Greatly enjoyed the latest exhibition by Stephen Collett at the Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (to give its full title!)Â The site is massive, the exact location is Ward 48/Electronic Data Management Suite, Eighth Avenue, near old site car park. I decided not to risk trying to find a parking space and went on the train to Fazakerley station which only takes a few minutes from the city centre – easy.
As it is a working office the public can only visit during the lunchtime and this can be arranged by calling the organiser Paula O’Malley on 0151 529 8480 email: paula.o’malley@aintree.nhs.uk
While the exhibition is on there are raffle tickets on sale to raise funds to support the hospital arts programme, the winner gets a signed print of Stephen’s ‘Liverpool 1’ picture.
This particular exhibition was well curated by Chantelle Townley who has been working as an intern whilst completing her art degree at UCLAN.
The art istelf is fascinating, mostly familiar scenes – Liverpool, Venice, Florence, New York but abstracted, somewhere between blurred, pixelated and impressionist. This effect is the result of Stephen’s experiments with painting the light rather than the physical objects which is, after all, how the human eye sees things. The pictures look clearer as you stand further back and this effect can be enhanced by looking at the image through a mobile phone camera as this condenses the image.
Stephen Collett ‘The Collection 2010’
24 June – 21 July 2010 (For viewing, call 0151-529 8480 for appointment)
‘The Collection 2010’ focuses mainly on his latest cityscape pieces which combine Collett’s two main loves, Art and Architecture. In past shows, Collett has demonstrated his passion for painting form free from convention, In ‘The Collection 2010’ he now shows us that he is able to visually capture the essence of a cityscape by painting the subtle behaviour of light that surrounds it.
‘It is my belief that the constant metamorphosis of a city should be celebrated in such a way that reflects the key factors that shape its future’. -Stephen Collett
