First published in Art & Soul Magazine June 2008
Arts Diary June 2008
Summer is nearly here and I hope the sunshine is striring your creative appitites because there is loads going on. Please feel free to contact me with any ideas for future features, contact details below.
This month my brain has been brimming with visual stimulation. I got the chance to go the opening night of Ruth Joyces show in Stamford, great pictures with lots of movement and action, many thanks to Ruth for making us feel so welcome. I also visited London to see “The Adam & Ron Show”, and the Duchamp /Man Ray / Picabia show at the Tate Modern, and also took in a huge piece by Banksy that had gone up about 48 hours before. I came home dizzy with delight and inspiration, well worth the train fare.
Space4 has two other artists exhibiting alongside the installation. Photographer Doug Gray whose ‘Selected Coincidences’ makes use of “accidental multiple exposures where seeking out the hidden objects within the prints becomes an experience in itself”, and painter Andie Scott's “1100 Tokens”, comprising of 1100 portraits in oil on canvas of Burmese monks. 9th May -22nd June
Newly opened at The Great Northern Hotel is Peter Boizots gallery which house's his private collection alongside regularly rotating work by new and local artists. Kat Moores work will be on show here until June 15th.
In London you can check out the retrospective of Cy Twombly at the Tate Modern. A great opportunity to see this mans work in his 80th year. It is his first major retrospective to be held in over twenty years. If it is as well designed as the Duchamp show then expect to be impressed. 19th June-14th September. At ElmLesters gallery is “Delta: The New Dutch Master”. “Delta” aka BORIS TELLEGEN has been an inspirational pioneer in the European graffiti scene since 1983, this work goes to a whole new level however. June 6th - 28th. www.elmslesters.co.uk
Over in Cambridge you can visit Kettles Yard to see the work of Michelle Charles whose subject is everyday domestic life - glasses of milk, medicine bottles, tea towels, pan scrubs and bars of soap. Working in series - in paintings, drawings, photograms or cast glass - she repeats a motif to explore the possibilities of how we might see the same thing in many ways, depending on the fall of light or the attention we give it. Recent series include house flies and the knitting and unraveling of wool. 7th June - 27th July. www.kettlesyard.co.uk
Whilst in Cambridge you might like to visit the Fitzwilliam Museum's “Fifty Etchings 2005” by Christopher Le Brun's. Made over one year and employing an extraordinary variety of subtle etching techniques, the series revisits a wide range of subjects known from Le Brun’s other work whilst also introducing new themes and motifs. The sequence shapes associations of literature, music and art, like the questing travellers in the prints, the viewer is drawn into a metaphysical journey in search of meaning as well as beauty.
20th May to 28th September .
Also at the Fitzwilliam is the very exotic “Chinese Imperial Jades” displaying exceptional pieces of jade from the Qing imperial collection. These jades were carved during the reign of the Emperor Qianlong (r.1736-96), and their materials would have been mined and carefully shipped to Beijing to be carved in the imperial workshop. Some of the pieces on display bear poems composed by the Emperor himself emphasising the important status of jade in Chinese art and culture.
The pieces on display illuminate the different features of Qing dynasty jade carving, including the fashion for copying ancient objects, particularly bronzes, and the technique of carving a two-dimensional landscape with figures onto a three dimensional jade.
1st May to 29th June
www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk
At the Sainsburys Centre for Visual Art is Margaret Mellis's - “A Life in Colour”
Margaret was a central figure in the St Ives group of artists which included Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson.
1st July to 31st August
www.scva.org.uk
Angelor Mellor Gallery
The Angelor Mellor Gallery in Ely is showing “In Return – Cycles of Influence” a show exploring the returning and revolving influences between textile artist Gill Recordon and her daughter, painter Tess Recordon.
Gill is an experienced textile artist who has travelled widely. A characteristic of her work is the interplay of images to be seen and found. Dragons can form out of tree roots and fire; winding serpents, fish or tree branches from rivulets flowing across win-ribbed sand.
Tess, working from her memories of Morocco and Japan, explores the space between landscape and abstraction. The paintings use condensed colour and texture to convey the atmosphere of rural and urban landscapes.
14th May – 14th June
www.angelamellorgallery.com
At the Stamford Arts Centre is The Guild of Fine Artists' “Summer Exhibition”, an exhibition of traditional fine representative paintings by a Guild dedicated to keep traditional craft techniques in the production of visual art. Subject matter ranges from still life, natural world, landscape, townscape and marine.
10th - 28th June
www.stamfordartscentre.com
“Continuous Practice” is currently showing in Kings Lynn at The College of West Anglia.
The Art and Design Department shares an insight into the work of tutors, created as continued professional practice in their specialist teaching fields. It is the strong belief of the department that art educators should remain current within their fields, so as to be able to convey an up to date and real enthusiasm for their subject to their students. For the very first time, tutors and technical staff show some their work . 7th – 21st June www.kingslynnarts.co.uk
Nearby in Wisbech and presented byAtelier East are Louise Stebbing's prints at The Angles Theatre, 1st June - 4th July
www.atelier-east.co.uk
And finally Peterborough Open Studios is back! The opening event is at the end of June with the Open Weekends taking place throughout early July. Be sure to make the most of this wonderful opportunity and support our local artists.
www.paos.org.uk
So plenty to quench your creative thirst this month as the solstice sun glides across the horizon, have a great month!
By Luke Payn
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