A date for your new 2024 diaries - 9th February! A special ncas evening hosted by Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery. Come and meet our illustrious patrons (who include leading artists and key players in Britain’s contemporary art world today). More details under the EVENTS tab above. Not to be missed! If you are not a member, join now (an absolute bargain!) to attend this excellent evening.
The Norfolk Autumn Festival Awards & NCAS
The Norfolk Autumn Festival Arts Award Ceremony, recognising the arts and creative talent across the region, took place on Friday 3 November 2023, at the Ocean Room in Gorleston. Invited guests included the Singh Twins and Dr Rosy Gray, Curator of Contemporary Art at Norwich Castle Museum, who were finalists for the Diversity Award for their Slaves of Fashion exhibition. ncas is enormously proud to have been closely involved with this exhibition and commissioned the permanent artwork now on display at the museum. Invited trustee Helen Eisler represented ncas at this enjoyable gala evening. The Singh Twins were pipped to the post by Queerfest, who generously gave the Twins the most effusive praise in their acceptance speech. Groundwork Gallery in Kings Lynn was runner-up to Will Corvidae Sparling for the Visual Arts Award. Our recently appointed ncas patron, Alan Water, was awarded a Peter Wilson Special Recognition Award.
NCAS Small Grants winners announced
The inaugural ncas Small Grants fund received a number of high quality applications to its first round of funding and after a lively discussion among the trustees, the following three recipients are announced:
QueerFest for Interrupt, an exhibition of contemporary art to be shown in the Shoe Factory Social Club, 8 - 25 February 2024. The intention of Interrupt is to challenge the heteronormative gaze and elicit stories of a Queer experience. Interrupt aims to validate and affirm our identities, and potentially spark new ideas in individual practice and support emerging artists. UPDATE: This exhibition will now be held in the Undercroft, near Norwich Market.
Unconsumed. Unconsumed II is a group exhibition of around 100 artists, either East Anglia-based or with a strong connection to the region, taking place from 27 May - 12 June 2024. Multi-generational, cross-disciplinary and championing inclusivity, this will be an exciting showcase of our local creative talent.
Grace Adam for the creation of a body of work for an exhibition at Mandells Gallery from 10 - 31 August 2024. This includes the development and production of ceramic sculptures, edition prints and collages. The central theme of the work is flint: its histories, geometries and forms.
Thank you to all who contacted us and we look forward to hearing from more applicants in our next round (closing date: 29 February 2024 - for more information & application form, see under ABOUT tab above). A big thank-you also to our members and all those who help us raise money to fund the visual arts in Norfolk.
New Grants Programme launched today!
ncas is delighted to launch its new Small Grants Programme which is designed to offer funding up to £500 for exhibitions, events and art-related projects.
In the current difficult climate for the Arts we, as an organisation, felt that there was a need for more small grants to be available to artists and curators. So if you are planning or know of an upcoming project that deserves our support, please take a look at the Guidance and Application Form which can be found on the ABOUT page of our website.
The first application deadline is 30 September 2023 and grants are offered six monthly with the following deadline in March 2024.
Please get in touch if you would like to discuss an application before submitting it.
We look forward to receiving your applications.
The 2023 AGM & summer lunch fundraiser much enjoyed by members!
The weather was kind to ncas at its annual AGM and members were able to enjoy a delicious lunch alfresco in the grounds of the Norwich School last Sunday, 23 July. Convivial conversation was interrupted only by the dulcet quarter-hourly Cathedral bells and the irresistible need to go back for seconds of the fine spread organised by Janey, Diana and Dee. Our Chair, Chris Mardell, updated members on the year’s activities, assisted by Ann Aves, our new treasurer, and Derek Morris received heart-felt applause for his many years of hard work now that he’s decided to retire from the ncas committee. He promises to stay close as a valued member of the Society. Many thanks also to all members who helped to make it a delightful afternoon.
The NCAS 2023 Auction fast approaches!
Don’t miss this highlight of the ncas calendar! There are some fabulous donations awaiting your bids! Check out the details and take a look at some of the art works on offer on our Events page. Put the date in your diary NOW: Thursday 6th July, Norwich City Hall.
Will Gompertz in conversation with Rana Begum RA
Event date: 27 May 2023
Review by Danusia Wurm
Rana Begum RA
Organised as part of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2023, ncas was delighted to host a conversation between the Barbican’s Artistic Director, Will Gompertz and acclaimed visual artist, Rana Begum RA.
Born in Bangladesh in 1977, Rana Begum is a London-based artist whose work distils spatial and visual experience into ordered form. Through her refined language of minimalist abstraction, she blurs the boundaries between sculpture, painting and architecture.
“I realised that my connection to light began very early on.”
In a wide-ranging conversation, Begum described her earliest influences and the development of her practice, focussing on the importance of light which is fundamental in her work. She attributes her fascination with light to her childhood in rural Bangladesh, which she left when she was eight, to settle in the UK. Begum states “I realised that my connection to light began very early on. I found it fascinating just to watch the change of light in the rice field, or the water of the bathing pool, which was always flooded in sunlight – I remember my mum telling me off when I sat there staring.”
Her first visual memory of the UK was light reflecting off snow, as the plane landed on the snowy airport runway. The enchanting, myriad ways that light gleams from different surfaces and spaces have remained her abiding obsession.
Educated at the University of Hertfordshire, the Chelsea College of Art and the Slade School of Art, Begum paid tribute to her tutors who encouraged her to work and experiment in various disciplines and mediums. While a student at Hertfordshire University she was particularly drawn to the work of American abstract artist Agnes Martin, it was also that year that she first became interested in the relationship between light, colour and form. Her visual language draws from the urban landscape as well as geometric patterns from traditional Islamic art and architecture. She is a huge proponent of maquettes which help visualise the interplay of light within and outside her installations.
Begum was first recognised internationally in 2017 when she was awarded the prestigious Abraaj prize at Art Dubai for her installation No 764 Baskets, which was subsequently installed in St Peter’s Church in Kettles Yard, Cambridge in 2018. Typical of her work, the resulting cocoon-like installation drew on childhood memories, in this case, of basket weaving in her village in Bangladesh, as well as time spent reading the Qur’an at the local mosque, where the dappled morning light, sound of the water fountain and the mesmeric recitation created an atmosphere of peaceful concentration.
Begum also discussed other installations including Piece No 670, rhythmical steel layers, part of her Space, Light and Colour show for the Sainsbury’s Centre 2016, No 814 coloured glass panels at the Frieze Sculpture Park, Regents Park London, 2018, Infinite Geometry No 1066 , an intricate brick pathway at the Wanas Art Foundation Sweden 2021, Catching Colour, suspended sprayed cloud like mesh at the Botanic Square, London City Island 2022, and, most recently, No 1225 Chainlink, an ephemeral yellow painted chain link fence structure at Desert X 2023, in Los Angelos’ Coachella Valley.
The variety of mediums used are a tribute to Begum’s early training and inclination to experiment. Her works effortlessly absorb and reflect varied densities of light to produce an experience for the viewer that is both temporal and sensorial.
Will Gompertz is a world-leading expert in the arts. Having spent seven years as a Director of the Tate Galleries followed by eleven years as the BBC's Arts Editor, he is now Director of Arts and Learning at the Barbican Theatre. As someone who did not develop an interest in art until adulthood, Gompertz is determined to dispel the layman’s fear of the modern art world and those who inhabit it. In his own words “I was a late starter” and only developed a life-long love of art after encountering Willem de Kooning’s, Rosy-Fingered Dawn at Louse Point in Amsterdam’s Stedelijk museum when visiting with his then girlfriend, who he went on to marry.
Throughout his career, Will has focused on driving innovation and change, opening up the arts to the widest public. He has interviewed and observed many of the world's leading artists, actors, writers, musicians, and directors. He is the author of See what You’re Missing (2022), Think Like an Artist (2015) and What are you Looking At? (2012)
Will Gompertz
Review by ncas trustee Danusia Wurm
An evening with OUTPOST and the work of artist Hazel Soper
Event date: 9 May 2023
Review by Danusia Wurm
I lived here once and you killed me, Hazel Soper
“Committed to the uncompromising presentation of contemporary art”
Facilitated by Norfolk based artist Carl Rowe, Norwich School's Blake Studio hosted a fascinating talk on OUTPOST, an arts run charity presented by OUTPOST Committee Chair Maddie Exton and the work of one of its alumni, multimedia installation artist Hazel Soper.
‘Committed to the uncompromising presentation of contemporary art’ OUTPOST was founded in 2004 under the inspiration of Lynda Morris, then Norwich University of the Arts (NUA) Professor of Curation and Art History, in response to the recognition of a lack of affordable studio space, and as a means to keep graduating artists in Norwich.
Run by a Steering Group of volunteer creative members, OUTPOST runs 85 affordable studio spaces in Gildengate House in Anglia Square, as well as the OUTPOST Gallery, which stages about five exhibitions a year.
OUTPOST has been exceptionally successful in nurturing young talent who often have been selected to show at prestigious art shows including Frieze and its members have attracted significant arts grant funding. Additionally, the curatorial and administrative skills acquired by members have led to new careers in small galleries across the country.
“I think imagination is imperative to create a different, alternative, inclusive future for us all”
Hazel Soper is a video installation artist, exploring the effects of technology and capitalism on women’s autonomy. Referencing traditions of female labour, she often uses textiles to create installation elements, alongside close-up, non-narrative video pieces. Collage also has a strong presence throughout her work, both with analogue collages, and through the juxtaposition of appropriated text in video, audio and print form.
Her latest haunting installation I Lived Here Once And Then You Killed Me explores women’s histories and British folkloric traditions. It specifically looks at the local legend of the ‘Somerton Witch’, who was buried alive inside St Mary’s Church. Before dying, the Witch cast a spell on her wooden leg which grew into a tree that eventually destroyed the Church, as such the centre of the community and symbol of the control and values that repressed her.
“I think imagination is imperative to create a different, alternative, inclusive future for us all. Folklore and stories also reflect our beliefs as a society, and which roles we are expected to play. As an angry feminist, I think it's important to revisit and re-examine which roles we are cast into and why - and if we want to be one of someone else's story at all”.
Review by ncas trustee Danusia Wurm
A talk by Harriet Loffler, Curator of the Women’s Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge
Event date: 4 April 2023
Review by Danusia Wurm
Hebe and Her Serpent, Maggi Hambling CBE
Harriet Loffler, Curator of the Women’s Art Collection based at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, delighted a discerning audience with an insight into her work as Curator, including the history, nature and significance of the Collection - and its future.
The superlative Collection, the largest of contemporary art by women in Europe, is a celebration of women’s agency and creativity, an art historical record and a living, evolving body of work. At the heart of its founding mission is the principle of collaboration and community in which women take centre stage.
Today the Collection includes over 600 works by leading international artists, including Barbara Hepworth, Dame Paula Rego, Maggi Hambling CBE, Lubaina Himid CBE, Judy Chicago, Tracey Emin CBE and Cindy Sherman.
Housed, not in a traditional gallery, but in the working college environment, Harriet explored the challenges this brings to maintaining the Collection, including those of deterioration, vulnerability and storage but also its advantages as an integral part of student life. She also raised issues of adding to the Collection, what criteria to adopt to reflect the collaborative nature of its origins, and whether to change from receiving donated work, to purchasing works.
Built as a “manifesto for the education of women”, the Murray Edwards (formerly New Hall) College is a fitting recipient for the Collection. The iconic brutalist building was designed by architects Chamberlin, Powell and Bon , who went on design the Barbican Centre in London.
The Collection is open to members of the public and is free to visit, 7 days a week.
The ncas talk, held at the Blake Studio, was one of a series of ncas talks kindly hosted by the Norwich School.
Review by ncas trustee Danusia Wurm
A talk by Carl Rowe, Artist and former Head of Fine Art, Norwich University of the Arts
Event date: 21 March 2023
Review by Danusia Wurm
“The objects that I deploy in my artwork remain constant and have appeared repeatedly over the years, each time in a new guise, sometimes as metaphor and sometimes as themselves”
Exceeding Limits of the Box, Carl Rowe
What influences an artist's work? The audience at The Blake Studio were treated to a fascinating insight by Norwich-based artist and academic Carl Rowe whose work, over the years, has consistently featured cans, sticks, pipes, food, dust and traps "like the most reliable actors in a repertory theatre group".
Graduating with a MA in Fine Art from Manchester Polytechnic in 1985, and a former Associate Professor and Course Leader in Fine Art at Norwich University of the Arts, Rowe creates paintings, prints, drawings and objects. He describes his art as switching back and forth between an engagement with socio political issues and subconscious renderings. "Despite this seemingly disparate approach, the objects that I deploy in my artwork remain constant and have appeared repeatedly over the years, each time in a new guise, sometimes as metaphor and sometimes as themselves". As such, they might be described as "hero" objects.
Rowe often uses a surface layer of humour, absurdity and the arcane to mask a strong undercurrent of concern for humanity. A memorable example is Banquet for Ultra Bankruptcy, (2013) based on the Marinetti manifesto and, Synaesthesia /3 developed in collaboration with Simon Davenport for Art Laboratory Berlin, where the two artists combined the performative with artistic research on a cultural history of the senses.
Rowe explained that more recent works wrangle subjects such as gases, particulates, pollen, eels, traps, calibrations, marker points, fonts, logos and domestic objects within seemingly nonsensical and vexing associations. At times, geometric forms, lines, and shapes intersect or abut exactly. Elsewhere, they misalign, glance or overlap. Real space coexists with imaginary space in an implausible graphic paradigm. There is a strong sense of duality and unseen forces at play. Colour is notable, in some works naturalistic and low key, but in others it is ramped-up to a feverish vibrancy.
Rowe has an international profile as both an artist and an academic. He is an artist member and studio holder at OUTPOST in Norwich and member of the Printmakers Council. His work has been exhibited widely in the UK as well as in Germany, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Canada, US, Estonia, Japan, Malaysia and Egypt. In addition to studio production he has also worked on public art including billboards, print portfolios and hospital art including work for Woodlands Mental Health Unit at Ipswich Hospital and Northside House Forensic Mental Health Unit.
Carl Rowe
Review by ncas trustee Danusia Wurm