Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2016

Kate Fahey - Cumulative Loss

As well as visiting the John Moores Painting Prize 2016 on my day trip to Liverpool I also managed to see the Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2016 exhibited at The Bluecoat. The Bloomberg New Contemporaries features 46 artists chosen by guest selectors Anya Gallaccio, Alan Kane and Haroon Mirza. The exhibition showcases artists working in a wide range of disciplines from painting and drawing to new media such as image manipulation and animation. I found the show very interesting and I felt particularly inspired by the work of Jack Bodimeade and James Berrington which has given me a few ideas for my own practice so it was definitely worth the  visit.

Here are a few photos from the exhibition.

Anna Bunting-Branch - W.I.T.C.H

Jack Bodimeade - Plug 1.1, Plug 2.2

Jack Bodimeade - Plug 7, Plug 8

Seungjo Jeong - Interface L3

Sebastian Jefford - Salvaged Gore

George Ridgeway - Tides

Zsofia Schweger - Sandorfalva, Hungary #18

James Berrington - Smeed Dean Islington yellow Rustica, Whitburn Orange Multi

John Moores Painting Prize 2016

On Tuesday I went to Liverpool to see what events were happening in conjunction with the Liverpool Biennale and while I was there I took the opportunity to see the John Moores Painting Prize 2016. I submitted a painting to the John Moores Painting Prize last year but I was unsuccessful so it was really interesting to see the standard of work I was up against in the exhibition. While I didn't like or resonate with some of the artwork I understand why my work was not selected. I don't think I'm quite on the same level as some of the artists in terms of painting and concept but I hope to get there by the end of my final year at University. The John Moores Painting Prize is definitely something to aim for and I won't be put off from applying.

Here are some images of the work selected for the exhibition.

Michael Simpson - Squint (19)

Christopher Hanlon - Untitled

Selma Parlour - One, The Side-ness of In-out

Gabriella Boyd - Birthyard

Tristan Barlow - Truck Stop Swamp

Ben Cove - Freeloader

Graham Crowley - Blue Drift 4

Zhang Yang - OLD NEWS

Wang Wang - Corrupted Land

Film Photos from Cala d'Or

So Amy and I landed back in Leeds last Tuesday after an amazing, well deserved break in Cala d'Or, Majorca, where we enjoyed sun, swimming and seafood. We stayed in a cool little apartment which included a small kitchen area and access to a pool which was perfect for our casual holiday. It was my first proper sunny holiday and our first holiday together so we loved being able to chill out and do what we wanted. Every day we would cook up fried eggs for breakfast, relax by the beach, read a book, swim in the pool and then go out for an extravagant meal in the evening where we would try food like octopus and squid and we LOVED it! I took my Nikon FA film camera my Dad gave me last year and three rolls of film so I could capture snapshots from our holiday. I thought I'd share some of them with you here:

Parterre de Rois #4 - Artist Magazine

Parterre de Rois is an Italian-curated biannual magazine combining erudite and popular culture co-founded and co-edited by Molly Molloy and Gianni Tozzi. The latest issue #4 of Parterre de Rois is themed around Happiness and seeks to ask the question: 'What is happiness for you?'. High quality reproductions of emerging and established artists work are combined with interesting interviews and articles providing for a beautifully constructed journal. 

Upon discovering Caroline Walker was being featured in the magazine alongside a short interview I was very keen to purchase a copy. At the time I was trying to get hold of the issue it wasn't yet available through the PDR website and was only in two UK stores, both of which were in London - a little too far to travel for a magazine. I contacted Parterre de Rois directly to find out when the issue would be made available to buy online and I received multiple replies which were both extremely helpful and professional. I was very impressed with the high level of customer service and that makes me respect and love this magazine more than any other I've bought.

Molly let me know that their magazine was being stocked at MagCulture in London so I sent off for it straight away. I was super excited when I received my copy of the #4 Happiness and was delighted to find that Guy Yanai, an artist whose work I also admire, was featured in the magazine too.

As well as Caroline Walker and Guy Yanai, twenty-eight other contemporary artists are also featured in the magazine across the 224 coloured pages including Mark Wallinger, Jo Ann Callis and Chental Joffe. For more information about Parterre de Rois you can visit their website here and for a full list of the featured artists or any other past issue you can take a look in the online store here. As someone who struggles to read and concentrate on large amounts of text, this image heavy magazine is perfect for me and it's put together flawlessly. If you are interested in contemporary art and are frightened by the endless advertisements and dense sections of difficult-to-understand text in magazines such as Art Review I would encourage you to purchase a copy of Parterre de Rois, you will not be disappointed! I will definitely be buying their future issues!

Chris Huen Sin-Kan

All images taken from the Pilar Corrias website (here)

As you may know, I had a piece of work shortlisted for the second round of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition which meant Amy and I took a trip down to London to hand it over for judging. Whilst visiting the capital we spent a lot of time walking around enjoying the lovely weather when we stumbled across an exhibition opening at Pilar Corrias on our way back to the train station. We pressed our noses to the huge glass window for a couple of minutes wondering if it was open to the public before deciding that we would regret not going in if we didn't. We walked into the contemporary gallery probably looking very suspicious as we attempted to blend in trying to draw as little attention to ourselves as possible but I'm glad we did because it was fantastic! Unfortunately, because I was so worried about the fact I was unsure if we were suppose to be there, I didn't take any photos in case someone noticed me. Therefore the images in this post are taken from the Pillar Corrias website, I hope they don't mind!

It was an opening for two emerging artists; Elizabeth Neel's 'Vulture and Chicks' and Chris Huan Sin-Kan's 'Re-Fresh'. Elizabeth Neel's work is very much interested 'in the theme of the psychological undercurrent and friction between the individual and the "landscape", be it natural, urban, ideological or emotional' which is represented by her huge abstract paintings on raw canvas. I loved Neel's  exhibition because of the organic textures captured in the process of her paintings which reminded me of the work by San Francisco based artist Heather Day. However, it was Chris Huan Sin-Kan's work that really caught my eye.

Interested in observing personal, commonplace occurrences in the domestic space, he captures the details and minutiae of everyday life. I admire his use of quick, gestural brush strokes to catch the moments of his dog Doodood or the reality of human nature before they pass, a technique far from my own but has given me some inspiration to loosen up a little when it comes to painting. Chris Huan Sin-Kan captures typical scenes from his studio/home focusing on potted plants in the corner of his room or his dog sleeping on a bed or sofa. These are the types of themes that I am becoming more interested in and concentrating on whole interior scenes of domestic spaces is something I would like to try and materialise in future paintings.

Stumbling upon this exhibition was a great way to end the day in London and it was fantastic to discover such an inspiring artist. If you also like the work of Chris Huen Sin-Kan be sure to visit his website and also check out the Pilar Corrias gallery, they have shown and are likely to show more amazing artists!

Artists That Currently Inspire Me

Over the summer I have been collecting names of artists that currently inspire me in terms of the direction I want my art practice to take. I have been thinking a lot about what I want my art to become in my second year of university so that when I start again this month I have a path I want to go down. Doing this has really helped as I feel I have a focus and can get on and make some art rather than wasting time just thinking about it. I have done a couple of paintings and experimented with some ideas (which I will post about in the near future) but for now I thought I'd show you three of the main artists that I am currently interested in.

Paul Wackers

I love the colour, shapes and textures Paul Wackers creates in his paintings of plants and objects that he associates with personal internal anecdotes.  I admire how he combines both nature and object within a single composition that gels well together aesthetically creating an abstracted still life. I think his colour and shape is excellent and is something I really want to try and capture in my own work.

Kirra Jamison

Kirra Jamison's large abstract, gouache paintings really caught my eye because of their beautiful pastel colours and crisp, flat shapes. Jamison works with tape to produce those careful, sharp edges which is a way of working I really enjoy using.  

Tatiana Urban

Tatiana Urban explores modern landscape painting and I really love the colours and gestures in her work. The like how she combines abstract organic shapes with geometric shapes to produce a contrast in the paintings.