, Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK.

Matt Stokes

Preview: Friday 24th June 2011 , 6 - 8pm

plus Club Ponderosa at Workplace Gallery 8pm - 11pm
featuring Bong, Skull Kontrol, Totem Recall and live DJ’s
admission free

Exhibition continues:
25th June - 30th July 2011
Tuesday - Saturday, 11am - 5pm
(or by appointment)

Workplace Gallery is pleased to present our first solo exhibition by Matt Stokes.

Matt Stokes' recent practice focuses on the investigation of music subcultures. Working with musicians, writers, actors, composers and local community figures, Stokes looks to the social position and power that marginal groups have to influence a broader demographic. Often drawing attention to the spontaneous creativity that exists within counter-cultures and the potent visual practice that runs alongside them. Stokes explores the way in which these communities exchange ideas through music and their unique visual aesthetics. Operating independently from mainstream marketing, these communities challenge conventional and hierarchical methods of disseminating information. Collaboration and a sense of shared authorship are at the core of these movements and consequently mirrored in Stokes' projects.

For Jubilee Dancer Stokes revisited footage he shot on a night-vision camera at an unofficial rave staged on farmland in South Cumbria, UK in June 2002. The footage was taken in the lead up to, and during a rave organised by a farmer as an alternative to the Queens Golden Jubilee celebrations, and shows an extract of a single dancer performing to camera. The raw clip begins by settling on the dancers feet, which crisscross and glide lightly across a dirt floor, before slowly panning upwards. Stripped of its original sound and the driving bass-line, the dancers movements become ambiguous. In particular, the rhythmic trainer-clad feet hint strongly at more traditional forms of dance music and communal celebration that were once commonplace to the area and its rural communities. The transference of the work from a digital format to 16mm film along with its replacement soundtrack, a traditional folk 'reel', underscores this sense of the past and has the effect of dislocating the original footage from the time period in which it was filmed - harking to a bygone age - something that is now mirrored by those who took part in early rave culture.

Occupying the largest of Workplace's gallery spaces is Club Ponderosa a hybrid space designed by Stokes to operate as part meeting house, nightclub, theatre, village hall and social club. Stokes first established Club Ponderosa during a residency at the Zabludowicz Collection’s London project space 176. Drawing from the history of the building which was formerly a Methodist Chapel, and once home to the famous London Drama Centre, the aim of the club was to create an informal and flexible social-space that would foster new encounters between groups, and act as a catalyst for the creation of events designed and programmed in collaboration with people living or working in the Camden area. Club Ponderosa was also home to MASS, a sound system fabricated from donated parts and online speaker designs, which was pivotal to the functioning of the club. Reworked for Workplace Gallery as a more sculptural experience Club Ponderosa and MASS will be activated by live performances by local bands and performers during the exhibition as well as incorporating footage and ephemera from previous events.

Dance Swine Dance depicts an anonymous cartoon character modeled on an amalgam of styles associated with distinctive modern music and dance cultures, dating from the early 1900s to the present day. The animated black and white 16mm film character energetically goes through a cycle of movements that epitomize the represented dance genres, subtly highlighting threads between each. Despite their apparent shifts in tempo and intensity, the tireless figure remains immersed in a perpetual state of concentration and enjoyment.

In 2007, Arthouse in Austin Texas invited Stokes to create a new film project. these are the days is the result of Stokes' close work with communities connected to Austin's music scene and his extensive research into anti-establishment musical genres, particularly punk. Investigating the dichotomies expressed within earlier and later punk communities, his research ultimately led to the creation of the dual channel film installation. The first film features footage from a specially organized punk show staged by Stokes at the Broken Neck, an alternative venue in Austin and filmed by renowned cinematographers Lee Daniel and P.J. Raval. The second film, created in response to a recording session at Austin's Sweatbox Studios, depicts a makeshift band's musical reaction to the event footage. A reversal of roles between audience and performers, the work examines the concepts of inspiration and response; Punk as it was then and as it is now, different yet the same. Presented in the domestically scaled attic spaces of Workplace Gallery's former Post Office building alongside previously unseen material from Stokes' own personal archive gathered during the production process, the work provides both an immersive and intimate counterpoint to the rest of the exhibition.

Past projects by Matt Stokes include: The Gainsborough Packet a period film and folk song exploring the link between Camden, London and Newcastle through research into a letter found in the Tyne and Wear Museum Archives; Real Arcadia an ongoing archive of objects and ephemera examining the underground acid house and rave culture that embedded itself in caves and quarries in the Cumbrian hills during the late eighties and early nineties; and Long After Tonight a 16mm film of a historical re-enactment of a Northern Soul 'all-nighter' in a church in Dundee - which won Stokes the prestigious Beck's Futures Art Prize in 2006. Recent and forthcoming solo exhibitions include De Hallen, Haarlem, Netherlands; Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany; and CAAC Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo, Seville, Spain. Matt Stokes was born in 1973 in Penzance, Cornwall, UK. He lives and works in Gateshead.

Workplace Gallery was founded in 2005 by artists Paul Moss and Miles Thurlow. Based in Gateshead UK, Workplace Gallery represents a portfolio of emerging and established artists through the gallery programme, curatorial projects and international art fairs. Workplace Gallery currently resides in The Old Post Office, Gateshead; a listed 19th Century red brick building built upon the site where the important British artist, engraver and naturalist Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) lived and died.

Kindly supported by

Cath Campbell: "Edifice" National Glass Centre, Sunderland, UK

2011-06-11T07:24:00.001+01:00

Edifice

Cath Campbell / Erin Dickinson / Jeffrey Sarmiento / Kevin Hunt / Michael Mulvihill

National Glass Centre (NGC), Sunderland
11th June - 7th August 2011
http://www.nationalglasscentre.com

With the demolition of Trinity Square in Gateshead, the city skyline lost one of its most iconic buildings. Loved and hated in equal measure, it was a monumental building that shaped the Gateshead skyline and made it infamous the world over, with its prominence in the 1970s cult film Get Carter. Many such buildings of the Brutalist and Modernist design movement are now being removed from our urban skylines. This exhibition explores the shapes and silhouettes these buildings create and how artists have captured the sometimes opressive and grand nature of these edifices within our urban landscapes.

image:
CathCampbell
You Fill Up My Senses Part 2, 2007
Pencil on Paper
53.2 x 38 cm
(CC0019)
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Catherine Bertola: "Being Lost" Rogue Project Space, Manchester, UK

2011-05-30T21:11:00.001+01:00

Being Lost

Adele Vallance / Brendan Lyons / Catherine Bertola / Kevin Hunt / Susan Collis

Rogue Project Space, Manchester
28th May ‐ 4th June 2011
Private view Friday 27th May 6‐8pm
Open 12‐4pm Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th May and by appointment until 4th June. www.rogueartistsstudios.co.uk/projectspace.asp

Curated by Andrew Bracey & Adele Vallance

"If the archive can serve no more than a tomb of remnants and traces, where is the place for that which does not survive or which, by virtue of the archive is forgotten" Charles Merewether.

Being Lost brings together 5 artists whose work explores different notions of being lost; working with discarded/found objects and injecting life into them or working with the everyday, which we take for granted (and therefore can be argued that it is lost to us).

The work in the exhibition presents a place that has been lost or forgotten; to give it a home or a function once more. To house that which the traditional archive would reject due to it's requirement to be selective in order to keep more. The viewer can question their perception of traditional archives through the artist's use of display and interpretation. There is re‐wiring and expansion of visual understanding of a particular or discarded object or mark.

image:
Catherine Bertola
Anatomy # 6, 2006 (detail)
Paper
59.4 x 84 cms
(CB0020)
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Mike Pratt: "Nice Paintings" Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool, UK

2011-05-27T16:04:00.001+01:00

Nice Paintings

Mike Pratt and Leo Fitzmaurice
28 May - 23 July 2011
Opening event Saturday 28 May, 4pm - 6pm

Nice Paintings brings together work by emerging Newcastle based artist Mike Pratt and paintings from Grundy's own collection, an element of which has been selected by Liverpool based artist Leo Fitzmaurice into an arrangement entitled Horizon. This is the first of two exhibitions in 2011 to celebrate the gallery's centenary and will include mainly Victorian paintings from its collection, alongside Mike Pratt's large abstract canvases.

The exhibition will include several new works by Pratt, including a large sculptural work for the gallery's entrance space. Pratt's work indulges in the labour and gesture of making painting, combined with a direct examination of the cycle of assimilation that exists both within contemporary art and popular culture, as he borrows and 'wrongfully' appropriates from the artists who shaped the process before him. Through this method of sampling and remastering, Pratt combines stylistic quotation with deadpan observation and dumb mark-making, layering and obliterating his paintings until they are deemed at an end yet never resolved.

Leo Fitzmaurice has selected paintings from Grundy's collection that contain a strong horizon line, which he will arrange at varying heights to create a continuous horizon line across the gallery wall. Hung frame to frame and regardless of genre, artist reputation or quality, Horizon has been described by the artist as 'rough-shod-riding' across the collection, as it explores the pictorial construction of a collective mass of work, rather than a conventional analysis of its place within the history of art.

The exhibition is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England
Free Admission. Open Monday to Saturday 10am to 5pm.

image:
Mike Pratt
No Thanks (detail), 2010
Oil and Sericol on Canvas
280 x 220 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Matt Stokes: "Long After Tonight" Dundee Art Gallery & Museum, Scotland

2011-05-27T12:34:00.001+01:00

Matt Stokes

Long After Tonight

The McManus
Dundee Art Gallery & Museum

Exhibition Dates: Sat 28 May to Sun 4 September 2010
Venue:Here and Now Gallery
Admission: Free

http://www.themcmanus-dundee.gov.uk/print/content/exhibitions/matt-stokes-long-after-tonight

'Long After Tonight' is an award-winning film by Matt Stokes that draws on Dundee's history as the home of a strong Northern Soul scene. It documents a specially organised Northern Soul event held at 'Sallys' (St Salvador's Church in the Hilltown), a venue that was used during the 1970s for some of the City's first 'Northern' nights. This atmospheric film subtly connects the religious iconography of the church with the faith and passion required of the dance participants to keep their Northern Soul subculture alive. Premiered to widespread acclaim in 2005, this is the first time that the film has been shown since it was purchased by Dundee Art Galleries and Museums. It will be shown alongside original material from the Northern Soul scene.

image:
Matt Stokes
Long After Tonight (Still), 2005
Super 16mm Film and Audio transferred to DVD
6 min 45 sec
(MS0010)
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

Catherine Bertola: "Personal Tempest" Neue Galerie, Innsbruck, Austria

2011-05-26T21:31:00.001+01:00

Personal Tempest

Bas Jan Ader
Conrad Atkinson
Eija-Liisa Ahtila
Catherine Bertola
Matthew Buckingham
Rachel Goodyear
Roni Horn
Claire Sherman
Lois Weinberger

Curated by Tereza Kotyk

Neue Galerie, Innsbruck , Austria
www.kuenstlerschaft.at

Opening: Wednesday, 25 May 2011 at 19.00
Duration: 26.05. - 09/07/2011
Tue - Fri 10:00 to 12:00, 14.00 - 18.00, Sat 11:00 to 17:00

The exhibition Personal Tempest explores how our inner state of mind can be affected by natural phenomena, and how at times these effects can develop into a 'personal tempest' - a 'storm' of confused, eerie and uncomfortable feelings. Mirrored in imaginary accounts and personal testimony, the show explores this romantic motif through paintings, drawings, video installations, and photographs. Based on Thomas Bernhard's book ' Amras' and Emily Brontë's novel ' Wuthering Heights', Personal Tempest combines historical and contemporary approaches with poetic storytelling and conceptual presentations.

Salon Adele at The Soap Room: Catherine Bertola
May 27^th, 2011

The Soap Room
Innstrasse 23,
6020 Innsbruck,
Austria
www.thesoaproom.com

Salon Adele allows to engage with people in an informal setting: over tea, themes and subjects may be discussed. On May 27^th 2011 British artist Catherine Bertola is invited to talk about her work "to be forever known" which was commissioned by the Bronte Parsonage Museum for Personal Tempest. Bertola's work is also on display in the show Personal Tempest at Neue Galerie Innsbruck, which opens May 25^th and runs through July 9^th 2011.

image:
Catherine Bertola
Killing Time #1, 2010
16mm Film Installation, Back Projection Screen and Frame.
Duration: Looped
(CB0085)
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Preview: Workplace Gallery at Contemporary Art Society & Shortlist Media, London

2011-05-19T12:04:00.002+01:00

Image: Cath Campbell Diving Board #2, 2011, Stainless Steel , 21 x 21 x 10 cm, Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK.

Rotate

WORKPLACE GALLERY at

Contemporary Art Society & Shortlist Media

Private View: Monday 23 May, 18.30 - 20.30

http://www.contemporaryartsociety.org/forthcoming-events/exhibition/workplace-gallery

RSVP is essential for this event, please email membership@contemporaryartsociety.org

Venue addresses:
Contemporary Art Society, 11-15 Emerald Street, London WC1N 3QL
Shortlist Media, 26-34 Emerald Street, London WC1N 3QA

Office Opening times: Monday - Friday, 9.30 - 17.30
Monday - Friday, 9.30 - 17.30
Please note there is limited access to the office.
Call 44 (0)20 7831 1243 for further details.

Laura Lancaster: "Fade Away", Gallery North, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

2011-05-14T10:41:00.001+01:00

FADE AWAY
curated by Alli Sharma

Gallery North
Squires Building,
Sandyford Road,
Northumbria University,
Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8ST

06 May 2011 - 26 May 2011
Opening: Mon-Thurs 10-5pm, Fri 10-4.30pm
http://gn.northumbria.ac.uk

Fade Away is the first in a series of survey-type exhibitions to be held at Transition Gallery, London and it now travels to Gallery North in May 2011.

This exhibition will feature paintings that oscillate between representation and abstraction. The premise is broad enough, allowing scope whilst providing an interesting visual discourse 'where compositions teeter on the verge of illegibility and images emerge and fade away'.
There will be one work each by a mixture of approx 40 established and emerging artists, limited to 60 x 60 cm.

Barry Schwarbsky (2010) explains:
The fact that many painters today are working along the broad and very porous border between abstraction and images is a sign that this boundary is, in itself, an object of great fascination. It is as if the potential for transition had become more urgent than identification with a fixed position. Mobility trumps rigor. More than in images or abstraction per se, there is a tremendous interest today in what the art historian Dario Gamboni has called potential images, that is, those established in the realm of the virtual by the artist but dependent on the beholder for their realization, and their property is to make the beholder aware either painfully or enjoyably of the active, subjective, nature of seeing, That is, seeing one thing rather than another is not a given; it is a commitment and a form of painting that lays emphasis on this latent state of the image (which is also a latent state of abstraction) is one that throws back on the viewer the question of his or her own choice or predisposition in determining what to see. In particular, the whole phenomenon of painterliness has a different value today than it did in the past. It functions less as a signifier of the individual artist's stylistic signature or as the trace of emotional expression or of the labor of making that would have been concealed by a smoothed-over high finish though it can still be all of those than as a way of allowing the painting to linger in the condition in which things are still unsettled, metamorphic, in transition.

Gallery North is hosting Fade Away as the third part of our series of exhibitions exploring painting studio practice. There will be a free Artist Symposium, book launch and talks by Alli Sharma the Curator and writer Barry Schwabsky at Gallery North on Thursday 26 May 2011.

For enquiries please email azsymposiumgallerynorth@northumbria.ac.uk
The symposium, book launch and talk takes place on Thursday 26 May and is free to attend.

Image:
Laura Lancaster
Untitled, 2010
Oil on Canvas
30.5 x 25 cm
(LL0270)
courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

Catherine Bertola: "Cult of the Difficult" Cass Gallery, London, UK

2011-05-14T10:40:00.001+01:00

CULT OF THE DIFFICULT
curated by Susanna Bianchini and Habda Rashid

Opening: 10th May 2011
Display runs: 11 May - 03 June 2011
Tuesday to Friday, 12 - 6 pm

Langlands & Bell, Catherine Bertola, Layla Curtis, Jeremy Deller, Lothar Götz, Andrew Grassie, Eva Weinmayr

Cult of the Difficult is the fourth part of MACC to GAC and Back: Four Curatorial Interventions, a series of displays that mark the culmination of a collaborative research project between the Government Art Collection (GAC) and final year students of the MA Curating the Contemporary (MACC), taught by London Metropolitan University and Whitechapel Gallery. Three displays run at the Government Art Collection with an additional off-site exhibition at the Cass Gallery, part of the London Metropolitan University.

For the exhibition Cult of the Difficult a group of contemporary artists, from multi-disciplinary practices, have been invited to re-engage with their works held in the GAC. The multifarious strategies needed by the Government Art Collection to collect contemporary art, such as site-specificity and commissioning, are highlighted in the process.
This exhibition will be the only display from the series of four curatorial interventions not to use the collected works of the GAC, playing instead with the notion of their absence. The artists have responded by adding to series, creating new works and engaging with the ephemera from their collected pieces. The display thus formed exists in its own right as well as maintaining a connection to the Government Art Collection.

The show becomes an extension of the Collection, blurring the boundary between what has been collected and the works in the exhibition. By re-instating the role of the artists, their wider practice and propositions, the exhibition opens up a new space of inquiry into the collecting of contemporary art, whilst also revealing the Government Art Collection to a new audience.

Cult of the Difficult is curated by Susanna Bianchini and Habda Rashid

Cass Gallery
41 Commercial Road, London E1 1LA
For further information please contact Susanna Bianchini
T: 07913717999 E: curatingcontemporary@gmail.com

Special Events:
Cult of the Difficult - Artist Event
In conversation: artist Charles Avery with Daniel F. Hermann, Curator: Head of MA Curatorial Studies, Whitechapel Gallery. Introduction to the Government Art Collection by Philippa Martin, Curator: Information and Research (Historical). Video works by artist Mark Titchner.
Wednesday 11th May at 6:30 pm
Marlborough House, Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5HX.
RSVP Essential to habda.rashid@gmail.com

Cult of the Difficult Symposium
The Curator as a Patron for Contemporary Art: Challenges, Diplomacy, Solutions.
Speakers: Adrian George, Curator: Collection Projects, Government Art Collection; Lucy Bayley, Curator: National Programme, Contemporary Art Society; Andrew Grassie, Artist.
Tuesday 17th May at 6:30 pm
Frederick Parker Chair Collection, (as part of Cass Gallery)
41 Commercial Road London E1 1LA.
Further information: curatingcontemporary@gmail.com

A publication designed by Supanova accompanies each show and will be available at the venues.

MA Curating the Contemporary students would like to thank Charlyinc and Invite Me to Dinner for their very kind support.

Image:
Catherine Bertola
Home From Home, 2001
Screen Printed PVC
Dimensions Variable
Installation view, the Forth Hotel, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
(CB0039)
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Sophie Lisa Beresford: "Performance", The Late Shows, Workplace Gallery, Gateshead, UK

2011-05-14T09:48:00.001+01:00

Performance: Sophie Lisa Beresford
Workplace Gallery
Saturday 14 May 2011, 8pm - 10pm
http://www.thelateshows.org.uk/home.html

As part of NewcastleGateshead's Late Shows Workplace Gallery presents a unique performance by Sophie Lisa Beresford, accompanying her solo exhibition in the gallery. Drawing from inspirations as diverse as Sonic the hedgehog and new-age religion, Beresford forms a compelling and coherent map of consciousness. Her daring and rigorous performances will immerse you in her overwhelmingly honest attitude to making art.

Sophie Lisa Beresford (b. 1986 Sunderland, UK) graduated from Sunderland University in 2008. Exhibitions include Group Exhibition VeSch, Vienna, Moving Image New York, USA, Mural Newspaper Abrons Art Center, New York, NADA Art Fair 2010 Miami, USA, Sideshow Nottingham, Summer Residency Exhibition Cooper Gallery, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee, Psychic Geography Workplace Gallery, Dancing The Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, /Slab in the City Sunderland, TOMORROW THE FUTURE Fishmarket Gallery, Northampton, "All My Favourite Singers Couldn't Sing...", Workplace Gallery. In 2010 Beresford was awarded the The Journal Culture Awards- Newcomer of the Year. Sophie Lisa Beresford lives and works in Sunderland, UK

also see:
Sophie Lisa Beresford
Solo Exhibition
Saturday 14th May
7pm until 11pm (as part of Late Shows)
Exhibition runs:
7th May - 11th June 2011
Tuesday - Saturday, 11am - 5pm
(or by appointment)

Image:
Sophie Lisa Beresford
My Culture Is Beautiful, 2009
Single Channel Video
Duration: 7 min 49 sec
(SLB0030)
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Mike Pratt: "SPECTRUM", NewBridge Space, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

2011-05-14T09:31:00.001+01:00

SPECTRUM curated by Matt Hearn

Sebastian Trend
Adam Hogarth
Mike Pratt
Thomas Whittle

NewBridge Space
18 Newbridge Street West
Newcastle Upon Tyne
Open Mon - Sat 12-6pm

Preview: Saturday 14 May 2011 6pm until 10pm
16 May - 11 June 2011

The exhibition opens as part of NewcastleGateshead's Late Shows and will run from 16th May until 11th June.

SPECTRUM is a recently formed group of emerging artists whose individual practices share common concerns of colour theory, throwaway culture and auto-destruction. The exhibition attempts to be more than a showcase and investigates the roots of these artists' practices.

The SPECTRUM group and exhibition curator Matt Hearn will be hosting a talk, taking place on Saturday 21st May at 4pm, enabling people to gain a unique insight into the SPECTRUM project.

To coincide with the exhibition, the launch of the first SPECTRUM Almanac will take place at the closing event on Friday 10th June 6 until 8pm. Included within the Almanac are written contributions from Cathy Lomax, Hugh Dichmont, Paulette Terry Brien and John Beagles. It will also include the work of local, emerging writer Rory Biddulph. SPECTRUM Almanac will be an annual publication which aims to develop critical dialogue within contemporary arts in the North East.

For further information including interviews and biographies see
www.sectrumalmanac.com

Matt Stokes: " The Big Society" Gallerie Vallois, Paris

2011-05-05T14:39:00.001+01:00

The Big Society
curated by Alice Motard

DUNCAN CAMPBELL
MIKE COOTER
RUTH EWAN
MICHAEL FULLERTON
PETER KENNARD
NATHANIEL MELLORS
CAT PHILLIPPS
MATT STOKES
SUZANNE TREISTER
MARK WALLINGER

Galerie Vallois, 36, rue de Seine 75006 Paris

06 May - 04 June 2011
Opening Thursday 05 May 2011
http://www.galerie-vallois.com

Taking its cue from the social manifesto published by the Conservative- Liberal government in the UK, the group exhibition The Big Society examines British society through the civil movements and actions that have marked its contemporary history. To do so, it gathers together ten British artists from various generations whose work addresses the relationships between individuals, communities, and the State by taking up real or fictitious events which have played a significant role in shaping society at large.

The struggle for political power between these three entities is a recurring subject in this exhibition as it reconsiders a number of social conflicts and protest movements in which the tensions arising from conflicting ideologies and visions of society that have affected public life in Britain since the early 20th century expressed themselves. Ruth Ewan recalls the Battle of Cable Street which opposed the police and anti-fascist protesters in London in 1936, Duncan Campbell addresses the Troubles in Northern Ireland at the turn of the 1970s, Peter Kennard evokes the farmers' and miners' strikes which shook the governments of Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher in the 1970s and 80s, and Cat Phillipps exhibits the "Penny Shields" she designed for the recent March for an Alternative to the budget cuts voted by Parliament. Corresponding with the London Metropolitan Police, Mike Cooter infiltrates the inner workings of State power which, if the conspiracy theories outlined by Suzanne Treister are to be believed, is obsessed with controlling its citizens.

Many of the events addressed in The Big Society were spearheaded by charismatic figures, several of whom are explicitly referred to, such as Alan Turing, the genius mathematician who was persecuted by the British government in the 1950s for his homosexuality (Michael Fullerton), Bernadette Devlin, the Northern Irish MP who led the struggle of the Catholic minority against English occupation in the 1960s (Duncan Campbell), Sylvia Pankhurst, the revolutionary Suffragette who was repeatedly imprisoned for her political activities (Ruth Ewan), and Stella Rimington, the
former head of British counter-intelligence and author of truer-than-life spy novels (Suzanne Treister).

This survey of British society would not be complete without a nod to cultural phenomena that have helped shape its identity. Mark Wallinger's work, for instance, draws an ironic analogy between football supporters and religious fanatics, while Matt Stokes brings back to life the the Northern Sou music movement and Nathaniel Mellors revisits a mythical TV series to project the disquieting vision of egalitarian rule.

The fact that British artists are more than ever interested in re-examining their nation's past in light of its social or cultural conflicts and movements would seem to reflect the post-crash identity crisis that has taken hold of society as Tony Blair's 'Powerhouse UK' is running out of steam. In this respect, the debate on nationality and immigration recently launched by the Conservative majority is an indication of the current malaise to the extent that it raises issues which had hitherto been considered to be off limits. It could therefore be argued that their resurgence in the mainstream public debate illustrates the nation's struggling attempts to come to terms with its changed identity. Seen under this angle, the Tories' 'Big Society' is a manifest of doubt, its calculated modesty forming a striking contrast with Labour's 'Cool Britannia'.

Image:
Matt Stokes
Long After Tonight (Terry), 2005 - 2006
C-type on diasec,
80 x 80 cm
(MS0024)
courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

Sophie Lisa Beresford - Preview: Friday 6th May, 6-9pm

2011-05-04T10:13:00.002+01:00

Image: In The Pizza Shop (Dance Shop) on Culture Award Night (detail), 2009, Photograph, Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK.

Sophie Lisa Beresford

Preview: Friday 6th May 2011 , 6 - 9pm

7th May - 11th June 2011
Tuesday - Saturday, 11am - 5pm
(or by appointment)

Workplace Gallery is pleased to announce our first solo exhibition by Sophie Lisa Beresford.

The work of Sophie Lisa Beresford addresses the order and status of 'things' and situations, and beyond that our held assumptions about the way in which we live and our cultural stereotypes. Through a polygenetic assimilation of established and global cultures as distinct and diverse as Hinduism, and Makina Techno music, Beresford reorders the totemic symbols of those cultures to reflect her own emergent philosophy and theory of the universe and her position within it. Beresford's practice emerges unashamedly from within the 'Charva' culture of the North East of England. Gleaning her subjects and ideas from all aspects of her life Beresford presents an intuitive detailed portrait of her culture. Through a constant process of reflection and re-examination Beresford employs a variety of means incorporating Dance, to-camera monologue, sculpture, painting, text and photography often mixing technology that enables her to record thoughts and situations quickly and directly such as iPhone screen grabs, built in laptop cameras and microphones, and compact digital cameras, with an ongoing interest in slow meticulous techniques that have been used across cultures for millennia such as Jewellery making, beading, and embroidery.

Beresford's performances and videos see the artist delivering un-choreographed and spontaneous high-energy dance routines to hardcore dance music in locations ranging from the privacy of her bedroom and domestic interiors, to public spaces such as Pizza Takeaways and Museums. Regardless of the privacy or otherwise of the location Beresford appears compellingly immersed in a trancelike state that calls into question any projected anxiety the viewer might have about losing control of oneself in the company of others. Alongside these vigorous 'Dancing' works Beresford presents 2 large-scale and contemplative video projections that focus on the conceptual underpinning and display of jewellery handmade by Beresford after a period of time living in Arizona and studying Native American jewellery making techniques. A large slow moving and posturing hand wearing a crystalline ring floats enigmatically in front of a large sheet of Gold leaf that fills the screen. Adjacent, a projected slide show text work reveals Beresford's intimate reflections on the experience of traveling through Arizona, and the significance of Jewellery, characteristically offset by Beresford's repeated use of emoticon symbols and reference to popular culture and mass-produced consumer products.

"To understand the world in a new way :) your way. And your way is the way to be. …. Jewellery has become a part of my life. I dream in Jewellery."

Sometimes I don't know what I think is an embroidered text work made using gold thread encrusted with sequins and precious stones. The pointed sentence overlooks a large shallow plinth offering a collection of objects and artefacts each customized by Beresford with intricate beadwork and crystals in complex geometric formations. The altered objects, which include a Gourd, a £20 note, a pipe, and a children's book are shown alongside Jewellery hand made by Beresford, each piece made as a gift for a specific individual. Beresford's fascination with people and how they relate to both her and wider world is further explored in Magic Numbers; an iPhone relentlessly playing a slideshow of screen grabs Beresford has made when she has been alerted by an incoming message or call that has also coincided with the time showing a 'Magic Number'.

Throughout the exhibition are a series of photographs drawn from Beresford's daily life. Hindu Goddess is a confrontational image of the artist covered in blue paint and with shocking pink lipstick. Beresford's portrayal of herself in the form of goddess. Anonymous Handprints is a photograph of Beresford's backside taken immediately after she was "pestered" for sex in her local park on her way home one evening. As a "compromise" Beresford allowed the two Lads to "smack her arse" as hard as they could on condition that they documented it for her afterwards on her camera phone leaving red raw hand prints on the artists backside. In marked contrast Me n Barney show the artist decorated in handmaid jewellery with a tame Barn Owl perched on her shoulder, the two looking completely comfortable in each other's company. Pasty Pigeon is an image of a 1:1 scale Pigeon made by Beresford from Greggs pasties - an iconic 'speciality' of the North East of England, Pasty Pigeon is a macabre object that met a sinister end when Beresford fed it to the real pigeons outside of Tesco's superstore in Gateshead.

Sophie Lisa Beresford (b. 1986 Sunderland, UK) graduated from Sunderland University in 2008. Exhibitions include Group Exhibition VeSch, Vienna, Moving Image New York, USA, Mural Newspaper Abrons Art Center, New York, NADA Art Fair 2010 Miami, USA, Sideshow Nottingham, Summer Residency Exhibition Cooper Gallery, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee, Psychic Geography Workplace Gallery, Dancing The Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, /Slab in the City Sunderland, TOMORROW THE FUTURE Fishmarket Gallery, Northampton, "All My Favourite Singers Couldn't Sing...", Workplace Gallery. In 2010 Beresford was awarded the The Journal Culture Awards- Newcomer of the Year. Sophie Lisa Beresford lives and works in Sunderland, UK

The next exhibition at Workplace Gallery will be a solo exhibition of new work by Matt Stokes opening on 24th June 2011. To celebrate the opening of Sophie Lisa Beresford please join us afterwards at Central Bar in Gateshead.

Kindly supported by

Miles Thurlow: "Chris Hawtin/Miles Thurlow" Malgras|Naudet, Manchester, UK

2011-04-28T09:56:00.000+01:00

Image: 'Figure with Wardrobes' 2010, Miles Thurlow, Resin, PU Foam, Polystyrene, Wardrobes. courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

CHRIS HAWTIN / MILES THURLOW
29th April – 21st May 2011
Preview 28th April 2011 6 – 8pm

Malgras|Naudet is a new space for contemporary art, a space in which things might happen....

MALGRAS|NAUDET IS PROUD TO PRESENT ITS INAUGURAL EXHIBITION FEATURING SELECTED WORKS BY CHRIS HAWTIN AND MILES THURLOW. EXHIBITING TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME, THE PAINTINGS OF HAWTIN AND THE SCULPTURES OF THURLOW ARE A REFRESHING DISPLAY OF UNREAL LANDSCAPE AND FAMILIAR OBJECT.

"The exhibition’s heady combination of visceral imagery alongside sculptural minimalism complements each artist aesthetically and thematically and with a sincerity that surpasses expectation. The cybernetic organisms of Hawtin’s canvas seem to come to life in Thurlow’s glutinous monuments and bring together both of their intentions as a questioning of the functionality and location of the real and unreal in art and beyond."

Open Friday – Saturday 12.00 – 18.00hrs or by appointment
Nearest train station: Manchester Piccadilly

Notes for Editors: Chris Hawtin and Miles Thurlow both live and work in the UK. Between them, they have exhibited in London, Stockholm, Lisbon and beyond. For a copy of the press release or more information, please contact Helen Collett on +44 7825 88 47 39 or at questions@malgrasnaudet.com.

+44 7811 26 77 52
things@malgrasnaudet.com
www.malgrasnaudet.com

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Darren Banks: "Defective Science" Sala Dogana, Genoa, Italy

2011-04-26T21:58:00.001+01:00

DEFECTIVE SCIENCE

curated by Gabriella Arrigoni

Darren Banks

Davide Bertocchi

Cesare Bignotti

Sarah Ciraci

Andrea Dojmi

Jacopo Miliani

Marie Velardi

Sala Dogana, Palazzo Ducale

p.zza Matteotti 9, Genova

23 April - 15 May, Tuesday to Sunday 15.00-20.00

Opening Friday 22 April h 18.00

Free admission

http://www.gg6.comune.genova.it/node/557

Defective Science is a group show featuring video works and installations focusing on the relationship between science and pseudo-science. Seven artists have been invited to elaborate the fake documentation of a number of different phenomena, somehow based on scientific postulates. At the same time, their real possibility of existence is into question and eludes any appropriate scientific methodology. Among the topics present in the works on show: extraterrestrial life, teletransportation, the 2012 catastrophic prophecy, life hidden in inanimate objects and theories about the nature itself of our own Universe. The project aims to investigate how contemporary society relates to scientific knowledge, a complex relationship hang in the balance between absolute trust toward the progress and a mystic attraction for the mysterious and the unexplainable, with the result of an unexpected association of science with the magic and the irrational.

image:
Darren Banks
Phantom Sock, 2006
Umbro Sock, Orbit Building System, Wool
50 x 30 x 19 cm
(DB0024)
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Paul Merrick: "Remade and Readymade " Constantine Gallery, Teesside University, UK

2011-04-26T11:30:00.001+01:00

Remade and Readymade

Tony Charles
Greg Cox
Paul Merrick
Lewis Robinson

Private View 6 - 8pm Wednesday 27th April 2011
26th April - 20th May 2011
Opening Times: 9am - 4pm Mon - Friday
Closed on Weekends and Bank Holidays

Constantine Gallery,
Teesside University
Middlesborough,
TS1 3BA

"Home is no longer a dwelling but the untold story of a life being lived"_ John Berger

The work in this exhibition alludes to the domestic environment in one form or another. Each artist works with the domestic image to a greater or lesser extent to convey individual concerns. The use of found or discarded material is also another characteristic of the work whether it be metal rust filings or reconstituted furniture. The process of making exists somewhere on the threshold between production and destruction.

These artists enjoy the physicality of material and its transformation into the new found imagery. Dislocation, dismemberment, disintegration and distillation are fuel for these works contradicting the culture of 'home neat home.'

"In contrast to the ambivalent-even antagonistic-relationship between domesticity and modernism, the postmodern are witnessed a kind of homecoming in high culture, as artists and designers have (re)turned their attention to domesticity. Specifically the idea of home today is caught between the stasis of nostalgia, historical fantasy and dynamism of activist engagement with the future: on the one hand, the home functions as a potent image or symbol, on the other it exists in all the complexity of daily experience in a three dimensional world."

'Not at Home; The Suppression of Domesticity in Modern Art and Architecture'

(Thames and Hudson 1996 p23)

Sharon Haar and Christopher Reed

We live in a century where the domestic appears transient and elusive.
Paradoxically, home suggests familiarity, comfort and security and yet it can be a theatre for the absurd, strange and bizarre. Is it a state of mind or a place? These works reflect that uncertainty in uncertain times. We now live in a culture where DIY is cool, the DIY stores reign like cathedrals to the flat-pack and a proliferation of makeover TV shows invade our living space. The discarded, disguised and remade.

Image:

Paul Merrick
Untitled (Chair), 2009
Sterling board, ply wood, aluminium, gloss paint
81 x 48 x 56 cm
(PME0082)

Courtesy the artist and Workplace Gallery

Catherine Bertola: "To be forever known" Brontë Parsonage Museum, Haworth, UK

2011-04-16T04:06:00.001+01:00

To be forever known
Catherine Bertola
16 April - 8 July 2011
Brontë Parsonage Museum, Haworth

To be forever known is a sound installation by artist Catherine Bertola, created in response to the Brontë Parsonage Museum and its collection as part of the museum’s contemporary arts programme. To be forever known is accompanied by a series of photographs, Residual hauntings.

Catherine Bertola creates installations, objects and drawings that respond to particular sites, collections and historic contexts. Her interest in the Brontë Parsonage Museum centres on the contradictions between past and present that lie at the heart of the museum. The house can be seen as a 'period set', a reconstruction of the past onto which we project our own thoughts and feelings. To be forever known attempts to breathe life back into the space and reinstate a sense of the creativity that once filled the air of the house.

Using scientific methods of revealing the resonant harmonies and tones of architectural spaces, Catherine Bertola has sought to capture the sounds of the Parsonage. The artist recorded herself reading aloud extracts of the sisters' letters. These recordings were then played and re-recorded over and over again into the space, until the words become unintelligible whispers and the resonances of the room are revealed; the sisters' thoughts and feelings once again haunting and jarring against the silence.

Residual hauntings is a series of photographs of the artist ‘performing’ domestic rituals and actions described in written records. These simple ghostly vignettes reanimate the spaces of the Parsonage as they once were.

Catherine Bertola was born in Rugby in 1976 and studied Fine Art at Newcastle University. She has created site specific installations for a variety of sites and contexts, for organisations such as Whitworth Art Gallery (Manchester), V&A Museum (London), Millennium Gallery (Sheffield) and the National Trust. Catherine Bertola has work in several public and private collections and is represented by Workplace Gallery, Gateshead and M R Fricke, Berlin.

To hear a brand new podcast that includes an interview with artist Catherine Bertola talking about her artwork and inspirations, download the 'Art Yorkshire' iPhone App from the Apple App Store or visit http://art.yorkshire.com

Conversaziones

As part of To be forever known, Catherine Bertola will curate three 'Conversaziones', a term used by Victorians to describe small social gatherings held in their homes (where people would meet over tea to debate topics of the day). Catherine and a series of invited speakers will discuss themes relating to the exhibition, together with a small audience. The evenings will take place at the Brontë Parsonage Museum after hours, and refreshments will be provided.

Thursday 12 May, 7pm
Radical Women
Lucasta Miller and Jane Robinson discuss the role of radical women, from the original Bluestockings to the 20th Century suffragettes, who like the Brontës, transcended perceived ideas of femininity.
Jane Robinson is author of Bluestockings: The Remarkable Story of the First Women to Fight for an Education.
Lucasta Miller is a writer and critic, and author of The Brontë Myth.

Thursday 16 June, 7pm
Everyday Lives
Ann Dinsdale and Suzanne Fagence Cooper take us through the domestic rituals of an early 19th household, to discover how the Brontë sisters would have occupied their time outside of writing.
Ann Dinsdale is Collections Manager at the Brontë Parsonage Museum.
Suzanne Fagence Cooper is V&A Research Fellow at Buckinghamshire New University, has written several books on Victorian art and culture, and has been a consultant for BBC programmes including What the Victorians Did for Us, and Simon Schama's History of Britain.

Thursday 7 July, 7pm
Between the Lines
Historian and biographer Kathryn Hughes explores how artefacts and historical evidence can help us to access the people and places of the past.
Kathryn Hughes is Professor of Lifewriting at UEA. Her biographies include George Eliot: the Last Victorian and The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton. She is a journalist and critic, regularly writing for The Guardian and appearing on BBC Radio 4.

Image:
Catherine Bertola
Residual hauntings (detail) 2011
Triptych of Photographic Prints
15.2 x 20.3 cm (Framed)
(CB0092)
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Jo Coupe: "A Distance Between Two Points " AirSpace Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, UK

2011-04-16T03:55:00.001+01:00

A Distance Between Two Points

Jo Coupe & Linda Persson

15th April Preview 7-10pm
16th April - 4th June 2011
www.airspacegallery.org
Gallery Open Tuesday - Saturday 11am - 5pm

The phenomena of our experiences, the existence of matter, and its related situations, can be explored through a variety of means. Art, the sciences and philosophy offer propositions that are challenged through a set of criteria and conditions. A Distance Between Two Points, explores crossovers within art, the sciences and philosophy where the artists use materials, images and objects to create positions of experience that explore our understanding of physicality, value and perception. It is within the gaps, between the known and the unknown, where our curiosity can be sparked and open up new dialogues. AirSpace Gallery is delighted to be showing Jo Coupe and Linda Persson together for the first time.

Linda Perssonʼs work takes the form of sculptural installations (using moving image, performance, and sound) to confront and entice the audience into emotional queries on representation, value and the event. How the works are situated, and how the body navigates them, create tension that becomes as important as the space the works occupy. Three newly commissioned pieces are shown here under the collective title of Disappearance of the world, resemblance of the object. In the first of the pieces, Cradle Game (sculptural video installation), conversations about the origins of our development of knowledge, through our understanding of material, and contemplations on our societal use of this knowledge take place. Golden hands appear to play a disembodied game of paper scissors stone, out of sequence and disconnected, systems of value are negotiated through a performative act. In Dark Fossil, (film installation), on one screen we see a fossil fragment being traced back and forth in a dark void, the object continually transitioning between the visible and invisible as it moves. On the other screen a disembodied hand follows the contour on the ruins of the birthplace of Remus and Romolus, in Rome, forming a questioning dialogue of ritual, myth and history. Perssonʼs work can be considered playful and destabilising, where contrasts and contradictions in the actions of parts of the body or phenomena create interesting questions regarding perception and our value systems.

Jo Coupe uses readymade objects and invisible forces to create witty sculptural tensions between the gallery space, the viewer and the object. In Solid Air a series of stepladders appear entrapped in the space by a web of strings, however on closer inspection the strings appear to be floating in mid air. The impression of entrapment and stability immediately becomes more tenuous and the entire structure less stable. Another new piece, Tacky, throws an alchemic proposition at the viewer, as we come across a golden strip of Blu-tack, half unrolled and encrusted with jewels. Crystalline Energy was a temporary sculptural piece in a specially constructed gallery space in the basement of Lynemouth aluminium smelter in Northumberland. The whole space bristled with magnetised keys, coins, jewellery, nails, paperclips...the kind of thing you find in the bottom of your drawers. These stuck together in lines, forming impossible strands, which traced the contours of the magnetic fields. A series of pinhole photographs are here on display; the medium was chosen partly as the magnetic fields prohibited the use of more sophisticated equipment. Here, Coupeʼs interest centred around the powerful electromagnetic fields which are a unique by-product of aluminium production and its ability to produce phenomena (levitating coins, keys sticking rigidly from walls and cameras producing black or distorted images), the kind of things which are, in a different context, seen as evidence of supernatural activity.

Persson and Coupe both work with base material compounds that offer tensions of meaning, stability and value. How we may harness and understand these qualities is at the very core of our cultures and societies. The sciences are often seen as a world of facts and figures, concluding in explanations for phenomena that would ordinarily appear baffling. The artists in this exhibition are interested in how art and the sciences can question through proposition. Not everything we encounter needs to be explained, in cold facts. The form and structure of the works in the exhibition allows us to suspend our rational mind and begin searching for alternative explanations and their consequences. Progress occurs in both success and failure.

Linda Persson was born in Stockholm and graduated from Chelsea College of Art & Design in 2002 and Winchester School of Art in 2005, and have since been living and working in the U.K / Sweden. Persson is the founder of an artist run project XRAY and Xray online which occupy knowledge as a tool to engage and emphasise experimentation in contemporary video / film / performance/ sound and writing. She has forthcoming exhibitions at Liste, Berlin (Normalcy Bias 2), Drawing Room, London and SAGS at Woodmill projects, London. Persson has previously exhibited at Bondi Pavilion Gallery, Sydney, Australia, Studio44, Stockholm, Sweden, Art Container, Tallin, Estonia, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, U.K, Utsikten Kunstsenter, Kvinesdal, Norway. Perssonʼs work is held in private collections internationally.

Jo Coupe was born in Stoke-on-Trent in 1975 and graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Newcastle University in 1998. After 12 years as a practicing artist, studying for an MA at Goldsmiths College, living for a time in New Orleans and London, she now works out of a converted post office in Gateshead, consulting experts in fields as diverse as jewellery, botany, and electronics. Recent projects have included a residency with global aluminium producer Alcan, a commission for Tatton Park Biennial and a solo show at Workplace Gallery, Gateshead. Jo Coupe is represented by Workplace Gallery, Gateshead and her work is held in public and private collections internationally.

Image:

Jo Coupe
Solid Air, 2011
Stepladders, String, Magnetic Field
height 12.5 cm
height 4 7/8 in
(JCP0083)

Courtesy the artist and Workplace Gallery

Darren Banks: "Drawing 2011 Biennial Fundraiser " Drawing Room, London, UK

2011-04-07T14:21:00.001+01:00

Drawing 2011 Biennial Fundraiser
Darren Banks

Silent Auction
18 May 18:30 pm
Exhibition
7 April - 18 May 2011
Tues - Sun 12:00 - 18:00

Drawing Room was initiated by curators Mary Doyle, Kate Macfarlane and Katharine Stout to provide the major European resource for contemporary drawing. It has delivered an ambitious international programme of solo and group exhibitions that have included established, emerging and historical artists. Many of these exhibitions have toured to galleries and museums throughout the UK and beyond. Their scope, interpretation and dissemination have been broadened through partnerships with individuals and institutions that have generated publications, a programme of in-conversations and symposia and learning projects.

Those who have contributed to the Biennial Fundraiser include established artists - Jake and Dinos Chapman, Michael Craig Martin, Tracey Emin, Douglas Gordon, Liam Gillick, Antony Gormley, Mona Hatoum, Damien Hirst, Michael Landy, Paula Rego, Gavin Turk, Cerith Wyn Evans - alongside many other key artists at different stages in their careers.

Drawing Room
Tannery Arts
Brunswick Wharf
55 Laburnum Street
London E2 8BD
Tel 020 7729 5333
Fax 020 7729 8008
www.drawingroom.org.uk
mail@drawingroom.org.uk

Cath Campbell & Miles Thurlow: "NATURAL LANGUAGE[nach-er-uhl lang-gwij]" Vitrine Gallery, London

2011-04-01T10:59:00.001+01:00

Natural language (nach-er-uhl lang-gwij)

Friday 1 - Tuesday 26 April 2011. Daily 24-hour. FREE.

Artists: Nicole Bachman; Cath Campbell and Miles Thurlow; Johanna Hallsten; Chris Grieves and Richard Battersby; Adrian Lee; Cary Leibowitz; Ant Macari; Linda Persson; Chris Shaw.

'Natural language(nach-er-uhl lang-gwij)' picks at the intrinsic tendencies of language through an exhibition of works that incorporate text, verbal, and visual mediums. Emerging from the idea of language as a malleable system of complex registers - particularly correlations between written, aural and visual forms, works have been brought together in order to speculate the subtle 'vice-versa' current between these common affinities.

Featuring audio, 3D, 2D, 4D, performance and published material, works collectively explore the abstract and often irradicable nature of the ways that language immerse into and transpire from narrative structure- in its widest sense. Artists have been invited to participate in the exhibition for their own investigations into language cross-hybridisations.

The process by which artists engage with language based material will also be explored, whether as a structural strategy; as an instructive aspect or as a means to develop forms of deviance arising from socio/political discourse. Works presented in this exhibition have a link with fiction, autobiographies, political discourse/activity, critical theory, philosophy, psychoanalysis and music. In tandem with with the work in the gallery, guest speakers have been invited to talk formally around ensuing themes from the exhibition. We will also host a screening of artists moving image.
Curated by Natasha Rees.
.................................
Opening event and preview: with a screening (in the cinema, at 7pm) of the last in a series of seasonal video works by Chris Grieves & Richard Battersby, independently published materials by artists and curators including El Von Brown of X marks the Bokship; VERSUCH from Gil Leung and me and my friends - a continuing project by Nicole Bachman; performances by Enda Deburka, Fred Gehrig, and Benedict Seymour; Natasha Rees & Josephine Wood will play a dubplate recording and Dean Kenning compiles a thematically tailored DJ set.
.................................
Talk, screenings and performance: Date April 9 2011 4pm - 6pm FREE. A discussion around the transpiring themes from the exhibition and language structures within contemporary creative practice. Various moving image works; and an audio work by Johanna Hallsten. Event introduced by Natasha Rees with guest speakers. Full details to follow. RSVP Michael@vitrinegallery.co.uk.

Workplace Gallery at The Armory Show 2011, New York

2011-03-29T17:28:00.001+01:00

Workplace Gallery at The Armory Show 2011 presents:

Eric Bainbridge
Catherine Bertola
Marcus Coates
Jo Coupe
Laura Lancaster
Mike Pratt
Matt Stokes
Wolfgang Weileder

PIER 94
MARCH 3-6, 2011
BOOTH 545
www.thearmoryshow.com

For a full list of available works please contact info@workplacegallery.co.uk

image:
Matt Stokes
Prelude to Cantata Profana: Paroxysm's rehearsal room, Kassel, 2010
Lightjet print, Diasec Mounted
171.4 x 120 cm
67 1/2 x 47 1/4 in
(MS0052)

Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Kindly supported by

Laura Lancaster: "Visual Artist of the Year" The Journal Culture Awards 2010

2011-03-29T16:58:00.001+01:00

Workplace Gallery is delighted to congratulate Laura Lancaster on winning the Visual Artist of the Year at The Journal Culture Awards 2010.

Workplace Gallery represented artists again dominated the shortlist with Jennifer Douglas also a finalist.

image:
Laura Lancaster
Untitled, 2010
Oil on board
51.5 x 61 cm, 20 1/4 x 24 1/8 in
(LL0385)
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Matt Stokes: "The Distant Sound" De Hallen Haarlem, Netherlands

2011-03-25T16:54:00.001Z

MATT STOKES - The Distant Sound

26.03.2011 - 13.06.2011

http://www.dehallenhaarlem.nl

De Hallen Haarlem presents the first solo exhibition by Matt Stokes in a Dutch museum. This British artist is chiefly known for his video work in which he investigates underground currents in contemporary music. The museum is showing new and recent work by Stokes, in which he focuses on the subcultures of grindcore and Northern Soul. The exhibition can be seen from 26 March through 13 June, 2011.

The English artist Matt Stokes (b. Penzance, 1973) does work in which performance, music and social engagement flow together. Stokes generally produces video work that zooms in on the social and visual codes of specific subcultures, and which is preceded by a period of intensive research and active cooperation with local communities. For instance, in the past he has made work on the folk tradition in Camden, hardcore punk in Austin, Texas, and the Northern Soul movement in Dundee. Rather than the documentary form which is usually employed with subjects of this sort, Stokes opts for a more subjective approach in which he is guided by the reconciling and liberating aspects of the shared musical experience.

In a co-production with the Kunsthalle Fridericianum in Kassel Stokes realised the video installation Cantata Profana especially for De Hallen Haarlem, in which grindcore, an extreme punk/metal variant, is central. In Cantata Profana (2010) a piece of classical music is performed by six grindcore vocalists, all familiar figures in this radical current in music. The monumental six-channel video installation which is to be seen here combines the raw vocals of grindcore with the stately, ‘respectable’ structure of the classical composition. In the confrontation between traditional aspects of Western musical history and eccentric contemporary genres Stokes exposes their shared roots, and these fundamentally contrasting elements are merged into an exciting new hybrid form.

For the composition of Cantata Profana Matt Stokes worked together with the British classical composer Orlando Gough, who wrote a modern interpretation of a classical cantata. Stokes then invited six singers from England, Germany, America, Norway and The Netherlands to simultaneously record the six voices of the cantata in a music studio in Berlin, while he filmed the singers separately with six cameras. This is illustrative of the way in which Stokes works: for all his studies into subcultures he seeks the cooperation of people who are active in them, and with regard to the final result there is what could be called ‘shared auteurship’. Thus his work is always a collective production in which the shared experience, both social and artistic, plays a crucial role.

For the rousing dance film Long After Tonight (2005) Stokes brings a Northern Soul evening in a church in Dundee back to life, as devotees of the genre demonstrate the characteristic athletic manner of dancing. The visually compelling and rhythmically edited Long After Tonight is an ode to the ecstasy of the dancing, and an homage to the North of England working class soul music of the 1970s.

The title of the exhibition, The Distant Sound, refers both to the physical sensation that arises when approaching a live concert, and to the remembrance of something that is past – two notions that are invariably present in Stokes's work.

image:
Matt Stokes
Cantata Profana, 2010
Six-channel HD video and audio transferred to synced hard-drives
Duration: 06:48 minutes
(MS0048)
Photograph: Nils Klinger
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK
Installation View: 'No Place Else Better Than Here' - Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany

Marcus Coates: "Self-portrait as Worcestershire" Movement, Worcester, UK

2011-03-17T13:14:00.001Z

10.03.11 - 16.04.11

MOVEMENT
Platform 2
Worcester Foregate Street Railway Station
WR1 1DT
T. 07590 075185
info@movementtimetable.com

Self-portrait as Worcestershire

MOVEMENT proudly presents Self-portrait as Worcestershire, a series of videos and photographs that document a number of early performances by English artist Marcus Coates. Many of these were made while staying in the Malvern Hills, 10 miles from MOVEMENT, and furtherafield at Grizedale Arts between 1997 and 2000. The series includes the photographs Self portrait as Worcestershire and Natural (1998) Red Fox and Goshawk (1999) and the short film Stoat (2000).

Marcus Coates is best known for performances in which he attempts to mediate between the human and animal. The work shown at MOVEMENT are early examinations of this process exploring humaness in a rural environment more densely inhabited by wild creatures than by people. Field and forest become the studio and the behaviours and appearance of indigenous animals and the landscape that they inhabit are embodied in a physical and immediate way; Coates is buried in the topsoil, becoming the landscape, he crouches on all fours dressed head to toe in red to become a fox in a Worcestershire field. Perched precariously high in a distant tree, he becomes a rare bird, the Goshawk and learning, albeit clumsily, how to move stoat-like he wears a special pair of homemade shoes, to replicate the bounding stoat. These attempts although futile become an unconscious exploration of our definition. In Natural, Coates adorns himself with a ragged wig, a false beard and a smearing of mud. The idea of what is natural becomes a superficial and romantic notion which requires a cultural and perhaps biological distance and separation from our modern selves.

Other recent exhibitions by Marcus Coates include: The Trip, Serpentine Gallery, London, 2011; The Sydney Biennial, 2010; Psychopomp, Milton Keynes Gallery, 2010; Altermodern: Tate Triennial, London, 2009; Kunsthale Zurich, 2009; Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo; Manifesta 7, Trento, Italy, 2008

Image:

Marcus Coates
Red Fox (Self Portrait), 1999
Archival Inkjet Print
90 x 90 cm
(MC0002)

courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

Marcus Coates: "The Trip" The Serpentine Gallery, London

2011-03-17T13:12:00.001Z

03.03.11 - 02.05.11

The Serpentine Gallery

Kensington Gardens

London W2 3XA

T 020 7402 6075

information@serpentinegallery.org

The Trip

The Serpentine Gallery, in collaboration with St. John's Hospice, London, launches a major new project by UK-based artist Marcus Coates. The film is produced as part of the Serpentine's ongoing Skills Exchange project and is the result of a long-term residency by Coates at the hospice.

Coates began the project by asking hospice outpatients to suggest ways that vicarious action could enrich their experiences and offered to enact unfulfilled dreams on their behalf. Suggestions ranged from the creation of an exhibition of photography, to a parachute free-fall, to a trip to the Amazon. The last of these requests, made by the late Alex H., was realised by the artist in 2010.

Coates was given precise instructions for the trip. He was asked to travel to an isolated village in the Amazon jungle and to ask the indigenous people a set of prearranged questions. The project was an exchange, Coates offered a way of expanding Alex H's imaginative world beyond the hospice and in return Alex H. offered Coates a challenge to see the world for someone else.

The Trip presents audio recordings of the conversations between outpatient and artist firstly as they plan the journey and then as they share the memories following Coates' return.

While Coates' work is well known for questioning the role of the artist in relation to a range of social issues or problems – often in conjunction with official governmental organisations – in The Trip he develops this central concern through exchanges between individuals, bringing a level of sensitivity and intimacy to the resulting presentation.

Presented in collaboration with St. John's Hospice.

Image:
Marcus Coates
The Trip
2010
Documentary photograph
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK
MC0134

Cath Campbell, Peter J. Evans, Laura Lancaster and Rachel Lancaster: "Graphite" Gallery North, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

2011-03-17T13:08:00.001Z

28.01.11 - 23.02.11

Gallery North
Squires Building
Sandyford Road
Northumbria University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 8ST
Tel. 0191 227 3105
gallerynorth@northumbria.ac.uk

Graphite

Graphite was named by German geologist Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1789, an allotrope of carbon the name is derived from the Greek, graphein meaning: to Draw or Write. The precise, and formal, relationship between the material's name and it purpose, or action, will be explored through the work in this exhibition.

Graphite will consist of emerging and more established artists, many with alumni links with Northumbria University, The exhibition explores work that engages drawing (in graphite) as a formal instrument for conveying aesthetic, conceptual, or philosophical ideas. The exhibiting artists are: Alice and Joe Woodhouse, Michael Mulvihill, Jane Millican, (Vane Gallery), Louise Hopkins (Doggerfisher Gallery), Richard Forster (Ingleby Gallery), Cath Campbell, Peter J Evans, Laura Lancaster, Rachel Lancaster (Workplace Gallery). The approaches of these artists evoke the practice of Vija Celmins.

An Artists' talk and the launch of the publication 'GRAPHITE' will take place on Thursday 17 February at 5pm followed by refreshments.

Image:

Rachel Lancaster
Water
2009
Charcoal on Paper
35.5 x 29.5 cm

courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

"Laura Lancaster", DLI Art Museum and Gallery, Durham, UK

2011-03-17T13:06:00.002Z

22.01.11 - 13.03.11

DLI Museum and Durham Art Gallery
Aykley Heads
Durham
DH1 5TU
T. 0191 384 2214

Laura Lancaster

Laura Lancaster's works use photographs, slides and cine films of strangers - found in flea markets, junk shops etc. as their source, translating them into drawings, paintings and installations.
The translation of these lost images becomes at once a devotional act on the artist's part; an attempt at rescuing these images from obscurity. The appropriation of found imagery allows for a focus on the painting process itself and the exploration of the slippage between artistic intention and result, which is mirrored in the source material's own failure to carry out the task it was made for.
These are now the lost moments and memories of strangers which raise more questions than they answer, the moment in time they were made to fix is gone.

Image:

Laura Lancaster
Untitled
2009
Graphite on Paper
76 x 57 cm
(LL0257)

courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

Workplace Gallery at Moving Image Art Fair, New York

2011-02-25T20:19:00.001Z

Workplace Gallery at Moving Image Art Fair 2011, NY present:

Sophie Lisa Beresford & Cecilia Stenbom

Moving Image
March 3-6, 2011
Waterfront New York Tunnel
261 11th Avenue (between 27th and 28th Streets)
New York, NY 10001

Thursday - Saturday, March 3-5, 2011: 11 am - 8 pm
Sunday, March 6, 2011: 11 am - 3 pm

www.moving-image.info

Moving Image, a new art fair of contemporary video, will take place March 3-6, 2011, during the Armory Show in New York and within walking distance of Independent. Located in the Waterfront Tunnel event space between 27th and 28th Streets with an entrance at 261 11th Avenue in Chelsea, Moving Image will be free to the public.

works on display at Moving Image (images above):

Sophie Lisa Beresford
The First and Second Creation, 2009
Single channel video
19min 14 sec
(SLB0020)

Cecilia Stenbom
Alive - An Essential Guide to Survival, 2010
Single Channel Video
Duration 14:22 minutes
(CS0061)

Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Workplace Gallery at The Armory Show 2011, New York

2011-02-25T20:08:00.001Z

Richard Rigg: "Broken Fall (organic)" Galleria Enrico Astuni, Bologna, Italy

2011-02-24T13:21:00.001Z

19.02.11

29.05.11

Galleria Enrico Astuni, Bologna
Via Iacopo Barozzi, 3
40126 Bologna
Italien
fon 39 051 4211132
info@galleriaastuni.it

Broken Fall (Organic)

The fear of falling is as old as mankind. Falling is the symmetrical opposite of flying and and has been pictured according to different conceptions of weight—of the body which falls to the ground. Falling is also linked to walking badly, staggering, jumping, getting lost, and also to failing.In modern and contemporary art, falling has become an intentional action. An action that involves the artist’s body and often the fate of the image of the work of art.

Acrobats, tumblers, clowns, Charlie Chaplin’s or Buster Keaton’s gags, people clinging onto cornices or windowsills in Alfred Hitchcock’s films, Philip Petit the tightrope walker suspended between the Twin Towers in New York, through to the trajectories tried out by Bruce Nauman or Bas Jan Ader: these are all examples of figures of artistic experience linked to the action of falling. At the same time, falling also has to do with the practice of painting and the processes that were introduced in the twentieth century. Starting with Jackson Pollock’s drippings, it moved through to works made by splashing colour on surfaces placed on the ground rather than being fixed to a wall.

Artists: William Anastasi, Paolo Chiasera, Simon Faithfull, Mathilde ter Heijne, Hannu Karjalainen, Christoph Keller, Cristiano Mangione, Andrea Melloni, Paolo Parisi, Luca Pozzi, Richard Rigg, Jens Risch, Arcangelo Sassolino, Roman Signer, Annika Ström, Bill Urmenyi, Luca Vitone, Robin Watkins/Torben Tilly Giovanni Iovane and Alessandra Pace’s Broken Fall (Organic) reflects on this condition of falling in works of art. A fall that, ever since the early twentieth century, has proved to be a distressing and yet brilliant strategy for failure. The exhibition will take place at Astuni Public Projects in Bologna, Italy (19 February-29 May 2011), and follows Broken Fall (Geometric)—also at Astuni Public Projects in Bologna (April-September 2010)—and the book Broken Fall Rise and Fall of Pictures, recently published by Silvana Editoriale, Milan (160 pages, Italian & English).

Image:

Richard Rigg
Cloth Arranged to Look Like a Jacket (Self Portrait), 2010
Cloth
10 x 60 x 44 cm
4 x 23 5/8 x 17 3/8 in
(RR0034)

Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Matt Stokes: "Sacred Selections" Performance, Martinskirche, Kassel, Germany

2011-02-11T15:01:00.001Z

Matt Stokes
Sacred Selections
Happy Hardcore organ recital

Friday, 11 February 2011
9 p.m. at St. Martin's Church in Kassel

Within the framework of his major solo exhibition No Place Else Better Than Here at Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel Matt Stokes will initiate a concert linking two different musical genres. On a classical church organ, London-based organist Paul Ayres will perform a series of Happy Hardcore pieces. Happy Hardcore is a genre of music typified by a very fast tempo (usually around 160-180 BPM), often coupled with solo vocals and sentimental lyrics. Its characteristically 4/4 beat "happy" sound distinguishes it from most other forms of Hardcore dance music and is stark contrast to classical organ music.

No Place Else Better Than Here runs until 20th February 2011
http://www.fridericianum-kassel.de/

Image:
Matt Stokes
Sacred Selections, 2005 (ongoing)
Artifacts from a series of live pipe organ recitals: oak bench, velvet lined oak box,
3 stitched fabric flags with flagpoles in velvet pouches, flagpole holders, posters,
handbills and audio CD (posters and handbills will be added to following future events.
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

Matt Stokes: 'Echoes' Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris, France

2011-02-04T16:39:00.001Z

Image: Sacred Selections (Banner), 2005 stitched fabric banner, 90 x 210 cms, 35.46 x 82.74 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK.

The first programme of 2011 is devoted to music and in particular the relationship between visual arts and music. This multidisciplinary project, bringing together artists from Switzerland, France and other countries, will extend throughout the Centre Culturel Suisse from 28th January to 10th April 2011, with two exhibitions and a series of special evenings.

Visual artists have taken an interest in music in a variety of ways, and regularly on a reciprocal basis. From the correspondence between Arnold Schönberg and Wassily Kandinsky to Dan Graham's film Rock My Religion (1984) and from Piet Mondrian's interest in jazz and boogie-woogie to the elective affinities between Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Richard Serra, Sol Lewitt, Bruce Nauman or Michael Snow, and including the many album covers designed by artists or dominant figures active in both disciplines such as Laurie Anderson or Christian Marclay, the field of convergence between the two art forms is rich and fertile.

Parallel to the two exhibitions, the CCS has also wanted to involve exhibiting artists like Saâdane Afif or Hugues Reip in the conception of different special evenings, thus sparking off new and original artistic collaborations. This is also the opportunity to highlight a network of artists with a passion for music working in and around Lausanne, in particular Francis Baudevin, the art centre Circuit, the musician Christian Pahud and the photographer Catherine Ceresole.

EXHIBITION

Echoes

28th January - 10th April 2011

Opening Friday 28th January / 5:00 - 9:00 pm / throughout the evening: screening of Long After Tonight by Matt Stokes (2006, 6'40) in the auditorium

Exhibition visits with the curators: Wednesday 2nd February, Thursday 3rd March and Tuesday 5th April at 7:00 pm

With: Abetz & Drescher (DE) / Saâdane Afif (FR) / John Armleder (CH) / Dominique Blais (FR) / Francis Baudevin (CH) / Thomas Bayrle (DE) / Alighiero Boetti (IT) / Valentin Carron (CH) / Philippe Decrauzat (CH) / Jeremy Deller (GB) / Dewar & Gicquel (FR) / Andreas Dobler (CH) / Isa Genzken (DE) / Philippe Gronon (FR) / Vincent Kohler (CH) / Rainier Lericolais (FR) / Constantin Luser (AU) / Jorge Macchi (AR) / Arnaud Maguet (FR) / Christian Marclay (CH/US) / Dawn Mellor (GB) / Dave Muller (US) / Christian Pahud (CH) / Sandrine Pelletier (CH) / Frédéric Post (CH) / Anne-Julie Raccoursier (CH) / Hugues Reip (FR) / Robin Rhode (ZA) / Dario Robleto (US) / Allen Ruppersberg (US) / Michael Sailstorfer (D) / Jim Shaw (US) / Hannes Schmid (CH) / Matt Stokes (GB) / Su-Mei Tse (LU) / Pierre Vadi (CH) / Jean-Luc Verna (FR)

The main exhibition brings together soundless works referring to the music of 37 contemporary artists. What is the music "treated" by visual artists, when sound is absent from the work? Multiple angles of approach are up for discussion. Some of the artists like Alighiero Boetti, Valentin Carron and Constantin Luser have chosen to represent or revisit the "musical instrument" as an object, others, including Saâdane Afif, Philippe Gronon, Dominique Blais and Isa Genzken, have considered the sound equipment used for amplified music - amp, speakers, radio etc. - like an image, sculpture or micro architecture.

Contemporary icons like Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, Ian Curtis or Morrissey are the source of inspiration for artists like Dawn Mellor or the duo Abetz & Drescher, while Anne-Julie Raccoursier and Hannes Schmid have concentrated on the imagery conveyed by music such as the body language and the look of musicians and their fans. Finally, identification marks, symbols, logos and specific typefaces can be seen in different formats from Matt Stokes, Jeremy Deller and Philippe Decrauzat.

Eric Bainbridge: 'Modern British Sculpture' Royal Academy of Art, London, UK

2011-01-18T08:00:00.001Z

Eric Bainbridge 'The Mind Of The Artist At The Beginning Of Time', 1996, Mixed Media, 89 x 142 x 57 cm. Courtesy the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

Royal Academy of Arts

Modern British Sculpture

Main Galleries

22 January – 7 April 2011

Royal Academy of Arts

Burlington House, Piccadilly

London W1J OBD

www.royalacademy.org.uk

Exhibition Preservation Partner: American Express Foundation
Supported by The Henry Moore Foundation

In 2011, the Royal Academy of Arts will be presenting the first exhibition for 30 years to examine British sculpture of the twentieth century. The show will represent a unique view of the development of British sculpture, exploring what we mean by the terms British and sculpture by bringing the two together in a chronological series of strongly themed galleries, each making its own visual argument.

The exhibition will take a fresh approach, replacing the traditional survey with a provocative set of juxtapositions that will challenge the viewer to make new connections and break the mould of old conceptions.

Key British works include: Alfred Gilbert Queen Victoria, Phillip King Genghis Khan, Jacob Epstein Adam, Barbara Hepworth Single Form, Leon Underwood Totem to the Artist, Henry Moore Festival Figure, Anthony Caro Early One Morning, Richard Long Chalk Line, Julian Opie W and Damien Hirst Let's Eat Outdoors Today.

Through these and other works, the exhibition will examine British sculpture's dialogue within a broader international context, highlighting the ways in which Britain's links with its Empire, continental Europe and the United States have helped shape an art that at its best is truly international in scope and significance. The selection of works is not limited to the British Isles, but looks outward at Britain in the world including sculpture from Native American, Indian, and African traditions. These will be represented by a series of significant loans from the British Museum and the V&A, which will be shown alongside modern British sculptures from the period 1910-1930 to highlight the inquisitiveness of British artists when the Empire was at its peak and London was, almost literally, the centre of the world.

The selection will also explore the choices constantly faced by the sculptor: the choice between figuration and abstraction; a choice that highlights the inherent tension in sculpture between its commemorative and political functions. Key juxtapositions exemplify these choices, including the striking comparison between Phillip King's Genghis Khan and Alfred Gilbert's Queen Victoria and Edwin Lutyens' Cenotaph and Jacob Epstein's Cycle of Life that opens the exhibition. Another juxtaposition encapsulates the choice between abstraction and figuration as represented by the work of Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore, and tells of the emergence of British sculpture as a brand on the international stage in the post-war era.

The exhibition will show how, for over 100 years, London and its museums have had a powerful appeal for sculptors, and how the Royal Academy itself has played a significant and controversial role in shaping modern British sculpture.

ORGANISATION
Modern British Sculpture has been organised by the Royal Academy of Arts. The exhibition has been curated by Dr Penelope Curtis, Director of the Tate Britain, and sculptor Keith Wilson, in conjunction with Dr Adrian Locke, Exhibitions Curator, Royal Academy of Arts.

DATES
Press View: Tuesday 18 January, 10am – 2pm
Open to public: Saturday 22 January – Thursday 7 April
10am – 6pm daily (last admission 5.30pm)
Late night opening: Fridays until 10pm (last admission 9.30pm)

TICKETS
Tickets are available daily at the RA. Advance bookings: Telephone 0844 209 0051 or visit www.royalacademy.org.uk. Group bookings: Groups of 10+ are asked to book in advance. Telephone 020 7300 5995, fax 020 7300 5781 or email groupbookings@royalacademy.org.uk

For public information, please print 020 7300 8000 or www.royalacademy.org.uk
Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J OBD

*Image above:
Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Boyle Family / DACS 2010.

Cath Campbell: 'Enter Slowly,' The Lab, San Francisco, USA

2011-01-17T21:33:00.001Z

Image: '50 Ways To Leave Your Lover (No.48)', Cath Campbell, 2009, Cut modular exhibition panels, 500 x 350 x 300 cm, Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

ENTER SLOWLY,

Anna Barham, Cath Campbell, Maud Cotter,

Laura Gannon, Alexandra Navratil, Linda Quinlan

Curated by David Cunningham

The Lab, San Francisco, USA

January 14th - February 19, 2011
Gallery Hours: Thursday - Saturday, 1-6pm

Join us on Saturday January 15th at The Lab for artist talks by Maud Cotter and Laura Gannon.

ENTER SLOWLY, is an international group exhibition featuring the work of six emerging artists from Europe whose individual practices (while collectively diverse), frequently overlap, intersecting in areas of common interest. Sharing a preoccupation with the ways in which architecture, language and memory function as framing devices and filters deployed in the manipulation of perception and the construction of 'meaning', their work simultaneously critiques, reveals (makes visible), undermines and reverses the systems, structures and technics involved in these fabrications, reflecting them back on themselves.

Working across categories, sometimes collaborating with architects, dancers, engineers, mathematicians, musicians and experts in other fields of specialization, these artists approach their work as a form of research or field of inquiry that tests the limits of what is known, what is possible and what can be described. Often employing found or self-devised rule-based systematic structures or 'games', working with and against a set of limits to paradoxically establish fields of potential and freedom where meaning as commonly understood is not pinned or fixed but mutable, the artists in this exhibition open up multiple points of entry to the work, exhibiting a heightened concern with, and sensitivity to, the speed at which a work can be entered.

A concern with interiority and the temporal, marked by some form of inversion (literally turning 'inside out') is a further characteristic of many of the works. Limning the boundary between thought and utterance, evoking linguistic and philosophical concepts such as 'speech acts' and 'language games' the ghosts of early modernism's mavericks and problem children (Samuel Beckett, Eileen Gray, Frederick Kiesler, James Joyce, Adolf Loos, Ludwig Wittgenstein and others) quietly haunt the works in this exhibition, which in its turn gently invokes and re-extends an earlier invitation stenciled on the interior wall of a certain - 'house beside the sea' – the last built thing Le Corbusier would have seen as he drowned.

"… formulas are nothing; life is everything" – Eileen Gray

Using the ancient Roman city of Leptis Magna, as both metaphor and material, Anna Barham makes drawings and videos in series, charting anagrams derived from the letters in the city's name. Positing the appropriation, displacement and re-assembly of fragments of the actual ruins in Libya (to construct a 'new' imaginary ruin at Windsor Great Park for King George IV in 1816) as an architectonic analog for language and imagination, Barham presses the individual letters into service as 'building blocks' for fantastical new poetry and prose. The exhibition will include '(Tangram) Posture' a recent large-scale sculptural installation, its anagrammatic alter ego 'Proteus' (video) and an audio installation of Barham's reading of the entire text of her just published 'Return To Leptis Magna', 2010.

Cath Campbell will present only the second full scale realization to date of an installation from her series of fifty proposed architectural interventions titled '50 Ways To Leave Your Lover' - along with an accompanying video and a selection of cutout drawings of real and invented architectural spaces rendered in paper and steel. Palimpsest-like and often inspired by spaces that are inaccessible, the drawings (like the interventions) borrow their titles from sentimental pop songs suggesting that architecture can be used as a metaphor for states of being. Cath Campbell is represented by Workplace Gallery, Gateshead (UK).

Maud Cotter's large-scale modular sculpture 'More Than Anything' situates itself at the interface between architecture and sculpture. Installed differently at each location, Cotter pushes and tests the limits of the piece until it's nature shifts in direct relationship to the place in which it is exhibited, landing somewhere between sculpture and structural system. Starting with a small basic unit it formally clusters and swarms becoming a mechanism or collective force that ingests space. Infinitely reconfigurable the piece has no single identity or fixed reading. Maud Cotter is represented by Rubicon Gallery, Dublin (Ireland).

In her Film 'A House in Cap-Martin' (shot at Eileen Gray's seminal modernist House E.1027) Laura Gannon creates a fictional performance allowing us to 'enter' into the history(s) of this contested site, creating an opening in an already heavily mediated story which over time has assumed the status of a myth. The name of the house derived from a simple game in which the initials of Gray and her then lover were intermingled and represented by their numerical order in the alphabet. Standing as a 'ruin' for almost 30 years the house is currently undergoing a restoration, which is scheduled to be complete in early 2011. A new drawing installation by Gannon will accompany the film.

Alexandra Navratil will debut anew video work, 'Objects Perceive Me', 2010. Drawn from her extensive personal archive of research and source material this piece functions as a memory map, an index of associations and a network of ideas - further developing and extending her ongoing engagement with historical concepts of perception and their correlation with systems of representation in cinema, architecture and politics. Alongside the video she will present several new drawings derived from her research into monolithic architecture and lighting design. Studies in luminosity, opaqueness and transparency, the drawings (and the video) are strongly influenced by Wittgenstein's 'Remarks on Colour'. Alexandra Navratil is represented by Angels Barcelona, (Spain).

Linda Quinlan's video work 'Side Step', 2009 oscillates between two constructed images generated from a single source (a photograph taken by cave explorer Max Kaemper at Mammoth Cave in 1908). Emitting a rhythmic visual pulse, with each beat foregrounding the emergence of something attempting to take form, this motif of stacking and pleating is echoed in an accompanying audio work 'Step On', in which the contraction and expansion of the space between two spoken words enacts a paradoxical collision of assertion and contradiction - testing the reverberation of their meaning. Drawn to situations where things exist in a constant state of formation and a kind of perpetual motion, Quinlan is interested in how words and images rub against and interfere with what is heard and perceived, opening up a third space where alternate readings and perceptions can emerge.

This exhibition has been generously supported by:-
Imagine Ireland, Swissnex, Prohelvetica - Swiss Arts Council

Very special thanks to:-

Michael Goldwater, Michael Damm, Richard T. Walker, Daniel Healy, Jorge Bachmann, Michael Ryan,
Terrance Graven, Honey McMoney, Scott Tsuchitani, Ernesto, Randy Colosky and Miguel Arzabe
for their time and assistance with fabrication and the installation of this exhibition and
Eilish Cullen, Mary Anne Kluth, Bryan Von Reuter and the board and programming committee of The Lab for their generous invitation to curate an exhibition in this very particular space.

For more information/ images please contact
info@davidcunninghamprojects.com | tel:- 415.341.1538 | www.davidcunninghamprojects.com

Mike Pratt - Preview: Friday 14th January, 6-9pm

2011-01-10T10:32:00.001Z

Images: (left) 'UH', 2010, Mike Pratt, Oil, sericol and enamel on canvas, 280 x 220cm, (right) 'Blue Neckless', 2010, Mike Pratt, Oil, sericol and enamel on canvas, 280 x 220cm. Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK.

Mike Pratt

Good Mourning Bell

Preview: Friday 14th January, 6 - 9pm

15th January - 12th February 2010
Tuesday - Saturday, 11am - 5pm
(or by appointment)

Workplace Gallery is pleased to present Good Mourning Bell our first solo exhibition of work by Mike Pratt.

Pratt's work confronts the established conventions of painting, through an immediate and unashamedly direct indulgence in painting as an activity in its own right, combined with an ethically questionable position of borrowing, remaking and 'wrongful' appropriation. Authenticity, style and the cycle of assimilation that exists both within contemporary art and popular culture are central concerns in Pratt's work. Contemporary artists such as Christopher Wool and Paul McCarthy as well as 20th Century artists who reshaped the process of Art such as Basquiat, Polke and Warhol, all become the fodder for Pratt's lexicon. However, rather than paying homage to his forerunners Pratt borrows and steals, walking a fine line between mimicry and imitation. Through this method of sampling and remastering Pratt combines stylistic quotation with deadpan observation and dumb mark making, layering and obliterating his paintings until work is deemed at an end, yet never resolved.

"The works engage with frank and simple imagery, they stand as a remark; there is nothing sentimental or 'worldly', just a curiosity into the processes... Each action obliterates the last until the 'right' gesture has the final say. I have no problem recycling the ideas of others; I see this as my viewpoint - to select and covet from the existing to make the new. I see everything as a physical structure; this in itself demands reasoning, a competence to relate not only to its environment but to itself. The idea that a piece of work becomes self aware and insecure..." (Mike Pratt, 2010)

Pratt's new large-scale works combine painting with large format screen prints taken from close up detail sections of an earlier painting. The extracted details are shifted and repeated creating a blurring of half tones, a digitized and interrupted suggestion of a painterly background. These works are complex and uncertain statements of contradiction and affirmation, they become neurotically charged phrases that 'confess all' whilst at the same time disguising and camouflaging themselves. Pratt's work is a head-on collision with the history of the present. The satire in his work plays like relentless canned laughter to the intuitive handling of the material and the romantic allusions of painting, striking a careful and sophisticated balance that takes you on an invigorating new journey through seemingly familiar territory.

Mike Pratt was born in Seaham, UK in 1987. He completed a BA in Fine Art at Northumbria University in 2009 where he received the Paul Mason sculpture prize. Solo exhibitions and projects include Cumberland Sausage, Extraspazio, Rome; HUBBA HUBBA, Satellite Gallery, Newcastle, UK; Workplace Gallery at The Manchester Contemporary 2009. Group exhibitions include aggetti - progettazioni - proiezioni - prominenze - protuberanze - sporgenze, Extraspazio, Rome; NADA Art Fair, Miami, Workplace Gallery; JAMBON, Moving Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK; Captain of all Pleasures, EMBASSY Gallery, Edinburgh, UK; Psychic Geography, Workplace Gallery, Gateshead, UK; Some people deserve everything they get, The Royal Standard, Liverpool, UK. Mike Pratt lives and works in Newcastle, UK.

Workplace Gallery was founded by artists Paul Moss and Miles Thurlow. Based in Gateshead UK, Workplace Gallery represents a portfolio of emerging and established artists through the gallery programme, curatorial projects and international art fairs. Workplace Gallery opened in 2005 at 34 Ellison Street, Gateshead - part of Trinity Square Shopping Centre particularly noted for its iconic Brutalist car park designed by architect Rodney Gordon for the Owen Luder Partnership, which featured as a key location in Mike Hodges 1971 cult British gangster film Get Carter starring Michael Caine. Since the original gallery was demolished in 2008 Workplace Gallery has relocated to The Old Post Office in Gateshead, a listed 19th Century red brick building built upon the site where the important British artist, engraver, and naturalist Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) lived and died.

The next exhibition at Workplace Gallery will be a solo exhibition of new work by Cath Campbell opening on 18th February 2011. To celebrate the opening of Good Mourning Bell please join us afterwards at Central Bar in Gateshead.

Kindly supported by

Seasons Greetings from all at Workplace Gallery

2010-12-23T09:32:00.001Z

Laura Lancaster
Untitled, 2010
Oil on board
110 x 160 cm, 43 1/4 x 63 in
(LL0391)
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Catherine Bertola: "Beyond Pattern" DLI Art Gallery, Durham, UK

2010-12-03T15:05:00.001Z

Catherine Bertola
Beyond Pattern
DLI Art Gallery, Durham, UK
04 December 2010 - 16 January 2011
http://county.durham.gov.uk
http://www.orieldavies.org/en/exhibition/beyond-pattern

Artists: Catherine Bertola, Michael Brennand-Wood, Nisha Duggal, Leo Fitzmaurice, Doug Jones, Adam King, Steve Messam, Henna Nadeem, Angharad Pearce-Jones, Pamela So, Andrea Stokes.

An exploration into the cultural meanings of 'pattern', through exhibition, commission, publication and debate, with work that utilises 'pattern' as a social, cultural and political commentator. With new commissions by Steve Messam, Catherine Bertola and Angharad Pearce-Jones and work by Michael Brennand-Wood, Nisha Duggal, Leo Fitzmaurice, Doug Jones, Adam King, Pamela So, Henna Nadeem and Andrea Stokes.
Pattern is all around us, whether we are conscious of it or not. It penetrates every aspect of our lives and can be found in the home, workplace, street, garden or in the landscape. Pattern's existence is not confined by our own manufacture as it forms the foundation for many aspects of the natural world. However, it is the manner in which we utilise pattern in our lives that forms the basis of this exhibition.
We often think of pattern simply as an adornment or perhaps even as a form of disguise, but it can also reflect a desire to communicate through a specific visual language. It might be that it represents cohesion and a sense of balance, thereby providing visual stimulation or a space for meditation. It can symbolise status or even be a device to convey ideas, express identity or specific ideologies, as well as presenting political beliefs or maintaining cultural traditions.
Work by eleven artists take us on a journey to explore these ideas and highlights how pattern can be, or has been, used as a social, cultural and political commentator that reaches beyond ornamentation and decoration. Whether these artists reference the domestic or public space, draw on contemporary or historical situations, comment on or observe aspects of society, subvert the familiar and question perception, they present a diverse reflection on the subject of pattern.
Beyond Pattern represents both conceptual and craft focused practices whilst reflecting an array of media; from metalwork to embroidered textiles and temporary public installation to hand cut collages. Individual works have been carefully selected to create intriguing, profound and sometimes surprising departure points for conversation.

Oriel Davies is delighted to commission work by Catherine Bertola and Angharad Pearce-Jones for the exhibition and also to commission the temporary site-based work titled Clad by Steve Messam.

A full colour publication accompanies this project with essays by Laura Mansfield and Lesley Millar. An Oriel Davies Touring exhibition curated by Alex Boyd. This project has been made possible through an Arts Council of Wales Beacon Company Award 2008-10. Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and The Laura Ashley Foundation.

Image:
Catherine Bertola
Installation view of
From the palace at Hillstreet, 2009 and Bluestockings (Fanny Burney), (Hester Chapone), (Elizabeth Carter) and (Elizabeth Vesey), 2009
"Beyond Pattern" Oriel Davies Gallery, Newtown, Wales.
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK.

Laura Lancaster: "Fade Away" Transition Gallery, London, UK

2010-12-03T15:04:00.001Z

Laura Lancaster
Transition Gallery, London, UK
03 - 24 December 2010
http://www.transitiongallery.co.uk

Henny Acloque, Phillip Allen, Tim Bailey, Nathan Barlex, Mike Bartlett, Alice Browne, Lindsey Bull, Nick Carrick, Clem Crosby, Theo Cuff, Kaye Donachie, Sarah Douglas, Sarah Dwyer, Andrew Graves, Paul Housley, Thomas Hylander, Hannah Knox, Laura Lancaster, Robert Lang, Sarah Lederman, Eleanor Moreton, Mali Morris, Alex Gene Morrison, Nadia Mulder, Jill Mulleady, Mahali O'Hare, Scott O'Rourke, Joanna Pawlowska, Joanna Phelps, Benjamin Senior, Shaan Syed, Zack Thorne,Gavin Toye, Helen Turner, Claire Undy, David Webb, Robert Welch, Andy Wicks, Jo Wilmot.

Fade Away is the first in an ongoing series of exhibitions at Transition with different guest curators focusing on the diversity of contemporary painting and exploring the ways in which artists are engaged with it.
Fade Away, which is curated by Alli Sharma, with an accompanying text by Barry Schwabsky, features paintings that oscillate between representation and abstraction. With widely diverse references and subject matter, they all share a strong material presence. Whatever the creative enquiry, they make you think about paint and the act of painting.
Some of the Fade Away artists work directly from the perceptible world; others use the representational as a point of departure into the abstract, or conversely, explore the abstract, which reveals itself as subject.
The dialogue between surface and illusion, representation and abstraction performs a paradoxical balancing act where surfaces are brushed, scored, erased, layered, revealed, dripped and collapsed. Compositions teeter on the verge of illegibility where images emerge and fade away.

Image:
Laura Lancaster
Untitled, 2010
Oil on canvas
30.5 x 25 cm
(LL0270)

Matt Stokes: "No Place Else Better Than Here" Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany

2010-12-02T17:44:00.001Z

No Place Better Than Here
Kunsthalle Fridericianum
Kassel, Germany
04 December 2010 - 20 February 2011

In his works, many of which are filmic or event-based, the British artist Matt Stokes (born in Penzance, England, in 1973) deals with subcultures. In meticulous research, he explores the origins of certain music scenes and groups, investigating the specific local development of, say, the folk movement in Camden and Newcastle, Northern Soul in Dundee, and punk rock in Austin, Texas. Stokes is interested in the way in which music creates a collective feeling, serves as a catalyst for certain groups, and shapes and influences people's lives and identities. He immerses himself in a certain environment, gets involved with the community of a subculture, and in this way manages to convey the characteristics of certain scenes in an artistic manner which is not only documentary, but also personal and expressive. From his long-term research, in which he collects impressions, stories, and materials, he creates films, exhibition projects, musical works and events which develop their own conceptual and aesthetic life.

In terms of context, many of Stokes' works often closely relate to the musical history of the places for which he conceives an exhibition. In 2003, the artist initiated the continuous project Real Arcadia, which looked back at 1980s British rave culture and the 'cave raves' which were celebrated not in clubs but in caves in the open countryside. For the undertaking, Stokes established close contact with the performers of the day, collected film material, related TV reports and a number of objects such as cassettes, records, posters, flyers and T-shirts, on the basis of which he not only archived the history of this culture, but also revived it. The film Long After Tonight (2005) engages with Northern Soul, a British music movement and subculture which emerged in northern England and Scotland at the end of the 1960s and had a decisive impact on people's lifestyles. During an artist's residency in Austin, Texas, Matt Stokes created the work these are the days (2008) for Arthouse, in which he explored the punk, post-punk and DIY movements in Austin. Since the 1970s, these alternative music scenes have represented a kind of anti-attitude to the mainstream in Austin, developing into influential subcultures in the city. The film work The Gainsborough Packet (2008-09) emerged within the framework of a solo exhibition at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead and at the Project Space 176 in London. Reminiscent of the music video format and in the style of costume films, The Gainsborough Packet focuses on the move toward industrialisation in the mid 19^th century and to the decisive importance of music and song in the daily lives of the young urbanised population.

With his Kassel exhibition Matt Stokes devotes himself to the phenomenon of the lasting effect of underground music as a counter-movement to the mainstream and its ability to spawn subcultures which influence people's opinions and lifestyles, issues which run through Stokes' entire oeuvre. Against this background, he will combine the film The Gainsborough Packet with sculptural and object works emerging from the cultural context of rave, and with a large film installation which Stokes is producing specifically for his show in Kassel. Installed in a semicircle which will dominate the main wing of the Fridericianum and recall ancient amphitheatre architecture, this new film work will take a penetrating look at the hardcore, grindcore and death metal music cultures that played a big role in Kassel's underground music scenes in the 1980s and 1990s. For this project, Stokes selected six hardcore singers, one from Kassel and the others from various countries outside Germany. Using a musical composition, Matt Stokes will combine their typical singing, which is usually devoid of words. The auditive aspect, the singers' movements and body postures, as well as the recording locations that form the background of the film will contribute to the special atmosphere of this work.

Image:

Matt Stokes
Real Arcadia (Never Been to Belgium), 2003 (ongoing)
12 x archive inkjet prints on paper
(MS0007)

Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Workplace Gallery at NADA Art Fair Miami 2010

2010-11-30T11:58:00.001Z

Workplace Gallery at NADA Art Fair 2010

Booth 315, Napoleon Room
Deauville Beach Resort
6701 Collins Avenue
Miami Beach

2nd - 5th December
http://www.newartdealers.org/

Eric Bainbridge
Darren Banks
Sophie Lisa Beresford
Catherine Bertola
Marcus Coates
Jo Coupe
Laura Lancaster
Mike Pratt
Richard Rigg
Cecilia Stenbom

For a full list of available works please contact info@workplacegallery.co.uk

image:
Sophie Lisa Beresford
Hindu Goddess, 2007
Giclée Print, mounted on Aluminum
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Sophie Lisa Beresford: Film Screening, The Heuristics Laboratory, Sideshow, Nottingham, UK

2010-11-25T15:39:00.001Z

Film Screening - Pizza Shop Dance

Sideshow, Nottingham
http://www.sideshow2010.org

25 November 2010
8:00PM

In conjunction with exhibition
The Heuristics Laboratory 9th November - 2nd December

The Heuristics Laboratory would like to invite you to our inaugural exhibition, a series of experiments, exhibitions and events commissioned by Sideshow in the Malt Cross gallery, Nottingham.

Three experiments by three Nottingham based artists Georgie Park, Ruth Scott and Pete McPartlan will take place throughout November that use the Malt Cross gallery as a laboratory. We are presenting exhibitions and events that explore different modes of problem solving - persistence, intuition and trial and error. The exhibits will show intuitive interactions, work in progress and document genuine experiments as the artists play with an unfamiliar skill or process.

Exhibitions

Tuesday 9- Saturday 13th Nov : In Telecine Pete McPartlan is using the gallery as an ad hoc laboratory to convert celluloid into pixels. Using home video equipment to seize control of the means of post production.

Tuesday 16- Saturday 20th Nov : Ruth Scott's Line Walk is an exploration of balance and imbalance through learning to walk on a tight wire. A free standing tight wire structure shall be installed in the gallery space, where she shall engage in this practice. The struggle and tension of this process is presented through live performance and recorded footage.

Tuesday 23 - Saturday 27th Nov : In orchestrated rumination on her connection to the home, Georgie Park is incessently wood-turning until the last day of her exhibition, producing as many chair legs and banister poles at an electric lathe as she can. Her exhibition will show the results of her persistence.

Events

Thursday 25th Nov from 8pm: Join us on the for a night of film and performance. With films by Phil Niblock, Melati Suryodarmo and more.

Thursday 2nd Dec from 8pm: The exhibition concludes with an evening showing the outcome of the three exhibitions with films, performances and the launch of our publication Lab Notes.

All events are free.

The Malt Cross, 16 St James Street, Nottingham, NG1 6FG

www.theheuristicslaboratory.org.uk
www.sideshow2010.org

image:

Sophie Lisa Beresford
still from Pizza Shop Dance, 2008
Single Channel Video
4 min 06 sec
(SLB0001)
courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Joe Clark: "New Contemporaries 2010" ICA, London, UK

2010-11-24T20:18:00.001Z

New Contemporaries 2010

ICA, London
http://www.ica.org.uk

26 November 2010 – 23 January 2011

The Institute of Contemporary Arts is proud to announce the return of Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2010 this autumn. Featuring the work of 49 artists across a range of media, the exhibition provides a unique opportunity to engage with new practice and ideas from across the UK.

Featuring: Greta Alfaro, Holly Antrum, Caline Aoun, Johann Arens, Ed Atkins, Nick Bailey, Nathan Barlex, Melis van den Berg, Alice Browne, Amir Chasson, Joe Clark, Matthew Coombes, Patrick Coyle, Keren Dee, Sophie Eagle, Claas Gutsch, Guy Haddon-Grant, Jessica Harris, Rowena Harris, Emma Hart, Darren Harvey-Regan, Raphael Hefti, Ian Homerston, Chris Shaw Hughes, Rowena Hughes, Vasileios Kantas, Krister Klassman, Sam Knowles, Alec Kronacker, Agnieszka Kucharko, Dan Lichtman, Agata Madejska, Russell Maurice, Ella McCartney, Nick Mobbs, Murray O'Grady, Chloe Ostmo, Siôn Parkinson, Peles Empire, Laure Prouvost, Kristian de la Riva, Kiwoun Shin, Theodoros Stamatogiannis, Sue Tarbitten, Edward Thomasson, Naomi Uchida, Mark Walker, Pablo Wendel, Joel Wyllie.

Established in 1949, New Contemporaries is a highly regarded annual initiative that gives art students and recent graduates essential support and recognition at a crucial stage in their development through a high-profile exhibition.

Participants are selected by a panel comprised of influential arts figures, predominantly artists—who have often themselves previously exhibited as part of New Contemporaries—and through a rigorous process that is open, fair and democratic.

The selectors for 2010 are Gabriel Kuri, Mark Leckey and Dawn Mellor.

New Contemporaries was originally presented at the ICA between 1964 and 1989 when a series of highly acclaimed exhibitions aimed to reflect the shape of art to come and offer young artists the chance to exhibit at an organisation associated with radical, bold and experimental art forms.

image:

Joe Clark
Somewhere in West Virginia, 2009
Interactive Installation: Custom Electronics in Console Housing, Micro-Controller (Arduino), Computer, Data-Projector, Projection Screen, Firewire Camera, Wood, Buckets, Hose, Pond Pump, Black Velvet and Angle-Poise Lamp.
1.5 x 1.5m
(JCL0075)
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Darren Banks: "Hello World" Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh, UK

2010-11-23T09:32:00.001Z

Hello World

Darren Banks, Luke Collins, Jonathan Horowitz, Seth Price, Corin Sworn, Stina Wirfelt

Embassy Gallery
Roxy Art House, 2 Roxburgh Pl, Edinburgh, EH8 9SU

Opening: 19.11.10 7-9pm

Exhibition Runs: 20.11.10 - 05.12.10 Thursday - Sunday 12-6pm

Hello World is a project in two parts taking as its starting point the emergence of the Internet over the past 20 years as one of the primary means of the dissemination of information.

Part 1:

The first part is a physical exhibition that will take place at the Embassy featuring the work of 6 artists. The work in the show will approach the way in which the Internet has influenced cultural production, in specific relation to practices of appropriation. The increasing digitalisation and distribution of media has spurred a new generation of artists to approach the image in a similar way to that of the supposed 'pictures generation', taking extant images and recontextualising them, augmenting meaning or offering new ways of seeing.

As part of this project we are distributing a font based on the paintings of John Baldessari. This is currently only in beta format with just capital letters but will appear in a fuller format next week.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD BALDESSARI.TTF

Part 2:

The second part will be an experimental seminar with a new link being shared daily, through the sources listed below for the duration of the exhibition.

21.11.10
Teen Image by Seth Price

20.11.10
The meaning of open is obfuscated an interview between Geert Lovink and Andreas Hirsch

These links will also be shared through the Embassys presence on the following social networks

http://www.facebook.com/embassy.edinburgh

http://www.twitter.com/embassygallery

Notes:

Jonathan Horowitz's inclusion precedes his first ever solo exhibition in a UK public gallery at Dundee Contemporary Arts. Minimalist Works from the Holocaust Museum combines newly commissioned works alongside key works from the last two decades of the artist's practice. 27.11.10 to 20.02.11

http://www.dca.org.uk

Stina Wirfelt will have an exhibition of new works opening at 44 141 Gallery, Glasgow on the 03.12.10 7:30-9:30pm running until 18.12.10

http://www.swg3.tv

Darren Banks appears courtesy the artist and Workplace Gallery, Gateshead

Jonathan Horowitz appears courtesy the artist and Gavin Browns Enterprise New York

image:
Darren Banks
Clusterfuck, 2010 (detail from Fade Away 2010)

Mixed Media Installation incorporating Art, House, Work 2005, Puppet Cinema 2005, Fade Away 2010, Introducing Delia Deetz 2010, Suppertime 2010, David and Medusa 2010, Clusterfuck 2010.

Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK

Darren Banks: "Re-make/Re-model" National Glass Centre, Sunderland, UK

2010-11-21T20:10:00.001Z

Re-make/Re-model

National Glass Centre
Liberty Way
Sunderland
SR6 0GL

14th October 2010 - 27th February 2011
Monday - Sunday, 10am - 5pm

Artists: Darren Banks, Ruth Claxton, Nick Crowe & Ian Rawlinson, Jacob Dahlgren, Steven Emmanuel, Leo Fitzmaurice, Lothar Goetz, Christian Graser, Lucy Harvey, Charlotte Hughes-Martin, Amikam Toren.

Glass is theoretically infinitely recyclable once formed, it takes less energy to recycle than to melt down the original raw materials. Glass can be melted and reused, without compromising its quality, time and time again.

We are more aware today, than at any other time, of our impact on the environment. With Christmas approaching - the most poignant reminder of our disposable culture, fueled by consumerism - this exhibition takes a look at artists work and projects that reuse and transform materials, that reconfigure or alter pre-existing objects. In some cases this touches upon the actual recycling of materials, in others it is the making of new work that is more than the sum of its parts.

Curated by National Glass Centre and Matthew Hearn.

Image:
Darren Banks
Jump the Shark, 2010
mixed media incorporating Fallen Angel and Public Sculpture/Private Radar
Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery.

Cecilia Stenbom - Preview: Friday 19th November 2010

2010-11-16T11:04:00.001Z

Cecilia Stenbom

Homeland Security

20th November - 23rd December 2010
Tuesday - Saturday, 11am - 5pm
(or by appointment)

Preview: Friday 19th November, 6 - 9pm

Workplace Gallery is pleased to present Homeland Security the first UK solo exhibition by Swedish artist Cecilia Stenbom.

Bringing together works from across media including: performance to video, painting, sculpture, installation, and drawing, Homeland Security explores Stenbom's investigation into her conviction that in the consumer driven culture of a 21st century over saturated with information, fear has become a more powerful motivating factor than sex.

Appropriation and re-enactment are central to Stenbom's methodology. Taking her source material from public distribution media such as television, movies, advertising, government information broadcast, 24-hour news, and the internet, Stenbom frequently casts herself as the protagonist of a pastiche that examines our anxieties and desires, reinterpreting scenarios within mass media, retail, and domestic life.

"...I have become specifically interested in what triggers fear in contemporary life and how that fear is used to capture our attention and imagination, making us 'happy customers' and ultimately controlling us."

State of Emergency is a 6 channel video installation based on interviews extracted from Rescue 911, the hugely popular US docu-drama from the 1990's hosted by William Shatner about real life rescue situations and amazing stories of survival. In State of Emergency Stenbom performs 6 characters from the Emergency services; the 911 Dispatcher, the Police officer, the Paramedic, the Fireman, the Doctor and the Nurse, all talking simultaneously of their experience, delivering a constant barrage of almost indecipherable narrative.

You've Had Me Again is an installation of paintings made on the underside of clear acrylic Perspex. The images are a mix of symbols and detail taken from Stenbom's ongoing collection of material associated with real life drama including: 'The Swine Flu Suit' sold to provide the public with protection from the virus, Gas Masks sold for domestic use, a list of resuscitation drugs, and emergency service equipment and patterns. They are presented alongside patterns and objects that are taken from everyday life, this is echoed in Play Dead, a diptych of giant self portrait ink drawings depicting the artist entirely in monochrome save for a pair of marigold gloves and a red and white gingham apron.

Happy Endings Stenbom's series of highly glossed paintings also derive from the overly sentimental concluding scenes of Rescue 911 that brings together everyone involved in the accident to react to it's outcome. A counterpoint to the sensationalism of Stenbom's interpretations of mass media, The Scene is a silent, looped video animation based on emergency vehicle lights. Projected into the darkened domestic interiors of Workplace Gallery's upper floors The Scene recalls the effect of an event outside, spilling in through the window and trailing around the room prompting a more poignant moment of reflection.

Much of Stenbom's new work plays on her own susceptibility to be manipulated by mass media and popular culture and her real anxiety around how best to navigate fact and fiction. The sculptures Bio-Terrorism vs. Natural Defences bring together the container of one of the worlds most popular pro-biotic drinks with the Latin names of bacteria and viruses used in biological warfare. DEFCON is an installation comprised of 2 line drawings covering 2 walls of the gallery. The first image is a fictitious depiction of NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) taken from the 80's film War Games; the second image is a flowchart diagram of Stenbom's own personal list of threats to her daily existence.

Alive - An Essential Guide to Survival is the latest in an ongoing series of video works in which Stenbom performs an unsettling monologue to camera. Past works have included a guide to her collection of gadgets and a sideways look at US fat fighting drugs. In this case she provides us with a contemporary survival guide made up of official and unofficial advice on how to stay alive such as how to avoid being killed by an accident, by an infectious disease, or how to survive a terrorist attack. In Homeland Security Stenbom presents a humorous and self defeating world of narcissism and neurosis where everything from washing up to watching TV is fraught with danger and the potential to discover another way to die.

Cecilia Stenbom was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1976. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki, Finland in 2003 and a Master of Fine Art at Glasgow School of Art in 2005. From 2009 to 2010 she was artist in residence at ISIS Arts in Newcastle. Past exhibitions include: 13th Media Art Biennale, WRO 09 Expanded City, Wroclaw, Poland, Trickle-down Theory, Korjaamo, Helsinki, Finland, The Public Realm Project, Curated by /sLab, Sunderland, TOMORROW THE FUTURE, Fishmarket Gallery, Northampton, All my favourite singers couldn't sing, Workplace Gallery, Connecting Principles, Culture Lab, Newcastle, Breslau CV Rydek, Wroclaw, Poland, King Fisher's Tales, Union Gallery. London, False Witness, Workplace Gallery, Gateshead, Daily Escapes, MUU Gallery Helsinki, Helsinki International, Korjaamo, Helsinki, Formal Dining, Hales Gallery, London, Blue Star Red Wedge, Glasgow International, Glasgow, Glasgow/Beijing, Museum of Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, China, Exit Strategy, Tramway, Glasgow, UK, The Games We Play, Magyar Képzömüvészeti Egyetem, Budapest, Hungary, When Subjectivity Meets Reality, Gallery 3:14, Bergen, Norway, One Day Stands, ID:I Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden, Crowd Pleasers, The San Francisco Art Institute and Academy of Fine Arts, San Francisco U.S.A. and Helsinki, Finland. Cecilia Stenbom lives and works in Gateshead, UK.

Workplace Gallery was founded by artists Paul Moss and Miles Thurlow; based in Gateshead UK, Workplace Gallery represents a portfolio of emerging and established artists through the gallery programme, curatorial projects and international art fairs. Workplace Gallery opened in 2005 at 34 Ellison Street, Gateshead - part of Trinity Square Shopping Centre particularly noted for its iconic Brutalist car park designed by architect Rodney Gordon for the Owen Luder Partnership, which featured as a key location in Mike Hodges 1971 cult British gangster film Get Carter starring Michael Caine. Since the original gallery was demolished in 2008 as part of the planned regeneration of Gateshead Town Centre, Workplace Gallery has relocated to The Old Post Office in Gateshead; a listed 19th Century red brick building built upon the site where the important British artist, engraver and naturalist Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) lived and died.

The next exhibition at Workplace Gallery will be a solo exhibition of new work by Mike Pratt opening on 14th January 2011. To celebrate the opening of Homeland Security please join us afterwards at Central Bar in Gateshead.

Kindly supported by:

Paul Merrick: Hive Gallery, Barnsley, UK

2010-11-13T15:26:00.001Z

Paul Merrick
Hive Gallery, Barnsley, UK.
13 November - 19 December 2010
http://www.hivegallery.co.uk

Paul Merrick's continued interrogation of painting and process has seen
him evolve from working exclusively with oil paint and two-dimensions
to a broader enquiry of what painting is and pushing his practice into
new territories. This solo exhibition at HIVE Gallery presents new works
and includes paintings, sculpture and the made with the ready-made.
Untitled (Big White) and Untitled (Stalactite Red) are examples of this
new investigation into scale, colour and surface. The materials used in
both works have been scavenged or recycled. Untitled (Big White) has
been assembled using discarded paintings, primed boards, off cuts
and seat cushions from the artist's studio. The multiple surfaces have
been composed to create a large-scale relief. The backs of old
paintings now face the viewer. Subtle textures and surfaces of 'off white'
tones that have resulted from their neglect in the studio have now been
placed on the gallery wall. Stains, drips, smudges and dusty fingertip
marks combine to create a new painting. By contrast Untitled (Stalactite
Red) consists of a series of found aluminium shop panels sought from a
scrap yard. Merrick's enquiry here concerns itself with the raw matter of
the support plane. No paint has been applied to its surface, Merrick
choosing instead to respond to the material's found condition to create
the final artwork. Cut and bolted together the staggered arrangement of
panels form a layered surface that is hung high on the gallery wall and
which thus creates a dynamic relationship with the surrounding
architecture.

Untitled (Grey Fold) 2009 and Box #1 (Yellow) 2010 are further
examples of Merrick's new approach to painting and incorporate found
surfaces. The spray paint primer in Grey Fold transforms the painting
away from its rigid stainless steel material to something more delicate,
picking out its subtle folds and surface imperfections. Box #1 confronts
the viewer immediately with its physical presence in the gallery space.
The found object protrudes from the wall asking to be investigated. In
contrast to Grey Fold the yellow high gloss finish of Box #1 seduces the
viewer to question the work more closely.
Alongside the wall-based works Merrick has created a series of
sculptures that resemble familiar domestic objects like chairs, tables
and beds. Merrick here creates sculptures from found functional objects
like IKEA tables or frames and building objects that recreate the
archetypal forms of much loved, familiar objects.

Image:
Paul Merrick
Untitled (Construction White), 2010
chipboard, ply, mdf, sterling board, perspex and cushions
height 220 cm
(PME0093)

Marcus Coates: "Transformation" Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan

2010-11-13T15:24:00.001Z

Transformation
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
29 October 2010 - 30 January 2011

AES F, Matthew Barney, Simon Birch, Francesco Clemente, Marcus Coates, Jan Fabre, Gabríela Friðriksdóttir, Naoki Ishikawa, Bharti Kher, Lee Bul. Motohiko Odani, Junya Oikawa. Jagannath Panda, Patricia Piccinini, Shahzia Sikander, Sputniko!, Jana Sterbak, Sarah Sze, Masakatsu Takagi, Tunga, Apichatpong Weerasethakul

To live is to change. We change daily as our cells regenerate and we learn new things, as times change and we encounter new environments, and as we give play to our imagination.
Under the theme "transformation," this exhibition explores the boundary between humans and non-humans. In all ages and countries, countless images and artworks have been created on the theme of transformation. Japan, in particular, is brimming with rich images on this theme, from the legends of old to the manga and anime characters of today.
So, why "transformation" now? With to the spread of the Internet, the development of the global economy, advances in technology, and so on, the traditional forms "humans" take have started to become blurred, and a diversity greater than anything seen before has begun to emerge.
At this exhibition, a variety of images of things that traverse the human and non-human - including animals, machines, imaginary creatures and bodies with different genetic compositions - will be unveiled through paintings, sculptures, video, archives and symposiums. Together, the "transforming" forms presented express as a single omen our hopes, dreams and fears. The artworks, created by 21 individual artists and groups from 15 countries over a period stretching from the 1980s through to the present, will demonstrate the possibilities and meanings of change today.

What is Tokyo Art Meeting?
Tokyo Art Meeting presents a range of possibilities for new art by facilitating encounters between various genres of expression, mainly in the field of contemporary art but also including design, architecture and other specialist fields. Under the theme "transformation," the first meeting sees art encounter anthropology. Also, in cooperation with Tokyo University of the Arts, a range of displays, performances and symposiums will be held as part of Tokyo Geidai Trans Week with the aim of helping nurture future generations.

Image:
Marcus Coates
still image from
Toge Rice Ritual, 2006
HD Single Channel Video
(MC0017)