Friday 24 July – Friday 25 September 2015
Open Monday to Friday 09.00 – 17.00. Saturdays by appointment only
Free
Public preview: Friday 24 July 2015, 18.00 – 20.00, with complimentary refreshments and the artist in attendance to discuss his work and answer questions.
Last year’s Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival winner, Ian Rayer-Smith, opens his exhibition The Destruction of Anything Familiar at The Gallery at Bank Quay House.
During the 2014 Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival it was Ian’s expressive and dedicated use of paint as a medium that first caught the attention of the guest judge Kwong Lee, Director at Castlefield Gallery. A year on Ian is one of Manchester’s most exciting contemporary artists to watch.
Ian has a focused interest in the physical properties of painting and the emotional power the medium has to engage the viewer.  The exhibition will showcase a new series of small-scale pieces that at first sight may appear to have no obvious meaning yet, on closer engagement, begin to reveal an underlying sensibility. Ian says of his work: ‘It is important that my paintings must transcend visual reality, but above all else they must also show an emotional reality. Something must be felt, even when it cannot be fully understood.’
Since graduating from The University of Salford’s Visual Art degree program in June 2013 as a mature student, Ian have been busy painting full-time from an independent purpose built studio in Manchester. His work takes him frequently to London and the south.
Culture Warrington work in partnership with The Gallery At Bank Quay House and Warrington Borough Council, with funding from Arts Council England, to deliver Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival.