Galleries Archive
Local
Event
King's Lynn Horticultural Society Show
Shakespeare Barn
For the first time ever at the Arts Centre, this colourful annual event for
the green-fingered comes to the new Shakespeare Barn. With the added value
of an exhibition of paintings on a flower theme by West Norfolk Artists Association.
Local
Event
Don't Brush Unseen
Old Warehouse
An opportunity over 2 weeks for Borough residents and their families to exhibit
a picture, especially those who have not exhibited before @ just £4
per work per week. Contact Exhibition Organiser, Edward Wheatley on 01485
533485 to take part. Email: oldted@tesco.net
Locally
Organised
ART 21
Diversity
Red Barn Gallery
Art 21 holds its sixth annual exhibition at the Arts Centre. Since this group
of Norfolk based artists was formed in 2000, some of its original members
have now moved on and this year the group has returned to its full complement
by inviting four new artists to join. The title, Diversity, refers
to the individual style and choice of medium brought to the exhibition by
each artist.
Locally
Organised
EDWARD WHEATLEY
without honour
Pictures of prediction, paradox and opprobrium
Old Warehouse
The words of St Matthew Chapter 13: Verse 57 have inspired some personal observations
in paint after a career making corporate videos at the behest of others. An
admiration for the social commentary of Hogarth and the Victorian genre painters
is reflected in the work.
BOYS
TOYS
Chris Summerfield, Andrew Smith and Tom Crompton
Shakespeare Barn
War toys, cowboys and the mechanical are the starting points of three artists
based in East Anglia who draw on the expectations of being male for their
art. Their work is a celebration and subversion of the archetypal images and
interests of the male. To present weapons of war and destruction as suitable
toys for young males is examined with a sinister
humour. The rugged independent figure of the cowboy is revaluated. Toy-like
hybrids of the natural and manmade world often echo the invented/dreamlike
world of childhood, where incongruous elements fuse together.
FEMALE
LINE EXTENDED
Hazel Albarn & Jessica Albarn
Fermoy Gallery
Mother and daughter, Hazel and Jessica Albarn provide us with two individual
responses to the natural world. Jessica uses drawing and
painting to explore states of mind reflected in the alien bodies
that surround us, whilst Hazel works with natural fibres and found objects,
delving into the random patterns left by the flow of nature. Both artists
share a common interest in discovering the innate beauty in the discarded,
hidden and untouchable.
MARIT
AMMERUD
Unpinned and Displayed
Fermoy Gallery Showcase
A study in ceramic by Marit Ammerud on how spoken words can shape us, if we
give them value. Some of the trophies in this selection are still valid, others
like The Ex-
Husbands Awards have lost their power, and are displayed as a
mere curiosity. In keeping with Marits incisive wit and ability to embed
her strange and unassuming pieces with pathos, this is a cabinet full of curiosities!
EMMA
FORREST
Urban Metalwear Jewellery
Fermoy Gallery Showcase
Contemporary, addictive and handmade. Successful jeweller, Emma Forrest, has
designed stage pieces for Toyah Willcox and mass produced ranges for Topshop
and Impulse Body Spray. This is her long awaited first collection of silver
jewellery for day and evening wear. Based on geometry and incorporating poetic
text and resin in some pieces, this is a real chance to buy into the bigger
picture and own a piece by a well-known jeweller. Realistically priced, these
gems combine wearability with wow factor!
KAREN
WHITING
Perfection or Distortion
Old Warehouse
A fascinating commentary upon the lucrative business of cosmetic surgery by
Karen Whiting, BA in Fine Art student from the College of West Anglia, who
has herself reshaped, enhanced and distorted photographic images.
PRESENT TIME
Xmas Crafts in the Foyer
Fermoy Gallery Foyer
For this festive season the foyer is festooned with fabulous things. Aladdin
and his cave have got nothing on us, as we have novelties nestled, cards crammed
and boxes brimming with an assortment of quirky, practical and precious Christmas
gifts at reasonable prices. Plus on Thursdays theres a free coffee and
mini mince pie with every purchase to get you in the festive mood!
ELEANOR
GLOVER
Fermoy Gallery
This touring exhibition of the constructed assemblages of Eleanor Glover from
the Ruthin Craft Centre in North Wales brings us a fascinating glimpse into
a theatrical, staged other world inhabited by quirky characters
in sinister settings. What is slightly perplexing though is the normality
of it all, which is perhaps due to the way that Eleanor brings new life to
familiar cast-off objects like an old brush to create a head of hair. This
use of the mundane to create the exquisite is her forte and the simplicity
of making somehow allows the magical to pervade. These are fairy stories derived
from real lifes odd moments of expectation, anticipation, joy and disappointment.
She draws from her own experience and yet the pieces have a universal appeal.
This fascinating work is full of contrasts and unanswered questions, which
makes it so compelling.
EAST
ANGLIAN TREASURES
Anglia Textile Works
Red Barn Gallery
A welcome return to the Red Barn for Anglia Textile Works, now
consisting of Yvonne Brown, Sheila Cetti, Kathy Colledge, Annette Morgan,
Lucie Summers and Linda Whitby, whose innovative textiles mix traditional
techniques with unusual materials, such as plastic and paper. This body of
work, largely inspired by the rich diversity of East Anglias found treasures,
such as the Sutton Hoo, Mildenhall and Snettisham hoards, was made by the
group especially for the Festival of Quilts at the NEC, Birmingham in 2005
in response to an invitation by the organisers and received plaudits, such
as the best of British quilt art in the show
Wyss
Foundation
Online Salon des Refusés
Eastern
O7pen
Kings Lynn Arts Centre
Shakespeare
Barn, Fermoy Gallery, Red Barn Gallery, Old Warehouse
+ Offsite projects: Edge, Doric, Bookends
For the Online
Salon des Refusés 10 artists were plucked for global stardom in person
by Loren and Judy Wyss of the Wyss Foundation.
Their newest initiative was designed to redress the balance for those who
did not find favour with the official panel, by giving them mass exposure
through the Arts Centres website!
Each artist also received a £50 cash award.
Marit
Ammerud Waking Up mixed media £175.00 |
|
Karin
Forman Growing Pains mixed media £325.00 |
|
John
Gray Cowgate Bickers oil on canvas £3,500.00 |
|
Jerome
Hunt Rue De Sebastopol silkscreen £195.00 |
|
Sue
Jarvis Moonshine Acrylic £240.00 |
|
Clare
Johnson The Crown of South Quay screen & mono print £295.00 |
|
Arturo
S Limbo Multitude collage Not for sale |
|
Richard
Neal Albi Liked Ice Cream watercolour £400.00 |
|
Colin
Wheeler Joy and Apprehension at Highbury pencil £300.00 |
|
Mark
Whittle-Bruce Virginia Water, Leaves and Isobel Miller oil on canvas £1,200.00 |
|
Most of these works are for sale. For enquiries or sales please call the Arts Centre Galleries on 01553 779095 |
EASTERN
OPEN 2007 CALL FOR ENTRIES
Galleries: Shakespeare Barn, Fermoy Gallery, Red Barn & Old Warehouse
Eligibility: Aged 16+ living in one of the 7 counties Beds, Cambs, Essex,
Herts, Lincs, Norfolk & Suffolk Type: 2D works in any medium Size: Maximum
60 on any side including frame and projecting no more than 4 Fee:
£7 per work up to 3 works
To Enter: For entry forms, available in January, call or send an s.a.e. to:
Kings Lynn Arts Centre
29 King Street Kings Lynn PE30 1HA
01553 779095
Click here to download the entry form.
EASTERN
OPEN 2007
Now in its 38th year, the Eastern Open is still the largest and longest running
regional open competition in the country, annually attracting over 600 entries.
Drawn from 7 counties in the eastern region it is selected by 3 high profile
judges who this year include Kira Kim, international new media artist and
Jari Lager, Director of Union Gallery, London. There is over £3,500
to be won over several disciplines including £2000 Best in the
Show and not forgetting the Doric Arts spotlight exhibition which will
be concurrently on display. As always the Eastern Open provides the opportunity
for a broad range of artists on all levels to exhibit together, creating an
exciting, eclectic and diverse mixed show at affordable prices. Alongside
the show is the ever popular postcard exhibition where a mini artwork can
be snapped up for just £15!
EASTERN
OPEN 07
Edge
This year, the Kings Lynn Arts Centre launches an off-site exhibition
project, Edge, in addition to the much celebrated Eastern Open. Whilst Eastern
Open honours and promotes the wide-ranging talent and interests in two dimensional
art, this new project aims to emphasise other aspects of contemporary art
that are beyond flat surfaces. Curated especially for the occasion, Edge will
take place at selected venues in Kings Lynn town centre, perhaps surprising
ordinary shoppers and passers-by as well as art lovers. Venues and dates to
be confirmed. See gallery summer brochure or contact the gallery for details
on 01553 779095.
ARTS
AWARD
Red Barn.
Ring to reserve your place on this course of five. This course is free although
there will be a small charge for members packs and evaluation.
Aged between 13 and 15 and interested in art? Fancy gaining a recognised accreditation
for your work? Want the chance to meet real artists, pass on new found skills
and even have your own exhibition? Why not come along to Arts Award, where
you can devise and execute your own arts project in any field youre
interested in, whether its painting, sculpture, film-making, photography,
animation, design or even non-visual arts practices such as poetry or creative
writing. Like the Duke of Edinburghs award, the Arts Award is split
into three achievable stages: bronze, silver and gold and any one award can
be achieved over this series of Sunday sessions. These workshops will involve
informal talks from practicing artists, specialist advice in how to gain your
award and warm-up activities that will help you think about your long term
projects. Nick Neal, Asisstant Arts & Education Officer.
KULT THEATRE
February is Oscar month - and its just as well, as Kings Lynn has some new talent for the Academys consideration! The Arts Centres very own Kult Theatre Company has been busy on projects throughout the winter months. Theyve already performed in front of the Mayor and shown off their skills on radio! This season hopes to involve our young actors in the decision making on future projects; from the kernel of an idea to the polished production itself. Our current group is fully subscribed, but if you would like to put your name on the waiting list please call 01553 779095.
OFFSITE
| Embodying the Past, Engendering the Future
Contemporary Art at Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk
Fresh Interventions
Liu Jianhua: Regular/Fragile
The first exhibition of
this scale for Oxburgh, the Hall is hosting new contemporary art exhibitions
by regional and international artists who use this atmospheric National Trust
property as inspiration for their work. Curated by Dr Sook-Kyung Lee, Curatorial
Fellow in Cultural Diversity of the Kings Lynn Arts Centre, these exhibitions
showcase the work of a major international artist Liu Jianhua as well as regional
artists from the East of England.
Fresh Interventions opens in April and features emerging artists
based around Kings Lynn, Wil Bolton, Joyce Layton, Alexander Paterson
and Diana Stickley. The artists will respond to the site to produce new works,
including sculpture, installation and sound art.
The second exhibition in association with Embodying the Past, Engendering
the Future Contemporary Art at Oxburgh Hall, presenting one of the leading
international artists, Liu Jianhua, showing his large-scale installation Regular/Fragile
along with a new site specific work that responds to the history of Oxburgh
Hall.
For the opening hours and entrance charge, contact Oxburgh Hall on 01366 328258.
Kings
Lynn Captain Vancouver Festival
The Borough Council of Kings Lynn & West Norfolk is proud to be
celebrating the 250th birthday of Captain George Vancouver with a long weekend
of festivities. There will be events for all ages to enjoy, many of which
will be free.
Captain George Vancouver was born in Kings Lynn in 1757 and sailed with
Captain Cook as a young midshipman. His later explorations and meticulous
surveying literally put onto the map of the world the intricacies of the North
West coast of America, an achievement that places him in the first rank of
marine surveyors.
Over the Festival weekend, Kings Lynn will be buzzing with dancing,
interactive historical drama, a peoples banquet, street entertainment,
a feast of live music including a mini folk festival, exhibitions, lectures,
maritime demonstrations and crafts, traditional seafood and much more. Come
and see the magnificent tall-ship, The Earl of Pembroke. She will sail up-river
to the Boal Quay on the morning of the 21st June, where she will moor for
the festival weekend.
A spectacular weekend for all the family to enjoy, staged within the heart
of Kings Lynns fabulous historic buildings and quayside.
College
of West Anglia | BA FA 07
Shakespeare Barn, Fermoy Gallery & Old Warehouse
The BA (Hons) Fine Art Degree at the College of West Anglia is now firmly
established and continues its successful collaboration with Kings Lynn
Arts Centre. The work on show from this years graduating students develops
ideas and techniques to produce sophisticated responses in the form of drawings,
paintings, sculptures, ceramics, photographs, collage, assemblage and crafted
objects. The list of media involved may be familiar, but what these artists
have done will surprise, provoke and delight!
Exhibiting artists: Clare Bix, Gary Bracken, Mary Crofts, Denise Tod
Evans, Karin Forman, Sally Hale, Sheila Hine, Rosemary Hoath, Lucy McGann,
Liz Murfitt, Jill North, Lynne Potrykus, Lyn Robertson, Eileen Rolfe, Helen
Roll, Chris Sunley.
Photo Credit: Green, Liz Murfitt
Julian
Walker | Words and Forgetting
Red Barn Gallery
Artist Julian Walker unearths memories to reawaken the forgotten via meticulously
researched and presented installations, which are both satisfying and bewildering
in their magnitude. To coincide with the 250th Anniversary of the birth of
George Vancouver in Kings Lynn in 1757 a grid of 3737 fragments of domestic
and personal 18th Century objects, as well as building and shipping materials
will absorb the viewers attention, as they reflect upon the reputation
and achievements of this local heros global impact.
Walker then embodies the language of such expeditions of discovery and appropriation
via a systematic labelling of each item. You will encounter place names bestowed
by Vancouver upon new territories, the idiom of early traders and words transferred
to our culture from the First Nation Peoples.
The modular and formulaic installation should not belie the great capacity
for the imagination of the viewer to piece together these memory fragments
to recapture the past.
Vancouver Insight
Shakespeare Barn |
This fascinating international exhibition features the incisive work of 4
Vancouver based artists and provides us with an insight into a range of contemporary
practice in British Columbia, Canada today.
Dana
Claxton is a First Nations artist of Lakota (Sioux) descent whose film
The Red Paper portrays the European colonialization of the
New World from the viewpoint of the aboriginal people as a barbaric invasion
and appropriation of land. Her scenario uses faux Elizabethan costume
to parody the heroic discovery account as celebrated and reinforced
by history. www.danaclaxton.com |
|
Artist Scot Keefer (my name is scot) has set In the Footsteps of Madillah in the centre of Vancouvers downtown eastside, reputedly the poorest postal code in Canada and now site of a massive real estate revitalization. Enter Madillah, a mythical, feral human of local legend, unearthed during recent excavations and on the run, looking for a place to hide. | |
At first
glance Scott McFarlands photographs appear as a true record of the
lavish gardens of the well heeled in Vancouver society in keeping with
the notion that the camera never lies. Closer inspection,
however, reveals evidence of digital reconfiguring flowers blooming
together out of season and shadows that belie their origins. These horticultural
havens are, in fact, laboured landscapes formed through the photographers
meticulous composition and re-vision, alluding perhaps to the staged early
photographs of William Fox Talbot . www.union-gallery.com |
|
Fae Marie Logies video installation, Scale 1:10,000 refers directly to Captain George Vancouvers survey of the inlets and islands of the northwest coast of North America which began in 1792. A one mile section of surveying tape of Indian Arm is included by the artist to refer to the north arm of the Burrard Inlet, not navigated by Vancouver who was certain that it possibly could not run far, thereby filling a gap. |
Liu
Jianhua: Regular / Fragile
Fermoy Gallery |
Kings Lynn Arts Centre Galleries present the work of Liu Jianhua, the
leading Chinese artist who is known for large scale installations as well
as intricate fibreglass and ceramic sculptures. His work has been exhibited
at prestigious international art events such as Venice Biennale, Singapore
Biennale and Shanghai Biennale and at art museums and galleries worldwide,
including Centre Pompidou, Tate and Irish Museum of Modern Art.
The work exhibited is Regular/Fragile, a large-scale installation consisting of over 1,000 pieces of white porcelain ceramic which was the work selected for Lius representation of China at Venice Biennale 2003. It is one of the artists best known works and has been received enthusiastically by international art world. The exhibition at the Arts Centre coincides with a parallel exhibition at Oxburgh Hall, a nearby National Trust property, providing visitors with a unique opportunity to experience the artists seminal work in a contrasting environment and context an historic 15th century moated manor house and a white cube contemporary art gallery.
Trained at the manufacturing section of the Jingdezhen Pottery and Porcelain Sculpturing Factory and later at the Fine Arts Department, Prof. Liu now teaches sculpture in the Fine Art Academy of Shanghai University. This exhibition is curated by Dr Sook-Kyung Lee, Curatorial Fellow in Cultural Diversity.
OFFSITE
|John M. Horton, CSMA, FCA | Marine Artist | Vancouvers Legacy
Council Chamber, Town Hall |
John Hortons long love affair with the sea is the foundation upon which
he established his pre-eminence as an internationally recognized marine artist.
Having served in the Royal Navy he emigrated to Vancouver, Canada in 1966
and found there the perfect milieu for his inspiration. Concerned to address
the apparent injustice meted out to the 18th century explorer, Captain Vancouver,
which caused his achievements to be overlooked in his life time, Horton has
dedicated a large body of his work to re-establishing the great Captains
reputation. In this definitive collection of work, Horton documents Vancouvers
famous Pacific West Coast expedition aboard HMS Discovery and
Chatham. Some of the most significant events that punctuated this
difficult voyage have been skilfully and accurately reproduced. Horton himself
re-sailed Vancouvers entire 1792-94 voyages along the coast of North
America, studying the original naval plans, paintings, sketches, charts and
journals. This attention to detailed research ensures that these works bear
the credibility that is John Hortons trademark. They are intended as
a tribute to the incredible courage, competence, loyalty and obedience to
King and country shown by Captain Vancouver, his officers and men.
Locally
Organised
ST GERMANS 14th ANNUAL
EXHIBITION
25th August - 1st September
Opening times: 10am - 5pm daily including Sunday & Bank Holiday Monday
Red Barn Gallery
Local artists from the St Germans Art Club share their work for the 14th year
running. The artists are of all ages and abilities and they meet every Thursday
at St Germans Memorial Hall from 7 - 9pm. New members welcome. Call 01553
617362. Don Noyce
Locally
Organised
WATERWAYS
Gerald Marsland
25th August - 9th September | Open Daily: 10am - 5pm including
Sundays & Bank Holiday Monday
Old Warehouse
After regional success, winning the painting award at the Eastern Open in
2004 and
featuring in the ITV Anglia series Coastal Inspirations, self
taught artist Gerald Marsland returns to the Arts Centre for his 4th solo
exhibition.
His latest collection in oils, Waterways, brings together a selection
of choice vistas from around the country that explore the effects of light,
shadow and reflection on different water conditions. From turbulent seas to
calm lakes, fast flowing rivers to canals, the paintings are brought to you
in his atmospheric realistic style.
Aira Force, Ullswater, Cumbria by Gerald Marsland Photo credit: Amaro Bravo
Local
Event
KINGS LYNN HORTICULTURAL
SOCIETY SHOW
Sat 8th 1pm - 5pm & Sun 9th Sept 10am - 4pm
Shakespeare Barn
Keen gardeners and curious visitors alike are invited to take a look at this
years Best in Show exhibits from the Kings Lynn Horticultural
Show. This colourful event takes place at the Art Centre for the second year
running and coincides with the national Heritage Open Day
Local Event
ART 21
Around and About
8th - 15th September |Red Barn
Art 21 return to the Arts Centre for its 7th annual exhibition bringing together
artists working in different styles and media. This years title Around
and About sums up a
variety of subjects, explored by individual artists. These range from vast
intriguing landscapes to the close focus of an interesting face or an unusual
object.
AFTER
Vered Lahav
22 September - 27 October 2007
Fermoy Gallery and Red Barn Gallery
Vered Lahavs work explores ambiguities of imagery and memory. Created
in various media including photography and sculpture, her installation refers
to both personal and collective experiences that are often embedded in the
most banal and familiar objects.
In her previous works, photographic images of dead birds, stained long gloves
and an adolescent girl are juxtaposed with the rustic sculptures of little
houses and the glass casts of bodily fragments, creating the sense of displacement
and ambivalence. One work unfolds to the next without conscious connections,
and the space in which they are situated becomes the backcloth for endless
narratives.
For the exhibition at Kings Lynn Arts Centre, the artist presents a
new body of work, After, a mixed media installation that examines contrasting
yet inter-related elements of the modern city. She has discerned three elements
from urban environments women, men and buildings. Positioning herself
as the maker and the user at the same time, Lahav
investigates the culture of seeing, and emphasises the contrast
between the social nature of personal experience and the personal implication
of social space.
PLAY
James Johnson-Perkins
10 November - 21 December
Fermoy Gallery
James Johnson-Perkins brightly coloured and light-hearted artworks define
an original and highly individual relationship to western popular culture
and childhood experience. He uses materials and subject matter which have
a resonance with his nostalgic memories such as: building blocks, 80s
computer graphics and 80s TV programs. In Play he is exhibiting
his army of plastic toy brick figures, which he calls robots,
scrolling message boards with jokes, colourful banners and dazzling films
using 8 bit computer graphics with animated geometric shapes. Based in Newcastle,
his bold,
bright and colourful style has made him a leading component of the current
flourishing North-East art scene.
Photo Credit: Colin Davidson
FACE
VALUE
Participants from MENCAP
10 November - 8 December
Old Warehouse
Last year Kings Lynn Arts Centre Galleries developed a partnership with
a group of adults from Mencap and introduced them to the art of mosaics via
workshops at the Art Centre, setting up a small business enterprise, The
Fish and Chip Mosaic Company which successfully sold a range of craft
pieces. Building on these craft skills, the group have continued to develop
under the guidance of Paul Ebbens, local ceramicist and workshop leader, who
has been exposing them to a whole range of new Fine Art techniques. Participants
were encouraged to think more creatively and use new materials, which produced
humorous, colourful and inspiring results. Judge for
yourself in this special exhibition of ceramic portraits, collaged paintings,
mosaic pictures and a communal clay mural that demonstrates their spontaneous
mark-making abilities.
NARRATIVES
Shakespeare Barn | 10 November - 21 December
A series of 9 Sunday workshop days for adults on Narratives led
by Nick Sampson and Liz Falconbridge, with input from 6 visiting artists,
(Lyndall Phelps, David Bryn, Alex Pearl, Vered Lahav, Elspeth Owen and Julian
Walker) culminates in this fascinating exhibition that draws upon many of
the themes explored over almost a year. An innovative approach allows individuals
to experiment in a range of practical sessions that are intended to expand
their creativity and spontaneity as much as their skills. They have engaged
in tasks, quests and challenges, made up visual and verbal stories and games,
all of which have extended their understanding of the narrative
and the results should be as varied as the participants, whilst demonstrating
newly acquired techniques for expression and teasing out tales of the unexpected!
Photo credit: Sheila Hine
CALL
FOR ENTRIES
EASTERN OPEN 2008
Including Artists Postcards
Awards include £2000 BEST IN SHOW
Eligibility
Aged 16 + living in one of the 7 counties Beds, Cambs, Essex, Herts, Lincs,
Norfolk & Suffolk
Type
2D works in any medium
Size
Maximum 60 on any side including frame and projecting no more than 4
Fee
£7 per work up to 3 works
To enter
For entry forms, available in January, call or send an sae
Kings Lynn Arts Centre
29 King Street
Kings Lynn
PE30 1HA
01553 779095
Closing Date: Monday 11 February
Entry forms can be downloaded by clicking here.
A Hayward Touring exhibition from the Arts Council Collection, on behalf of Southbank Centre, London
Jake & Dinos Chapman: My Giant Colouring Book
Fermoy Gallery | 12th January - 10th February
Having its inaugural show in King’s Lynn is a brand new Hayward Touring exhibition featuring the work of brothers Jake & Dinos Chapman, renowned in the 1990s as YBAs - Young British Artists, but now somewhat notorious for their dark and irreverent imagery.
My Giant Colouring Book is a series of 21 monochrome etchings based on join-the-dot drawings from children’s books, although with all the rules of progressing from dot to dot fractured by artistic deviations. What starts life as an innocuous and innocent childhood illustration has been subverted to present an undercurrent of the macabre stuff of night horrors. Featuring surreal images such as dissected teddies and skeletal clowns, the images are surprisingly harmless on closer inspection and are underpinned by strong art historical references.
Dinos has said that they “are about how wrong you could make an image. How you could use nodal points and ignore them at the same time”.
This exhibition of prints provides an excellent introduction to the imaginations of two of Britain’s most inventive and subversive artists for all visitors, including the young.
Jim Aitchison in Residence
Old Warehouse
Monday 11th, Wednesday 13th, Friday 15th
& Saturday 16th February | 11 - 3pm
Drop in for as little or as long as you like
Suitable for 3 - 13 years
No unaccompanied children | FREE
As part of our 2008 Literature Focus families are invited to drop in on Artist & Illustrator, Jim Aitchison in the Old Warehouse, where he will bring your ideas for story characters to life before your eyes on the gallery walls and then help you to illustrate and make your own personal story book to take away. Giant goblins, feisty fairies, perfect princesses or purple pigs in pinstriped suits…the only limit is your imagination!
John D Edwards - How Cancer Saved My Life
Lecture & Book signing | Sunday 3rd February | Red Barn
£5 including afternoon tea | 40 Maximum | 2.30 - 4pm
Cancer still strikes fear in us all, with its associations of ‘a fight for life’. Artist John D Edwards lives with his cancer in a surprisingly positive way and has recently published a book of paintings and text that chart a “journey full of revelations” and an attitude that is both humbling and inspiring. He was born in London in 1952 and attended Art School at Harrow and the Central School of Art in the early 1970s, working subsequently with a number of major figures such as Peter Blake, Jim Dine, Barry Flanagan, Allen Jones and Ben Nicholson. Since 1980 John as shown his own work all over the world. He now lives and works in an old dog biscuit factory in London’s East End.
John will be talking informally about his paintings and his illustrated book , ‘How Cancer Saved My Life’ followed by a book signing/meet the artist session and afternoon tea.
‘How Cancer Saved My Life’is published by BolamRose and will be available to purchase for £12.99 at this event.
www.johndedwards.co.uk
Wyss Foundation
Online Salon des Refusés
Eastern O8pen
King’s Lynn Arts Centre
Shakespeare Barn, Fermoy Gallery, Red Barn Gallery, Old Warehouse
+ Offsite project: Greyfriars Art Space
For the Online Salon des Refusés 10 artists were plucked for global stardom on behalf of Loren and Judy Wyss of the Wyss Foundation.
In its second year, this initiative was designed to redress the balance for those who did not find favour with the official panel, by giving them mass exposure through the Arts Centre’s website!
Each artist also received a £50 cash award
Sally Ann Fitter |
|
Alex Thorpe |
|
Mervyn Whiffin
|
|
Maria Pavledis
|
|
Adam Wilson |
|
Sue Polden My Useful Days Are Gone mixed media £400 |
|
Gordon Corn |
|
Mark Caldon
|
|
Sally Clarke |
|
Audrey Belton |
Most of these works are for sale.
For enquiries or sales Arts Centre Galleries: 01553 779095
The King’s Lynn Arts Centre are indebted to the Wyss Foundation for their continued support for the Eastern Open
COLLEGE OF WEST ANGLIA
Women at Work
BA Hons Degree Show
20 - 31 May 2008
Shakespeare Barn, Fermoy Gallery & Old
Warehouse
After three years of study, the BA Fine Art students from
the University Centre King’s Lynn (in partnership with Anglia Ruskin University)
at The College of West Anglia, will be presenting their degree show. These
emerging artists are made up of a group of eleven women
of varying ages working with different media and a wide and
diverse range of subjects, exploring the boundaries of fixed
ideas and taboos.
COLLEGE OF WEST ANGLIA
Continuous Practice
7 – 21 June 2008
Shakespeare Barn, Fermoy
Gallery & Red Barn
The Art and Design Department at
The College of West Anglia’s King’s
Lynn Campus is pleased to be able to
share 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 both full and part time, along with technical staff, show some of the work
they have been producing alongside their teaching. The show
includes a varied collection of creative work ranging from
Painting to Film to Jewellery, Graphic Design and Print.
Walter Dexter
Jointly promoted by the King’s Lynn Arts Centre & the King’s Lynn Festival
Fermoy Gallery | 13 July – 9 August
2008 is the 50th anniversary of the death of the artist Walter Dexter (1876 – 1958), who lived and worked in King’s Lynn, latterly in Nelson Street and was tragically knocked over and killed by a motorbike in Saturday Market Place. Dexter was the first President of the King’s Lynn Art Club in 1945 and taught Art at King Edward VII High School. He was a remarkable painter of both landscape and portrait and was renowned for his fine views of King’s Lynn across the river from West Lynn. This commemorative exhibition has been enhanced by the generosity of Private Collectors and many of the pictures have never been seen by the public before. This offers a unique opportunity to view the breadth of work produced by this prolific local artist and includes drawings, paintings, illustrations, books and posters.
Hi Sklo Lo Sklo - From Masterpiece to Mass Produced Post War Czechoslovakian Glass from The Graham Cooley Collection
Shakespeare Barn & Red Barn | 13 July – 9 August | www.sklo.co.uk
From the 1950s onwards Czechoslovakia was a hotbed of modern glass design. Skilled and experienced designers produced hundreds of colourful and vibrant designs which were exported to the West in their thousands. Sold as art glass for the home and available on the high street, the designers behind them were rarely named - despite the fact that many are recognised today as masters of 20th century glass design. Unique art glass masterpieces pushed the boundaries of modern glass design and acted as inspiration for these visually stunning ranges - most of which ended up in the homes of ordinary people around the world. Today, these vases and bowls typically lie un-attributed and forgotten. This new and unique exhibition reveals the names and fascinating story behind these exceptional and quintessentially modern designs. With over 400 objects selected from the Graham Cooley Collection, ‘Hi Sklo Lo Sklo - From Masterpiece to Mass Produced’ considers the themes behind the innovative masterworks at the high end of the market, but focuses on how these were translated into designs for the mass market. The exhibition will be accompanied by a 178 page full colour catalogue by antiques and collectables author Mark Hill, and will contain an illustrated introduction and over 200 specially commissioned photographs.
Czech Your Glass Do you really know what you’ve got and how much it could be worth? Sunday 13 July | 10am – 12noon | Arts Centre
Courtyard (weather permitting, or Shakespeare Barn Gallery)
Private Collector, Dr Graham Cooley & expert and author of the catalogue, ‘Hi Sklo Lo Sklo’, Mark Hill, will be on hand to view any pieces of glass you may wish to get identified and valued.
King’s Lynn Art Club LOCALLY ORGANISED
Old Warehouse Gallery | 12 July - 26 July | Old Warehouse
10am - 5.30pm Monday - Saturday 2pm - 6pm Sunday
King’s Lynn Art Club welcomes all Festival visitors to view this popular and varied selling exhibition of works in all media from members of the longstanding King’s Lynn Art Club. For this year only, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of artist Walter Dexter, King’s Lynn Art Club members will be presenting a wall of paintings inspired by this notable local artist who was their founder President in 1945. The Harrowing Award will be re-instated for 2008, selected by a professional artist along with a clutch of special commendations!
FORTHCOMING LOCALLY ORGANISED EVENTS
St German’s 15th Annual Exhibition
6 - 14 Sept | 10am - 5pm daily including Sunday & Bank Holiday Monday | Red Barn Gallery
Local artists from the St Germans Art Club share their work in a wonderful array to celebrate their 15th annual exhibition at the King’s Lynn Arts Centre.
King’s Lynn Horticultural Society Show
Saturday 13 Sept 1pm - 5pm & Sunday 14 Sept 10am - 4pm Shakespeare Barn
Keen gardeners and curious visitors alike are invited to take a look at this year’s ‘Best in Show’ exhibits from the King’s Lynn Horticultural Show. This colourful event takes place at the Art Centre for the third year running to coincide with Heritage Open Day.
St German’s 15th Annual Exhibition
6th - 14th September | Red Barn Gallery
10am - 5pm daily including Sunday & Bank
Holiday Monday
It is with great sadness that this occasion for celebration,
the 15th annual exhibition by St Germans Art Club in the
Red Barn Gallery is now taking place in memory of the
founder of the society, Don Noyce, who died suddenly in
May. Don, an architect and extremely talented artist and
water-colourist, was an inspiration to all those with whom
he shared his skills so generously. His love of portraying
the landscape and built heritage of West Norfolk made him
one of our most passionate local advocates for the arts.
Despite this loss, local artists from the St Germans Art
Club have rallied to share their work in a wonderful array
as a testament to Don.
Local Event
King’s Lynn Horticultural
Society Show
Saturday 13th 1pm - 5pm &
Sunday 14th September 10am - 4pm
Shakespeare Barn
Keen gardeners and curious visitors alike are
invited to take a look at this year’s ‘Best in Show’
exhibits from the King’s Lynn Horticultural Show.
This colourful event takes place at the Arts Centre
for the third year running to coincide with national
Heritage Open Day.
Local Event
Phoenix Eight
27th September - 11th October
Old Warehouse Gallery
Five of the founder members of Art 21
have now moved on in order to develop
and explore fresh challenges in their work.
Working and exhibiting together under
the name PHOENIX EIGHT, they present
their first exhibition at the Arts Centre
showcasing new work and approaches and
includes like-minded guest artists.
Admiral Lord Nelson 250th Birthday Anniversary
27th September - 1st November | Fermoy Gallery
It seems only fitting that King’s Lynn Arts Centre opens a comprehensive exhibition of
pictures, books and memorabilia to celebrate the Norfolk Hero, Admiral Lord Nelson just days
before the 250th anniversary of his birth at nearby Burnham Thorpe on 29th September 1758.
Courtesy of a local Private Collector, the viewer will be drawn into the life and achievements
of Nelson as charted by artists, craftsmen and writers during his own lifetime and
commemorated at both the centenary of his death at Trafalgar in 1805 and again at his
bicentenary in 2005. Despite acquiring
what by today’s standards would
be ‘superstar’ status and noted
for a degree of vanity, Nelson was
nevertheless a brave and fearless
commander renowned for his trust and
fair treatment of his men.
This fascinating survey covering his
Norfolk childhood, his crews, ships and
battles, as well as touching on his love
for his wife, his mistress, Emma, Lady
Hamilton and their daughter Horatia,
makes real the idolatry that was
accorded to arguably the finest naval
officer this country has ever had.
Limited edition keepsake.
In association with this exhibition,
the King’s Lynn Arts Centre has
commissioned a special ‘keepsake’ by
local wood engraver, Andy English, in
a limited edition of 250 which will be
available to purchase from the Fermoy
Gallery.
Simon Woolham The Short Cut
27th September - 1st November | Red Barn
In his frenetic
drawings of bleak
urban landscapes,
Simon Woolham
processes his own
experience of an
inner city childhood to
tease out some fragile
memories of isolation
and abandonment.
School playing fields,
junked underpasses
and empty car parks; a tree stump or a broken fence are filled with the
meanings of the events that go on around and about them. The Short Cut
investigates the narratives and glimpses of speech contained within the
dilapidated environments and the memories evoked by the image within.
Using biro, models, animation, video and text, Woolham draws unsettling,
emotional and sometimes humorous attention to the places of the past. These
sites are the scenes of humiliation as well as innocent play, of rejection and
failure as well as fantasy and adventure. Also using the Red Barn Gallery
and the history of the Arts Centre complex for inspiration, Woolham will
also be creating
ongoing, site-specific “interventions”
throughout his
exhibition. Visitors
are encouraged
to return to this
ever evolving,
thought-provoking
experience.
Time Flies - John Holmes: A Retrospective
27th September - 1st November | Shakespeare Barn
‘Time Flies’ represents the first major
retrospective in the career of leading modern
British artist, John Holmes. Totally self taught,
though owing much to the surrealists, his first
one man show was at the Raille Gallery, Islington
in 1961 followed by years of many successful
exhibitions at some of the world’s top galleries in
the USA, Europe, the UK and Sao Paulo. During
his years working as an Advertising Art Director
he illustrated for some of the eminent publishing
houses throughout the world including Paladin,
where he designed and painted the iconic
book jacket for Germaine Greer’s ground
breaking book, ‘The Female Eunuch’ in
1971.
Since then his art has been used on
numerous book covers and for magazine
illustrations worldwide, (including the cover
for Pan Books of Peter Benchley’s ‘Jaws’
in 1975 and covers for ten H P Lovecraft
books published by Ballantine), but each
time it is Holmes’ unique interpretation
of the indefinable point where reality
and fantasy converge that makes his art
extraordinary. “John Holmes’ work blisters…of searing
eroticism, high camp, coarse belly laugh
and hideous vulgarity - all ingredients in the
best surrealistic tradition.” (Art and Artist
Magazine)
Different Strokes
15th November - 20th December | Fermoy Gallery Foyer
Showcase & Monitor
This local branch of a national
organisation, Different Strokes, a
charity dedicated to helping younger
stroke survivors regain control of their
lives has been working in partnership
with King’s Lynn Arts Centre Galleries
and Education service for several
months. Using a small Borough
Council Arts Development training
budget they have been provided with
a tailored programme of hands-on
work with artists to develop new skills and allow greater access to employment.
The results on display in the Fermoy Gallery Foyer speak for themselves and are
a testament not only to their determination, but also to their reawakened talents.
Stephanie Walford, Marion Kernan and Marian Horner have been busily working
with Inge-Lise Greaves on a fabulous range of unique and stylish handbags and
jewellery in handcrafted felt, Chris and Robert Key and Terry Makin have worked
with John Hughes on experiments in landscape and still life painting, whilst
James Gledhill has been doing an intensive course in mark-making with Asst
Arts & Education Manager, Nick Neal and has produced some striking portraits,
drawings and prints. Many of their wonderful achievements are for sale and will
make great Christmas gifts, whilst at the same time contributing to an extremely
good cause!
OFF-SITE | Xmas Crafts At The Coal Shed
Saturdays & Sundays, 22nd & 23rd, 29th & 30th November
Pop into the new Coal Shed Gallery this festive season and pick up some
snazzy arty-crafty gifts all your family will love. With a diverse range of jewellery,
ceramics, toys, cards and more, from makers near and far, you are bound to find
something unusual for the special people in your life. But be warned, you won’t
want to give them away!
Opening times 10.30am - 3pm
Modest Monuments: Contemporary Art From Korea
15th November - 20th December
Fermoy Gallery, Shakespeare Barn & Red Barn Gallery
‘Modest Monuments: Contemporary Art from Korea’ is the first major survey show of Korean art in the East of England. The exhibition presents ten emerging artists from South Korea who play a significant part of today’s international contemporary art. The exhibition is curated by Dr Sook-Kyung Lee, Exhibitions & Displays Curator at Tate Liverpool.
The title stems from the collective characteristics of the participating artists’ work. They often commemorate the humble and seemingly insignificant moments of social and personal history, and emphasise a sensibility that is meditative and private, yet socially engaging.
The exhibition will provide the audience with a wider understanding of contemporary Asian art, representing younger artists whose innovative works have been known internationally but not shown widely in the UK.
Participating artists: Sen Chung, Joonho Jeon, Yeondoo Jung, Kira Kim, Yousun Kim, Yong Baek Lee, Kyungwon Moon, Yoon-Young Park, Seung-Ho Yoo, Kijong Zin
Mary Webb
17th January - 21st February | Fermoy Gallery
We welcome back Mary Webb, whose last solo show in the Fermoy Gallery was in 1996. On that occasion and for this
new exhibition, in which Mary reflects upon the culture, architecture and landscape of Tuscany and Portugal in prints,
watercolours and oil paintings, she has created a larger scale signature work especially for the end wall of the gallery.
Mary Webb is highly regarded nationally and well known in the Eastern region (where she is based in Suffolk) particularly as a printmaker who also shared her skills through teaching at Norwich School of Art & Design for 24 years. Mary’s uncompromising style of rendering the world as formally pared right down to basic geometric shapes and blocks of flat colour is both an homage to minimalism and an antidote to the extraordinary fast pace and busy imagery with which we are constantly bombarded in contemporary art and the media. What appears, perhaps, as a simplistic composition is in actuality the careful balance of an experienced and confident colourist.
Images 32 - The Best of British Contemporary
Illustration | Association of Illustrators
17th January - 21st February | Shakespeare Barn
‘Images’ is the leading annual competition and touring exhibition in the UK dedicated to showcasing
the very best of published contemporary illustration and is unique in that it is Britain’s only jury-selected
competition of its kind, judged by a highly regarded panel of industry experts including Menno Kluin
(Art Director at Saatchi & Saatchi, NY) and Gina Cross (Creative Manager at The Guardian).
The show includes artworks by established and new talents and categories include Advertising, Books,
Editorial, Design and New Media, Self-promotion and New Talent.
Launched in 1976, AOI (the Association of Illustrators) has organised ‘Images’ for the 32nd time,
marking its long history of promoting the best in contemporary British illustration, and has provided
a showcase for fantastic talent and an exquisite overview of the wealth and variety of illustration
produced in the UK today.
Henry Brooker’s Journal
TAG - The Art Group
17th January - 21st February
Red Barn Gallery
TAG is a recently formed group of regional artists, who
apply their individual practice to address a collective
theme. Demonstrating nearly a year of individual
experimentation, group critique and idea sharing, this
is TAG’s first exhibition, showcasing the group’s unique
collaborative ethic. Inspiration for their first show comes
in the form of a journal, written by Henry Charles Brooker,
recounting his time as a soldier during World War 2, his
capture by German troops, the treatment of the prisoners
of war, his eventual release
and return home.
This is an opportunity to see how artists have used their different disciplines (including textiles, ceramics, painting and drawing) to reflect on this tragic and moving source material.
Pulped Fiction Showcase
17th January - 21st February
Fermoy Gallery Foyer
For 9 Sundays over the past year, an avid group
of Pulped Fiction workshop participants, under
the expert guidance of Nick Sampson, have
been acquiring a range of the unique skills
associated with the art of making artists’ books. They have been immersed not only in making
their own paper, developing a range of printing
techniques, but in experimenting with different
bindings and styles of book-making, pop-ups and
paper manipulation, colour and texture. Their
extraordinary achievements are showcased here
and illustrate beautifully the scope and diversity
that is encompassed under this unusual 20th
century concept. As you can see, these are not
mere books, but innovative art objects to attract,
amuse and amaze!
EASTERN OPEN 2009
40th Anniversary Exhibition
28th March - 16th May
Shakespeare Barn, Fermoy Gallery, Red Barn
& Old Warehouse
CALL FOR ENTRIES Bumper Year of Opportunities!
40 Awards including £3,000 Best in Show. Commitment to
exhibit up to 400 works!
Eligibility: Aged 16+, Living in one of the 7 counties Beds,
Cambs, Essex, Herts, Lincs, Norfolk & Suffolk
Type: 2D works in any medium
Size (restricted for 2009): Maximum 100cm on any side
including frame and projecting no more than 10cm
Fee: £10 per work up to 3 works
Entry Forms: Available in January 2009 or send an sae to
King’s Lynn Arts Centre, 29 King Street, King’s Lynn, PE30 1HA
Telephone 01553 779095
Entry forms can also be downloaded by clicking here.
This year’s judges are Dr Sook-Kyung Lee, Exhibitions & Displays Curator at Tate Liverpool, Alison MacFarlane, Executive Director & Head of Visual Arts for the Norfolk & Norwich Festival, Nicholas Usherwood, Writer and Curator and Features Editor for Galleries Magazine and (in a change from earlier advertising) Judith Wyss, artist and long standing sponsor of the Eastern Open (replacing Brion Clinkingbeard, Deputy Director for Programming at the Kentucky Museum of Art & Craft, USA).
Available to purchase from the Fermoy Gallery, King’s Lynn Arts Centre, from 13 July 2009 by emailing lfalconbridge@west-norfolk.gov.uk or telephoning 01553 779095
‘Call me Maurice’ - The Life & Times of Lord Fermoy, 1885 – 1955 by his daughter Mary Burke Roche
The life of Maurice Burke Roche describes his progress through a childhood under the roof of a despotic self-made millionaire from Ohio, boyhood at the heart of the Gilded Age, military service in France with the American Army in World War I, elevation to the Irish peerage and election as MP fro King’s Lynn. Friends with the King of England, he lived at Park House, Sandringham, where his grand-daughter, Diana, Princess of Wales, was born a few years after his death. Maurice Burke Roche, a democratic Lord who made those he met feel valued, was, by all accounts a man with a heart who made people laugh!
£15 (Plus £2.50p UK postage & packing; overseas rates of P & P according to destination)
Eastern Open 2009 - 40th Anniversary Exhibition
Shakespeare Barn, Fermoy Gallery, Red Barn & Old Warehouse Galleries
28 March - 16 May
This year’s Eastern Open is our biggest ever and is celebrating its 40th birthday showcasing a range of
contemporary art and media once again from the Eastern region. Artists from 7 counties have been selected by a
distinguished panel of judges - 4 for the 40th for the first time ever! These are Dr Sook-Kyung Lee, Exhibitions &
Displays Curator, Tate Liverpool; Alison McFarlane, Executive Director & Head of Visual Arts, Norfolk & Norwich
Festival, Nicholas Usherwood, Writer, Curator and Features Editor, Galleries Magazine and Judith Wyss of the
Wyss Foundation USA.
For this special anniversary event, with the generosity of local sponsors, we have been able to offer 40 fabulous
prizes including a £3,000 cash prize and 39 cash and non-cash awards. Brand new also for this year we have
included a special opportunity to show the work of artists working in film/video/animation and digital media. With a
record breaking ceiling of works accepted overall, anticipating 100 for every decade, please come along and join
us in wishing the Eastern Open a very Happy 40th Birthday!
BA (Hons) Fine Art
University Centre King’s Lynn in partnership
with Anglia Ruskin University
2 - 13 June
Fermoy Gallery, Shakespeare Barn & Red
Barn Galleries
This exhibition showcases the work of 9 BA Fine Art
students from the University Centre King’s Lynn (in
partnership with Anglia Ruskin University) at The
College of West Anglia. The exhibition includes a broad
spectrum of 2D and 3D work ranging from traditional to
contemporary approaches to Fine Art.
Come and see the work of Michelle Adams, Audrey
Belton, Jane Clark, Gemma Clements, Sally Jessop, Keely
McCarthy, Fionn O’Beirne, Jon Parry and Adam Ryan.
Robert Whitmore
Jointly Promoted by King’s Lynn Arts Centre & King’s Lynn Festival
Fermoy Gallery | 12 July - 8 August
Robert Whitmore was born 101 years ago in King’s
Lynn and died in 1993 in Sussex. His connection
with the town and the Norfolk coast over many years
visiting family, as a tourist and via the subject matter
of his paintings has earned him local (unsung) hero
status. As a schoolboy, he cycled from West Winch
to the King Edward
VII School in King’s
Lynn every day and
aged only seventeen
won a Norfolk Painting
Scholarship to Regent
Street Polytechnic in
London, graduating
in 1929 and taking up
the post of art master
at Kilburn Grammar School, where he taught for 40 years. At the age of 23 he
was selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and during the war
he spent time in the RAF in Canada painting the air bases and countryside,
also exhibiting at the Canadian Royal Academy. His gift to King’s Lynn in 1939
of ‘King John of France Presenting His Cup to the Mayor of Lynn’, borrowed
from the Town Hall for this exhibition, symbolises his immense pride in his
home town. Like ‘St.Cuthman pushing his old mother in a wheelbarrow’, on
loan from Steyning Museum, Sussex, it is typical of his era and his great
interest in history, although he was overwhelmingly a landscape painter. His
most successful ex-student, Royal Academician Ken Howard, also author of
the homage in the exhibition catalogue, credits him with the direction his own
artistic life has taken. Whitmore dedicated his life to the difficult balance of
combining practice with communication.
Michael Johnson
Red Barn Foyer | 12 July - 8 August
Artist Michael Johnson is an obsessive observer producing
visionary compositions. He processes, captures, filters and
deconstructs images of his surroundings that usually pass others
by unwittingly and the resulting paintings are unnerving snapshots
of a reality that is only too recognisable. For this, his second show
in the King’s Lynn Festival in 8 years, his close encounters have
been with the people and buildings of King’s Lynn.
“I was slow to appreciate Lynn’s gritty charm. Unwittingly I found
the town permeating my work with its condensed theatre of rural/maritime/urban Englishness. Where once I had imposed drama
on the ordinary scenes I sketched, now I find that larger themes
emerge naturally from this most unassuming vantage point in what
many regard as a remote and unfashionable place. The beautiful
buildings of Lynn have not been neutered by their heritage status
but are still incidental to the rich human life that surrounds them.”
TRADING AS…..
Hanse Art Project
Shakespeare Barn Gallery | 12 July - 8 August
Artists: Tony Bellars, Clare Bix, Wil Bolton, Paul Ebbens, Karin
Forman, Inge-Lise Greaves, Kabir Hussain, Joy Layton, Sera Irvine,
Helen Roll, Andrew Schumann & Diana Stickley
In association with the first ever Hanse Festival in King’s Lynn, celebrating the town’s links with the Hanseatic
League of Baltic trading states, 12 artists have made new work on the theme of ‘Trading As…. ‘. Research and
archive based, their responses to the theme are all highly individual and reflect the artists’ concerns to reflect or
reveal the essence of this alliance that actively promoted and protected trading routes in the Baltic and the North
Sea during the Middle Ages. Referencing themes such as storage, mapping, exchange and commodities each
artist has used research to inform their new work, pondering on the past to create the future. The ‘Trading As…
exhibition ‘offers a chance to view some cutting edge artistic interpretations inspired by King’s Lynn historic heyday
as the third largest port in England and to learn about events that shaped the town at the same time.
Helen Bullard - Animus Flux
Fermoy Gallery | 26th September - 31st October
Helen Bullard is a wildlife painter and research based installation maker, focusing her practice around natural history, anthropology, material culture and the animal/human divide. Since researching her recent installation 1 Fathom Deep she has become fascinated with animal communication, including the human animal. Echoing the thesis that a signal is considered communication if it is sent and received, causing both participants to change their behaviour, Helen takes a contemplative look at interspecies communication, vocal mimicry and modification, convergent evolution, gift giving, and weapons of defence. Animus Flux will be an interactive installation, spanning senses and signals, and will transform the gallery into the signalling centre of the forebrain through the use of sound, light, film and sculpture.
Associated event:
Pidgin Language: Animals, Birds and Us Symposium | Saturday October 10th | Arts Centre
Garden Museum Showcase
Fermoy Gallery Foyer | 26 Sept - 31 Oct
Nestled beside Lambeth Palace, alongside the River Thames and Lambeth Bridge is an absolute gem housed in the deconsecrated Church of St Mary’s of Lambeth. The first rector recorded was in 1197 and up until the early 1700s the bells would ring out to herald royal visitors to the Palace as the Horseferry landing stage was practically on the doorstep. The building underwent a multitude of changes until 1977 when it was threatened with demolition and was saved by John & Rosemary Nicholson and opened as the Museum of Garden History. Recently relaunched as ‘The Garden Museum’, we are delighted to have been loaned an array of quirky gardening implements that provide a link between the ‘Animus Flux’ and ‘Spadeworks’ exhibitions and show how the art of tilling, sowing and growing is an ancient and timeless one. From a Bronze Age sickle, to a Victorian bird scarer and combined walking stick and thistle slasher through to ‘Doc’ a Disney gnome from the 1940s, you cannot fail to be fascinated by the obsessions of the green fingered!
www.gardenmuseum.org.uk
Bob Catchpole - Spadeworks
Red Barn Gallery | 26th Sept - 31st Oct
Spadeworks is the first exhibition by Norfolk-born sculptor Bob Catchpole at the King’s Lynn Arts Centre. His strange, humorous and surreal world of objects and creatures draws on the agricultural heritage of Norfolk. Whilst celebrating the rich variety and sophistication of the tools needed to work the land, the sculptures also undermine our preconceptions about the nature of their function and ultimately the world we inhabit.
He uses real tools and locally-sourced oak to conjure up eccentric forms that can be both zoomorphic and anthropomorphic, whilst retaining the identities of the original objects. Using several different themes, the work has a playful, quizzical quality alongside darker intimations. New works that illustrate undercurrents of the sinister are the Daisychain series, alluding to the innocent childish pastime of interlocking flowers, yet substituting threatening blades and prongs.
The Red Barn installation recreates the mundane world of the toolshed as a magical environment inhabited by otherworldly forms where tools have taken on a life of their own. The witty and dynamic works show the artist’s preoccupation with carving and construction in sculpture, in relation to the shapes and manufacturing processes from rural industries.
Olga Jürgenson
14th Nov - 19th Dec | Red Barn Gallery
Olga Jürgenson is an internationally exhibited artist currently living and working in the UK. Born in Siberia, brought up in Estonia and educated in Russia, she is an artist whose work asks important social questions. Often examining the economic and social realities of the EU, Jürgenson provides an insight and identity into the lives of those who travel from east to west in search of new opportunities.
For her new installation, she examines aspects of human travel, displacement and migration by mixing photographic images from her personal or donated archive, with often blurred digital images and video footage taken in other parts of the world. In her experience, this mirrors the culture shock following relocation to a new country by migrants and the sense of being ‘cut off’ from their normal life and families.
In a global world, where working relationships are constantly being redefined and are increasingly transitory, Jürgenson highlights the dynamics of new models of production, distribution and employment and the effect that these have on working people. Despite the fact that her work focuses on serious social and political issues, they are at the same time full of humour and accessible to a wider public.
Out In The Real World
West Norfolk does MAs
Fermoy Gallery | 14th November - 19th December
Four local female artists with long-standing ties with King’s Lynn Arts Centre exhibit a selection of the challenging and experimental work they produced on recently completed MA courses at Norwich University College of the Arts. Helen Breach and Sandra Walmsley studied on the MA Drawing, whilst Mary Crofts and Linda Roast studied for the MA in Fine Art.
Linda Roast’s subtle and sensitive pieces offer us her own take on current values within society and the fragility of life, sometimes appropriating and altering existing imagery. With farming as a metaphor, Mary Crofts’ uses her work to highlight and commentate upon weighty issues and policy in a playful way. Helen Breach has investigated ways of capturing commonplace sounds, such as a boiling kettle, through drawing. Sandra Walmsley’s interest in natural history and the environment has led to the creation of a mythical sanctuary for extinct animals called Sanshumain, revealed through her artist’s book.