Local Exhibitions Hull City Centre

 Exhibitions Hull City Centre:

WHALERS: Moby Dick Remastered in Print by Richard Lees

 I visited the Whalers Exhibition at Hull Central Library to see Richard Lees' impressive series of prints, to investigate the gallery and to consider how the space could be curated. 

The Exhibition

Whalers is described by Lees as "a print re-imagining of Moby Dick as a story about human greed, toxic masculinity and the fatal consequences of waging war on nature" ....." drawing directly on the life-or-death environmental crisis we now face, my prints depict some of the dark forces which have brought us to this cliff edge as well as the inevitable human tragedies that follow."

Of the 40 prints in Whalers, 38 are lino prints and 2 are drypoint. Some are printed onto screen prints or mono prints.

                                        

                                       

                               

       

                                       

The Gallery Space and Facilities

Above, images of the exhibition space and relaxation area

To gain access to the gallery I had to walk through the library section. Although direct access to the gallery is available from the main entrance this door was not open on my visit. There was the added advantage that visitors to the library could readily access the exhibition, and this may help footfall. On the day of my visit the library was busy, and it was apparent that the venue was part of a thriving community of users.

Once inside, the gallery space seemed spacious and well-lit for exhibition purposes with subtle lighting shining directly down onto the prints. I also noticed that there was a good hanging system installed where the artist can attach their exhibits from "D" rings. There was a seating area from which to contemplate the works or to write comments in the visitors' book (see below). 

                                               

Curation

The works were thoughtfully laid out with plenty of information on the walls about the background to the exhibition and about the processes used. The size of the works and the fact that there were, in the main, monochrome added impact. The prints followed a logical layout which told the story of Moby Dick.  The space was used well and there was a calm, contemplative atmosphere in the gallery which was enhanced by the subdued lighting. The visitors'/comments book was nicely done with a related cover from the show. Richard Lees had also created an informative set of striking posters to advertise the exhibition. For those reasons, my overall impression of the gallery was good.

City Centre Vacant Shop Premises

As I walked through the city centre, I noticed that a vacant shop had sprung up as "pop up" art exhibition. I thought that this was an excellent way of using empty properties. The artist was working on his easel inside the building and some of his paintings were propped up informally around the room.

The Concept

The door to the exhibition was open, inviting passers-by to drop in to see the paintings and to chat with the artist. I felt that the concept brings art closer to the general public and perhaps reaches those who otherwise may feel excluded from visiting a more formal venue. 

Conclusions

My visit to these venues had more of a community spirit than a trip to a "grander" setting such as the National Gallery. The advantage from the artist's point of view is that it gives them the opportunity to exhibit their work at low cost and in accessible locations. From the viewers' perspective when people are visiting a library or wandering around the city centre it gives them the chance to visit, with no charge, and to think about what is on display. It widens access and visibility, which is important in the current climate of austerity. 

    

Visit to the Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2022 Exhibition, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull

 Visit to the Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2022 Exhibition, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull

Andre Williams, Room for Doubt, 2021, installation

Innovative new work 

I went to visit the New Contemporaries Exhibition currently showing at the Ferens Art Gallery, Hull.

Since 1949 new Contemporaries has presented an annual exhibition of emerging and early career artists. Including 47 artists, the show launched in Hull across the Humber Street Gallery and Ferens Art Gallery. As the Exhibition Guide states, "the 2022 exhibition demonstrates a rich diversity of voices and approaches to making". The exhibition will travel from Hull to the South London Gallery in December 2022.

Curation

To compliment the diversity of approaches, the exhibition was curated sympathetically with themes which reflected the concerns and interests of this generation of artists. Some of the themes explored included The Domestic and Home and Portraiture of Self and Others which I illustrate on this page. 

Meitao Qu,  Enter the Fortress: Play well, Eat well, Sleep well, 2021, installation (foreground) and

Abi Ola, Startled, 2021, (wall) oil, oil pastels, fabrics, and screen print on loose canvas 300 x 18 cm

Divya Sharma, There is this stupendous thing of beauty called Compassion; and therefore, the world exists, 2022, textiles

The work of the artists illustrated above

Andre Williams

Room For Doubt is an installation developed from Williams’s drawings of fantastical rooms. His playful use of unexpected materials draws the viewer into his world. Masks and mirrors are recurring motifs within the room. A pair of bespoke Flamingo and Woodpecker wallpapers flanks the room, intensifies the space and plays with perspective. I felt that the room had a "retro" feel and was very three dimensional.

Meitao Qu

Qu’s practice is concerned with how forms of visualisation operate as ‘props’ to stimulate imaginations. Currently, her research examines the visual economy of the cityscape as a symbol of progress. Using miniatures and ready-mades, her work considers the artifice of the built environment to explore the conditions of what is lost and gained in the processes of urbanisation. She contemplates the interplay between ideologies and realities. The installation shows a miniature replica of the Temple of Heaven constructed with building blocks. The sculpture is displayed on a rock-like formation decorated with other architectural models and artificial greenery. 

Abi Ola

Ola specialises in oil paint, fabric collage, installation, and photography. Her work focuses on family portraiture which allow the audience to place their own loved ones within the portraits.  The combination of tribal and modern-day patterns challenge assumptions about what ‘primitive’ art is, and whether there are many differences to the symbols used today in text messages and social media.

Divya Sharma

Sharma is a multidisciplinary artist and textile practitioner whose practice reflects her lived experience. At its heart is the idea of hybridity and the naive insistence that inter, and intra-nationalities can do more, they can make futures in which we are not opposites but "extensions, additions, alloys, alchemical integrations, and disjointed unifications".  As an immigrant within India and outside, her work draws upon the entanglements that a hybrid nation(ality) entail.

Conclusions

The New Contemporaries show was very different to the works by Winslow Homer at the National Gallery in London (see previous post). The Homer exhibition consisted solely of paintings which were displayed on gallery walls in a traditional, sequential setting. The subject matter of the Ferens exhibition was diverse, ranging from installations to tapestry. The works represented current issues which the artists were concerned with, and the curation was imaginative to reflect the different approaches. The Ferens approach encouraged the viewer to participate and interact with the ideas put forward by the individual artists. I could walk in and around the rooms and consider the works from different angles, experience a 3D effect and appreciate the perspective of, for example, Andre Williams's "Room".

Visit to the National Gallery, Winslow Homer: Force of Nature

 Visit to the National Gallery, Winslow Homer: Force of Nature

Winslow Homer, 'The Gulf Stream', 1899 (reworked by 1906). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 

I recently visited London and went to see the Winslow Homer: Force of Nature Exhibition at the National Gallery. The exhibition was organised by the National Gallery and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

I did not know much about Winslow Homer (1836–1910) the well-known American Realist painter prior to my visit. The paintings gave an overview of his work in chronological order and depicted some of the leading issues facing the United States during the final decades of the 19th century, including its relationship with Europe and the Caribbean. This was a dramatic era which saw a turning point in North American history. Homer painted soldiers in the battle fields of the American Civil War, captured the abolition of slavery, and the war with Spain, the last colonial European power in the Americas.

 

Winslow Homer, Prisoners from the Front, 1866

Prisoners from the Front is one of Homer's most famous early works in which Confederate officers surrender to Union Brigadier General Francis Channing Barlow during the American Civil War. 

As the National Gallery states, "From his sketches of battle and camp life, to dazzling tropical views and darker restless seascapes, the works reflect Homer’s interest in the pressing issues of his time; conflict, race, and the relationship between humankind and the environment – issues still relevant for us today".

Winslow Homer, 'The Veteran in a New Field'

1865

This poignant image of a man (identified as an ex-soldier by his discarded jacket) speaks about hope for the future but also reminds us of the recent violent and divided past.

 

Winslow Homer, Dressing for the Carnival, 1877

After the war, Homer’s subject became the lives of Americans in the wake of the war and abolition with a focus on the lives of formerly enslaved African Americans. Homer painted them avoiding the stereotypes with which their collective image had previously been portrayed. This bright, colourful image is in contrast to the dour paintings of recent more turbulent times.

Winslow Homer, 'Snap the Whip',1872

Snap the whip is a childhood game played outside with teams. Here Homer creates a nostalgic image of carefree, rural life. The painting shone with light which fell on the playing children.

Homer travelled to France, England, the Bahamas, Cuba and Bermuda. In England, he stayed in Cullercoats on the North East coast and painted scenes of hardship, heroism and resilience. He was particularly interested in the vision of the strong English women fisherfolk he saw there.

Winslow Homer, 'Inside the Bar' 1883

Winslow Homer, Northeaster, 1895-1901 oil on canvas

Northeaster is one of several paintings on marine subjects which Homer created during his time in Maine. The seascape and movement of the waves was powerful, but I thought a little static.

Conclusions

I considered that the galleries were well laid out. They followed a chronological order in a traditional manner. The approach suited the subject matter as it allowed the periods and themes to be explained in well communicated information on the walls of each gallery which one could read and digest whilst walking through the rooms and viewing the works.

I thought that the experience added to my knowledge of realist painting in the United States during this period. I was inspired by his sea views and his sympathetic portrayal of people.

 

 

Sketching En Plein Air Blacktoft and Yokefleet

 Sketching En Plein Air Blacktoft and Yokefleet

A line of poplars near Blacktoft.

I sat in the car and painted this view. It was early spring. I chose yellow ochre to capture a sense of the season. I had been reading about the artist Lois Dodd (American, born 1927) who works entirely in front of the subject to capture the light at the time she sees it - and before it changes. She quickly sketches the scene on masonite boards in yellow paint to begin with, which she thinks is a good colour because it makes it easier to alter the image if necessary.

Fence near Blacktoft.

A charcoal sketch made whilst sitting in the car. I think that the small sketch has a sense of immediacy.

Barn, Yokefleet.

A view of the barn as seen from my car. The barn was huge and there was a strange looking red metal container beneath it. The bright red stood out from the rest of the more natural colours.

The sketches I made whilst sitting in the car gave me the opportunity to experience making observational sketches in relative privacy whilst also being “on site” and taking in the atmosphere. I also got out and took a series of photographs. The exercise demonstrated the benefits of spending more time in a place whilst working on a drawing or watercolour sketch. It allowed me to soak up the feeling of a place more than just taking photos. The memory also seemed to linger on better in my mind.

I found that the angle of the view was different to what I would have done from a photograph. Sitting in the car I was at a low angle and the view restricted. If I had done a painting of this location from a photograph, I would probably have used a much wider angle. I don’t think that either is right or wrong – just different. 

Sketching En Plein Air, Far Ings Nature Reserve

 Sketching En Plein Air, Far Ings Nature Reserve: The Tadpole Trail

  Tree Trunk with Severed Bough, mixed media

The Tadpole Trail, Far Ings Wetlands

En Plein Air: Far Ings Wetlands

In the summer I decided to do more en plein sketching and joined a group of artists on a trip to the south bank of the Humber Estuary. The visit to the Far Ings Wetlands, Barton was organised by visual artist and curator, Linda Ingham. There was a lot of mutual feedback during the course of the day, and it helped that I already knew two of the other artists and had worked with them previously.

The Tadpole Trail reinforced the benefits of working en plein air, improved my confidence and gave me the impetus to do more.

Photographs from the sketches I made on the day are illustrated below.

 

A general pencil sketch of the water and surrounding wetlands, including layers of reeds and water plants.

 

                                                               Colour matching exercise

                                           Water colour sketch of reed bed with colour notes

Sketching Detail - Tree trunk with severed bough

Below: Study of the tree trunk worked up back in the studio and later at home:

                                              Tree Trunk with Severed Bough, mixed media

The aim was to think about paths, planned and unplanned, real, and imagined. What is it like being on the path; what is edging the path? The theme lent itself to ways of looking and thinking and being creative. We all exchanged ideas about the benefits of working en plein air – taking in the atmosphere, experiencing all the sensations such as smell, feel, sound. Linda especially thought that working outdoors (even for sketches which are later worked up in the studio) adds a certain dynamic and feeling to the finished work which cannot be replicated.

 

The Ropewalk Open Studios 2022, "Migration"

 The Ropewalk Open Studios, "Migration"

Migration, etching

The Ropewalk Print Workshop recently took part in the annual North East Lincolnshire Open Studios weekend.

The printmakers exhibited on the theme of "migration".

I made an etching depicting human migration. It was inspired by an article in the National Geographic about people fleeing Myanmar and crossing the Moei River into Thailand.

I have travelled in this area and the topic resonated with me.

I worked on a piece of zinc using a soft ground. I then inked up the etched plate with sanguine Charbonnel printing ink to get the effect of heat in that region.

The print is on display in the Print Workshop.

Burton Constable Hall Print Exhibition, September 2022 to January, 2023

 Burton Constable Hall Print Exhibition: Hand Printed

Beyond a Beach 1, electro etch

I have a number of original prints on show at Burton Constable Hall, see poster below.

Hull Print Collective reprise their popular Autumn exhibition at Burton Constable Hall, with a wide range of prints and designs by this talented and dedicated group of local artists. This is truly an exhibition that all can enjoy!

Exhibition

Tue 27^th September 2022 to Sun 15^th January 2023

Free

Hull Print Collective is a local community group with members who are from Hull, the East Riding and North Lincolnshire. We are an evolving group of printmakers employing a very personal approach, covering a wide range of subject matter. The group explore a wide variety of printmaking techniques including etching, lino, collagraph, monotype, and screenprinting.

A number of members print at home in their own studios, others print at Eastgate Print Studio and Gallery, Beverley, Ferel Art School, Hull, and the Ropewalk Print Studio, Barton on Humber.

Hull Print Collective exhibit locally and some of the members hold solo exhibitions.

Many of the students have been members of Hull Print Collective for a number of years, exhibiting and selling their work in locations such as the Ferens Open, Hull, The Beverley Open, The Print Open, The Ropewalk Gallery, Barton, Eastgate Studio and Gallery, Beverley, Gallery@SALT, Beverley, Studio 11 Gallery, Hull, The Carriage House Gallery, Burton Constable Hall, Hull Truck Gallery Space, Humber Street Pop up Gallery Space, The Central Library Hull, Art Link, Hull, Broderick Gallery, Hull College, The Fishing Heritage Exhibition, St. Georges Church and St. Stephen’s Shopping Mall, Hull.

Four of our members have exhibited at Bankside Gallery, London, Form Shop and Studio, Hull, Hip Gallery, Hull, York College, Pannett Gallery, Whitby, Central Library, Hull,  Burton Constable Hall, and Inspired by…… gallery,  Danby, North Yorkshire.

If you would like to view the work of the Hull Print Collective, a virtual exhibition, produced by Ian Perry in 2020, can be viewed on You Tube.

Beyond a Beach 2, electro etch

Horses, etching

Rich Pickings, leaf print, hand coloured

Locks, etching with chine colle

Harvest, collagraph

Ivy League, linocut with chine colle