Event type: Exhibition

Everyman and Liverpool John Moore’s ...

As part of the Everyman’s 60th Year Celebrations, and working in partnership with Liverpool John Moore’s University, a free exhibition showcasing Alan Dossor’s time as Artistic Director runs at the Hope Street theatre from 3rd to 8th June.

Arriving at the Everyman in 1970 at the age of 28, Alan Dossor ushered in what many have called a ‘golden age’, attracting companies of actors who went on to become household names, developing a pool of local writers, and creating a distinctive Everyman style.  In his five-year tenure, actors including Bernard Hill, Matthew Kelly, Bill Nighy, Roger Phillips, Pete Postlethwaite, Jonathan Pryce, Anthony Sher, Alison Steadman and Julie Walters, and writers such as Alan Bleasdale, Chris Bond, John McGrath, and Willy Russell, were all given their ‘start’ at the Everyman thanks to ‘Dossor’ as he was affectionately named.

Working with Lucy Dossor, Alan’s daughter, the exhibition explores the key elements of Dossor’s approach and includes reproductions of photographs and posters from the Everyman’s archive, held at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). As Mark Da Vanzo, the theatres’ CEO explains:

“Celebrating the 60th year at the Everyman could not pass by without taking a moment to reflect and celebrate Alan’s extraordinary legacy. His informal, adventurous and popular style, combining new work and reimagined classics, and giving actors and writers a chance to experiment and learn their craft, is still very much at the heart of our ethos today. We’re grateful to partner with LJMU who hold the Everyman’s archive and are pleased to not just share this exhibition now but also a long-term reminder of this remarkable man with the installation of a plaque on the wall as you go into the theatre. His daughter Lucy has chosen a perfect quote from her father: ‘Theatre won’t change the world, but the people watching it just might’. We’ll endeavor to honour this as we continue to nurture new talent and tell stories that matter, long into the future”.

Speaking about the exhibition and the plaque, Lucy Dossor said:

“Dad didn’t want a gravestone (when he died in 2016), so he might not approve of the sign we’ve put up. But he’s dead, so it’s not up to him.  I believe his drive to create theatre is summed up in the quote we chose. It’s hidden away in a far corner, you won’t come across it in passing, you must make a trip. People talk about Alan’s time as a ‘golden age’, but he would have said, tear it up, it’s bullshit, it’s the past, move on, do now. This is why the sign is hidden. He disrespected idolatry, celebrity, reverence. He has no grave, so the sign is a little place with his name on, and a message from him to everyone. Everyman. Feel free to destroy and make something better. But there must be laughs…” 

Susannah Waters, LJMU Library’s Head of Academic Services said:

“This exhibition showcases some of the wonderful material in the Everyman’s archive alongside text by LJMU’s Dr Ros Merkin. We hope the photographs and posters on display will prompt fond memories for some visitors and inspire others to find out more about the archive. It’s been fantastic working with the Everyman and Lucy on this project and we’re looking forward to further collaboration later this year.”

A Celebration of Alan Dossor is part of the Everyman’s 60th Birthday Year – Everyone Starts Somewhere – highlighting the importance of regional theatres such as the Everyman in the ecosystem, not just for theatre but also the film and tv industry around the world. The aim is to raise £60,000 across the next 12 months towards talent development, supporting the award-winning Young Everyman Playhouse and bringing new diverse voices to the stages. At the Everyman Theatre on Hope Street, the exhibition runs from Monday 3rd to Saturday 8th June and is open from 11am to 3pm.

A further exhibition celebrating 60 years of the Everyman will be held at LJMU’s Aldham Robarts Library between 19th August to 13th December 2024.

For more information on the Everyman’s 60th celebrations, visit: https://www.everymanplayhouse.com/everyone-starts-somewhere

To find out more about the Everyman archive, visit: https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/microsites/library/special-collections-and-archives/liverpool-theatre-and-writing/everyman-theatre-archive

 

A Window to your Neighbourhood

dot-art and Liverpool Architecture Festival 2024 (LAF24) have worked in partnership to produce this exhibition featuring local creatives. Artists of all abilities entered a free competition to show us ‘A Window to your Neighbourhood’.

dot-art as an arts organisation works with artists, communities, and businesses across Liverpool City Region. The dot-art Gallery was the ideal place for LAF 24 to host an exhibition exploring the architectural and place making elements of Liverpool’s neighbourhoods through artistic interpretation. The selection panel consisted of Kuda Mushangi (Architect, Artist & former LAF Committee Member) Lucy Byrne & Claire Henderson (Managing Director and Gallery Manager, dot-art). Mathew Giles (Director of Liverpool Architecture Festival) mediated the panel and provided prompts for the selection criteria based on artistic technique, displays of community and areas of historical significance and architectural interest.

From this process the panel selected 15 artists from the entries to exhibit their submitted pieces for the nearly 3-month long exhibition; out of which, and with much deliberation, the judging panel nominated an overall winner and three runners up. The overall winner is Simon Ward with ‘Portrait of Dr Sam Naghibi’. The runners up in no particular order are Neale Thomas with ‘Bootle Gasworks’, Gill Cowley with ‘Quarry Green Club’ and Martin Jones with ‘Ghosts’. The winner will receive a £500 voucher for art supplies as well as a year free as a dot-art Arist Member. The runners up will each received £100 voucher for art supplies and a year free as a dot-art Artist Member. The exhibition celebrates selected winners and all who have entered. They encourage their visitors to pick their winning works and share pictures across socials and tag @dotartliverpool and @laf_uk.

The range of artists in this exhibition specialise in a variety of media, from print to digital collage and more. They asked the artists, and now put the following questions to you as visitors to the exhibition: What does your neighbourhood mean to you? How is it framed within your day-to-day life? What local buildings, monuments, or built objects hold memories or stories? What hidden architectural gems does your local area hold?

‘A Window to Your Neighbourhood’ intentionally shifts the lens away from Liverpool’s iconic city centre architecture to the neighbourhoods where our small businesses thrive, communities grow, and resilience is built. Take a walk-through unfamiliar areas or down memory lanes. What do you remember from your locality? What’s still there? The exhibiting artworks, although many are devoid of people, exemplify through the industrial relics, social clubs, and shop fronts, that it is people that make places.

All artworks are for sale.

Join them for the Private View of the exhibition on Thursday 6th June from 5pm-7pm.

All welcome, but please register here:

dot-artxLAF24Neighbourhood.eventbrite.co.uk

The dot-art Gallery can be found at 14 Queen Avenue, Castle Street, Liverpool, L2 4TX (just 5 minutes’ walk from Liverpool One).

Opening times: Tuesday – Saturday, 10am-6pm

The exhibition runs 7th June – 17th August 2024.

Marion Bayliss & Kevin Eccles

An exciting new joint show by first time solo exhibitors, Marion Bayliss and Kevin Eccles, will open at the ArtHouse in Southport this month.

Centered around the theme of ‘My Journey’, their work although independently created, will combine early and recent artwork that demonstrates their artistic voyage and how they arrived at their distinctive conclusions.

Having moved to Lancashire 2 years ago, Marion Bayliss is still finding stimulation from her recent relocation: “I am thoroughly enjoying being in a new environment and am taking inspiration from my exciting new surroundings”.

In particular, Marion has an affinity with water that she can trace back to her childhood in Somerset: “My journey with water started when I was a very young child of 7 and my father (an ex-Water Polo player) taught me how to swim. Since then, I have always had a connection with water through swimming and being constantly surrounded by water in rivers, ponds, etc and of course the sea”.  

Marion has journeyed further afield in her search for creative inspiration: “I have often visited Devon and Cornwall to paint the sea and could be found sat on the beach with the sand in my toes, hair and paint trying to capture the atmosphere. It has been known that I will sometimes recreate the same scene 2 or maybe 3 times before I feel completely happy with the effects of trying different styles”.

Marion investigative nature also extends to the methods she uses to generate her art: “The media I like to use mostly are acrylics but I tend to use the medium that I feel will fulfil the effect that I want so it could be anything from watercolour pencils to oils and anything in between. Lately, I have tried to experiment more with different methods of working such as abstract and collage which I have found very interesting, fun and loosening in my working routines”.

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Self-taught graphite pencil artist, Kevin Eccles, from Hillside, is equally investigative in his highly detailed, hyperrealistic re-interpretations of the world around him: “My work explores that what we take for granted and documents on paper in such detail, your eyes will wonder again and again. The amount of detail shows the level of understanding of what I am creating”.

Although Kevin has previously experimented using watercolour and coloured pencils, he keeps returning to graphite to execute his ideas which remains at the core of his practice: “My preferred medium is graphite pencil although this may expand in the future. With a monotone outlook, the illusion is created using various shades of grey”.

Now retired, Kevin has been able to draw upon his earlier career as an electrical engineer to structure a clear-cut system of execution: “As an engineer, planning and attention to detail is critical where that mind set can be an advantage when creating a complex piece. Once an engineer always an engineer”.

Rising to the challenge of attaining photographic precision, when restricted to using a monochromatic palette, is even more testing given the wide extent of Kevin’s all-embracing vision: “To date I have been influenced by the world around me which is vast, mundane and diverse whether it be mechanical, biological or bricks and mortar. If I can find a subject/object to push the boundary – my boundary – then let’s do it”.

Certainly not one to be missed, this latest showing by Marion and Kevin will be on display at the ArtHouse, Eastbank Street, Southport from 4th – 22nd June 2024.  The gallery is open Tuesday – Friday 10.00-15.00.Saturday 11.00-16.00.

Bonds / Ripples

Open Eye Gallery is proud to present an annual exhibition of new talent graduating from BA Photography and Social Practice (UCEN Manchester) and BA in Digital Imaging and Photography (Hugh Baird College).

From the intimacy of personal relationships to the ways of navigating the perils and sharing our visual culture, these diverse projects illuminate how we can connect and support each other. The exhibition offers a nuanced exploration of the many ways in which relationships are formed, nurtured, and expressed.

Bonds / Hugh Baird College

Each year, Open Eye Gallery works with photography students from Hugh Baird College, giving guidance and feedback on their projects. The works making up the Bonds exhibition delve into the intricacy of shared experiences and perspectives. Each artist carefully explores connections with others, studying the ways they can be manifested or how new ones can be forged.

Works by: Billie Bowden, Jennifer Murray, Abby Ready, Joseph Smith, Courtney Smith, Valentin Todorean,, Michelle Webster.

Ripples / UCEN Manchester

Photography and Social Practice course is delivered by UCEN Manchester and Open Eye Gallery. This year UCEN students are presenting two projects. Dear Dad by Molly Wright is sharing the artist’s personal journey of grief through the form of photography and the astonishing impact that a place can have on memory. Movie Love by Aurelia Mermier invites the viewers to read through exchanged notes, memorabilia, and collaborative experimental photography of the two people in a relationship that has changed their lives deeply.

Works by: Molly Wright and Aurelia Mermier.

Sarah Fisher, Executive Director at Open Eye Gallery, said: Open Eye Gallery is interested in developing career opportunities for photographers from diverse backgrounds and bringing forward the individual voices of the next generation of artists. That’s the focus of these courses and this show. Both exhibitions have been through the process of thinking about what the students want to say as photographers. They are treated exactly the same as we would treat any international artist: it’s not about where they are in their careers, it’s about these individual voices and the stories they tell.

This exhibition is a continued celebration of Open Eye Gallery’s ongoing relationship with Hugh Baird College and UCEN Manchester. They are delighted to be supporting new photographic talent at the beginning of their artistic careers.

Day & Night – Dannielle Cam...

INNSiDE Liverpool, part of Meliá Hotels International, is excited to host a brand new exhibition in collaboration with local art gallery, dot-art.

The new exhibition, Day & Night, is from the talented artist Dannielle Campbell, inspired by her bright blue sky paintings in contrast with her deeper, rich nocturnal scenes that will sit alongside each other.

Dannielle uses art as a visual storytelling method, capturing the seascape sensation rather than physicality, revealing the lasting, lingering moments of your imagination. Evoking emotions and visuals that draw you into their depth. The thoughts that call you back or take your breath away.

As an exploration of art, in our ever changing world. The artworks are a reflection of her love for water which represents calmness. Channelling creativity to explore beauty, peace, and serenity yet provoking something to make the viewer want to look further. The Freedom Series is a chance to be taken out of our everyday lives to somewhere special and let your imagination run wild.

The collaboration with local artists forms part of INNSiDE’s philosophy ‘Stay Curious’, which aims to accommodate guests’ every need with considered comforts and inspired lifestyle experiences enriched with locally curated music, art, independents and culture.

You can visit the new exhibition at INNSiDE Liverpool from Friday 24th May until September, 2024. All artwork is for sale. Private view 23 May, 5 – 7pm.

Location: First Floor, INNSiDE Liverpool, Old Hall Street, Liverpool L3 9LQ, United Kingdom

To book a room please visit www.innside.com/liverpool

Visit dot-art Gallery at 14 Queen Avenue, Castle Street, Liverpool L2 4TX (5 minutes’ walk away) or dot-art.co.uk to find out more.

Ian Irvine: Visual Cocktails

Ian is an experienced artist, born in Liverpool in 1958. The majority of his work consists of screen prints and collages. In fact, the screen prints are essentially collages transferred into another medium.

Made by printing ink through a mesh screen onto paper or canvas, they include found and appropriated images combined with colours, and ‘gestural’ marks to make a coherent whole composition. They are influenced by some of the Pop artists of the 1960s and 70s such as Robert Rauschenberg and Richard Hamilton.

The images used are often from past eras, and include illustrations, diagrams, covers from ‘Pulp’ novels, film stars, and references to the art of past centuries. They could be referred to as ‘visual cocktails’.

The collages are a separate body of work, and are often quite puzzling and surreal. Hand-cut with just scissors and glue, these are influenced by some of the great Surrealist artists of the 1920s to 1950s such as Rene Magritte and Max Ernst. Included here are so-called ‘Remade Classics’ which are a take on some very famous paintings from past centuries, re-imagined with strange new interventions and made with a dose of humour.

This exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Ian’s brother David, who lived in Sankey, near Warrington for most of his adult life, and died in 2023.

Art Expo – Derek Prescott exhibi...

Welcome to the Art Expo – Derek Prescott Exhibition! Join the team at Start Yard for a showcase of stunning artwork by the talented artist Derek Prescott.

Immerse yourself in a world of vibrant colors and intricate details as you explore the pieces on display. This in-person event is a must-visit for art enthusiasts and anyone looking to be inspired. Don’t miss this opportunity to experience the creativity and passion of Derek Prescott’s work up close.

Classic car display

Join Museum of Liverpool for an amazing display of classic cars outside the Museum of Liverpool. They welcome the Phoenix Clock Face Classic Vehicle Association with some of their wonderful classic car collection.

Please note, this event is subject to weather conditions.

Thin Places Exhibition at the LAKE Gal...

Thin Places reveal themselves in moments of solitude, where there is mystery in the landscape and nature. In this group exhibition, a printmaker, a photographer and a painter share their emotional responses to the liminal landscape and invite us to connect with our own ‘thin’ spaces.

Alistair Tucker
Donalda O’Neill
Eli Pascall-Willis

Thursday 16th May –  Saturday 22nd June
Opening times: Thurs – Sat, 10am – 4pm

Alistair Tucker was born in Hampshire and now lives on the Wirral. His work looks to explore such excellence, grandeur and beauty, which so often inspires a response. He says: “ I love the way in which wind, cloud and rain change the light and therefore the form of the landscape. Light in a landscape has become my predominant preoccupation. Light comes from above but so often appears to come from within the landscape, as though the land itself would speak. I respond to the world around me and art is one way I try to make sense of it. Many things inspire me visually, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. Music, poetry, art and the bible are just a few of my other sources of inspiration, which you will see appearing in my work.”

Donalda O’Neill is from Northern Ireland. She moved to Liverpool in 1997 to study Fine Art and now lives and works on the Wirral. Her current work explores landscapes in and around where she grew up. She says about her work: “I relate to the idea of the ‘sublime’ in that being in the Irish landscape is a particular sensory experience I don’t feel anywhere else. It taps into something in my soul, it feels immeasurable and my insignificance in comparison to nature is magnified. I feel rooted within it, yet always knowing I have to leave, creating an urgency to record, to paint, to absorb as much as I can before it is lost to me again. The process of the painting is about holding on”.

Eli Pascall-Willis is a professional photographer living and working on the Wirral peninsula. Eli clearly remembers owning a camera at the age of ten. However, it was not until his mid-twenties when he found himself behind a friend’s SLR, which ignited his passion for image-making, initially with black and white film and printing in a darkroom. It also took him into the landscape, where he spent much of his time exploring various parts of the UK. In more recent years Eli has found himself drawn more and more to woodlands. His fascination for trees comes from early memories as a child living in Mid-Wales, exploring, climbing and making dens. He now seeks to further understand woodland habitats and capture their essence. Doing this gives him a feeling of calm and belonging.

The gallery will be hosting a preview evening on Thursday 16th May between 6pm and 8pm. All three artists will be joining them in the gallery for the evening so do head along to meet them.

You’ll find the LAKE gallery in the heart of West Kirby, a couple of minutes from the train station.

Creatures of the Nile

An exciting new exhibition, Creatures of the Nile, is now open at the University of Liverpool’s Victoria Gallery & Museum, which explores the fascinating position animals held in ancient Egyptian and Sudanese society and culture.

Creatures of the Nile features more than 250 objects, many of which have never been on public display. Highlights include one of the earliest known depictions of a domesticated dog, a sheet from the 3,500-year-old Book of the Dead and a bronze statue which entombed a mummified cat.