Jermaine’s recent series of photographs ‘A Storied Ground’ explores a Black presence in nature. Historically the Black figure is absent in the English landscape, which has a strong relationship to nationalism and colonialism.

Francesca discusses with Jermaine how these codes infiltrate and influence how the Black figure is seen, and how the positioning of his work in the exhibition offers a thought-provoking contrast with historical paradigms of landscape art.

‘A Storied Ground’ is part of the JMW Turner and changing visions of landscape exhibition at the Castle Museum & Art Gallery.

Free for ncas members, Norfolk Museum Pass holders and students.
No need to book. Simply turn up.

A screening of short films by artist Daniel & Clara growing from their encounters with particular landscapes, both real and imagined. Floating in a space between diary and dream, each piece is infused with the atmospheres of the place it was made: from a circle of ancient standing stones to misty Irish mountains and a rain-drenched Sussex village.

Daniel & Clara will share stories of the making of these films and speak about the themes of psychology and place, looking at how we imbue places with meaning, and how in turn landscape, weather and the environment impact our imagination and state of mind.

The screening will be followed by a conversation between the artist and Dr Nick Warr from the University of East Anglia.

This event is being presented to accompany Daniel & Clara's exhibition The Lost Estate at Norwich Castle, on display until January 2025.

www.danielandclara.com

 https://www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk/article/62075/Daniel--Clara-Places-of-the-Mind-Film-Screening

Free for ncas members and students.

Artists and educators Peter and Jon will discuss the multidisciplinary nature of animation, an artform (not a genre) that can host a range of mediums and crafts in order to explore and reflect the world we live in and dream of better futures.

Peter Martin worked as Course Leader for the BA Animation course at Norwich University of the Arts and before that as Course Leader for the BA Visual Studies Course. Peter is also a practising sculptor and has worked in theatre, film and tv production.

Jon is an award winning filmmaker and Course Leader for BA Animation and VFX courses at Norwich University of The Arts. His work spans many genres from comedy, to poetry driven films, horror, fantasy, with his latest a satirical examination of AI art tools, winning a British Animation Award, 2024.

£5 for ncas members
£8 for non members
Free for students
No need to book. Simply turn up.

In 2023, Gagosian Gallery presented their exhibition Friends and Relations: Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, Michael Andrews, at their gallery in Grosvenor Hill, London. Curated by art historian Richard Calvocoressi, the exhibition Friends and Relations contextualized key works by four era-defining artists.

Taking as its inspiration a famous John Deakin photograph of the fourpainters in Soho in 1963 (along with much younger painter Timothy Behrens), the exhibition presented over forty key paintings by these four artists from the so-called ‘School of London’ and elucidates the connections between their respective practices.

Portraiture was at the heart of Freud’s, Bacon’s, Auerbach’s, and, less directly, Andrews’s practices. The exhibition’s title echoes not only the four artists’ camaraderie and interrelationships, but also the intimate relationships between artist and sitter, including artist and lover, partner, and offspring.

Richard Calvocoressi is a scholar and art historian. He has served as curator at the Tate, London, Director of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, and Director of the Henry Moore Foundation. He joined the Gagosian as Director, London in 2015.

£5 for ncas members
£8 for non members
Free for students
No need to book. Simply turn up.

In this talk, glass sculptor David Reekie illustrates how his work is influenced by our reaction and adaptation to the society we live in with its tensions and temptations that pull us in different ways. These conflicts provide ideas from which David creates characters and situations and provide us, the audience. With a constant source of material for his work. There is an element of theatre in David’s work. Another important element is dark humour where he satirises and questions the way we live and the politics that control our lives.

David Reekie’s work can be found in the V&A London and Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburg.

£4 for ncas members
£8 for non members
Free for students
No need to book. Simply turn up.

A guided tour of the German Expressionists and the Third Reich exhibition, part of the Holt Festival, by curator James Glennie for ncas members and guests.

The story of Hitler’s purge on modernist culture of art, music and literature.

In addition to works by the German Expressionists, it will also include those artists that were designated Entartete (degenerate) by the Third Reich.

Among them Adler, Arp, Bissier, Bloch, Blumenfeld, Dali, Delaunay, Dix, van Dongen, Elkan, Ehrlich, Ernst, Feininger, Goldschmidt, Gotlieb, Grosz, Hartung, Henri, Klopfleisch, Kollwitz, Kupka,Lieberman, List, Lomnitz, Marc, Matisse, Meidner, Mondrian, Munch, Nolde, Picasso, Rohlfs, Rosenbaum, Roualt, Savendy and Schwitters.

The story will be illuminated by original ‘20s, ‘30s & ‘40s collages and caricatures, depicting many of the key political and other figures, by Fritz Josefovics (Joss), who himself escaped to England from Vienna in 1933.

Photos: Ben Uri Collection, Art & Antiques Appraisals

ncas to return to Hunworth Hall for its AGM in 2024 Sunday 14 July.

ncas members will have warm memories of the very hot summer’s day spent in the magnificent house and grounds of Hunworth Hall in 2022. Once again this year we are delighted to be returning to this wonderful venue, courtesy of Charlotte and Henry Crawley.

After the AGM you may like to travel the short distance to the Holt Art Festival featuring exhibitions and events which ncas members will certainly enjoy and appreciate.

Put the date in your diary - more details to follow shortly.

We have had a great response to this event and our first tour is now sold out. However ncas is delighted to present a second exclusive guided tour of the Houghton Hall’s exhibitions on 27th June led by art experts Amanda Geitner and Caroline Fisher.

Houghton Hall’s 2024 programme will see Antony Gormley and Magdalene Odundo stage major solo presentations. Antony Gormley will present Time Horizon, with 100 life-size, cast iron bodies punctuating the grounds of Houghton Hall in Norfolk. In the Hall and Contemporary Gallery, Magdalene Odundo will present her first solo exhibition in the UK since her acclaimed 2019 survey at The Hepworth Wakefield and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts.

Antony Gormley: Time Horizon
Dates:  Sunday 21 April – Thursday 31 October 2024

Magdalene Odundo Exhibition
Dates:  Sunday 9 June – Sunday 29 September 2024

Time Horizon, one of Antony Gormley’s most spectacular large-scale installations, will be shown across Houghton Hall’s house and grounds this spring, the first time the work has been staged in the UK since it was installed in Catanzaro, Italy, in 2006. Featuring 100 life-size bodies, the sculptures are all installed at the same datum level to create a single horizontal plane across over 200 acres of parkland. Some sculptures will be buried and others elevated on concrete columns. This installation, which Gormley describes as a form of acupuncture, interacts with the particularity of its surroundings: trees, house, running deer, other sculptures and the changing conditions of the weather, and it invites visitors to become part of a reflexive field. Antony Gormley is one of the most important artists of his generation and is widely acclaimed for his sculptures, installations and public artworks that investigate the relationship of the human body to space. His work has been exhibited throughout the UK and internationally.

One of the world’s most revered ceramic artists, Dame Magdalene Odundo, will present an exhibition of sculptures made and sited in response to the state rooms at Houghton Hall. The group of new works will be presented in the great Stone Hall, while early works have been selected to create resonant dialogues with the William Kent-designed interiors. The exhibition will also include a new commission created during Odundo’s recent residency at Wedgwood, reflecting on the history of the company, Josiah Wedgwood’s role in the abolitionist movement and the continued fight for racial equality. This will be Odundo’s first solo exhibition in the UK since her acclaimed 2019 survey The Journey of Things at The Hepworth Wakefield and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts.

Places are limited to 30 and must be booked in advance. Ticket price: £35.

To book your place, contact Janey Bevington - janeybevington0@gmail.com

NCAS Tour Arrangements (pre-booked ticket only): Meet at the West Front of Hall at 10.20am for an introduction by Amanda Geitner and Caroline Fisher. We then move into the Hall for a talk on the Odundo and Gormley exhibitions (exclusive access to the State Rooms and Stone Hall between 11am -12 noon). ncas members will then be free to spend the rest of the day walking, touring the Hall, gardens and estate.

Houghton Hall’s 2024 programme will see Antony Gormley and Magdalene Odundo stage major solo presentations. Antony Gormley will present Time Horizon, with 100 life-size, cast iron bodies punctuating the grounds of Houghton Hall in Norfolk. In the Hall and Contemporary Gallery, Magdalene Odundo will present her first solo exhibition in the UK since her acclaimed 2019 survey at The Hepworth Wakefield and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts.

NCAS has arranged a private ncas tour of these exhibitions led by art experts Amanda Geitner and Caroline Fisher on Thursday 13th June.

Antony Gormley: Time Horizon
Dates:  Sunday 21 April – Thursday 31 October 2024

Magdalene Odundo Exhibition
Dates:  Sunday 9 June – Sunday 29 September 2024

Time Horizon, one of Antony Gormley’s most spectacular large-scale installations, will be shown across Houghton Hall’s house and grounds this spring, the first time the work has been staged in the UK since it was installed in Catanzaro, Italy, in 2006. Featuring 100 life-size bodies, the sculptures are all installed at the same datum level to create a single horizontal plane across over 200 acres of parkland. Some sculptures will be buried and others elevated on concrete columns. This installation, which Gormley describes as a form of acupuncture, interacts with the particularity of its surroundings: trees, house, running deer, other sculptures and the changing conditions of the weather, and it invites visitors to become part of a reflexive field. Antony Gormley is one of the most important artists of his generation and is widely acclaimed for his sculptures, installations and public artworks that investigate the relationship of the human body to space. His work has been exhibited throughout the UK and internationally.

One of the world’s most revered ceramic artists, Dame Magdalene Odundo, will present an exhibition of sculptures made and sited in response to the state rooms at Houghton Hall. The group of new works will be presented in the great Stone Hall, while early works have been selected to create resonant dialogues with the William Kent-designed interiors. The exhibition will also include a new commission created during Odundo’s recent residency at Wedgwood, reflecting on the history of the company, Josiah Wedgwood’s role in the abolitionist movement and the continued fight for racial equality. This will be Odundo’s first solo exhibition in the UK since her acclaimed 2019 survey The Journey of Things at The Hepworth Wakefield and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts.

Places are limited to 30 and must be booked in advance. Ticket price: £35.

To book your place, contact Janey Bevington - janeybevington0@gmail.com

NCAS Tour Arrangements (pre-booked ticket only): Meet at the West Front of Hall at 10.20am for an introduction by Amanda Geitner and Caroline Fisher. We then move into the Hall for a talk on the Odundo and Gormley exhibitions (exclusive access to the State Rooms and Stone Hall between 11am -12 noon). ncas members will then be free to spend the rest of the day walking, touring the Hall, gardens and estate.

Please note: this tour was originally schedule for 24th April (Gormley) and 12th June (Odundo). For queries concerning these date changes, please contact Janey Bevington.

Text & image: With thanks to Houghton Hall

British painter Mali Morris's career stretches back over fifty years. Her experiments with colour, layering and pictorial space have made her one of the most intriguing abstract painters in the UK today. She was elected a Royal Academician in 2010 and shows regularly in the Summer Exhibitions there.

Mali Morris was born in North Wales in 1945 and studied Fine Art at the Universities of Newcastle upon Tyne and Reading during
 the 1960s. She has been showing nationally and internationally since her first major exhibitions at the Serpentine Summer Show 3, London in 1977 and the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham in 1979. Since then she has held over forty solo shows, and has been included in numerous group shows, at the Barbican, Hayward Gallery, Serpentine Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery, Walker Art Gallery Liverpool, Whitworth Gallery Manchester, Museum of Wales Cardiff, as well as overseas. She designed the flags that hung over Bond Street during the Summer of 2022. Her most recent solo shows were Three Ghosts at Hales New York in 2022, and Calling, at the Ikon in Birmingham in 2023. This September her exhibition ‘Returning’ will be at the Hatton Gallery, Newcastle.

Mali Morris is included in public and private collections worldwide. She appeared on Private Passions, Radio 3, in November 2023, now available on BBC iPlayer. The monograph, Mali Morris: Painting, with a text by Sam Cornish, preface by Mel Gooding, and writings by the artist, is published by RA. She lives and works in London.

This is a Norfolk Contemporary Art Society talk in association with the Norfolk and Norwich Festival 2024.

Tickets can be booked through N&NF Eventbrite website & cost £10. Under 18s & Young N&NF tickets: £7.50.

There is a free carpark outside the Blake Studio (please remove your car promptly after the talk as the gates will be locked).

Directions: when facing the West door of the Cathedral, the School and carpark are on your left. Attendants will be there to direct you. Wine and soft drinks will be available afterwards.

Photo of Mali Morris at the Ikon Gallery 2023, courtesy of Tegan Kimbley

During the course of four projects, Norwich University of the Arts, Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust and the mental health charity Hospital Rooms have collaborated together to explore how museum quality arts interventions with national and internationally renowned artists in secure, forensic and inpatient mental health care clinical spaces impact the patients, their carers and families and the staff who work there.

This talk will present the three projects that have happened in East Anglia and how the hospital communities are telling the story of how they have benefitted, not just from the profound change to their environment but from a profound cultural shift too: from redesigning their own ward football team kit, painting the corridors outside their rooms, curating exhibitions to embarking on ambitious multi-media artworks.

Dr Nicola Simpson curates and writes and is a Research Fellow at Norwich University of the Arts.

Directions: If you stand facing the main entrance to the Cathedral and look left across the playground, you will find the studio. Helpers on the gate will guide you.

Parking: There is free parking at the school. Helpers on the gate will guide you. The car park closes at 10pm so please make sure you leave before then.

Refreshments: Wine and soft drinks will be available after the talk. All attendees are very welcome to stay and socialise.

Members: £5. Non-Members: £8.

UEA, NUA, City College and Norwich School students FREE!

We are absolutely delighted to announce that Cornelia Parker will be coming to talk to ncas on Tuesday 23 April 2024.

This event is extremely popular and we have changed venue from the Blake Studio to Norwich University of the Arts Lecture Theatre at 26 Duke Street, Norwich. To avoid disappointment, please contact Janey Bevington to confirm your reservation. Although student entry is free, you must still reserve your space. 

To book, email: janeybevington0@gmail.com

Cornelia Parker is one of Britain's best loved and most acclaimed contemporary artists. Always driven by curiosity, she reconfigures domestic objects to question our relationship with the world. Using transformation, playfulness and storytelling, she engages with important issues of our time, be it violence, ecology or human rights. (text courtesy of Tate Britain)

After her presentation, there will be a Q&A opportunity with Cornelia Parker, chaired by Dr Rosy Gray, Curator of Contemporary Art at Norwich Castle Museum.

Refreshments: Wine and soft drinks will be available after the talk. All attendees are very welcome to stay and socialise.

Members: £5. Non-Members: £8.

Students FREE!

Will Teather is well-known for creating arresting images that reveal a unique imagination combined with a mastery of traditional skills. The artist’s figurative paintings and drawings often depict curious characters caught up in uncanny situations. Influenced by magical realism and lifting motifs from diverse sources such as Flemish still life, baroque art and Weimar painters, the artist enters into direct conversation with the history of painting with the aim of bringing a contemporary sensibility to the table.

Over the last ten years, his work has featured in over 100 gallery exhibitions internationally, with recent exhibitions including as a guest artist for Artrooms London, Artwars Miami and as a finalist in the London Contemporary Art Prize.

Following on from his childhood years in rural Norfolk where he was surrounded by religious imagery and books on historical painting, Will’s knowledge of contemporary art was refined through periods of study at Central St Martins and Chelsea College of Art & Design. In 2012, as a recipient of the Ruth Katzman Scholarship, he visited New York, where he took part in The Vytlacil Campus Artist-in-Residence Program. He has more recently been Artist-in- Residence for Norwich Arts Centre and an Associate Lecturer at Norwich University of the Arts.

www.willteather.com

Directions: If you stand facing the main entrance to the Cathedral and look left across the playground, you will find the studio. Helpers on the gate will guide you.

Parking: There is free parking at the school. Helpers on the gate will guide you. The car park closes at 10pm so please make sure you leave before then.

Refreshments: Wine and soft drinks will be available after the talk. All attendees are very welcome to stay and socialise.

Members: £5. Non-Members: £8.

UEA, NUA, City College and Norwich School students FREE!

An ncas exclusive tour of the new exhibition: Rana Begum: Ordered Form. Curated by UH Arts and Culture at St Albans Museum and Art Gallery.  

ncas members may recall we enjoyed a delightful conversation between Rana Begum RA and Will Gompertz at the 2023 N&N Festival. The conversation with Begum followed an intriguing exhibition Rana Begum: Space Light Colour at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in the summer 2017.

 We are pleased to confirm ncas have arranged an exclusive tour of the new exhibition of her work Rana Begum: Ordered Form at the St Albans Gallery.

 This solo exhibition focuses on Begum’s geometric works created over the past three years.

We will be accompanied by Rana Begum herself and the exhibition curator, Inna Allen, Head of Art & Culture at the University of Hertfordshire.

Places are limited to 45. To confirm your interest in joining the tour contact Janey Bevington: janeybevington0@gmail.com

https://www.herts.ac.uk/uhbow/whats-on/2023/rana-begum-ordered-form

Coach leaves Norwich 9.00am. Talk starts 11.30am. Return Coach leaves St Albans 2.30pm. ETA Norwich 5pm.

Coach £30 per person, entrance to the exhibition free.

Lunch and refreshments will be available to purchase at the Gallery.

We are delighted to invite our members to a very special ncas event hosted in partnership with Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery.

The evening will offer the unique opportunity to meet our new ncas patrons and to enjoy an exhibition of some of the works of art commissioned, procured or donated by ncas to Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery over the past 67 years.

The evening will begin with a brief history of ncas and the Norwich Castle Museum & Gallery, which has been undergoing a £15m major refurbishment & modernisation. We will then introduce the new patrons, Amrit & Rabindra Kaur Singh, Laurence Edwards, James Colman, Matthew Flowers and Alan Waters.

Dr Rosy Gray, curator of the modern & contemporary art collection at the Norwich Castle Museum & Gallery will give a talk on the Castle collection focussing on some of the works of art that were commissioned, donated or supported by ncas over the past 67 years.

Formal invitations have been sent out to ncas members and as numbers are limited to 120, it is important to respond promptly. Guests will be able to tour the galleries. Wine & soft drinks will be served.

To accept your invitation, RSVP to Janey Bevington:  janeybevington0@gmail.com

There is no charge for this event.

Our new patrons:

James Colman - artist and former London gallerist, James Colman is the founder of Paint Out, an annual ‘plein air’ painting competition established in 2014. He is also a Trustee of East Anglia Art Fund (EAAF). Following the death of Sir Timothy Coleman, James continues the Colman family support and encouragement of ncas.

Laurence Edwards - Laurence’s sculpture has long been preoccupied by the entwining of man, nature and time. One of the few sculptors who casts his own work, he is fascinated by human anatomy and the metamorphosis of form and matter that governs the lost-wax process. Laurence is passionate about the ancient reverberations of the Suffolk landscape which has been his home for most of his life, with its constant reminders of human activity spanning back to prehistoric times.

Matthew Flowers - Managing Director of Flowers Gallery, Matthew has kindly agreed to continue the patronage of ncas previously provided by his mother, Angela Flowers. She established the Flowers Gallery in London in 1970, now one of the longest-standing international contemporary art galleries with premises in London, New York & Hong Kong. David Cargill, former Chair of ncas and long campaigner for the arts in Norfolk, who sadly passed away in 2023, was, with his wife Shirley Cargill, a close friend of Angela’s and it was they who originally encouraged her to be involved with ncas. Together they were responsible for some of the initial purchases for the Castle collection. 

The Singh Twins - their internationally acclaimed exhibition, Slaves of Fashion, in 2022 at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery explored the narratives around empire, enslavement, conflict and luxury consumerism connected to the story of India’s historical trade in textiles, and the relevance of these issues in our world today. ncas was delighted to support the exhibition and contribute to the commission of a new work, Alternative A-Z of Empire, shortly to be permanently displayed at Norwich Castle.

Alan Waters - a major player in Norwich politics since 1988, serving as a city councillor for 32 years and council leader between 1993-1998 and 2015-2023, Alan has a background in education, a keen interest in history and the arts, and how culture can contribute to prosperity and community wellbeing. Alan was a member of the South East Board of the Arts Council; an executive member of the Key Cities Group where he held the culture portfolio and represented Key Cities on the Creative Cities Commission (2018-19). Alan is the chair of the National Centre for Writing and a patron of the Norwich Film Festival. Since 2018 he has been Visiting Fellow at South Bank University and Board member of the Journal Local Economy.

For a full list of all our patrons, please see under the ABOUT tab on this website.

A JOINT NCAS NORWICH SCHOOL EVENT

Bridget made her first collection of millinery for Jean Muir in 1984. She co-founded the Bailey Tomlin millinery brand, selling to clients from Liberty to Saks Fifth Avenue.

She now makes artworks and sculptures that combine intricate making with the down-to-earth approach to life and death of an allotment gardener. They investigate aspects of nature from the growth-rhythm in a tangle of grass to the particular posture of a dead butterfly’s legs. Bridget describes her making process as ‘interpreting’ nature, describing its qualities through translating it into other materials. These materials and techniques come from her textile and millinery background, taking on a new level of refinement in their context as artworks.

Members £5.00, non-members £8.00

NUA, UEA, City College and Norwich School students FREE

Directions: If you stand facing the main entrance to the Cathedral and look left across the playground, you will find the studio. Helpers on the gate will guide you.

Parking: There is free parking at the school. Helpers on the gate will guide you. The car park closes at 10pm so please make sure you leave before then.

Wine, soft drinks and discussion available after the talk.

RESCHEDULED - Now 25th January! Following a severe weather warning at the start of November, this talk has been rescheduled to Thursday 25th January 2024.

Professor Simon Ofield-Kerr, Vice-Chancellor of Norwich University of the Arts, will be giving a talk to NCAS on Thursday 2 November 2023 at 7.00pm, Riverside Lecture Theatre, Norwich University of the Arts.

Norwich University of the Arts is one of the great British art schools: a small and specialist creative arts university that draws on 175 years of history. Today, the university’s ambitious strategy focusses on practice-based, industry-led and critically engaged creative education that supports students and staff to address local and global challenges, and actively shape our world. Join Professor Simon Ofield-Kerr, Vice Chancellor, to hear about the exciting delivery of strategic projects including the renovation of 20 Bank Plain, the development of world-class teaching facilities, innovative research collaborations – and the university’s commitment to becoming a high-profile civic university championing the vital role of creative arts today.

Members: £5

Non-members: £8

All students: FREE!

Wine and soft drinks will be available after the talk. Do stay and socialise!

A Visit to the Hippodrome Circus & Brüer Tidman’s Studio, Great Yarmouth

For more details and to book, please email janeybevington0@gmail.com

Get into the festive mood by joining the NCAS visit to the Christmas Circus & Water Spectacular at Hippodrome Circus in Great Yarmouth.

We start with a matinee performance at the Hippodrome Circus on Tuesday 19 December at 2.30pm. Then, after a visit to the Hippodrome Museum, come and enjoy a drink and cake in the Hippodrome Cafe.

This will be followed by a visit to Brüer Tidman’s studio/gallery nearby to view his extensive circus sketchbooks.

Members and guests: £30 including a drink & a cake

Venues:

Hippodrome Circus,

43A St George’s Road, Great Yarmouth, NR30 2EU

Brüer Tidman’s Studio,

Battery Road, Great Yarmouth, NR30 3NN

A talk by animator and sculptor Peter Martin

Unfortunately we have had to cancel this talk as the speaker is unwell. Many apologies.

This illustrated talk will explore aspects of animation, where, like much creative practice, the link between process and visual language is intrinsically linked and intertwined.

Animation is an incredibly diverse medium, and this talk will focus primarily on artists’ use of it as a form of creative expression and communication.

Peter Martin worked as Course Leader for the BA (Hons) Animation course at Norwich University of the Arts and before that as Course Leader for the BA (Hons) Visual Studies Course. Peter is also a practising sculptor and has worked in theatre, film and TV production. The talk is informed by this personal experience of the relationship between art and animation.

Members £5.00, non-members £8.00

NUA, UEA, City College and Norwich School students FREE

Directions: If you stand facing the main entrance to the Cathedral and look left across the playground, you will find the studio. Helpers on the gate will guide you.

Parking: There is free parking at the school. Helpers on the gate will guide you. The car park closes at 10pm so please make sure you leave before then.

Refreshments: Wine and soft drinks will be available after the talk. All attendees are very welcome to stay and socialise.

Last year our AGM was generously hosted by Charlotte and Henry Crawley at their beautiful home Hunworth Hall. This year our AGM and lunch will be held in the grounds of the Norwich School.

The ncas AGM provides an opportunity for ncas members to review the year, to enjoy a delicious buffet lunch, wine and soft drinks together in the charming setting of the lawns of Norwich School, overlooking Norwich Cathedral and the Bishops Palace.

Our speaker this year is Professor Simon Ofield-Kerr, Vice-Chancellor of Norwich University of the Arts who will talk to us of his exciting plans for the next phase in the development of the University.

For more details and to book, contact: janeybevington0@gmail.com

The ncas biennial AUCTION returns to the Norwich City Hall Council Chamber!

This is one of the highlights of the ncas calendar. Always enormous fun and hugely popular, the auction is a very special way of buying exceptional art while raising money for the ncas charity.

The auction will be led by qualified auctioneer, John Black, Director of 20th Century Art at Sworders.

The ncas art auction is a crucially important fund raiser to keep the society financially viable. It allows us to continue to help fund contemporary art purchases for Norwich Castle Museum, to run our not-for-profit events, talks and trips for members and to promote Norfolk artists and their work.

We would like to ask for your support, both in donating work and, of course, by attending on the night. Thanks to the generosity of our donors, for which we are hugely grateful, it is possible to bid for some wonderful work at affordable prices.

To donate please contact
selwyntaylor@btconnect.com

In the meantime, put 6th July 2023 in your diary now!

There will be a preview of the artworks in the Undercroft (in front of Norwich City Hall, behind Norwich Market) on Tuesday 4th and Wednesday 5th July, 10.00am–4.00pm.

The auction starts at 7pm. Doors open at 6.30pm.

Simon Bill is a contemporary English visual artist who lives and works in Dover. He studied art at Saint Martin’s School of Art in London from 1977 to 1980 and at The Royal College of Art in London from 1982 to 1985.

The subject of Visual Perception featured strongly in the teaching of art until the 80s, when it was dropped because it was not commensurate with Critical Theory. The orthodoxy of Critical Theory is in decline, whilst the study of perception as a branch of neuroscience has advanced rapidly. The response to these developments has been slow in art schools – this talk offers an introduction to Visual Perception and a survey of the subject as it stands today.

FREE EVENT

A JOINT NCAS N20G EVENT

Join Barbican Artistic Director and former BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz in conversation with London-based artist Rana Begum. Begum’s visual language draws from the urban landscape as well as geometric patterns from traditional Islamic art and architecture.

Will Gompertz has led the Barbcan Centre’s artistic direction and wide-raging education programmes since June 2021. His ambitious Artistic Vision aims to build on the Barbican’s role as a world-class international arts centre by investing in emerging talent, education programme and closely collaborating with its local communities, whilst increasing inclusivity and diversity among its staff, associates,
and audiences.

Rana Begun is a London-based artist, born in Bangladesh in 1977. Her work distils spatial and visual experience into ordered form. Through her refined language of Minimalist abstraction, Begum blurs the boundaries between sculpture, painting and architecture. Her visual language draws from the urban landscape as well as geometric patterns from traditional Islamic art and architecture.

This ncas event is produced in association with the Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2023. Tickets (£7.50-£10) must be purchased via their website. Click here to link directly.

Text courtesy of Norfolk & Norwich Festival. Will Gompertz photo courtesy of Artiq/Lovisa Rana. Rana Begum photo courtesy of Josh Murfitt.

Join us for a guided tour of the BIG WOMEN exhibition at Firstsite in Colchester.

Suffolk-based Sarah Lucas, one of Britain’s most significant contemporary artists, who first came to prominence as a leading light in the generation of Young British Artists, has curated this major exhibition at Firstsite – and it’s going to be very BIG!

Under the headline BIG WOMEN, Firstsite will showcase a variety of works that will make you think, laugh and reflect on the role women play in the creative world. The exhibition includes sculpture, painting, film and fashion, produced by over 20 high profile female artists, including Renata Adela, Erica Åkerlund, Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press, Kate Boxer, Yoko Brown, Angela Bulloch, Phillippa Clayden, Sonia Coode-Adams,  Vanessa Fristedt, Maggi Hambling, Pam Hogg, Rachel Howard, Merilyn Humphreys, Patricia Jordan, Princess Julia, Abigail Lane, Tory Lawrence, Millie Laws, Polly Morgan, Clare Palmier, Georgina Starr, Milly Thompson, Gillian Wearing, Sue Webster, and Lucas herself.

Sally Shaw MBE, Director of Firstsite says: “At Firstsite we always go BIG or go home! So this exhibition is perfect for our massive building, and to fill it with artwork from all these exceptional women artists will be incredible. There will be every kind of art form you can imagine, with so much to experience – with pieces that make you think and others which will make you laugh as well.”

Coach approx £20.00 

Big Women Exhibition Entrance Free

If you are interested in this trip, please contact: janeybevington0@gmail.com.

OUTPOST, an artist-run charity based in Norwich, was founded in 2004 by seven artists and makers. It has now established itself as a leading centre for artist activity, providing an affordable studio complex for over 80 artists and practitioners.

Maddie Exton, Chair of Outpost, will be in conversation at the Norwich School’s Blake Studio with ncas trustee and artist Carl Rowe, discussing the aims and objectives of the group. This will be followed by an illustrated talk by Outpost artist Hazel Soper.

Hazel Soper brings video, audio, print and sculpture together in installation works that examine forms of social alienation proliferating throughout contemporary society. Often looking at communication and social media, she examines the influence of global capitalism through an eco-feminist lens, and utilises installation as a medium to immerse and engage the viewer with a physical experience of the work, playing with repetition, appropriation, and absurdity to break down the hierarchies and pedagogy surrounding engagement with contemporary art.

In response to her installation at OUTPOST I Lived Here Once And Then You Killed Me, Soper says: “I think artwork is more exciting, accessible, engaging and inspiring when magic is involved. Like fairy stories and folklore, I love art for the way it can make everyday life extraordinary and bring some joy into the world that wasn’t there before. Particularly right now when things are so difficult for so many, I think imagination is imperative to create a different, alternative, inclusive future for us all.”

Members £5.00, non-members £8.00

NUA, UEA, City College and Norwich School students FREE

Directions: If you stand facing the main entrance to the Cathedral and look left across the playground, you will find the studio. Helpers on the gate will guide you.

Parking: There is free parking at the school. Helpers on the gate will guide you. The car park closes at 10pm so please make sure you leave before then.

Refreshments: Wine and soft drinks will be available after the talk. All attendees are very welcome to stay and socialise.

Please join us for a Day of Sculptures at the Henry Moore Foundation at Much Hadham in Hertfordshire, followed by the Private View of Lee Grandjean’s solo exhibition “Seeing Things” at the Gibberd Gallery in Harlow.

The coach will depart Norwich at 9am (please note revised start time) and the visit will begin with the Henry Moore Foundation in Much Hadham. This will include a guided tour of the artist’s former home, his studio, and the gardens and fields displaying Moore’s monumental sculptures. We hope to be joined by Dr Hannah Higham, Senior Curator of Collections and Research at the Foundation, and good friend of ncas.

Mid-afternoon we travel 6 miles south to the Private View of SEEING THINGS, a solo exhibition of the works of Norfolk sculptor, Lee Grandjean, at the Gibberd Gallery in Harlow.

Harlow Arts Trust are celebrating their 70th anniversary and they are honouring Lee with a solo ‘survey’ exhibition with work from the late 70s to the present day.

In 1953 Harlow Arts Trust set out with a mission to beautify the post-war New Town of Harlow by commissioning, purchasing and siting sculpture across its public spaces. The project attracted some of the greatest artists of the 20th century, including Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Elisabeth Frink.

Coach to both events approx £30

Henry Moore Foundation Entrance £18

Lee Grandjean Exhibition Entrance Free

Please contact janeybevington0@gmail.com if you are interested in this trip.

Cans, sticks, pipes, food, dust and traps

“Since leaving art school, my practice has been governed by a contradictory cycle of socio-political concern and graphic abstraction – a kind of schizophrenic restlessness between objectiveness and subjectiveness. 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. The cans, sticks, pipes, food, dust, and traps that I list in the title of this talk represent chapters or sub-headings within a longer narrative. It is not a comprehensive catalogue of objects/subjects/things, but best represents those featuring most prominently, like the most reliable actors in a repertory theatre group. I will tell the story of these things, what they mean to me and why they appear in my art”.

CARL ROWE

Directions: If you stand facing the main entrance to the Cathedral and look left across the playground, you will find the studio. Helpers on the gate will guide you.

Parking: There is free parking at the school. Helpers on the gate will guide you. The car park closes at 10pm so please make sure you leave before then.

Refreshments: Wine and soft drinks will be available after the talk. All attendees are very welcome to stay and socialise.

Members: £5. Non-Members: £8.

UEA, NUA, City College and Norwich School students FREE!

Maggi Hambling CBE will be in conversation with Dr Francesca Vanke, Senior Curator and Keeper of Fine and Decorative Art at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery.

Maggi Hambling needs no introduction to ncas members. The internationally renowned Suffolk artist, and patron of the Norfolk Contemporary Art Society, was born in Sudbury in 1945. She studied locally before going to Camberwell and the Slade. She has had numerous solo exhibitions, at leading London galleries and across the UK, in the USA, at the Hermitage in Russia and in 2019 two large retrospectives in CAFA Art Museum, Beijing and Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China. Earlier this year the Marlborough Gallery hosted a major exhibition of her work in New York and at the Glyndebourne Festival in Sussex.

Though principally a painter, her best-known public works are the sculptures, A Conversation with Oscar Wilde (facing Charing Cross Station, London, 1998); Scallop (Aldeburgh 2003), The Brixton Heron (Brixton, London 2010) and more recently, A Sculpture for Mary Wollstonecraft (Newington Green, London 2020).

Closer to home, as well as ‘Scallop’ on Aldeburgh Beach, Hambling’s installations You are the sea and War Requiem were shown at SNAP (Art at the Aldeburgh Festival) in 2012 and 2013. War Requiem was subsequently purchased by the Monument Trust for Snape Maltings where it is shown annually.

Maggi Hambling’s work often attracts controversy. Discussions of her work may include references to death, sexuality, nudity and smoking.

Directions: If you stand facing the main entrance to the Cathedral and look left across the playground, you will find the studio. Helpers on the gate will guide you.

Parking: There is free parking at the School. Helpers on the gate will guide you. The car park closes at 10pm so please make sure you leave before then.

Refreshments: All attendees are very welcome to stay for refreshments at the end of the talk.

Members: £5. Non-Members: £8.

UEA, NUA, City College and Norwich School students FREE!

Jago Cooper was appointed as the new Director of the Sainsbury Centre of Visual Arts last November.  He is also Professor of Art and Archaeology at the UEA. We are delighted that he will be giving a talk to ncas, when he will outline his aspirations for SCVA and his ideas for its future. Come and hear his talk and be ready with your questions.

Professor Cooper has spent more than 20 years working on a diverse range of cultural projects around the world, always centred on the study and communication of visual and material culture.  After ten years as Head of the Americas Section at the British Museum and Director of the Santo Domingo Centre of Excellence for Latin American Research, these collaborations have led to a series of innovative exhibitions, artistic commissions and international exchange programmes that challenge traditional museum practice.

With a particular interest in using digital technologies to reach new audiences and cut across multiple academic disciplines, his work spans the subjects of art, museology and archaeology. In addition to his books and exhibitions, Jago has also written and presented a series of BBC documentaries based on his research and international collaborations.

Text and image courtesy of the UEA

Directions: If you stand facing the main entrance to the Cathedral and look left across the playground, you will find the studio. Helpers on the gate will guide you.

Parking: There is free parking at the school. Helpers on the gate will guide you.

Refreshments: All attendees are very welcome to stay for refreshments at the end of the talk.

Members: £5. Non-Members: £8.

UEA, NUA, City College and Norwich School students FREE!