TALENTED PERFORMERS NEEDED!

We are looking forward to performances from Stella Mandella and Markus Lloyd - plus more of our regulars - at next week's Aspex After Hours - AHH.  This is the first in our new series of aspex late night events which will take place on the first Thursday of the month throughout the summer.  These eclectic evenings of poetry, sound, performance, spoken word and comedy are scheduled for 5 May, 2 June, 7 July and 4 August - so make sure the dates are in your diary.
We still have places for performers next week - so email me if you would like to take part - phyl@aspex.org.uk!  Otherwise just come along and join us for a drink in our cafe bar.
www.aspex.org.uk

CURATORS AS JESTERS?

To what extent does the curator need to be a responsible storyteller?  That's the question posed by The Jester-Curator Symposium taking place at UCA Canterbury on Friday 20 May.

Tom Morton, Co-curator of the 2010 British Art Show 7 will lead a panel in a day of presentations and discussions which address the ideas of playfulness and responsibility in curatorial practice - the notion of the curator as jester!
To find out more and book your place, see www.trifariousprojects.com.

THE JESTER-CURATOR SYMPOSIUM
CHAIRED BY:
Tom Morton, Co-curator of the 2010 British Art Show 7
PAPERS FROM:
TJ Demos, Critic and author, The Exiles of Marcel Duchamp
Dave Beech, Critic and co-author, The Philistine Controversy; member of the art collective Freee
PANEL:
Pablo Leon de la Barra, Artist and curator; editor, Centre for the Aesthetic Revolution
Sally O'Reilly, Author, The Body in Contemporary Art
Matthew Poole, Curator and writer, Programme Director of the Centre for Curatorial Studies at the University of Essex
Gilda Williams, Lecturer, MA Curating, Goldsmiths College, London correspondent for Artforum magazine
PERFORMANCE FROM:
Richard Layzell, Artist and researcher with ResCen

Admission: £17.50 full price, £12 concessions

MEET THE ARTIST AT ASPEX

There's an opportunity this Saturday to meet artist Adam Bridgland and hear him talk about the ideas and influences behind his work.  Adam will be at aspex where his exibition, Be My Guide Tonight, features a selection of new work in a wide range of media, including prints, embroidered patches and an enamel plaque alongside sculptures, neon and vinyl wall murals.
There's no need to book, just come along.

Since graduating from his Masters in Fine Art at the Royal College of Art in 2006, Adam has lived and worked as an artist in London and exhibited widely in the UK and internationally. In July 2009 he was awarded his first major public art commission by Futures Community College in Southend and Commissions East and has recently completed a special pop up exhibition for the Courtauld Institute of Art, London.

Saturday 30 April, 2pm
aspex

OPPORTUNITY FOR MAKERS OF CONTEMPORARY CRAFT

Phoenix Brighton are offering a great opportunity for artists and makers working in textiles, jewellery, ceramics, and other media to take part in their summer exhibition, Twisted.  The exhibition will focus on work using the materials and techniques of traditional crafts in interesting and unusual ways.  They are looking for artists and makers who have broken away from conventional formats to present their work in installations and experimental arrangements which exploit the three-dimensional gallery space.

The opportunity is open to all uk based artists and makers and the exhibition will showcase the work of up to eight artists, each presenting a body of work. 

The closing date for applications is Tuesday 26 April and full information on how to apply can be found on the Phoenix website: http://www.phoenixbrighton.org/opportunities.html
 
ABOUT PHOENIX BRIGHTON:
Phoenix Brighton is an independent visual arts organisation based in central Brighton. It houses 100+ artists’ studios, arts courses and activities, and a contemporary art gallery.

TWISTED
A fresh encounter with contemporary craft
July 23 – August 21, 2011

TIPS ON PHOTOGRAPHING 3D WORK

The next arc event, coming up on Wednesday 25 May, will be 'Photographing Your Work, Part 1: A Maker’s Perspective' with successful jewellery artist, Lin Cheung.

This event is part of our series of essential skills workshops, and will look at techniques for obtaining high quality photographs of your work.  An ‘essential skill’ of course if you want your work to stand out in any selection process.

Lin will discuss the issues of taking photographs of three-dimensional objects from her perspective as a maker. She will explain her approach to image making through her own work and give hints and tips on a range of issues from simple art direction through to printing of images. 

Wednesday 25 May, 6.30 to 8.30 pm
aspex
To book:    T: 023 9277 8080    E: arc@aspex.org.uk

Lin Cheung is a jewellery artist.  She has a profound interest in human nature. She explores the social and personal issues that shape our lives and our relationships with the objects we own, cherish and wear. Her observations inspire a need within her practice to further understand them through the act of making.

Lin was born in Basingstoke, Hampshire, in 1971. She lives and works in London and is also a Senior Lecturer in Jewellery Design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London. Lin has exhibited her work nationally and internationally and has gained acclaim for her conceptual approach to designing and making.

www.lincheung.co.uk

ASPEX PREVIEW THIS SATURDAY - AFTERIMAGE, KIHLBERG & HENRY

This Saturday at aspex is the opening of Afterimage - an exhibition of newly commissioned work by Karin Kihlberg and Reuben Henry, the winners of the aspex biennial open submission competition EMERGENCY4. 

Through video and installation, Kihlberg and Henry investigate the history of 'viewership' and explore what it might be like to view the 'after image' of history in our present surroundings. As a framework for this exploration, Kihlberg & Henry have tracked down the many cinemas in operation on Portsea Island between the turn of the 20th century and their post-war decline, searching not for the images projected into the frames of the cinema’s screens, but for the physical locations that housed them and their audiences.  These sites now reflect aspects of contemporary life such as shopping, eating, and accommodation that have not only taken over the physical space that was once occupied by the cinema but also its place in our culture.  However within these images there is the ghost of a history which the artists re-frame as a two-dimensional image in the gallery and through this work suggest a new condition of 'viewership" where parallel embodiments of both time and place collide.

Karin Kihlberg and Reuben Henry have been collaborating since 2004. For the past two years they have worked as researchers in the Fine Art Department at the Jan van Eyck Academy. Their work has been screened at Tate Modern and they took part in the 100 Ideas Festival at Hayward Gallery in 2007. They have presented solo exhibitions at Le Mois de la Photo in Montreal, Vivid in Birmingham and Danielle Arnaud in London. This autumn they will be resident artists at the Institute of Beyond at Wysing Art Centre. Kihlberg & Henry are represented by Danielle Arnaud.

Karin Kihlberg & Reuben Henry
Afterimage
Preview: Saturday 9 April, 2pm.
Exhibition continues to 26 June.
aspex
The Vulcan Building, Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth PO1 3BF

www.aspex.org.uk
 

THE THREADNEEDLE PRIZE

Last year's winning entry by Patricia Cain

Registration is now open for this year's Threadneedle Prize for representational art. 

The £25,000 Prize showcases paintings and sculptures that promote the practice of representational art but at the same time, challenge its "language and assumptions".

Both experienced and emerging artists are invited to submit work that is strong and topical in its observations on the world. There is over £40,000 of prize money to be won which makes this one of the largest prizes in the UK.

All the work selected for the exhibition in September - approximately 65 pieces - will be sourced through the open competition.  The winner of the £25,000 will be chosen by a panel of selectors from a shortlist of seven works and each of the six runners up will receive £1,000.  All works in the exhibition will also be eligible to win the £10,000 Visitors’ Choice prize.

Work in a variety of media - paintings, sculptures, original prints and drawings, mixed media constructions, reliefs and other figurative installations - will be accepted and each artist can submit up to three works.  Photography and video is only acceptable within other mixed media installations.
For full details, see The Threadneedle Prize website.