Trophies: James Webster at Fairhurst Gallery, Norwich

24th June – 3rd September 2016

This review is really about Trophies, a stunning new exhibition in the city, but it is also partly about the gallery that hosts it, so let me start there first. Tucked down a tiny passage off Bedford Street, called Websdales Court, the gallery has in fact been there for many years, when it was run, as many will remember, by the legendary Timothy ‘Tizzie’ Fairhurst. The gallery was started in 1949 by his father, Joseph Fairhurst, a painter and member of the Norwich Twenty Group. It was his Flint House Gallery, back then in Elm Hill, that hosted the very first meeting of the Norfolk Contemporary Art Society just over 60 years ago. More recently, in Bedford Street, the Fiarhurst Gallery has passed to a wonderful and dynamic young couple Dulcie and Tom Humphrey, who together with their outstandingly capable framer, Sophie Barrett, now run a specialist framing and restoration service upstairs, in a vast heaven of glorious and seductive ‘stuff’ that one would yearn to work in, as well as a dynamic and adventurous contemporary gallery downstairs, overseen by Dulcie. This is just the sort of initiative that Norwich, already edging towards city of art status, deserves. Recent exhibitions have been intelligently curated and brilliantly hung and promoted, and have included a sensible blend of local artists (Brüer Tidman, Joceline Wickham and Polly Cruse, Malca Schotten, Greg Barnes) as well as some from outside the County, a very healthy sign.

Upstairs at Fairhurst

Which brings me to James Webster. I may be getting long in the tooth, but I have just looked carefully at all the work in the British Art Show 8 that is all over Norwich at the moment, and I have to say that I find Webster’s work more interesting and more engaging than that of any of the 40+ young artists chosen to represent the best in Britain. How odd is that? Well, not very, actually, as even a brief visit to this current exhibition will confirm. Webster grew up in Norfolk, went to school in Norwich, and now works in Suffolk. But he trained in Florence and this has given him a breadth of experience in history, ceramics and anatomy that permeates his work here. Trophies has deep roots in childhood obsessions with bones and slaughter houses. Working from real skulls, this has emerged as a series of eight animal skulls and their vertebrae first made in terracotta 20% larger than life-size. Horse, tiger, stork and rhino. Dissected into parts, moulds are made and then casts produced in porcelain, which are assembled and fired. Now back to life-size, parts like teeth are glazed and colour is supplied with iron oxides before the final firing. Gold leaf is then applied to the areas that would be lit by a strong overhead light. Finally these remarkable structures are intuitively balanced or mounted just so on their gorgeously-patinated, custom-made concrete plinths, each in turn standing on a perfectly-proportioned, dark mild-steel base. The skull ensemble is arranged dramatically spotlit as an avenue, four on each side, in the black curtained gallery, now entered by a black arch.

This powerful juxtaposition of what look like at first like real bones, or indeed ancient fossils, with gold leaf, and their formal presentation in a dark chapel or tomb-like setting, conjure up many thoughts and resonances. Guardians or Icons or Memorials? The sun-like gold on ancient Egyptian tomb figures, hints at rituals of the dead, funerary rites and our veneration for lost beings. So are these skulls of animals or of gods, clearly revered here on their spotlit plinths? The delicate bone-like porcelain, that is also so strong as a material, hints at the strength of our commonality with the animal kingdom, from which we evolved so relatively recently. This complex, unified display of work gives us pause for thought; about who we are, how we came to be, what we value in life and in death, and that is what art should do. So, congratulations to James Webster, his agent Jonathan Kugel and to Fairhurst for so brilliantly housing it all!

Annual Art Prize at NUA

Saskia Jonquil with her work after the prize giving

Each year ncas awards a £500 prize to the best work by a fine art student in the degree show at Norwich University of the Arts . This year it was another tough decision for the ncas trustees on the judging panel. Having fairly unanimously chosen a shortlist of six, it was harder for the full group then to reach a final decision on the winner. But in the end we have chosen Saskia Jonquil and her set of four sculptures entitled Dirt Candy I – IV. Her cast bronze works of bio-organic forms, metamorphosed into sexually-resonant, imaginary constructions particularly attracted us, as did the immaculate, welded steels mountings. The runner-up was Ellie Davison-Archer, whose delicious and meticulous graphite studies of the minutiae of natural-history objects also charmed us. Brenda Ferris, the chair of ncas, awarded Saskia her prize in an informal ceremony at NUA just before the degree show opened on the 31st May, and she thanked Joseph Wang who had organized this year's prize process but who could not be at the ceremony.

Audrey Pilkington exhibition at Skippings Gallery in Great Yarmouth

Skippings Gallery has been enjoying immense success with two highly-attended exhibitions since its re-launch in January 2016. The third exhibition of the year, running from Saturday April 9th to Saturday May 7th, will showcase the joyful, imaginative art of Audrey Pilkington who passed away in 2015.

Audrey was born in 1922 and attended the Lancaster School of Art, Storey Institute, aged 17 years old, where she was strongly influenced by the teacher, artist and poet, Ronald Grimshaw. She continued her studies at the Slade during the War years, meeting an interesting range of artists including the Vorticist, William Roberts.

Audrey’s early career evolved to include teaching, drawing for Vogue as well as illustration. It was later, whilst working at the King Alfred School in Germany that her painting career flourished with lively paintings in gouache and oils inspired by the enchanting Schleswig-Holstein lake country. She also began experimenting with collage, a technique she continued to explore throughout her career and which can be discerned in many aspects of her painting method. During this period, her work was exhibited in Hamburg to critical acclaim.

Audrey later exhibited widely in East Anglia, with solo shows in London, Italy and Switzerland, and most recently at the Cut in Halesworth in 2007.

The exhibition at Skippings Gallery will offer visitors an insight into the multifaceted nature of Audrey’s highly original and expressive work.

John Kiki at the Merchant House Gallery

In the intervening three years since I first wrote about it in 2013, the ambitious white walls of The Merchant House Gallery, in Lowestoft, have supported a host of local talent. So far, the gallery’s interest has been focused on the Yarmouth Five, whose real talent in depth is hauling the art scene on the East Anglian Coast firmly into the limelight. The current show of John Kiki’s recent paintings is no exception. Kiki, I am told, is perhaps more of an acquired taste than his other Yarmouth colleagues, but I for one have the flavour inextricably now on the end of my tongue.

Kiki has patiently described several times in the past his antipathy to the significance of ‘subject matter’ in his work, saying it is not of ‘primary concern for me’. Instead he places his own emphasis on experimentation, process and freshness in the creation of his work, all of which is both apparent and true. But most artists are unreliable narrators, and I want to describe what I see in his recent work in addition to all this activity. Kiki comes from a large Mediterranean family, but for a long time now has been embedded, along with his studio, in the seedy, energetic and glittery cradle of Great Yarmouth. It seems clear to me that these two visual and mythic places account, at least in part, for much of the imagery that emerges through his spontaneous working methods. The twin poles of Greek Mythology and Seaside Mythology infect and inflect his imagination in a way that cannot be erased. Repeating motifs of horses, riders, centaurs, goddesses, dances, graces, performers and dance macabre all belong just as much in the bustle of the fairground and the seafront as in the ancient myths. And added to this rich source material in his subconscious are the core figurative concerns of western art, the nude, the artist and model and the portrait. His are contemporary interpretations, yes, but they also plunder work from the giants of the past, from Picasso, with his lovers, dancers and guitarists, and particualrly Velasquez, whose infantas, the children of Iberian monarchs, occur repeatedly as motifs.

How do these varied references appear on his canvases? Very rapidly is the first thing to say, and he is indeed a remarkably prolific artist. Acrylic, squeezed directly from a bottle, is used to draw freely and fast, directly onto the surface, creating a determinedly two-dimensional image that then mysteriously morphs over time, losing bits there, acquiring bits here, often physically cut and pasted from one image to another. Streaks, splashes, areas and edges of colour are included and layers and texture emerge from the process, as pattern, balance, composition and look are reworked towards a satisfactory synthesis. It then receives a title! The final work, despite its figurative basis, has a flat abstract quality and a colour balance that powerfully underpin the joyous and fun figures cavorting on top. ‘Painter’s paintings’ they certainly are, but they are also accessible and gorgeous for the rest of us too.

John Kiki trained at Camberwell in the early 60s, under Auerbach and other well-known colleagues, before moving to the Royal Academy School, where he began to develop the distinctive style that is still evolving. He has exhibited widely, including in New York, Barbican, Haywood Gallery, Serpentine Gallery, Germany, Zagreb and Zurich, but has exhibited locally too at many venues. One of his best works, the large Nessus and the Ladies, riffing on the myth of the Centaur, Heracles and his wife Deianeira, was purchased in 2007 for the Castle Museum Collection from the major show he had there that year. Now is a good time to catch up with what he is up to now; make a trip to Lowestoft this week!

At the Merchant House Gallery, 102 High Street, Lowestoft, NR32 1XW

12 March - 2 April and from 9 - 30 April 2016. Open: Tue and Thur-Sat 11am - 4pm.

Derek Morris at The Cut

Derek Morris: Drawing, Light and Colour: A Miscellany Exhibition at The Cut, Halesworth
Tuesday 16 February – Saturday 19 March

Selwyn Taylor reports:

As you ascend the stairs and enter the upper gallery of The Cut in Halesworth, you are immediately confronted by the massive Victorian wrought-iron roof-trusses. Being in such close proximity to the architectural fabric of the building, it takes a few seconds to refocus your view through the large geometric shapes towards the equally, but smaller scale, geometric wall sculptures of Derek Morris.

As you walk down the long gallery you could, if you’re lucky as I was, be greeted by wonderful low, winter sunshine flooding through the tiny grain store window; echoes of the building's past, and grain being left to dry naturally.

The structure of the 19th-century maltings requires the visitor to peer through one space to view another. This process has a natural empathy with the viewing of Derek’s work; both require the viewer to focus on a more distant point. The negative spaces created by the strongly drawn forms rely on light and reflection and are often influenced by the simplicity of Romanesque and Modernist architecture.

The whole back wall of the gallery is dedicated to the intricate 3-D abstract constructions, some containing vibrant colours, others using sheets of light to render the different surfaces. Derek’s consummate craftmanship is very evident, whether he is using metal, wood, plastic, ceramic or handmade paper and board. Industrial laser cutting is often used to provide the precision demanded within his work.

Once the immediate impact of each work has had time to be absorbed, these beautifully crafted pieces deserve closer examination. Take time to observe the subtlety of one plane being rotated against another by just a few degrees, the nuanced shifts in perspective, the tensions created between the different materials, colours and layering of his work.

There is a wonderful diverse range of work on show, both 2D and 3D, all representative of the European Modernist tradition of Constructed Art.

There is a noticeable and very beautiful synergy between the gallery space and Derek’s work. I felt energised after seeing this show, and I urge you to pay The New Cut a visit to see for yourselves.

Contemporary Painters East, 22-24 January 2016

Contemporary Painters East: show at Freight Gallery, Magdalen Street, Norwich



Joseph Wang reports:

Freight is the third gallery in the growing portfolio of Anthony George, Norwich’s newest gallery impresario and a former NCAS NUA prize winner. A cavernous rectangular room with double-height, concrete and steel beamed ceiling, makes it feel like the cargo-hold of a large freightliner. Naturally, this also means very large white walls!

Nick Powell

Ironically, many of the artworks here are deliberately small, almost cameo-like, but with no loss of impact. This is a mixed show of diverse artists, with many paintings relating to the environment, social commentary, a sense of space and peoples. Stretching from portraiture to abstract, and from the familiar to fantasy, many of the works use photographic and digital images to compose the work or be part of it, embracing the eclectic and pluralistic style we see in many mixed shows nowadays. But this does not always detract – the imagery is used with intelligence and empathy. For example, Nick Powell’s paperback-sized paintings of Dixons Chimney in Carlisle, built in 1836 and the tallest structure still standing shows defiance, whilst in his painting of Peenemunde time is frozen in a melancholic past. His other works likewise have a sense of stillness relating to the incongruity of the past against the dynamics of change today. I liked them!

Emily Cole

Anna-Lise Horsley continues her abstract themes as shown in her “Pandemonium 7” – a riot of colours, shapes and noise! Aaron Fickling’s paintings project in 3-D from the wall. Using mixed media he places diverse imagery within strong geometric shapes merging collage, logos and design, whilst Russell Eade’s paintings of polished metal sheets capture pools of reflected light and distorted images in a very realistic yet painterly manner – he wants you to experience reflected and distorted light.
Finally, recent NUA graduate Andy Rhodes continues with his theme from the Bishop’s Prize, showing paintings within which Norfolk Landscapes meet modern architecture, surrealism and fantasy as well as images from Gattaca! He’s influenced by Jacque Lacan’s theory of illusion, skilfully using traditional oil painting to manipulate and create his version of Futurism. A very mixed and interesting show in our newest gallery!

Freight Gallery
12 - 14 Magdalen Street
Norwich NR3 1HU

NB Sadly the exhibition is only open from 22 to 24th Jan

David Chedgey opens in style at Skippings Gallery, Gt. Yarmouth

Diana Heuvel reports:

SKIPPINGS Gallery, the newly refurbished exhibition space at 133 King Street, Gt. Yarmouth, has now opened with an exhibition of work by CHEDGEY. His witty interactive sculptures, prints and paintings selected from the past 50 years, are delightfully entertaining and cover a wide spectrum of work.

Chedgey, under the tutelage of Frank Auerbach remembers being told that "red advances, blue recedes" - true to this creed the vibrant paintings of Cuban back streets and rockabilly automobiles of the 1950's have the smoky flavour of irresistible invitation while, very differently, Honore Buonaparte, Chedgey's alto ego, gambols on the beach, scantily clad, with the Mitford sisters.

Chedgey's essential tremor is making delicate brush strokes difficult for him, but a charming recent painting of apple blossom outside his window (with a nod to Van Gogh) has a soft freshness.

Visitors are encouraged to 'wind it up and see what happens' or ' open the door' to the surprises of the interactive sculptural pieces, where you will meet fig leaves or tongues, popping or dropping.

His painting above, Me, The Manics and the Man, shows Chedgey (blue jacket), the Manic Street Preachers and Fidel Castro!

The exhibition is open from Wed to Saturday until 13 February, from 11.00 am to 4.00 pm each day.                       

See here for more information about David Chedgey.

India Motorsickle-Alabama

Claude Cahun at the new East Gallery

Claude Cahun: Beneath This Mask

Caroline Fisher reports:

The exhibition, Claude Cahun: Beneath This Mask might not be an obvious choice for the first presentation in a new space – NUA’s East Gallery has moved in good time for its involvement in the British Art Show 8 in summer 2016 – but it is a thoughtful show and worth a visit. It is an understated and simple presentation of a series of small black and white photographs where the initial impression belies the complexity of the images. Indeed, these are surely some of the most influential photographs of the 20th century.

Claude Cahun was born in France in 1894 and early in her career was allied to the Surrealist movement via André Breton. However during the 1920s she came to live in Jersey where most of these photographs were taken. The prints shown here were reproduced from the original prints, the negatives having been lost.

The images themselves had a huge influence on much of the art made about personal identity during the later 20th and early 21st centuries. Cahun was ahead of her time and blazed a trail that is both familiar and startlingly fresh.

The accompanying leaflet suggests links to artists such as Cindy Sherman, but her work also relates to contemporary artists Lucy Gunning (whose 1993 film, Climbing around my room, was seen at the Sainsbury Centre a couple of years ago) and Francesca Woodman, the American photographer who took her own life at the age of 22.

All of Cahun’s images in the exhibition are self-portraits and many show the artist playing with ideas of gender. She dresses androgynously, her hair is cropped and her body is boyish. There is a sense that she is pushing the boundaries of who and what she is, in terms of costume, body image and setting.

Many of the images are titled simply Self Portrait, in some Cahun is masked or adorned in theatrical costumes or make-up. In some of the photographs Cahun comes across as a theatrical, performative artist who is playing with her own identity and manipulating the viewer. She looks straight at the camera or sometimes
looks out at the viewer, knowingly, at an angle.

Je Tends Les Bas, 1931. Courtesy and copyright © Jersey Heritage

In other images there is a sense of her vulnerability- in one she is seen reclining, perhaps asleep on the shelf of an armoire. In this, as with several other images, there is a sense of claustrophobia and discomfort, she is like a child hiding from her parents. But the way Cahun positions herself in relation to the viewer is always calculated so that you feel distanced as well as drawn in- a very contemporary way of working. What is more, the power of these images is concentrated by their small size, an effective contrast with the clean white space in which they are hung.

The exhibition runs until Saturday 9 January, so catch it while you can and look out for future shows in this new space- the programme of upcoming exhibitions promises to be an exciting one.

East Gallery, Norwich University of the Arts, St Andrew’s Hill
Tuesday 10 November 2015 – Saturday 9 January 2016

ncas celebrates its 60th Anniversary

ncas was founded as a charitable association in 1956 to promote the interests of contemporary art in Norfolk, and special 60th birthday events are planned for this year. Members can keep up to date with events and activities by consulting this page during the year. Check here for details of two major anniversary exhibitions in September.

Final dismounting of the Ana Maria Pacheco sculpture exhibitions

Ana Maria Pacheco works finally leave Norwich on 15 December after nearly 40 weeks on show!

The exhibition, Ana Maria Pacheco: Sculpture 2015, was held in four separate venues in Norwich and exceeded our original objectives for both visitor numbers and new audiences. Audiences have been higher than we predicted in our original proposal, partly because of the enthusiasm for the installations in the three non-gallery venues. The work in the NUA Gallery was part of their regular cycle of exhibitions, but even in the 26 days that this show was on, 6192 specific visitors saw the work. At 238 people a day, this is twice the number that they have ever had for their gallery exhibitions, the full range of which is 100-150 a day, clearly demonstrating that new audiences were involved. The work in the Castle Keep and in the two Cathedrals in Norwich was a huge success, such that, with the consent and agreement of the artist and her gallery, the end date has been extended twice, first to September and finally to 14 December. We were delighted that this extension was possible, a total over all venues of 845 days, but more interestingly that it was requested by the venues themselves.

Shadows of the Wanderer leave the Cathedral and line up in the 19 tonner, en route for Chichester Cathedral

Enchanted Garden, Pacheco’s new series of eight polychromed and gilded alabaster reliefs, reflects the artist’s long interest in the famous medieval alabasters in the V&A and in the Castle’s own collection, and her friendship with the late Francis Cheetham, Head of the Museum, who wrote the definitive book, English Medieval Alabasters. This was the first public showing of these recently completed works and they were installed on the balcony of the Norman Keep near to a new case of some of the Castle’s own medieval alabasters. During the time they were exhibited, there were about 150,000 visitors to the Castle, of which total we estimate that about 75,000 saw the alabasters.

Audiences in the two Cathedrals are likewise much higher than we, or indeed they, predicted. Peter Doll, the Canon Librarian at Norwich Cathedral, besides giving the Lent Sermon on the work, wrote the following:

‘We also continue to be struck by the impact the sculptures have on our visitors. No sooner have we put out a few hundred of the free leaflet than they have disappeared. We’ve lost track of the number of times we’ve had to
photocopy more. The catalogue that goes with them has been a big seller in our shop. The lunchtime talk that we put on after the installation attracted 130 people even though Ana Maria Pacheco was not able to be there on the day. I cannot remember a time during visitor hours when there have not been people studying, walking around, and photographing the installation. It has certainly brought a new audience to the Cathedral – people who have come to see the art, but who then have also noticed the power of its context (so unlike what it would have in a ‘white cube’) and gone on to see the rest of the building. As a result of this installation, we have an audience that sees the Cathedral in a new light – as a place that not only engages with contemporary artists but also places them in the context of an ongoing tradition of art in and for sacred space.’