Rob Davies is a Wirral-based artist who paints large-scale watercolour landscapes. His initial inspiration is the notion of a romantic “sublime”.
Davies’s artworks are eclectic, but mainly combine elements from semi-industrial and semi-wild environments into landscapes that hover somewhere between real locations and science fiction. The paintings, using a variety of media from watercolour to oils, depict these quasi-imaginary landscapes with a mix of realism and gestural mark making.
One of Davies’ interests is in the mind’s tendency to wander, its desire to be elsewhere. We often try to romanticise what we are seeing, or to project our thoughts onto what could be called ‘mundane’ environments. Locations such as train tracks or embankments become translated in these works as fitting starting points for exploring such inclinations.
Photo Credit – Stephen Dodd: bigcheese.co.uk
Seen and Heard – Adventures in Art and Dementia brings together six artists who worked creatively in the Belong care village in Chester.
Spending time with residents, families, Belong colleagues and children from the on-site Nursery in Belong, they invited people to take part in a range of arts activities. This exhibition, which journeys throughout the ground floor of Grosvenor Museum in Chester, includes artworks made by the artists and people from the village community.
Seen and Heard is part of Where the Arts Belong, a groundbreaking partnership between the Bluecoat, Liverpool’s contemporary arts centre, and innovative care provider, Belong. They are delighted to share a glimpse into the processes, artists’ works and responses created across the project.
You can find out more about Where the Arts Belong here: https://www.thebluecoat.org.uk/projects/where-the-arts-belong
The exhibition takes place at Grosvenor Museum in Chester, and continues until Sunday 8th October.
Grosvenor Museum, 27 Grosvenor Street, Chester, CH1 2DD
Website: www.grosvenormuseum.westcheshiremuseums.co.uk
Liverpool Biennial, the UK’s largest visual arts festival, started in 1999 under the patronage of James Moores. Since its inception, the Bluecoat has been a partner, providing a venue for most of the International exhibitions and being on the curatorial team for some of them.
It has also devised programmes of live art, run participation projects, hosted events and worked with the artists in the Biennial’s Independent strand.
This display, drawn from the Bluecoat’s archive, includes photos of exhibitions and performances, publications and other printed material, and a slide show charting the Biennial at Bluecoat over the last 24 years.
The photos included are a selection documenting the many artists the Bluecoat has worked with over eleven Biennials. An accompanying slideshow in the display features more images and details of the full Biennial programme at the arts centre, 1999-2021.
Showcasing a selection of paintings at Art In The Everyman.
Daniel’s paintings are exceptionally multi-coloured, overjoyed, and stimulating – waking us from our unaware slumber. Not only are his paintings fused with academic fundamentals of art, like form, colour, and texture, but also screech the maximalist style in a fashionable sensibility.
“There is no dearth of concepts, meaningful identities, and multifarious objects. Instead, each painting is a disclosure of a new tale and experiences.”
dot-art Gallery, Liverpool 2023
Celebrate Summer with a weekend of visual art curated by Laura McCann.
The showcase will feature painter Dave Turner, ink printer Kate Hornby, floral artist Danielle Sexton, photographer Ilona Walker and edible plant specialist Steph from Foru Plants.
There will be a summer soundtrack and specially made seasonal drinks to take on to the sun terrace. Come for the art, stay for the party.
Harold Hewitt creates life-scale immersive pictures of the world we’re all familiar with.
His images are of local scenes, but sometimes a narrative emerges that he didn’t expect – perhaps referencing history, religion, poetry, art history, mythology or even present-day issues. What began as a familiar local scene becomes a stage for a drama, or sometimes a metaphor for a bigger message.
While the pictures might look at a glance like enlarged photos, they begin as oil paintings created on location. These are then developed over many months using hundreds of collaged cut outs. These give the pictures spatial depth, bringing in peripheral as well as direct vision. With the peripheral vision and large size together you feel you can almost step into the works, and become part of the narrative.
Life Is A Collage will run 9th June – 29th July in galleries 1 and 2. For full visiting information check their Visit Us page.
EVENTS:
Opening night: Thursday 8th June, 6-8pm – all welcome. Harold will be joined by Ruth Fisher to sing songs about the works from 6-7pm, and then will give a 10-minute talk about the exhibition.
Artist Talks: Friday 16th June, 6pm and Saturday 1st July, 2pm. Book on Tickets Wirral
Launching with a curated display in their gallery space, this summer Bluecoat Display Centre are delighted to share a collection of homewares, jewellery, textiles and more which have been specially selected as gifts for those significant occasions in your life, including weddings and anniversaries.
Whether you’re planning your dream wedding, eloping for an intimate ceremony, celebrating your 50th anniversary, have a big birthday coming up, moving into a new home or planning your retirement do, they have a carefully curated collection of handmade gifts by their talented craft makers, which can be tailored to match the unique character of your occasion.
Included in the collection are some items for before and during the big day, including a collection of distinctive, handmade engagement and wedding rings, bridal jewellery, textile accessories and paper decorations.
Join us for the display opening and launch of the collection on Saturday 10 June 2023 between 2pm – 4pm. Friends of the Bdc will receive a 10% discount on all purchases from the gallery during the event.*
Between Friday, July 7th and Thursday, July 27th, The Brain Charity will host Minds Re-imagined – an art in science exhibition.
The exhibition is a collaboration between artist Helen Lydon and neuroscientist Dr Josh Kearney.
The mixed-media artworks featured are a response to recent findings in cognitive neuroscience.
They reimagine our brains in different ways, using metaphors of mind.
This gives an imaginative perspective on how our brains are diverse, dynamic and extended: constantly working and thinking in tandem with our bodies, other people and the environment.
The artworks will be on display in The Brain Charity’s centre for anyone to view during our opening hours (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm).
On Friday, July 7th between 12pm and 2pm there will be an informal launch in The Brain Food Café – all are welcome.
To RSVP, please click the sign-up button today. For more information, email activities@thebraincharity.org.uk or call The Brain Charity on 0151 298 2999 and ask for Suzanne.
Ensemble
Solo exhibition of paintings by Ali Barker
The Landing, The Atkinson, Southport
24 June – 22 July 2023
Exhibition open Monday – Saturday, 10am-4pm.
Meet the Artist day Saturday 8th July.
Ali Barker’s work expresses music and sound in colour. She works with a fixed palette to represent the colours she perceives through her experiences of the phenomenon of sound-colour synaesthesia – when listening to music, she perceives notes of the musical scale as specific colours.
These personal experiences are the inspiration and motivation for Ali’s artistic practice. She draws upon them, as well as her musical background (she plays the violin and viola), to create her abstract paintings. Starting from the written music, her perceptions whilst listening to specific pieces, or working from sound recordings she has analysed, her translational processes develop excerpts into colourful paintings, ranging from gestural works to geometric patterns.
As a mature student, Ali Barker studied Foundation Art and Design at Southport College in 2014-15 and completed her MA in Fine Art (Distinction) at the University of Chester in 2019.
Based in Sefton, Ali has exhibited her artwork across North West England. She has had two solo shows in Liverpool, and regularly exhibits in group shows, including the Sefton Open. Ensemble brings together a selection of works made in the last few years with new paintings made for this exhibition.
https://www.alibarker.com/news-main.html
In their first major show as a co-operative, artists of the Material Matters collective present ‘Here To Become’: an exhibition of new contemporary art and series of events at the Bridewell Gallery from 7- 14th July 2023.
Angelo Madonna further explores his work on body-duality; Silvia Battista invokes ritual practice to imagine a mythological, speculative fiction; Patric Rogers presents a startling geological examination of human identity and John Elcock unveils a giant kinetic sculpture as a chilling metaphor for nuclear annihilation.
‘Here to Become’ is an Independents Biennial event responding to the theme of the 2023 Liverpool Biennial ‘uMoya: The Sacred Return of Lost Things’ which addresses the history and temperament of our city and its call for ancestral forms of knowledge, wisdom and healing.
