Archive for the 'Art Of The Day' Category

Arena Art Auction – Preview

Peter Cameron - The Eddy

A lot of really good works being auctioned tomorrow – see you there – pick up a bargain or two.
You can see a preview on Arena’s website

ARENA ART & DESIGN ASSOCIATION is holding a Charity Art Auction at Leaf Tea Shop & Bar on Friday 30th January 2009. Preview from 17.00, auction starts at 19.00.

Featuring the enimatic Paul O’Keeffe as autioneer, the Arena Auction is celebrating its 5th year with great opportunities to bid for locally produced art at affordable prices. All profits will be channelled back into the Arena Charity to support our ongoing development programme which concentrates on providing affordable studio spaces and promoting excellence in the arts.

As well as showcasing over 25 Arena members work we are also inviting submissions from artists throughout Merseyside, including other prominent studios groups such as Hub artists and The Bridewell.

Members of Arena Art & Design Association have made an ongoing contribution to the cultural life of the city in design, music, public art, painting, sculpture and photography for twenty five years with 2009 being Arena’s twenty fifth anniversary.

Viewing at View Two Tonight – Tuesday March 11

elspeth-hamilton-3-150.jpgApologies for short notice – took me by surprise, don’t expect to have Private Viewings on a Tuesday

Elspeth Hamilton – ‘Lifelines’ at View Two Gallery, 23 Mathew St, Liverpool
13 March – 12 April 2008

Opening TUESDAY 11 March 6 – 9pm
Elspeth Hamilton was born in Liverpool but left after qualifying at Liverpool University School of Architecture and now lives and works as an architect and artist in Cornwall and London.

ABOUT THE SHOW
The title ‘Lifelines’ acknowledges my origin in Crosby. The Theme of the show is water in many forms. The force of the sea, the flow of the river, and light through the clouds in our increasingly turbulent weather patterns are all represented. Large oil paingings juxtapose smaller works under glass. The Pennines after the great storm in July 2007, and Crosby Beach before and after ‘Another Place’, are some of the subjects in the smaller work. EH.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Elspeth Hamilton has work in many countries worldwide. She has completed major glass commissions in Roehampton, West London, and Redbourn. Two large paintings were commissioned for a hotel in Nagoya, Japan. She regularly exhibits in The Gallery 77 Cowcross Street EC1, and in many other venues. She has been featured on Woman’s Hour, and reviewed in the Spectator, November 2002 and chosen as a British artist in the Fine Art Edition of Architectual Design May/June 2003.

www.viewtwogallery.co.uk

Artwork of the Day – New Year Card

new_year_partygame.jpg

Liverpool artwork of the day – Thursday December 27 2007. New Year card featuring a party game. 1870-80 in National Museums Liverpool collection

Still time to send out an e-card from NML’s collection, either belated Christmas card or even a New Year’s card like this one.

This card is from the Decorative Art collection at National Museums Liverpool

Text on card reads:
‘A HAPPY NEW YEAR’
Dated:
this is in an English scrapbook from 1870 – 1880

NML Festive e-cards

Artwork of the Day – Christmas 2007

liverpool-xmas07.jpg

Liverpool artwork of the day – Christmas 2007. A festive photograph by Minako Jackson.
Liverpool city centre on a late Thursday evening in December, its raining and the mass of shoppers are a blur but the lights shine brightly.

Artwork of the day is taking a break until the New Year

Artwork of the Day – Mistletoe

mistletoe_botany_print.jpg

Liverpool artwork of the day – Friday December 21 2007. Botanical print of mistletoe, Latin name Viscum album in the drawings collection at World Museum Liverpool.

Another image from the NML online advent calendar.

Mistletoe is a parasitic plant, which means that it grows on other plants, usually trees or shrubs. It grows most commonly on apple trees but also on oak, blackthorn, hawthorn, lime, poplar, rowan and willow. It occurs from east Devon to Yorkshire, and is particularly common in central and southern England and around London.
Traditions and customs

Mistletoe has long been held in esteem for its medicinal and magical properties. Many traditions and customs have arisen from the beliefs in the power of the plant. Druids used it as an aphrodisiac and in Scandinavian tales it symbolises peace and love.

Some saw the parasitic nature of the plant as more of a symbiosis, with the mistletoe believed to help keep the host alive during the long winter months. This led to it becoming a symbol for friendship which probably led eventually to our modern tradition of kissing under the mistletoe. Until the arrival of Christmas trees, the kissing bough held centre stage at Christmas when a berry was plucked with each kiss until none were left.

This botanical print, which is not currently on display, is from the prints and drawings collection of the botany section at World Museum Liverpool. These collections are a valuable resource for the identification and study of plant biodiversity past, present and future.

Artwork of the Day – William Davidson

williamdavidson_large.jpg

Liverpool artwork of the day – Thursday December 20 2007. Chairs c1766 by William Davidson (c1729 – 1773) Mahogany, beech and pine, modern silk damask covers. At Lady Lever

Is it just me feeling a bit rough after partying last night or is all very old furniture really, really ugly?

This remarkable chinoiserie chair is from a set of seven (and a much altered sofa) made for Sir John (later Lord) Delaval at Ford Castle, Northumberland. William Davidson was evidently referring to this suite when he wrote from his workshop at Berwick-upon-Tweed to Lady Delaval at Ford in 1766: ‘your 6 Chenise Chairs & fly table shall be sett about and forwarded in dew time. To your desire to have sent you a Pattron Chair…it is wanting 2 Brass Buttons behind.’

The loose backs are indeed held in place by two swivelling brass ‘buttons’ in the form of Chinamen’s masks.

Lady Lever Art Gallery

Artwork of the Day – Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson

CarriersPrayer3.jpg

Liverpool artwork of the day – Wednesday December 19 2007. ‘The Carriers Prayer’ video by Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson at FACT until January 13 2008

Part of the ‘At 25 Metres’ exhibition of major new video works by UK artists Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson looking at the complexities of faith in contemporary society.

In The Carrier’s Prayer everyday commercial plastic shopping bags are torn open and tied together to form ‘scally fireworks’. Set in a run-down chapel this work depicts a congregation of ‘lost souls’ igniting and whooping up to the heavens accompanied by a strange and eerie cacophony.

FACT

Artwork of the Day – Barbara Jones

recycleboatsedit1.jpg

Liverpool artwork of the day – Tuesday December 18 2007. ‘Five recycled viral ships from Gonzalez-Torres’ by Barbara Jones in the International Gallery, Slater St. until December 22 2007

Barbara Jones deals in the subtle propaganda of peace, to entice the viewer with the weapon of aesthetic can be as effective as any bullet. Barbara trips up the hearts and minds and raises an agenda of tolerance and understanding. The light on the water can be as valuable as any sledge hammer breaking down the door.

The ‘viral’ is at the heart of ‘Five recycled viral ships from Gonzalez-Torres’. Barbara has taken five posters from a Gonzalez-Torres endless giveaway stack ‘untitled’ 1991 in the US pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale 2007. The printed poster depicts a photograph of an ocean surface cast in the blackest light. The posters dimensions are 98 cm x 115 cm and are blank on the reverse.

During the entire Biennale thousands of posters have left the pavilion with their new owners and infected thousands of new environments, homes, offices, schools and colleges. Many of the oversized souvenirs only reached as far as the waste bin area approximately 100 meters away from the pavilion. Barbara’s recycled version has made it across Europe to Liverpool, where they have been transformed into origami ships.
The ships may represent the travelling of migration of ideals, cultures and people, the exchange of reasoning. They may convey common languages of peace and harmony, values or justice and threads of universal understanding. A ship can be a vessel to transport the terrified fleeing exile, a ship of adventure to discover uncharted lands and waters or a platform to release weapons of destruction for conflict and battle.
The recycling of social makeup within our land or our planet is a constant debate which for centuries has evoked emotional discussion through the perception of fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of the new, fear of change.

‘Rags To Riches’ from 13 December until 22 December 2007.
Opening hours are Thur-Sat 12pm – 5pm, or by appointment. Contact Colin Serjent on 077 5952 5075.

Artists taking part are Nathan Pendlebury, Barbara Jones, Sue Milburn, Colin Serjent, Jane Fairhurst, Leon Jakeman, Elizabeth Willow, Richard Ashworth, Beccy Williams, Jon Nash, John O’Neill, Steve Gent, Nicole Bartos and Nicola Fitzsimmons.

For more information about Red Dot go to
www.red-dotexhibitions.co.uk