Event type: Exhibition

Exhibition Tour

Join FACT for an introductory exhibition tour of My Garden, My Sanctuary.

Learn how artists use technology, how their ideas get transformed into artworks and how they work with a curator to bring a show together.

This tour will be led by Senior Exhibitions Producer, Charlotte Horn, who will giving us a closer look at each of the immersive artworks by artists Yaloo and Sian Fan. The tour will last approximately 45-60 minutes.

Following recent feedback, our tours now benefit from a microphone and speaker to improve sound quality and give you a better touring experience.

Image: Zinzi Minott, Fi Dem V – A Redemptive Song, 2022. Installation view at FACT. Image by Drew Forsyth.

Chila Kumari Singh Burman: Opening Eve...

Join FACT to celebrate the opening of Chila Kumari Singh Burman’s vibrant redesign of their gallery space.

The installation Merseyside British Empire will contain new commissions from the Bootle-born artist including an immersive Tuk Tuk; a kaleidoscope of colour, made up of layered collages, glitter and embellished motifs including Hindu deities, Bindis and tigers.

This new space will present work from FACT’s artists-in-residence, host artist-led events, and deliver hands-on workshops. It will be somewhere for artists to experiment and engage directly with the public.

With food and drink from iconic street food hang out Bundobust, this joyful gathering will be packed with tasty treats and musical celebrations, marking the start of a year long installation of Chila’s signature culture-clashing visuals, neons and sculptures at FACT.

Food from Bundobust will be served from 1-5pm. We’ll then move onto serving drinks only from 5-8pm at Riposo, an independent bar located inside FACT.

 

Adornments of Fancy by Luke George

Next up at TRS is a solo exhibition by Liverpool-based painter, Luke George. Adornments of Fancy offers a glimpse of what the artist has been working on in the past 2 years.

Luke George (b.1994, UK) is a contemporary visual artist whose large-scale painted works are the product of time-intensive, cumulative mark making, which finds anchorages in colour and a balance between abstract and figurative imagery; between minimalism and excess.

Adornments of Fancy opens 15 July at The Royal Standard from 7-9pm. Refreshments will be available on the night.

Peter Walker – Being Human

A new exhibition, which is made up of four installations by acclaimed sculptor and artist, Peter Walker, is set to be unveiled at Liverpool Cathedral this month. ‘Being Human’, which is free to attend, launches on 27 July and runs until 30 August.

As part of a two-year programme of events, exhibitions and artworks leading up to the iconic building’s 100th anniversary, which falls in 2024, the latest collaboration between Liverpool Cathedral and the renowned artist explores what it means to be human.

At the heart of the exhibition will be a sculpture entitled Connection, inspired by Michelangelo’s ‘Creation of Adam’. A contemporary twist on the Renaissance masterpiece, which depicts God’s hand reaching out to meet Adam’s finger, the striking installation features two giant hands, each standing at two metres tall and equivalent in height to the size of an average front door.

‘Being Human’ aims to encourage visitors to reflect on who they are as individuals, what makes us unique as human beings and how we connect with others in a changing world, as they journey through the four artworks: Connection, Reflection, Identity and Creativity.

The exhibition promises to be just as awe-inspiring as the talented artist’s previous works at Liverpool Cathedral including ‘Peace Doves’, a mass participation art installation featuring around 18,000 paper doves suspended from the roof of the magnificent building.

Earlier this year, working as one half of the artistic duo, Luxmuralis, he amazed visitors by flooding Liverpool Cathedral with the wonders of the universe in a dazzling display of projections, lights and sounds as part of an immersive art installation entitled ‘Space, The Universe and Everything’.

Speaking on his next collaboration with Liverpool Cathedral, artist and sculptor, Peter Walker, said: “It’s a huge honour to be working with the team at Liverpool Cathedral once again. As the largest cathedral in the UK and one of the biggest in the world, the vast space within the iconic building provides the perfect setting for an exhibition that explores what it means to be human.

“Bringing together sculpture, created using traditional techniques, with interactive art installations, ‘Being Human’ will fascinate visitors of all ages across many different levels and I can’t wait to unveil the exhibition later this month.”

The Dean of Liverpool, The Very Revd Dr Sue Jones, said: “We’re really looking forward to welcoming Peter back to Liverpool Cathedral. ‘Being Human’ looks set to be one of his most thought-provoking pieces yet and I’m sure the exhibition will inspire visitors to contemplate just how remarkable we are as human beings.

“Our connection with others is more important than ever, particularly after so many of us experienced feelings of isolation and loneliness during the pandemic when families, friends and communities were kept apart for so long. I would like to encourage visitors from all walks of life to visit the exhibition and use the experience to reflect upon what makes us human, the value of our relationships and how we feel when we’re separated from others.”

Liverpool Cathedral is open to visitors from 10am – 6pm daily with the exception of 27 July when the ‘Being Human’ exhibition launches to the public at 11am.

For more information about ‘Being Human’ and the events programme at Liverpool Cathedral, visit liverpoolcathedral.org.uk.

Twice Nightly: The Argyle Theatre Reme...

The Argyle Theatre of Varieties opened in 1868 on the edge of the then developing town of Birkenhead. Owned and managed by three generations of one family, it entertained thousands of people over 72 years.

The theatre became known nationally and internationally as ‘The Cradle of the Stars’ launching the careers of artistes who were to become household names.

Come and see original playbills and memorabilia from public and private collections, and follow the fascinating story of the theatre and its people in “Twice Nightly, the Argyle Theatre Remembered”.

The exhibition opens Wednesday 8th June and runs until Saturday 3rd September and is free entry. “Twice Nightly: The Argyle Theatre Remembered” is made possible thanks to the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Emma Rodgers: Wunderkammer

This summer, the Williamson Art Gallery will host a special exhibition of the work of Wirral-based sculptor Emma Rodgers.

The exhibition is a mini-retrospective of Emma’s practice and gives visitors a chance to step into the artist’s studio and see how her work has developed over time – from the young art student awestruck by the collections in her local Williamson Art Gallery, to one of the country’s foremost sculptors in ceramic and bronze. “Wunderkammer” explores the objects, people and places that have fascinated and inspired Emma throughout her career.

Alongside the exhibition, the Williamson Art Gallery will be unveiling a specially commissioned new sculpture by Emma for the Gallery’s outdoor courtyard.

The ‘Garden of Artemis’ is a life-size ornamental oak tree sculpture in steel and bronze – a nod to both the oak tree in Birkenhead’s coat of arms, and the trees that feature in the Gallery’s collection of Della Robbia decorative ceramics. The sculpture has been made possible by funding from the estate of Fanchon Frohlich, through the Williamson and Priory Friends.

dot-art x OEG Analogue Photography Com...

dot-art teamed up with Open Eye Gallery in March 2022 to create an Analogue Photography Competition for both amateur and professional photographers based in the North West.

This collaboration was to platform and celebrate local film photography and the dot-art Darkroom, established in the past year in the historic Cotton Exchange building. The Darkroom is equipped to process and develop black & white film prints and can be accessed on a hire or membership basis. At dot-art we also run a series of courses on Darkroom techniques and analogue photography aimed at beginners to intermediate photographers.

The competition came with the award of 3 months membership to dot-art’s city centre Darkroom & Artist Membership, a one-to-one crit session with Open Eye’s Programme Assistant as well as the lead feature in this 1-week exhibition on Open Eye Gallery’s Digital Window Gallery.

After a judging panel consisting Open Eye Gallery’s Director Sarah Fisher, Programme Assistant Declan O’Connoly, dot-art’s Founder and Manging Director Lucy Byrne and Gallery Manager Claire Henderson examined the 25 submissions to the competition, the panel selected their favourite images.

Discussing the skill, subject, and darkroom techniques of each submission it was decided that Chun-Mei Wang was the winner of this, the first year of the competition. Chun-Mei Wang’s winning submissions were part of her Darkroom Project, ‘White’. Interested in social structures and the cultural performances we engage in within them, Mei created gelatin silver prints, translating the concept of white into the relationship between image, light, subject, object, shape, and shadow as there is no substantial white during the printing process.

Mei also submitted images from her series ‘Called’, a photographic study of Beitou, a suburb of Taipei and Mei’s hometown. Due to gentrification, Taipei has transformed into a flourishing city. By photographing the landscape, she explores what details are embedded in this place and what traces remain of the history before the colonisation of Taiwan by Japan over a century ago.

dot-art and Open Eye Gallery are proud to platform the passion, innovation and quality of analogue photography in Liverpool and invite the public to view this exhibition featuring all the competition submissions on the Digital Window Gallery in Mann Island outside of Open Eye Gallery from Wednesday 13th – Sunday 17th July.

Find out more about the dot-art Darkroom here: dot-art.co.uk/darkroom/

 

Art of the Terraces

The Walker Art Gallery has announced a ground-breaking new exhibition combining fashion, football and art, as told from the terraces of the stadiums. Art of the Terraces is the first major exhibition to tell the story of a movement that defined sports culture of the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

This pioneering exhibition considers the culture of football ‘casuals’, which began on Britain’s football terraces in the late 1970s. Through the medium of art, it highlights the clothing brands and sports footwear, music and encounters between rival groups of football supporters which defined an era and generation.

In a fusion of art, fashion and popular culture, Art of the Terraces explores the work of a generation of contemporary artists and designers who have been influenced by this movement over the last 40 years. It celebrates a cultural scene that has been overlooked by the mainstream art world, but which has created its own dynamic art forms and which is now credited with the mass popularisation of sportswear as leisurewear – a worldwide phenomenon.

Visitors will see artwork by leading contemporary artists such as Leo Fitzmaurice, Turner Prize winners Mark Leckey and Mark Wallinger, Pete McKee, Lucy McKenzie, Ross Muir and Dave White.

Pauline Rushton, Head of Decorative Arts at National Museums Liverpool, said: “It’s been our ambition for a long time to hold an exhibition of this kind at the Walker. Terrace culture originated among football fans here in the North West in the 1970s, and it’s difficult to overemphasise quite how far-reaching its influence has become.

“We’ll consider the highs and lows of going to the match, and the sense of identity and belonging that could be discovered and signalled to others through wearing a certain pair of trainers or branded sports top.”

The story of the movement, its wider significance in British and European popular culture and its artistic legacy will be told through more than 100 paintings, graphic designs and fashion items, as well as video and installation art.

This movement created a whole new approach to fashion, which still inspires brand loyalty today, and has attracted a new generation of fans of retro and classic sportswear and footwear. National Museums Liverpool is the first British museum to present the story of this sub-culture, which has had significant and far-reaching influence.

Dave Hewitson, exhibition partner and creator of the 80sCasuals website and clothing brand, said: “This wasn’t just a group of kids following fashion and wearing the latest trends, these kids were creating their own trends and style. The clothes, the attitude and ultimately the match defined the culture.”

Art of the Terraces is led by National Museums Liverpool in collaboration with four external partners: Dave Hewitson, creator of the 80sCasuals website and clothing brand; Hamburg-based artist Jens Wagner; illustrator Peter O’Toole and brand designer Adam Gill of Grammar Studio, Huddersfield. Staff and students of the Fashion: Design & Communication BA (Hons) course at Liverpool’s John Moores University are also collaborating on the exhibition. It is supported by Scotts Menswear and Tessuti.

If visitors enjoy Art of the Terraces, we’re asking them to pay what they think is appropriate, to support our museums and art galleries. Visitor contributions enable us to offer a rich programme of exhibitions and events, and support us in caring for our internationally known collections and reaching thousands of young people each year.

liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/artoftheterraces 

 

The Bluecoat’s Looked After Children

This summer the Bluecoat will open a new heritage exhibition The Bluecoat’s Looked After Children, examining the history of the building as a charity school and the unheard voices of the children it housed.

This exhibition brings archival material relating to the school together with contemporary art, including documentation of past Bluecoat exhibitions and performances that have interrogated this history.

The Bluecoat has worked directly with a group of adults with experience of the modern care system, along with creatives, to research some of the individual children identified in the school’s archive. Under the guidance of Liverpool writer Margy McShane the participants have creatively reimagined the lost voices of these children.

The work produced by this adult group will be featured in a new installation commission from interactive design studio Stand + Stare, which will form the centrepiece of the exhibition, and bring to life some of the stories of the children from the Bluecoat’s past.

Liverpool-based dance artist Paula Hampson has collaborated with a second group of participants, young people from Kinship Carers, to further explore the day to day life of a nineteenth-century Blue Coat pupil. Kinship Carers are an organisation supporting children looked after by family members and friends.

The Bluecoat building was originally a school, known as the Blue Coat Hospital or simply The Charity School. Founded in 1708, it then occupied larger, purpose-built premises – the current Bluecoat building  – dedicated in 1717 to ‘train destitute children in the principles of the Anglican church’.

The Bluecoat was a boarding school for boys and girls, many of whom had been orphaned. The pupils led a harsh life, working in a ‘manufactory’ – making pins, spinning cotton and picking oakum – alongside their lessons. At the age of 14 or 15, many of the boys were apprenticed to merchants for a further seven years, while girls often were employed in domestic service. Some girls stayed on at the school, employed as assistant teachers for younger girls, or as laundry assistants.

After nearly two centuries, the school moved to larger premises in Wavertree, where it continues today, and the Bluecoat building became an arts centre, the UK’s first.

Looked After Children is part of the Bluecoat’s Echoes and Origins project, exploring the eighteenth-century origins of the building through an engagement with local people. The first strand of this project, ‘Colonial Legacies’, involved young people interrogating the contemporary ramifications of the transatlantic slave trade that many Liverpool merchants who funded the school, notably its founder Bryan Blundell and his sons, were involved in.

A Family Day on Sunday 17 July from 11am-4pm will celebrate the opening weekend of the exhibition. This event will feature spoken word performances in the Bluecoat’s garden, craft activities and a special performance from young participants working with dance artist Paula Hampson.

A full programme of events will accompany this exhibition in September. Details will be announced nearer the time on the Bluecoat website.

LOOK Photo Biennial 2022: Climate

Open Eye Gallery opens up all three galleries from July to September 2022 to a host of work that follows on from the LOOK Climate Lab 2022.

In Gallery 1, there will be the ongoing photography projects On The Ground: The Story of Trans-Nzoia Through the Trees and Tree Story – A History of Liverpool City Region Through Its Trees, two projects which explore the importance of trees and community in both Kitale, Kenya and Liverpool, UK.

On The Ground is the work of a two month residency in the Kitale forest by photographer Frederick Dharshie Wissah, depicting food and water insecurity alongside the local communities aiding in preservation and conservation.

Tree Story is a collaboration between Open Eye Gallery, dot-art, and Mersey Forest, who invited the public to create a history of Liverpool through its trees using personal stories and photography.

The work has been created in collaboration with photographer Andy Yates. Gallery 2 presents Other Lines, stills and moving image work by David Kendall using thermal imaging and SMART phones to visually research air emissions produced by industrial landscapes, such as oil refineries,  in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire.

There is also photographic work sourced through an open call which asked for images responding to themes of energy, materials, transport, or non-human animals. LOOK will showcase Hellen Songa’s Mwalula, a photography project produced while Hellen visited their father Chileshe’s home country of Zambia after 23 years of separation.

Despite the differences in location and culture, both reconnected on their similar interests in farming; in particular, Mwalula Green-Life Farm, a plant-based, organic farm bought and ran by Chileshe and directed with Hellen. Mwulula will be facilitated by Groundworks to show in several public settings –  Faiths4Change, Hope Community Garden, Friends of Everton Park and John Archer Hall.

Open Eye Gallery will also be showing Hellen’s Volunteer Voices: Liverpool Food Growers Network, which exhibited at the LOOK Climate Lab 2022 and exhibited in several public locations.

The portraits are a visual display of 100 volunteers involved in community food growing across Liverpool. Descriptions alongside the portraits highlight the positive benefits individuals get out of volunteering and that these projects have on local nature.