Bird in the House

January at Mostyn Oriel

2012-01-19T22:50:00.000Z

I took a trip up to north Wales last weekend to see Gareth Griffith's exhibition Shelter at Mostyn Oriel in which I had a small piece of work. The show was really lovely (it closed on 15th January), about 60 artists had contributed and the work was shown on a simple trestle table as a 'field' of shelters. A crazy artists campsite of miniature dwellings! All sorts of ingenious solutions had been devised to the brief to make a shelter 20 x 20 x 15 cm out of found materials or materials to hand.

I was also glad to get to see the other shows currently running in the gallery, Ha Ha Road in the main gallery space takes a look at the use of humour in contemporary art - "The selected artworks demonstrate how acts of absurdity, irrationality or playfulness can interrupt reality and momentarily destabilise common assumptions." The perfect antidote to post-Christmas gloom, many of the works genuinely raised a smile.

Grazia Toderi - Orbite Rossa - seen here

I also enjoyed Grazia Toderi's video Orbite Rossa installed in gallery 6 as part of the gallery's Love Video series. Night-time cityscapes are layered and superimposed in a slowly changing vista of lights. The result is a mesmerizing and slightly disorientating experience, the gradual alterations to the landscape and the impossible movements of light within it set up beautiful. "...luminous geometries...". Personally, I saw a kind of melancholic dystopia - Blade Runner came to mind with its nocturnal rooftop city scenes - a balance of beauty and sadness in the universal city-at-night.

Mike Nelson - Coral Reef

2012-01-17T14:29:00.000Z

Mike Nelson: TheCoral Reef, 1999, installation view;

image courtesy of the Artist and Matt’s Gallery,London, Collection of the Tate.

On a recent trip to London, I went to visit Mike Nelson's Coral Reef recently acquired by Tate Collections and installed at Tate Britain until January 15th. This work was made in 1999 for Matt's Gallery in London, at the very end of the 20th Century but before events which have come to define current times; 9/11, 7/7 and the economic crash of 2008 in particular. In the light of our recent history this claustrophobic, disorientating piece has extraordinary resonances.

Entering the work through a grubby reception room, you begin your journey into a complex series of rooms and corridors. Each room has its own character - all are shabby, depressed, clues are scattered throughout to tempt us to construct a narrative for ourselves. The title, Coral Reef reflects Nelson's concept of a fragile structure which exists under a metaphorical ocean surface, in which "...in a sense each room is indicative of a different belief system". We are "...invited to become lost in this world of lost people" and that is exactly what the experience achieved for me.

Under electric light, the structure doubles back on itself, the spaces are tight and only just big enough to occupy. A sense of panic rises even though this is obviously a work of art, installed in a gallery - one cannot actually come to harm or get forever lost in the maze - the fiction is powerful enough to suspend the rational just enough to allow the anxiety to emerge. You can hear others elsewhere in the structure, doors are opening and closing, squeaking on their hinges, it could be reassuring but it also increases the panic. The residual evidence of characters living out their days, conducting their business and worshiping at their own particular alter in these uncared for spaces is disturbing, familiar and loaded with prophetic tension. In a carefully constructed, paranoia educing twist we are led to believe we have reached the room through which we entered only to find the exit leads us into a loading bay, its shutters down - we have no choice but to turn and retrace our steps.

It is a remarkable experience, here is Mike Nelson talking about the work and its contemporary significance.

Breath taking

2011-12-12T23:53:00.002Z

El Ultimo Grito - Apartments - Photo: Michael Tolke - seen here

I am hoping to get to visit Breath taking: Revealing a new wave in British glass blowing, an exhibition of contemporary glass blowing at Oriel Wrecsam. It is a Crafts Council touring exhibition featuring 17 contemporary makers/artists and five exemplary works from the Crafts Council collection. There have been some really interesting innovations in using glass as a craft/art medium in recent years and this overview of contemporary practice should be an inspiring education in the discipline.

I was lucky to meet one of the contributers, Jessica Lloyd-Jones in Conwy recently, she was one of the commissioned artists at the blinc Digital Arts Festival along with Jake and me in October. Her work is fresh and sharply conceived using glass and light in innovative ways in both public art commissions and art installations.

The exhibition is showing at Oriel Wrecsam until 28 January 2012.

Jessica Lloyd-Jones - Neon Bulb 2 - seen here

Artists Christmas Tree 2011

2011-12-12T22:01:00.002Z

Steffan Jones-Hughes & Jeanette Orrell

Every Christmas, Oriel Myrddin Gallery invite an artist to make, design or decorate a Christmas tree for the gallery. This year North Wales artists, Steffan Jones-Hughes and Jeanette Orrell were chosen. Steffan and Jeanette are partners in their home life, but this is the first time they have worked together on a artistic project.

The commission is made from their last years tree which they saved back and then painstakingly covered with pages from old paperback books, the branches have then been decorated with little bottles that have been given new hand drawn labels. The bottles were inspired by a hoard of Victorian bottles that were dug up in the artists' garden, but these particular ones have been collected from antiques shops flea markets especially for the project. The bottles make reference to the idea of glass baubles and the little characters on the labels suggest stories and narratives which are echoed in the book pages covering the branches.

Steffan and Jeanette came to talk to us about making the tree and their life deep in the countryside of Denbighshire. They mused that they would have liked to have a little light in each bottle; as a child Steffan remembers seeing a tree that was lit up by fireflies and their Christmas tree also reflects this enchanting memory.

Coedwig

2011-12-12T21:36:00.001Z

Masazumi Yamazaki - Rabbits

We have a lovely Christmas show at Oriel Myrddin Gallery at the moment, Coedwig (Forest) is a mixed exhibition of craft and fine art featuring artists from Wales and beyond. The theme is the forest and forest animals and I think my favourite work in the show is from Carmarthen ceramic artist Masazumi Yamazaki, I like these strange, dark, funny little rabbits.

Cornish maker, Cornelius van Dop has contributed some of his beautiful metal work pieces, he uses precious metals to construct small, intricately made boxes and brooches.

Eve O'Neill makes exquisitely observed animals and birds from the British countryside in needle felt, foxes, hares, wrens, thrushes...she uses wool found in the fields and hedgerows around her home in Drefach Felindre. The show runs until 31 December.

Cornelius van Dop - ...this close to the house

Eve O'Neill - Needle-felted animals and birds

Shelter @ Oriel Mostyn

2011-12-03T16:40:00.001Z

Kathryn Campbell Dodd - Absente

I was asked to contribute a piece of work to the newly opened show in gallery 4 at Mostyn in Llandudno, Shelter. The show features the work of over 60 artists in Wales who were asked to respond to the brief set by the originator of the Shelter concept Gareth Griffith.

Griffith began by making paintings of a tent in which he went on family holidays and through this exploration started to construct small shelters which he used as maquettes for further paintings. After creating a number of these pieces, he invited other artists to make similar constructions.

We were asked to make a structure 20 x 20 x 15 inches out of found materials or materials to hand. My piece is called Absente and uses the top of a bird-box from the woods by my house, an absinthe spoon, skewers and chopsticks that I found in the kitchen draw and a cover made from scraps of white fabric stitched together to create a canopy.

The show runs from 3 December - 15 January 2011.

News!

2011-11-28T07:49:00.001Z

Kathryn Campbell Dodd - Three Rings

I've had a very busy few months making and showing work. First of all I was invited by Mission Gallery in Swansea to be their Maker of the Month for September. I made a few new pieces including these wrapped rings.

Kathryn Campbell Dodd and Gemma Copp at Milgi Lounge

In October I showed work with TactileBOSCH at Milgi Lounge in Cardiff as part of Moist: The House that Balthus Lived. I was really pleased with the way my pieces had been curated; everyone's work rubbing shoulders together. Gemma Copp's film was being projected from beneath one of my chairs into a long mirror in one of the rooms which worked really well. During the same week Jacob Whittaker and I showed a piece of our collaborative Absent but not Forgotten work in Milkwood Gallery in Cardiff as part of the Made in Roath Festival 2011.

Absent but not Forgotten at Blinc Digital Arts Festival

It's been a very busy time for Absent but not Forgotten, in October we were commissioned by Blinc Digital Arts Festival to make a piece of work for a stunning Tudor town house owned by CADW, Plas Mawr in Conwy. We were invited to film and record inside the house to create a triptych of films and a series of sound works which were shown in the courtyard of the house during the festival.

Here are some images from the event.

Absent but not Forgotten - The Seventh Room

Following on the heels on our project in Conwy, we installed our new work The Seventh Room in The Studio at Aberystwyth Arts Centre. The piece was funded by The Arts Council of Wales and included as art of Abertoir Horror Festival, a six day event. We also made a documentary series of interviews about paranormal happenings in Aberystwyth which was shown in The Box in the arts centre at the same time - you can see them here. It was fantastic to have the opportunity of the film festival to really think about the aspects of our project which reference horror film and TV, we found ourselves constantly drawn back to some of the stunning early examples of the genre from the silent era as well as many other influences. I was really excited that Abertoir screened a film that has been very influential for us, Fall of the House of Usher, a 1928 film of the Edgar Allan Poe story directed by Jean Epstein with live piano accompaniment.

Here are some images of the project and our link to our new catalogue.

Tjibbe Hooghiemstra

2011-09-08T22:39:00.000+01:00

Tjibbe Hooghiemstra - Bos met blauw paaltje - seen here

During the recent exhibition at Oriel Myrddin Gallery of painter Roger Cecil we were visited by a couple on holiday from Holland who had specifically sought out the gallery. They loved the show and told us about a number of painters in Holland who reminded them of Cecil's work. My favourite of their recommendations is Tjibbe Hooghiemstra, a Dutch painter, he has strong links with Ireland, especially Ulster where he has taught at the university and exhibited widely.

Tjibbe Hooghiemstra - The for Miles and Miles Only Wind I - seen here

This makes a lovely, natural connection with our forthcoming exhibition at Oriel Myrddin Gallery which opens on Friday at 7pm. The Dutch Collection - an exhibition of contemporary Dutch design curated by Pembrokeshire's Freshwest Design.

Tjibbe Hoogheimstra - Maanlicht - seen here

Difference Engine

2011-09-05T23:27:00.000+01:00

I went to Ireland last week to visit Wexford Arts Centre, we are hoping to take an exhibition currently showing there for Oriel Myrddin Gallery and I went to have a look and discuss the details. Difference Engine - Manifestation IV is an artist curated collaborative show including artists Gordon Cheung, Mark Cullen, Gillian Lawler, Jessica Foley and Wendy Judge.

They have an interesting space at the arts centre, on the ground floor the gallery is punctuated by the historic pillars of the building with an unusual black floor, upstairs a smaller wooden floored space; calm and classic with large windows, the exhibition was installed in both spaces.

The show has travelled through other venues before coming to its 5th manifestation in Wexford, it has been 'rearticulated' in each location taking into account the different challenges and opportunities each venue offers. The concept uderlying the project is to '...elaborate upon the dual meaning of the term jamming – in one sense it signifies stasis or rupture, and in another, opposite sense, it signifies a kind of fluid and shifting improvisation between players...for each exhibition, the artists, through their works, must rearticulate themselves or risk stasis...'

Gillian Lawler

The show includes sculpture, film, animation and sound work. I particularly liked the paintings of Gillian Lawler, atmospheric, architectural constructions, a little claustrophobic and dystopian, alienating and ultimately impossible.

Difference Engine manifests in Carmarthen in Spring 2013.

Yr Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Cymru 2011

2011-08-13T09:05:00.001+01:00

Bedwyr Williams

The National Eisteddfod was in Wrexham this year and I am really glad we made the journey up from Carmarthen to see it. The general consensus amongst us was that Y Lle Celf was the best we had seen for a few years, there was a real sense of cohesion in the curation. I felt this particular show avoided some of the traps into which it has fallen in previous years, it was considered, fresh and forward facing - unequivocally Welsh but looking outwards to the wider art community.

Bedwyr Williams

The Gold Medal this year went to Caernarvon based Bedwyr Williams with a series of works, some of which were editions of works showing concurrently at Oriel Davies in Newtown. I particularly liked his modified Wellington boots, standing on white plinths and stuffed with straw, they are carved with stylised rural images - like a lino cut. Familiar, nostalgic and daft they encapsulate something particular and contrary about living a contemporary life in a rural community.

Peter Bodenham - What we are at home with

The Gold Medal for Craft and Design was given to Peter Bodenham for his ceramic work What we are at home with, Peter is Head of Ceramics of Coleg Sir Gâr, Carmarthen. Two other craft medals were awarded to London based Cary Davies for her ceramics and Sean Vicary for his animated film Re-told a mythical response to the building of a supermarket in Cardigan. Sean is a little curiously placed in the Craft and Design category, but his working process using built models and stop frame animation is undoubtedly painstakingly 'crafted', so perhaps it makes more sense than one might assume. I wrote to congratulate Carys on her win as we stock her work in our gallery shop at Oriel Myrddin and she told me she bought a pair of hand made clogs at the Eisteddfod to celebrate her win which she calls Clogiau Goffa Wrecsam / the Eisteddfod memorial clogs they've been causing a bit of stir at Brixton tube station apparently!

Antonia Dewhurst - Gimme Shelter

Other work I enjoyed in this years show included a series of Penny Hallas drawings, Antonia Dewhurst's Gimme Shelter series of drawn and constructed huts, Jonathan Anderson's Coal Dust Mandala's and concrete houses, paintings by Andreas Ruthi and Neale Howells and Roger Lougher's bilingual road signs which discuss 'the sublime'.

Without Words / Heb Eiriau

Within Y Lle Celf, an installation entitled Without Words / Heb Eiriau, featured the photographic work of Geoff Charles a Wrexham press photographer who died in 2002 in his 90's. The work was selected from a collection at The National Library of Wales by Peter Finnemore and Russell Roberts. Specifically re-printed for the show, they are extraordinary images - exhibited without explanatory titles they capture now-forgotten events, situations and people - read more here.

Bedwyr Williams - Nimrod

2011-08-10T23:09:00.000+01:00

Bedwyr Williams - Nimrod 2009 - Courtesy Ceri Hand Gallery

Oriel Myrddin Gallery took a trip north last week to visit the Eisteddfod in Wrexham. We stopped in at Oriel Davies in Newtown on the way to see the Bedwyr Williams solo show which includes the installation Nimrod (after which the show is named), a scaled down airport with lit up air strip, control tower, adverts and muzak. Overhead a surreal squadron of craft are coming in to land constructed from skateboard decks and walking sticks.

Throughout the exhibition Williams sharp, observant, neurotic humour is at play and the work is comprehensive and accomplished, every bit worthy of Williams growing international reputation. The show continues until 31 August.

Henry Krokatsis

2011-07-17T22:43:00.000+01:00

Henry Krokatsis - Dantalux, 2010 - seen here

I went along to Chapter Arts Centre last week and had a quick look around their new show A Fire in the Master's House is Set, curated by Simon Morrissey. I didn't have time to fully explore on this occasion, but I was immediately struck by two fantastic works by Henry Krokatsis which use found mirrors cut up and rearranged to fit together into one hybridised piece. The way the mirrors are placed serves to fragment the reflection so that a full image can never quite be seen. I didn't know about this artist so I'm intrigued and excited to find out some more.

Meri Wells - The Wakelin Purchase Award

2011-07-17T22:24:00.001+01:00

Meri Wells - The Wakelin Purchase Prize winner 2011

This year's recipient of The Wakelin Purchase Award is the mid-Wales sculptor, Meri Wells. The award allows a selection of work by a Wales based artist to be bought for the Glynn Vivian Gallery permanent collection in Swansea. The selector for 2011 was Andrew Green from the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth.

Meri Wells lives and works near Machynlleth and has been quietly making her extraordinary, ceramic, anthropomorphic creatures for many years. I remember seeing a show of her work in The Tabernacle in Machynlleth some while ago which exhibited some of the larger scale pieces she makes, including strange characters from the Mari Lwyd folk tradition.

Meri Wells

The creatures she makes are uncanny, archetypal and perhaps slightly mournful. They strike a deep chord and their earthy, salt-glazed finishes make them seem to be from the most fundamental part of our psyche. Liminal beings half-in and half-out of the mythical and the imagined. For me her work has a very powerful quality, an otherworldliness that somehow imbues these sculptures with a supernatural presence. I feel very pleased that she has received this recognition for her work and hope to see more in exhibitions and collections in the future.

Meri Wells

Second Star to the Right and Straight on Until Morning

2011-07-17T21:39:00.000+01:00

Ben Rowe - Second Star to the Right and Straight on Until Morning

I finally got to see Ben Rowe's solo show, Second Star to the Right and Straight on Until Morning at Mission Gallery in Swansea this weekend, it closes on 24 July so there is only a week left to catch it.

The craftsmanship involved in the making of his MDF recreations of futuristic machines from iconic 1980's films is incredibly impressive. There is an obsessive focus involved in his working process, it can take him many months to create one of his sculptures in all its minute detail.

The blandness of the material is unsettling, Rowe uses it to speak about the futility of escapism - the fictional machines he references often involve some kind of travel, but the uniformity of their construction in his hands and their ultimate uselessness denies the fantasy. The effect is somewhat dystopic, it does not bode well somehow for our society. Ultimately we have to stand face-to-face with the existential reality of ourselves in our world with all the frustrations and yearnings that involves but with little control over its mechanics.

Perhaps this is the purest kind of gesture an artist can make (and perhaps it is only artists that CAN make such a gesture) in confrontation with this unbearable futility of being.

Structure and Material at Spike Island

2011-07-09T10:07:00.001+01:00

Karla Black - What to ask of others (2011) - photo: Jonty Wilde seen here

I like the look of this exhibition, Structure and Material which is open from today at Spike Island in Bristol. Works from the Arts Council Collection by Claire Barclay, Becky Beasley and Karla Black consider current sculptural practice in Britain.

Becky Beasley - Infirme - seen here

The exhibition looks at the materials that the artists use, and draws parallels through "...instability, ambiguity and fragility." The show runs until 4 September.

The National Museum of Art - Cardiff

2011-07-09T00:13:00.000+01:00

The National Museum of Art in the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff opens its doors to the public tomorrow. A project that has taken 10 years to complete and an investment of £6.5 million comes to fruition in an integrated series of 6 new galleries which will house the complete art collection of The National Museum from Tudor to modern works.

A temporary exhibition, I cannot escape this place opens the gallery wing with work from Welsh artists such as Shani Rhys James and Carwyn Evans (above) alongside leading British and international artists including Lucian Freud, David Hockney and Rachel Whiteread.

¿AreWeNotDrawnOnwardToNewEra?

2011-07-08T23:57:00.000+01:00

Last Saturday I popped in on g39 in Cardiff to say goodbye to their current venue. The three storey town house in Mill Lane has housed the gallery for the last 13 years, and in that time Cardiff has changed around it, it now sits slap-bang in a prime spot near the new shopping centre. The new venue has not yet been announced but, as the palindrome that creates the title for the last exhibition in the venue suggests ¿AreWeNotDrawnOnwardToNewEra? it's not an ending, but a transition. Here are some images from the day.

Homage: New works by Roger Cecil

2011-07-05T22:56:00.000+01:00

Roger Cecil - Untitled 2011

We are delighted at Oriel Myrddin Gallery to have opened our current exhibition of paintings by Abertillary artist Roger Cecil. We were very lucky to have a show of Roger's work at the gallery called Cariad in 2006, and now, 5 years later a completely new body of work has been created especially to show in the gallery.

The progression in Roger's work in those 5 years is self evident in this cohesive collection of works, more minimal and less 'worked' than previous paintings, the artist often allows the board on which he works to become part of the composition. These are resolved and confident works from one of Wales' best painters working in the mature years of his career. It is inspiring to find an artist continuing to push his practice and develop his work at this stage of his life when it might be quite easy to rest on one's laurels.

Roger was at the opening on Saturday 25 June, but with customary modesty left the building when Meg Anthony, the Gallery Manager spoke about him and his working processes, he is a down-to-earth man who finds superlatives uncomfortable.

We are very proud that this show is being exclusively shown in the gallery, it continues until 27 August. If you are at all interested in contemporary painting, don't miss this exceptional show!

Laura Ford - Beast and Other Works

2011-07-05T01:01:00.000+01:00

Laura Ford - Beast & Espalier Girl - seen here

The Glynn Vivian Gallery in Swansea is currently showing Beast a work which has been purchased for the permanent collection from sculptor, Laura Ford. The piece is on show in the foyer along with a brand new work called Mummers (2011) and Espalier Girl (2006) until 4 September

Beast was shown as part of the Venice Biennale in 2005 and again in 2006 at Glynn Vivian Gallery as part of the Contemporary Sculpture series, it has been a very popular work with audiences which has led the gallery to include it in the permanent collection.

In recent years Ford has used textiles to make strange and uncanny figures, often life size, they have a familiar tactile quality whilst also carrying a sense of impending menace. They have the unsettling qualities of '...a bad dream or a spooky story...' and invite the viewer to concoct imaginary narratives. Beast sits bulkily on a too-small stool, he is made of sack cloth, undeniably human but with suggestions of animal features - a tail, a possible beak. It feels like he may be incarcerated...a prison, a military establishment, a secure hospital? He asks us questions about the projections we use to unburden our own sense of psychological discomfort.

Mummers is another extraordinary and truly 'uncanny' work, life size figures of boys engaged in some kind of school boy game suggest at first a playground scenario - it becomes clear however that one of the characters is lying prostrate on the ground surrounded by his peers - one of whom is holding an iron rod. All the figures wear a shaggy costume of fabric strips reminiscent of a 'Mummers' play, a traditional folk performance usually enacted ritually each year which acts out a story of the death of a mythical king. The figures have a extraordinary sense of suspended life, it is a tableaux that is frozen at a moment of horrible realisation and touches on issues about the moral boundaries of children which are exceptionally disturbing.

Upstairs in the main gallery space is an exhibition of three international film works which examine themes of love in particular cultural contexts. I Know Something About Love part II features work by Yang Fudong (China), Shirin Neshat (Iran) and Christodoulos Panayiotou (Cyprus). The themes of the show seem to mark something of a refreshing change of focus and curation - an investigation of this most unstable and powerful of states and the cultural restraints that define its unfolding.

Venice Biennale 2011 - Roundup

2011-07-01T09:57:00.002+01:00

Three weeks after my trip to The Venice Biennale all the little thoughts and the sensory delights are beginning to settle into place. Here is a fragmentary summary of a few of my favourite shows and works.

America's offering Gloria, features work by Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla. Every now and again a deep, ominous rumbling and squealing can be heard across the Giardini, in fact it is a piece of performance that takes place at set intervals outside the American Pavilion. An upturned desert tank sits with its massive caterpillar tracks in the air; affixed to them is a running machine on which an olympic athlete, in American colours begins to run. As he does so the tank tracks begin to turn and grind. It's an uneasy sight - surprising and funny, but then the clean-cut perfection of the athlete is uncomfortable - in a Leni Riefenstahl way. The tank makes blunt reference to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, but it is rendered impotent, animated only by this American fantasy of the strong, healthy, clean-living winner running to go nowhere.

'body in flight (american)' by allora & calzadilla from designboom on Vimeo.

Inside the show two further performances take place. Sculptures of aircraft seating, made by cutting-edge rapid prototyping techniques, stand in the gallery spaces, at regular intervals highly trained gymnasts perform meticulously controlled set pieces using the sculptures. These references to 9-11, these fragments of aeroplane - is this an act of reclamation? Or is it an act of futility? A film in another room shows a series of vertical poles in open landscapes against which more of these superb athletes hoist themselves horizontally like human flags. It is a seriously thought provoking exhibition and has stayed with me nagging at notions of national pride and atrocity.

Hew Locke - Starchitect

Artsway's New Forest Pavilion in Dusoduro showed some memorable work. The venue partners with other galleries in the UK to create residencies and the works on show are the results of these projects. The artists represented this year are: Gayle Chong Kwan, Dave Lewis, Hew Locke, Mike Marshall, Christopher Orr and Sophy Rickett.

I particularly liked Hew Locke's Starchitect installation which transforms the space into a fantastical grotto of kitsch sculptures constructed from all kinds of cheap treasure and objects. Mike Marshall's beautiful and poetic film piece A Prism Splits Light shows Vietnamese migrant workers picking olives in Cyprus. Christopher Orr's works explore the Romantic and the Sublime in painting utilising a deliberately anachronistic style. Sophy Rickett's The River shows an installation of documentary style film and sound pieces which record an evening spent with people who are waiting to see of the 'Severn Bore' - a little tidal wave that sweeps the Severn River each year, a surprisingly warm and distinctly British gathering.

David Casini

Upstairs from Artsway in the stunning Palazzo Zenobio there a series of five works by artist David Casini, installed in one of the superbly elegant rooms. Casini's delicately constructed sculptures sit underneath glass domes like Victorian specimens, spindly architectural forms grow out of and yet set up a contrast with natural materials such as coral. These delicate little structures have quietly impressed themselves on me and I keep conjuring them in my mind's eye in their exquisite setting.

Hans Op de Beeck - Location 7

One of a Thousand Ways to beat Entropy, supported by the Courtauld Institute shows the work of four artists. I particularly liked the work of Hans Op de Beeck, Location 7 a suburban home has been reconstructed in full detail as an installation, but every object, including the garden which can be seen through the window is made of dark grey concrete, even the rumpled bedsheets are solid. An evocatively sad piece of music plays and a stultifying pathos imbues the scene. It is a remarkable piece of work.

Grayson Perry - The Walthamstow Tapestry

Penelope's Labour: Weaving words and images is a must-see for anyone at all interested in textiles and especially weave. This beautifully curated show is in the San Giorgio Maggiore Exhibition Centre. Alongside the finest historical tapestries and carpets new work, often made on high-tech state of the art looms is on show. You can see Grayson Perry's stunning The Walthamstow Tapestry and Mark Quinn's ultra contemporary weaving which reference flowers and flora. I was utterly fascinated by a delicate yellow silk wrap which had been entirely woven from the spider silk of the Golden Orb spider. This is a sophisticated and beautiful show. There is a lovely catalogue to accompany the show - I'm kicking myself that I didn't invest!

Venice Biennale 2011 - Penelope’s Labour: Weaving Words and Images from ikono tv on Vimeo.

Here is a link to my Flickr set of images from The Biennale.

Chiharu Shiota - Memory of Books

2011-06-30T21:08:00.002+01:00

Chiharu Shiota - Memory of Books

On the opposite side of the canal from the Wales Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in Castello, Haunch of Venison has commissioned Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota to install a site specific work in the Gervasuti Foundation building. A dense web of suspended threads envelope the books which the artist found on site. I've seen Shiota's work many times online so I was delighted to get an opportunity to see a piece in person, especially in such an evocative space.

Memory of Books: a short film with Chiharu Shiota from Haunch of Venison on Vimeo.

Mike Nelson in Venice

2011-06-29T23:02:00.000+01:00

One of the things I was really looking forward to at The Venice Biennale was the opportunity to see the work made for The British Pavilion by installation artist, Mike Nelson, I, Impostor. I queued for an hour and a half as only a few people are allowed in at a time, luckily it was well worth the wait. Nelson has gone to work on the classic interior of the pavilion with incredible attention to detail to alter the building beyond recognition.

Nelson has taken as his starting point a piece of work he undertook in 2003 for the Istanbul Biennale, The current work re-imagines the former piece and reconstructs it using salvaged materials from the original site and from Venice. He makes parallels between the history and trade function of the two locations.

It took him and a small team three months to construct the installation. He has created a dark and sleazy interior, a backstreet workshop in a Turkish city. He sets up the space with claustrophobic rooms, stairs and corridors. The first room suggests a workshop perhaps repairing crystal chandeliers...this could just be a front though; as you venture further it starts to feel less legitimate. Dingy, dirty...someone lives here or at least sleeps here. Upstairs there is a workshop strewn with tools, a portable TV hisses white noise, detuned. Corners are stacked with junk machinery and salvaged scrap.

A darkroom glows red, a forest of developed photographs hang on washing lines drying in the roof. You can smell the chemicals -it feels obsessive...why all these images, why so many? What is being sought or being recorded? Who is the imposter ofthe work's title? This is at the core of Nelson's work - he sets us up with a living, breathing space and invites us to imagine what has happened or what might happen there, we create our own story. His meticulous attention to detail right down to the fixtures and fittings helps us suspend our disbelief. He makes copious reference to films and books to help us recognise the language of suspense and the building narrative.

Karla Black - Scotland + Venice

2011-06-26T23:19:00.002+01:00

The Venice Biennale is a lot like the most fantastic sweet shop, one is horribly spoiled for choice. It takes some while to digest the fayre and come to a sensible conclusion about what one has seen and experienced. Possibly my favourite confection was sculptor, Karla Black at the Scottish Pavilion. I'm using that analogy for good purpose, because the work itself actually does have the feeling of confectionary or 'Lush' cosmetics.

I had trouble finding the Scottish Pavilion, it is placed in a confusing little maze of streets and on my first attempt I found it just as the door was locked for the evening. Undeterred, I headed back the next morning and it STILL took me ages to find it...and then climb the endless stairs. I wasn't feeling terribly well disposed for a positive experience, but even before I reached the door I could smell the artwork - fizzy, fruity, soapy cosmetics. Walking in to the show I was confronted with an absurd and lovely landscape of pastel colours, towers and bulbous paper forms, powdery sugar like pigments, oversized cellophane wrapping and drapes of plastic. The network of little rooms either side of the main gallery space housed paper works suspended in space and fields of brown soil populated with big sculptural blocks of soap.

Karla Black calls these works 'almost objects' and considers them to be '...caught between thoughtless gestures and seriously obsessive attempts at beauty.' They are unashamedly about material, physical stuff - they are thoroughly sensual and tactile. The main space at the 15th Century Palazzo Pisani which houses the show is decorated in unusual ice-cream colours, I asked the attendant if Karla Black had responded to this with the work, but she assured me that the connection was purely serendipitous. If so, it's a lovely, playful exchange.

The show made me happy...is that ok?? Playful, honest joyfulness is relatively thin on the ground in the artworld - it feels almost wrong. I was delighted with the femininity of the work - feminine not feminist, it manages to transcend the angst of feminism and the issues of being a female artist, it is effortlessly confident and assertive. On a deeper level Black is using ideas about psychology and quantum science, and these concepts are perfectly realised in the work but cleverly balanced with its pure materiality.

Tim Davies @ Venice Biennale

2011-06-26T21:40:00.003+01:00

The Welsh Pavilion has found a new home for the 54th Venice Biennale. Having been slightly off the beaten track on Guidecca for previous manifestations it now nestles between the two main exhibition spaces, Arsenale and Giardini at The Ludoteca Santa Maria Ausiliatrice, Castello. It's a fantastic location and a great space, a 16th Century ex-convent now run as a community centre.

The first artist to occupy this new location for Wales is Swansea based, Tim Davies. Davies was a popular choice from the proposals submitted for representation and he has produced a solid and cohesive body of work including two new video pieces made especially for the show which directly reference his experience in Venice. Other works are from his portfolio including two video works along with his Bridges series of altered postcards. Davies has worked alongside his long time colleague as curator for this show, Tom Rowland. The curation of the show is subtly evident as remarked on by Dai Smith, Chairman of The Arts Council of Wales, in his opening speech, it has a symphonic quality which gives the work a building rhythm within the architecture.

I have always enjoyed the materiality of Davies work and the meticulous processes he uses in bringing it into being, so I was pleased that the show was not solely focused on video works. Bridges (2009 - 2011) is a series of 60 framed postcards of bridges in different locations, the artist has, by meticulous scratching, isolated each bridge from its landscape in so doing, drawing attention to its function and significance. The collection sits particularly well in Venice with its endless canals and little bridges, something one is only too well aware of when negotiating the labyrinthine streets.

The older works showing are films, Cadet (Running and Parade at Cardiff) 2010 and Cadet (Standing at Aberystwyth) 2006 both of which take the War Memorial and young cadets at Remembrance Day services as their subject in a reflection on the senselessness of losing young lives to war.

Tim Davies - Drift (2010)

The most iconic of the new works is arguably a new piece of work called Drift (2011) the film focuses on Davies hand as he travels along one of Venice's canals gently touching the surface of the water, we can see the reflection of the Venetian buildings, and the intervention of his hand touching the water constantly disturbs the image. It is beautiful, tender and meditative. I was quite enchanted on first viewing, however on subsequent viewings something unsettling began to emerge for me. Partly a little ripple of feminist disquiet - something about the nuances of the action, but also something about dilettantism - especially in the context of Venice as a destination on the Grand Tour. Maybe there is also a comment on the Biennale itself as an event with which visitors interact often quite superficially, seduced by its prestige, pedigree and the romanticism of its location.

The final work in the show is Frari (2011), a film made from collaged stills taken in the bell tower of the Campanile Santa Maria dei Frari. It has a painterly quality as the film builds through semi abstracted images. The soundtrack provides a tension and reminds us of the performative element involved in making the work. Of all the works it is the least didactic, it feels to be more about pure experience.

Tim Davies deserves this opportunity to represent his country and he has made a solid show for this new space which talks about place without tipping into the dangerous territory of sentimentality.

Rhodio - An intervention

2011-06-10T20:43:00.002+01:00

Kathryn Campbell Dodd - A spoon is a spoon is a spoon...

Last week I spent five days at the Venice Biennale during the opening week. I went partly to see my own work in situ at Rhodio, an artist-led group show in a restaurant, Pane Vino e San Daniele in Dorsoduro. The show ran from 30 May to 4 June and involved the work of 13 installation artists from Wales making an intervention into the space.

Kathryn Campbell Dodd - A spoon is a spoon is a spoon (detail)

At first sight the restaurant space looked fairly untouched, other than the white cloths that Roger Lougher (the curator) had draped across the ornaments and objects belonging to the owners that had been left in situ, a subtle way of directing the visitor's attention to the works that were operating as 'art' in the space. The show was not invigilated, and visitors were left to find their own way around the work with the help of 'table talkers' - a small information sheet for each artist standing near the work.

I liked that quietness, the minimal impact on the environment. So much of the Venice Biennale shouts and jostles for attention, there was something rather subversive about the subtlety of the intervention. The Rhôd group of artists from whom those showing were selected, have been very much exploring ideas about 'place' - the urban rural dialogue; the centre and the periphery - and this was an interesting extension of that conversation. How does a loosely formed group of artists from urban Cardiff and rural west Wales take their discussion to a cultural hotspot like the biennale? What can we say about Wales in this unique place? How can we occupy a little corner of this exceptional art fair?

The show included work by: Michael Cousin, Ann Jordan, Kathryn Campbell Dodd, Mike Murray, good cop bad cop, Jason Pinder, Kim Fielding, David Shepherd, Richard Higlett, Elizabeth Waterhouse, Penny Jones, Jacob Whittaker. It was curated by Roger Lougher and presented by Mari Beynon Owen.

Jacob Whittaker - A Welsh Stream

Jacob Whittaker, Cardigan based sound and video artist, installed three vinyl records in the show each tagged with a smart phone app that took you to his dedicated live webcasting site A Welsh Stream, where you could access video from three locations in rural Wales including Melin Glonc where the Rhôd series of shows have been held.

Richard Higlett

Cardiff based artist Richard Higlett used one of the sketches already in situ in the restaurant, a pencil sketch view of the Grand Canal, and created an inverted version of it as though a frogman's eye view of the scene and a comment on the popularity/folly of the biennale and the sinking of the city.

Penny Jones

Penny Jones took a pair of 16th Century poems - one in Welsh, one in Italian - and created a menu for the restaurant which contained the two. Bawdy and sexually explicit, they are written by women in a man's world. She also redesigned the restaurant logo to depict three pregnant women - one pushing a buggy. During the exhibition Penny made a short performance piece in which she played with the androgyny of a composite character, part woman, part Gondolier.

Penny Jones

Curator, Roger Lougher showed pieces from his series of altered health and safety signs.

Roger Lougher

Rhodio - Pavillion SA44 5BX Padiglione - Venice

2011-05-30T15:20:00.000+01:00

Ben Rowe at Mission Gallery

2011-05-28T20:01:00.001+01:00

Ben Rowe - Installing at Mission Gallery - Seen here

I'm really excited to see the new exhibition at Mission Gallery in Swansea Second Star from the Right and Straight on Until Morning, I'll miss the opening on 3 June, but will definitely make a point of seeing the show. I don't know much about the artist Ben Rowe, but I have seen images of past work and found them really intriguing - reading his biography I find that he completed his Foundation studies in Carmarthen. In the image above, Rowe is involved in creating his new work in situ in the gallery.

Ben Rowe - This is it, Don't get scared now - seen here

His work is concerned with the safety and freedom of being a child and in contrast the heavy burden of adult responsibilities. He meticulously creates works which are replicas of film props from iconic 1980's films, modelled from MDF in close detail. The residual dust created from the process of making is collected and often made into a sandcastle in his Temporary Monument series.

Ben Rowe - Temporary Monument XII - seen here

The exhibition runs from 4 June to 24 July 2011.

Rhôd 2011

2011-05-22T12:19:00.000+01:00

The third annual Rhôd event will be open at Drefelin Mill near Drefach Felindre, Carmarthenshire from 11 June until 18 June 2011. It looks like it will be another intriguing coming together of artists exploring the 'Urban /rural dialogue' - here's what Rhôd is about:

"Rhôd is an annual exhibition / event that takes place in rural West Wales, UK. One of the main objectives of Rhôd is to site contemporary art in a rural landscape creating a dialogue between urban artists and artists who work in rural settings. This dialogue is taken up by the artworks in their environment and further developed by our audience.

Arddangosfa/digwyddiad blynyddol yw Rhôd sy’n digwydd yng nghefn gwlad Gorllewin Cymru, DU
Un o brif amcanion Rhôd yw lleoli celf gyfoes mewn tirwedd wledig gan greu deialog rhwng artistiaid dinesig ac artistiaid sy’n gweithio yng nghefn gwlad. Mae’r ddeialog yn cael ei datblygu trwy osod y gwaith celf yn yr amgylchedd gyda’r gynulleidfa wedyn yn ei hymestyn."

Two curators, one based in Cardiff (Jason Pinder), one in West Wales (Simon Whitehead) are selecting artists to bring their work to the mill and its environs for the duration of the show. The folk band Fernhill have been commissioned by Simon Whitehead to create work throughout the festival with film work by Ben Stammers. The Cardiff contingent chosen by Jason Pinder include: David Cushley, Graham Dunning, Ed Elliott and Anthony Shapland.

The opening event is on 11 June from 2pm with a Twmpath event at 7:30 pm in Neuadd y Ddraig Goch in Drefach Felindre.

Rhodio - Hats Off For Venice!

2011-05-22T09:58:00.000+01:00

Kathryn Campbell Dodd - Spoon is a spoon is a spoon...

I'm excited (and relieved) to have delivered my work for Rhodio, a satellite show of the 54th Venice Biennale - Pavilion SA44 5XB Padiglione. Twelve installation artists who have shown work as part of Rhôd at Drefelin Mill in Carmarthenshire "...take off their collective hat and travel from Wales to make interventions in a restaurant in Venice." The show has been curated by Roger Lougher and is presented by Mari Beynon Owen.

"Rhôd in Welsh means specifically a waterwheel; it also describes the wheel of the heavens and the wheel of fortune that promises only change. It is the name of an annual exhibition held at Drefelin SA44 5XB in a sixteenth century water mill and its grounds. By extension the word Rhodio means to travel and this show is in the orbit of SA44. It carries the ethos of Rhôd beyond the borders of Wales widening the dialogue between the rural and the urban, the periphery and the centre. Rhôd is a rural laboratory for the development of new strains of contemporary art practice, the recoding of the DNA of landscape theory and the deconstruction of the Sublime and the Romantic.

The rural setting and ethos of site specific work shown in Pavilion SA44 5XB invites the viewer to see this show in the context of current trends in food production and the slow food movement that informs the menu in the restaurant itself. We see ourselves exhibiting in an international farmers market.

Artists with their roots in rural communities and city born artists, both with a real engagement in contemporary life, continue to create new ways of engaging in the dynamic relationship between the city and the country."

I have made a piece called Spoon is a spoon is a spoon... the image above is one of six racks of souvenir spoons which will be installed in an old wall cabinet in the restaurant. I'll be travelling out to Venice for five days to see the work in situ and visit the Biennale including the Welsh Pavilion featuring Swansea artist, Tim Davies.

Just a little bit excited! Watch this space for news...

Diana Heeks - New Work

2011-05-22T09:15:00.002+01:00

Ceredigion based artist Diana Heeks is currently showing her new body of work at St Dogmaels Gallery near Cardigan. The series follows on from Diana's MA studies and reveals a strong and cohesive process of research and practice. The pleated pieces incorporated in drawers as sculptural works and as wall based and framed objects are a sophisticated development from her painting practice. The show runs until 4 June and the gallery is open from Wednesday - Saturday.

Armed Forces - Alex Van Gelder

2011-05-10T20:05:00.000+01:00

Alex Van Gelder - seen here

This incredible photograph of Louise Bourgeois' hands was taken by Alex Van Gelder and is part of the current exhibition at the Hauser & Wirth gallery in Zurich. Here is part of the gallery introduction to the show: "Gnarled, sinewy and wrinkled with age, Louise Bourgeois’s hands were fascinating. Her hands are the subjects of portraits taken by the artist Alex Van Gelder, who, at Bourgeois’s invitation, photographed her at her New York townhouse during the last year of her life. The resulting portfolio of eighteen photographic prints will be on display at Hauser & Wirth Zürich from 12 February." The exhibition shows until 14 May.

Susan Hiller

2011-05-09T22:53:00.000+01:00

Susan Hiller - Witness 2000 - seen here

I went along to Tate Britain whilst in London for the Susan Hiller exhibition, it only runs until 15 May and it's fantastic, so do get along to see it if you can. A major survey of her 40 year career, the show takes in the sweep of her work from the dream mapping experiments and cut up paintings of the 1970's, to innovative installation experiments with sound and image and quasi-anthropological collections of objects. She explores issues of the subconscious, the unconscious, the supernatural and the uncanny with a scientific veneer derived in part from her training as an anthropologist.

I have bought the exhibition catalogue because the show was so personally powerful and full of important references for my own practice. I'm looking forward to reading and thinking about her work and the extensive influence she has had on current practice.

Collect: The International Art Fair for Contemporary Objects

2011-05-09T22:23:00.002+01:00

Stephen Bird - War on Pottery - seen here

I went back for a proper look around at Collect on Saturday, it's a real treat to see so much top quality work in one venue, I really enjoy the international aspect of the fair. Jewellery had a strong presence this year along with ceramics; textiles generally seem to be less well represented, however two Fibre Arts Wales members were showing, Laura Thomas with Ruthin Craft Centre and Michelle Griffiths with Lesley Craze Gallery. I was also delighted to find some pieces by ceramicist, Stephen Bird at the Bluecoat Display Centre stand.

Bettina Speckner - seen here

I really like Galerie Ra and Galerie Marzee, both Dutch based jewellery specialists. At Galerie Ra I made my (purely) fantasy purchase - a brooch from Bettina Speckner! Gallerie Marzee have a plan chest alongside their main display full of exquisite pieces from their gallery artists.

Galerie Marzee at Collect 2011 - seen here

Collect at Saatchi

2011-05-07T08:31:00.001+01:00

Stefano Marchetti - seen here

I went along to The Saatchi Gallery last night for a preview of Collect: The International Art Fair for Contemporary Objects. I'll be going back today for a closer look, but here are a few of the makers that I enjoyed on first sight.

David Gates - seen here

Ike Junger - seen here

Collect 2011

2011-05-05T07:06:00.001+01:00

Tanya Gomez - Submerge - seen here

I'm off to London tomorrow to go to this years Collect at The Saatchi Gallery. Watch this space for updates...here's a preview of the catalogue - strangely they have added some very cheesy background music so be ready with the mute button!

Fibre Voices II

2011-05-05T06:47:00.000+01:00

Fibre Art Wales are showing as a group at Newport Museum and Art Gallery until 11 June. I have 3 works in the show including this piece, Wishbone 2009.

Kathryn Campbell Dodd - Wishbone

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty

2011-05-04T23:58:00.000+01:00

Alexander McQueen - Dress from the VOSS collection
- seen here

“You’ve got to know the rules to break them. That’s what I’m here for, to demolish the rules but to keep the tradition.” Alexander McQueen

I wish I could pop across the pond to see this exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty opened today and is a major retrospective of McQueen's collections from his Postgraduate show at Central St Martin's in 1992 to the final catwalk show after his death in 2010.

The website for the show is very thorough and has lots of videos and resources, really worth getting lost in for a while!

Peter Finnemore: Groove

2011-05-03T22:04:00.001+01:00

Peter Finnemore hanging Project Object: Groove

Carmarthenshire born and bred; artist, Peter Finnemore has been quietly collecting 45 rpm vinyl records since the 1980's. His collection is focused on records that relate to Wales and in particular, Carmarthen - mostly from the 1960's and 70's. He sees his records as "...democratic markers of cultural history, as ‘vinyl bones’, and as vernacular folk art."

For the second part of Oriel Myrddin Gallery's Project Object series of exhibitions, Groove, Peter is installing a selection of the covers in the gallery along with an original Dansette record player (loaned by another Welsh artist and vinyl enthusiast, Jacob Whittaker).

I'm looking forward to our visitors reactions to the collection - I imagine that there might be some moments of "I remember THAT!" along with much laughter and the odd cringe!

From the collection of Peter Finnemore

Mostyn Open 2011

2011-05-01T07:48:00.000+01:00

Helen Sear - Sightline 4 - Seen here

Mostyn gallery in Llandudno will be showing the works chosen for the Mostyn Open 2011 from 21 May. This is the first of the prestigious open exhibitions to be held at the gallery since it opened after major refurbishment and will now be a international biennial event. Work from 48 artists has been selected by Artist, Richard Wentworth, Curator, Karen MacKinnon and Head of Exhibitions at Mostyn, Anders Pleass. There is a £10,000 prize up for grabs.

Blue Birdhouse

2011-04-25T16:52:00.000+01:00

seen here

Thanks to Jim Linderman on his excellent blog Dull Tool Dim Bulb for posting this birdhouse today, built 50 years ago in Michigan. I just love the simple, beautiful, functional nature of it.

Project Object

2011-04-19T23:26:00.002+01:00

I'm very excited that our new series of shows at Oriel Myrddin Gallery has opened - under the banner of Project Object, we have invited four artists; Peter Finnemore, Carwyn Evans, Becky Adams and Jools Johnson to occupy the gallery space with special objects that evoke intruiging stories. Using objects both personal and particular and a spirit of experiment and happen-stance, each of this artist-led series will develop differently.

I've started a sister blog to document Project Object - I hope you might visit and follow to keep up to date with everything that's happening over the next 8 weeks.

Carwyn Evans: Altro 19 - 30 April. Working with material unearthed from his father's land in Newcastle Emlyn, Carwyn Evans 'purifies' it, eradicating any sense of place, identity or culture from the material so that it can only be seen as ‘stuff’, dislocated from notions of culture and mother or fatherland.

Peter Finnemore: Groove 4 - 14 May. Peter Finnemore has collected 45 rpm vinyl records for many years, focusing his collection on those that relate to Wales. Seeing his records as democratic markers of cultural history, as ‘vinyl bones’, and as vernacular folk art, many of them relate specifically to Carmarthen.

Becky Adams: Memento 17 May – 4 June. What compels us to keep objects, hoard objects, covet objects? An exploration into the emotional connection and history attached to personal objects, Becky Adams throws light on the personal stories attached to seemingly benign objects and creates a visual library that documents memory, recollection and personal story.

Jools Johnson: Aurora 7 – 18 June. Jools Johnson manipulates recycled computer materials to create artworks that resemble futuristic constructions and miniature cities. Recent installations create unsettling atmospheres and ethereal backdrops for new architectural models that articulate fundamental questions about our own existence.

Project Object: Collect 7 May – 4 June. Carmarthen Museum in Abergwili houses the county’s collection of treasured archaeology, social artefact and artworks. The museum have kindly loaned a small selection of items as part of Project Object. The gallery would like you to loan a significant object of your own to be shown alongside in the studio space during the show so that we can create our own living museum of special things.

Placement at Oriel Davies

2011-04-19T22:56:00.002+01:00

I went along to the opening of Placement - Ceramic Collection: Wales & Scotland at Oriel Davies in Newtown on Saturday evening. The exhibition has been curated by ceramicists, Lowri Davies (Wales) and Dawn Youll (Scotland) and brings together artists working in ceramic from both these regions.

This is one of the best shows I have seen for some while, I really enjoyed the choice of artists, the subtlety brought to the show by the curation and the physical layout of the gallery. The artists chosen for the show are: Stephen Bird, Claire Curneen, Lowri Davies, Ken Eastman, Nick Evans, Laura Ford, Anne Gibbs, David Shrigley, Cecile Johnson Soliz, Connor Wilson and Dawn Youll.

The artist which both curators had on their wish list for the show was Laura Ford, and through making that connection they found that other suggestions unfolded around the ideas of ceramic in the widest contexts; the boundary between fine art and craft is truly irrelevant in this show.

"Placement explores the subject of place, whether geographical or make-believe, and associated ideas around arrangement and placement, whether located to a place or within history. It aims to highlight important associations in the field of ceramics concerning location, geography, geology, ritual, commemoration and souvenir. Works by eleven artists reveal how ceramic objects can, and have been, used to articulate a particular language: telling stories and connecting us with both past and present."

There is such a feast of exceptional work in this show it's hard to decide on any favourite artists or works. Dawn Youll's work is stunningly well resolved in every way, it combines ideas about form, semiotics, materiality and concept effortlessly and elegantly. There is a major article with her in this month's Crafts Magazine which is featured on the front cover - very much worth grabbing a copy.

Stephen Bird's chaotic ceramic sculptures crackle with a nervous spirit of obsession. Much of his work is a subversion of the traditional English figurine, playing with the inherent colonialism and notions of class they embody and muddling them up to create fantastic, hybridised figures and scenes which borrow across global and contemporary culture.

Claire Curneen's trees feel powerfully mythic, red earthenware with gilded roots and branches, these forms are subtly abstracted from her often overtly figurative work and bring with them a slightly darker and richer language. I had no idea that David Shrigley made ceramic work, but his objects (a pair of oversized black boots and a bomb) are extremely sharp and funny. Lowri Davies delicate tea service and vases are the result of a keen and modestly authoritative understanding of both materials and historical references. Conor Wilson brings a magpie's eye to his pieces, they feel like they have been assembled and made beautiful with eclectic borrowings from many different sources, they are slightly rude, slightly dreamlike, slightly decorative and shot through with a complicated narrative.

If you are anywhere near Newtown between now and 6 July, I strongly recommend a visit. Whilst you are there you can also catch Jonathan Anderson's installation, Aggregates in the Test Bed space at the gallery. The confined square footage of the space brings a tangible sense of claustrophobia to the work, but the irreverent, anti-capitalist humour that is evident, especially in the 3 dimensional objects he has chosen for the space lifts it and brings it into an interesting conversation with the Placement works in the main gallery spaces.

Tessa Hunkin Mosaic Commission

2011-04-19T21:26:00.002+01:00

Tessa Hunkin - Design for Lyric Theatre Mosaic Commission
seen here

We are rather proud in Carmarthen to be able to boast a new mosaic commissioned from artist, Tessa Hunkin outside The Lyric Theatre in King Street. It was installed last week by Tessa and her assistant. Oriel Myrddin Gallery Manager, Meg Anthony organised the call for submissions and steered the selection of the design. Tessa has a long history of working to public commission including a piece designed by Welsh artist, Ivor Davies which was installed in Westminster Cathedral last year to coincide with the Pope’s visit to the UK.

It is a beautiful piece of work, and exceptionally well crafted in muted colours and gold with roundels of significant local themes.

Drawing Symposium - The Uses of Drawing

2011-04-15T06:06:00.001+01:00

Oriel Myrddin Gallery held a Drawing Symposium - The Uses of Drawing - last Saturday as part of the participatory events inspired by The Jerwood Drawing Prize which is showing at the gallery (it closes this Saturday, if you haven't been yet!). In keeping with the ethos of the prize which aims to "...provide a forum to test, evaluate and disseminate current drawing practice, and to gain knowledge and understanding about the field through the artists currently making work within the discipline." we invited speakers from a range of disciplines to a day-long discussion on the uses of drawing bringing together multi-disciplinary approaches to the uses, relevance, benefits and value of drawing as a creative solution and technical discipline.

The day was chaired by Carmarthenshire artist, lecturer and writer, Osi Rhys Osmond, ever charismatic and provocative, Osi was a natural choice to bring the best out of our speakers and our audience. The speakers included:

Roger Moss, Sculptor - "Let there be drawing (apologies to Epstein)."

Marilyn Allen, Artist - "Drawing in Contemporary Practice."

Dr Wayne Forster, Deputy Head of Welsh School of Architecture - "Architecture and the Thinking Hand."

Sally Moss, Curator - "Drawing and the Athens of Wales" The history of drawing at Oriel Myrddin Gallery.

Julia Griffiths Jones, Artist/maker - "Drawing out the Collection" - Working with the National Wool Museum Collection.

Ken Brassil, Archaeology Learning Officer National Museum of Wales - "Timeline: archaeology maps the past."

It was a brilliantly sunny day, so we felt very encouraged that over 40 people packed the gallery space for the day forgoing the beach or the deckchair. We sat amongst The Jerwood Drawing Prize works which gave a fantastic context to the proceedings. The speakers ranged over diverse territory.

Roger Moss talked about the sculptor's process, the way that the drawing materials themselves often bring a materiality and substance to sketching. He discussed the freedom and fluidity the sketching process could bring, comparing at one point a Rodin experiment in stone to the work of Eduardo Paolotzzi and reminding us that nothing is new under the sun. He related some lovely personal stories including sitting next to Claus Oldenburg at dinner and coveting the little explanatory sketch he made on the table cloth - British reserve saw the drawing scrunched into the bin at the end of the meal...much to the sadness of those eyeing up the opportunity to claim it.

Marilyn Allen, erstwhile lecturer in Contextual Studies at West Wales School of the Arts, talked in particular about how performance artists use the 'trace' of their performance - how can you sell a memory or a ghost? She used a wide range of references including Maryclare Foá's walk through Manhattan, Line Down Manhattan (2003), dragging along a lump of English chalk, a conceptually succinct expression of the question. She also made reference to artists such as Rebecca Horn - especially her pencil mask, Bleistiftmaske (1972), and Tim Knowles Tree Drawings.

Dr Wayne Forster brought a really interesting dimension to proceedings, talking about the tripartite stages of drawing with which the architect typically engages; conceptual, developmental and finished. Each stage demands a very different approach through the very practical function of its language. Swiss architect, Peter Zumthor provided a lynch pin to the talk especially The Therme Vals in Switzerland.

Curator, Sally Moss is an avid historian and has a vast knowledge of the town of Carmarthen and especially the building in which Oriel Myrddin Gallery is housed. Built as a dedicated art school and designed by architect George Morgan, it opened it's doors in 1892 and was built by public subscription. Sally reminded us that the funds to create this pioneering establishment were raised by the residents of the town, not just the culturally elite, but also ordinary working Carmarthen people. She read us inspiring and inspired sections from the speeches made in support of the art school, one of which set out its ambition for Carmarthen to be 'The Athens of Wales', a heartland of culture.

Julia Griffiths Jones, Carmarthenshire artist and maker, talked to us about her practice and the roots of her research in eastern europe. Taking inspiration from traditional textiles her work has developed a very distinctive style which incorporates 'drawing' in metal wire and textiles. In recent years Julia has worked closely with The National Wool Museum in Drefach Felindre, creating a number of works which are now permanently housed in the museum.

Our last speaker of the day, Ken Brassil from The National Museum in Cardiff enlivened the final presentation with his highly unique speaking style. Inspired by the Tim Ingold book, Lines - A Brief History, he took us on an abstract journey of archaeology and the changing face of the technologies and techniques of gathering and recording information.

Invigorated by the day, one of our visitors told me how much she'd enjoyed the day, in fact it had made her feel rather moved - she had 'nearly cried six times'. I think this exemplifies the passion with which drawing and its functions are held. Summing up, Osi Rhys Osmond pleaded the case for drawing to be taken far more seriously as a language and communication tool, a key to the future.

Piet Hein Eek

2011-04-03T11:24:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Hazel Terry for posting this video of Piet Hein Eek this morning. The ethos behind the company is very inspiring. Oriel Myrddin Gallery will be showing an exhibition of Dutch design in September curated by Pembrokeshire's Freshwest Design - Piet Hein Eek is not part of the show, but the show will feature designers influenced by the prestigious Eindhoven Design Academy including Maartin Baas, Riener Bosch, Formafantasma, Daphna Isaacs, Chris Kabel, Digna Kosse, Christien Meindertsma, Mieke Meijer, Berjan Pot, Tejo Remy (TBC), Frederik Roije, Peter van der Jagt, Nathan Wierink.

The Dutch Collection is particular: its emphasis is creative, questioning, light and holistic. A spirit of research and adventure has meant that selection, curation and delivery have transmogrified into a Freshwest/Netherlands road trip. Marcus Beck and Simon Macro (Freshwest Design) and Joby Barnard (photography/design) venture to Holland in a van to meet with designers on a whistle-stop ‘select and collect’ tour from some of the best design studios in The Netherlands.

Scotland Meets Wales at Oriel Davies Gallery

2011-03-31T21:01:00.001+01:00

Lowri Davies - seen here

Dawn Youll - Anodyne Adventure - seen here

I'm really looking forward to the upcoming shows at Oriel Davies Gallery in Newtown. From 16 April Placement - Ceramic Connections: Wales and Scotland will be in the main gallery, curated by two ceramicists; Wales' Lowri Davies and Scotland's Dawn Youll. There's a fabulous line up of artists and makers including Laura Ford whom both artists had favoured on their wish list of participants:

Stephen Bird, Claire Curneen, Lowri Davies, Ken Eastman, Nick Evans, Laura Ford, Anne Gibbs, David Shrigley, Cecile Johnson Soliz, Conor Wilson, Dawn Youll

"Placement explores the subject of place, whether geographical or make-believe, and associated ideas around arrangement and placement, whether located to a place or within history. It aims to highlight important associations in the field of ceramics concerning location, geography, geology, ritual, commemoration and souvenir. Works by eleven artists reveal how ceramic objects can, and have been, used to articulate a particular language: telling stories and connecting us with both past and present."

Jonathan Anderson - Dark Bulb, 2009 - seen here

At the same time, in the Test Bed space at Oriel Davies, Swansea's Jonathan Anderson (also a Scot - so the connections are widened) will be showing an installation of works with the title Aggregates - I'm very interested to see how he uses the diminutive space, I can imagine it will be a powerful experience.

Ruthin Craft Centre

2011-03-30T23:01:00.001+01:00

Nora Fok - seen here

There's an interesting clutch of shows coming up at Ruthin Craft Centre in North Wales. Gallery 1 is showing Cloud Nylon: The Jewellery of Nora Fok - the first ever solo exhibition for the jeweller, textile artist and 3d designer. She meticulously creates wearable pieces from nylon monofilament.

Norman Makinson - Festival of Britain commemorative mug - seen here

Gallery 2 is showing a retrospective of the ceramic work of the late Norman Makinson who died last year at the age of 88. He was best known for his Wedgewood Queen's ware design for the Festival of Britain commemorative mug in 1951.

Stephen Farnan - Bowl (The Last Day) - seen here

Gallery 3 takes an overview of potters currently working in the ancient technique of slipware. The technique dates back to 17th Century, and has a strong history of use in Wales. Slip... celebrates the work of a number of contemporary makers including Stephen Farnan.

Neti & Hugo

2011-03-22T21:59:00.003Z

Hugo Colville - Yet-another-day - Seen here

I went with Meg and Mary from Oriel Myrddin and our graphic designer, Heidi Baker, on a studio visit today to meet an artist couple who live in the hills above Newport in North Pembrokeshire. Neti and Hugo - Annette de Mestre and Hugo Colville. Heidi drove us out to where they live. Once you have negotiated a wild 1/2 mile track through beautiful countryside, past a duck pond/lake with a wee rowing boat, you see their little blue traditional cottage; but they don't live in there, they have a studio/home/shop in a utilitarian, corrugated structure nearby. You enter first of all into a small shop area selling their cards and bound books, prints and paintings which nestle alongside their collections of beautiful old objects, bottles, pots, old glass baubles. You are invited to examine Hugo's Button Museum - a beautiful, theatrical set of old wooden draws full of delightful vintage buttons, shell, textile, glass, ceramic...

Annette de Mestre - Blissful - Seen here

Beyond this entrance is their living and working space; a covetable old plan chest, a little kitchen area looking across the garden, an old wooden table and mis matched chairs, iron chandeliers full of cobwebs. Neti and Hugo strike you as a mythical couple, they are the living embodiment of the stories and books they make together, it is a miracle that they found each other and made this life together, it struck me that it could not have been any other way, they would have found each other across oceans. It made me feel deeply happy to know that they just work away there every day, finding the beauty in little objects and thinking about it, writing about it, drawing it - living cheek-by-jowl with their work. I feel very privileged to have been introduced to them, and look forward to finding out more about their extraordinary life and work.

Jessica Holmes

2011-03-19T09:21:00.001Z

Jessica Holmes - A Hole into which to Retire for Protection - seen here

Jessica Holmes - The Lesson is: Fallout Shelter is Needed Everywhere
- seen here

After yesterday's post on the new show at London's Transition Gallery, I went off to have a look at the work of one of the contributors, Jessica Holmes. I like her recent paintings on wallpaper; the still lives and the dog images - beautiful.

Gilding the Lily at Transition Gallery

2011-03-18T09:59:00.003Z

Jessica Holmes - seen here

I'll probably miss Gilding the Lily at Transition Gallery in east London, but it looks really interesting. I like the concept of the exhibition, it is a question that probably all artists - maybe all creatives - have to confront in their own practice. Here's the gallery publicity for the show:

'To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, is wasteful and ridiculous excess.'  Shakespeare

If making art is in part an act of embellishment, one critique could be whether the embellishment is adding something new, deepening our view or whether it is just excess with no additional value. The word embellishment has a range of meanings, from making beautiful, improving, adding fictitious details, to wasteful exaggeration. This range indicates its slippery subjectivity, depending on the eye of the beholder.

Even the most austere understated artist is an embellisher of sorts as nothing can be stripped away completely as there is always a fiction and pleasure at the heart of every artwork. The pleasure of making and of viewing would arise from the embellishing of ideas and materials, and whether or not the embellishment has become alchemic.

Each work requires a different strategy to achieve this act of embellishment. Some artists may explore ideas and materials through excess and opulence, others by pairing down. The artists in this show reflect this arc.

The show includes the work of Max Hymes, Jessica Holmes, Richard Livingston, Stuart Mayes, Will Tuck, Paul Westcombe, Laura White, Nicola Williams and runs from 19 March to 10 April 2011.

Make Room

2011-03-13T05:52:00.000Z

Sarah Rees - Das Unheimliche - seen here

I popped along to the opening of Make Room at Milkwood Gallery in Cardiff last night, one in a series of shows in the capital celebrating International Women's Day. Milkwood Gallery, both a lovely shop stocking vintage and contemporary design and a gallery, are doing good things with their space in Roath, including giving artists a residency space in their ongoing Basement Project.

I particularly liked this piece by Cardiff based Sara Rees made as part of a project with The Welsh School of Architectural Glass in Swansea in conjunction with The Leverhulme Trust. Her artist profile for the show states her themes as "...late-capitalism, psychology and the environment...an on-going exploration of the interface between nature and civilisation." Placed on the floor inside an under stairs cupboard the work explores Freud's theme of the uncanny - the un-homely house; the piece is lit from within to reveal a tangle of plant life within its sleek glass form.

The Jerwood Drawing Prize

2011-03-11T08:40:00.004Z

Lindsay Sekulowicz - Mid-autumn tiger

The Jerwood Drawing Prize is now open at Oriel Myrddin Gallery, it's very exciting to have this prestigious show here in Carmarthen. The selection is incredibly varied, the natural reaction whilst looking at the works is to chose your favourite, and we have set up a box where you can do just that. It's a tough choice, and I have a feeling my allegiances will change over the duration of the show, but at the moment I like this small drawing by Lindsay Sekulowicz...but I also like the tea table by Cadi Froehlich...

Here's a link to the catalogue.

Cadi Froehlich - Untitled (tea table) - seen here

Jerwood Drawing Prize

2011-03-03T22:46:00.000Z

Sian Conti & Meg Anthony musing over the hang for the Jerwood Drawing Prize

We'll be opening the Jerwood Drawing Prize show, which is touring to Oriel Myrddin Gallery this Saturday (2pm), I've been watching everything going up on the walls this week and there are some really interesting works involved. I have a few personal favourites including the winning piece Bolus-Space (Signal) by Virginia Verran. Watch this space for more on the show...

Virginia Verran - Bolus-Space (signal) - seen here

Artemisia

2011-02-26T18:00:00.001Z

I went to the opening of Artemesia, a group show (in which I have two new works showing) last night. Curated by Ruth Cayford, the show is at St David's Hall Gallery in Cardiff and features the work of over 40 contemporary women artists currently practicing in Wales, celebrating the ideas they have in 2011. Here is the essay written for the show by Sue Griffith, Head of School of Contextual Studies & Fine Art, Swansea Metropolitan University.

"Maybe the existing forms of art for the ideas men have had are inadequate for the ideas women have."' Susana Torre, 1976

Artemisia Gentileschi lends her name to this extensive exhibition, which brings together the work of numerous women artists currently active in Wales. She was not only an extraordinary Renaissance artist, but also occupied a key role in the recovery of women artists’ history begun by feminists around forty years ago, who sifted through centuries of neglect, not only to uncover forgotten women artists, but perhaps more importantly, they identified shared expressions for the women artists yet to come.

Art’s forms and content have not been without issues for women artists, since both had been defined by male artists. It took a further ideological leap for women to shift from battling with exclusion to a positive questioning of approaches to creativity, emerging from a wish to express their differences, differently. That women might re-define art’s practice by exploring what had hitherto been invisible or defined as ‘not art’, produced some provocative work. Stylistic innovation was perhaps not the most important of these differences, the ‘ideas that women have’ most certainly was. It became clear that historical frictions bound in to the two roles - woman and artist - presented them with unique challenges. What has become clearer now, is that these challenges have enriched their work.

Women’s greater participation in art has transformed art, flipping the subtly nuanced labels sometimes used to relegate their work to obscurity in the Fine Arts (charming, decorative, domestic) entirely on their heads. Refusing hierarchies, they have explored (using that old feminist adage) the personal with the political, intimacy with the allegorical, sensitivity with edginess, the fragile with the dark, fantasy with fetish. In short their creative strategies are as diverse and multi-textured as women themselves, and are abundantly evidenced in this exhibition.

The complexity of human relationships, including self-identity, is navigated through memory and fantasy, and is just as likely to be intensely personal as it is universally symbolic. Desires for connection are also explored through responses to place or location, and might reference the landscape of history, or even pre-history, or the personal space of the domestic. The body, that well contested area, is still of immense importance to a number of the artists here, particularly evidenced through performance based art; its potential for ritual significance seems endless. Drawing is clearly immensely valued as a visualising tool, but no more so than stitching, printing, constructing, photographing, filming and mark making from the fragile to the urgent.

But never forget that whilst our recognition of the ideas and creativity which women have brought to art may seem a recent understanding, in truth Artemisia was already there; it is recognised that her intense portrayal of powerful women differed from interpretations by her male peers. The contest we now face, in a time when arts education is seriously threatened, is that of ensuring that the gains women artists have made in the past forty years are never underestimated and continue to influence art. This exhibition is a timely reminder that Artemisia’s legacy needs to be wholeheartedly celebrated.

The exhibition Features works from:

Sue Williams, Rozanne Hawksley, Catrin Webster, Di Setch, Dilys Jackson, Virginia Head, Rebecca Spooner, Adele Vye, Fern Thomas, Amanda Roderick, Gemma Copp, Anna Barrett, Jacqueline Alkema, Corrie Chiswell, Becky Adams, Susan Adams, Kathryn Ashhill, Kathryn Campbell Dodd, Heather Eastes, Annie Giles Hobbs, Ruth Harries, Penny Hallas, Mary Husted, Daphne Hurn, Ann Jordon, Tiff Oben, Luned Rhys Parri, Jane Taylor, Miranda Whall, Dawn Woolley, Sue Hunt, Rebecca Gould, Eirian Llwyd, Lisa Jones, Nicola O’Neill, Ruth McLees, Bella Kerr, Helen Booth, Jean Walcot, Jo Alexander, Wendy Couling, Su Roberts, Janet Walters and Lisa Tann.

Artemesia continues until April 9th.

Nam June Paik at Tate Liverpool

2011-02-26T10:05:00.001Z

Nam June Paik - Buddha - seen here

I went to Liverpool this week for the first time, I've been meaning to go there for such a long time. What a beautiful city. The reason for my visit was the Nam June Paik show at Tate Liverpool and FACT.

This retrospective show of the Korean/American artist, who died in 2006, is large and comprehensive, showing key works from his career along side documentation, photographs and film. Paik was a member of the Fluxus movement of artists, having met the influential artist John Cage in 1958 (he called the period before this meeting BC - Before Cage). A classically trained pianist, Paik studied at The University of Tokyo and wrote his thesis on the composer Arnold Shoenberg. Later, whilst studying in Germany he met Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Joseph Beuys.

The show includes many of Paik's television based pieces, he understood very early in his career the potential influence of television on culture and is credited with being the first video artist and a pre-curser to the MTV generation. Experimental, funny, ridiculous and pioneering, he plays with the medium and its possibilities. Music is central to his work, and his collaborations with cellist and muse Charlotte Moorman are pure Fluxus madness.

Paik's agenda throughout his career was to humanise technology, make parallels between TV, music, performance and human physiognomy. He was interested in the the conversation between technology and nature and the human spirit. My favourite works in the show were a room of his Buddha television pieces. I felt these pieces had a depth and relevance that held true, they lightly parody the TV generation. Buddha figures stare contemplatively at CCTV of themselves or empty TV shells sometimes lit with a candle, sometimes meditative, sometimes laughing.

Fluxus is still exerting its influence on current art practice, we are beginning to contextualise its impact more thoroughly. This show raises all sorts of uncomfortable thoughts. It is very hard to encounter the works as anything other than archaic, although their original manifestations were as cutting edge works using the new technology of the era; it is almost impossible not to overlay the sense of the museum on the work. The necessary curation of the work in the Tate space brings a quite sad element to the experience. Most of the pieces were made to be performed, to be part of a happening and definitely not made to be on plinths and under Perspex preserved for our scrutiny. The Fluxus manifesto is diametrically opposed to this show, and in this sense it points to the failure of the revolution it was meant to embody. It doesn't come much more corporate than Tate, and the gallery shop with its Paik merchandise is its testament. I made my own little unintentional 'action' at the till whilst paying for a postcard by managing to knock a box of Tate badges flying scattershot across the floor...embarrassing, but somehow right.

Fluxus Manifesto - seen here

Tacita Dean at Tate Modern

2011-02-26T08:43:00.001Z

Tacita Dean - From Prisoner Pair - seen here

I'm really excited that Tacita Dean has been chosen as the next artist for the Unilever series in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, the work will be installed this October.

David Nash - Force of Nature

2011-02-19T10:48:00.000Z

David Nash - seen here

If you haven't caught it yet, do take an hour to watch this beautiful documentary, Force of Nature about North Wales sculptor David Nash screened on BBC Four this week (only available to view until Wednesday 2 March) . The work of Culture Colony's Pete Telfer, the documentary is the result of the long working relationship Pete has had with Nash, and the lovely direction of the piece reflects that deep affinity and knowledge of the processes, the work and the man himself.

David Nash - Oculus - Image Courtesy of YSP - photographer Jonty Wilde

Nash's work has such authority, such enviable focus and continuity. There is nothing artificial, nothing pretentious about it. Straightforward and poetic, the curator of work for his current show at The Yorkshire Sculpture Park talks about the monumental piece Oculus as 'calligraphic', Zen-like in it's way of being, and I feel that is a feature of so much of Nash's work. It is - it is meant to be - it could not be anything other than that which it is.

Pile

2011-02-18T21:23:00.000Z

Pile - Chapter Arts Centre - seen here

I popped into Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff yesterday and had a look at the current exhibition, Pile. On the first look round I didn't quite know how to negotiate the work, so I went out of the gallery and came in again with the intention of looking in a less prescribed way.

None of the work from the 31 artists represented is labeled, it has been arranged in groups, sometimes piled on top of other work. The conversation is an art hubbub, all the voices are speaking at once. It's an interesting idea, and ultimately the only clear voice, ringing like a bell is that of the curator, Craig Fisher.

On my second approach I looked at the gallery as a whole, much more as one unified installation than individual works. In that way it made a very cohesive and satisfying experience. The intention of the show is to "...question the conventions of showing work within a group exhibition." This aspect of the show is very successful - it felt quite weird to be looking at art in a gallery without the comforting language of labelling that we are used to. I realise that my own convention is to look at the work, and then look for the label, I want to find some kind of pivot through which to stabilise my experience. It's actually rather liberating to be denied that clarification.

The other question that is raised with this show is the role of the curator; the relationship and weighting of the curator's vision with the artist's work. I live in a strange no-man's land in my role as a gallery person on one hand and a practising artist on the other. I see the story from both sides of the fence and appreciate the role both play. It is probably the inevitable outcome of Post-modernism that the curator has become a deeply powerful creative force in his/her own right; arguably sometimes more powerful than the individual artist and even the art itself. Is this relationship good for 'art'? Does it contextualise the artist's work or manipulate it? Does it allow the work to speak or drown out it's authentic voice? Is it all about careers or all about interpretation? In this instance that curator is also a participating artist, so the debate is softened somewhat, he perhaps has more authority to play with the art in this way.

These are the participating artists: David Bance, Jonathan Baldock, Katriona Beales, Lotti V Closs, Sean Cummins, Sam Dargan, Sean Edwards, David Ersser, Craig Fisher, Dan Ford, Simon Franklin, Lynn Fulton, S Mark Gubb, Frank Kent, Brendan Lyons, Laura McCafferty, Zoe Mendelson, Clare Mitten, Jock Mooney, Lauren O’Grady, Audrey Reynolds, Gary Simmonds, Lucienne Simpson, Derek Sprawson, Debra Swann, Lee Triming, Gerard Williams, Annie Whiles, Richard Woodsand Neil Zakiewicz.

Outlandia

2011-02-10T12:09:00.001Z

London Fieldworks - Outlandia - seen here

Thanks to Dezeen for this morning's post on this amazing art project in Glen Nevis in the Scottish Highlands. This is my dream studio! Commissioned by artist led, London Fieldwork and realised by architects, Malcolm Fraser, Outlandia has been developed as a flexible space and field station in which artists and community groups can come together to consider creative responses to environmental concerns. The structure is inspired by "...childhood dens, wildlife hides and bothies, by forest outlaws and Japanese poetry platforms."

London Fieldworks - Outlandia - seen here

Built in the Glen and facing out to the slopes of Ben Nevis, the project encapsulates and explores the issues of wilderness and human intervention. Tensions between areas of outstanding natural beauty, industry and community have under pinned the project.

London Fieldworks - Outlandia - seen here

Paul Villinski

2011-01-26T08:09:00.003Z

Paul Villinski - Consonance - seen here

I have recently discovered the work of American artist Paul Villinski. He has a particular focus on the reclaimed and recycled in his practice. The pieces he has made using found gloves are particularly captivating. The artist finds lost work gloves on the streets and uses hand sewing, gilding or drawing to bring them into a new existence as art. The wing pieces (mostly from the early to mid 1990's) are incredibly striking, but I actually like the quietness and profundity of those with gilded finger tips.

Paul Villinski - Lift - seen here

Antonia Dewhurst - Drawings

2011-01-15T11:59:00.000Z

Antonia Dewhurst - Gimmeshelter - seen here

I posted recently about a body of work by Antonia Dewhurst, Gimmeshelter which looks at vernacular corrugated iron shelters in north Wales. Here are a collection of lovely ball point pen drawings which accompany the series.

Antonia Dewhusrt - Gimmeshelter - seen here

Avi Allen: Always A Little Anxious

2011-01-09T21:51:00.000Z

Avi Allen - Always A Little Anxious

I went to Theatr Mwldan Gallery in Cardigan last night to the opening of a show by Avi Allen, Always A Little Anxious. The first time I saw Avi's work was in the National Eisteddfod a couple of years back, a lovely set of drawings of animal paws; really sensitive and tender. Avi's use of space, isolating her drawings in an expanse of white accentuates the feeling of tenderness and focus. Drawing is at the heart of her practice, she sees it as a vehicle and a space for conversation.

Avi Allen - seen on Facebook

For this show, the artist has taken a theme of animal trophies as her subject, she says: "I am interested in the complex relationship between humans and animals and am currently exploring the phenomenon of displaying dead trophy animals. Can trophy displays memorialise the beauty of nature? Or is it a process which serves to promote, maintain and normalise the objectification and normalisation of animal as other?"

As well as using drawing and collage, the artist also includes two video pieces which further explore the subject matter. I found the content quite disturbing, I am personally very sensitive to the suffering of animals. I found it a challenging show on that level. I do like Avi's technique however, her use of drawing is refreshing and distinctive.

Paul Emmanuel - Fleece Painting

2011-01-09T16:35:00.003Z

Paul Emmanuel - Cefn Coed Isaf - Photo: Paul Emmanuel

The new show at Oriel Myrddin Gallery, Paul Emmanuel - Fleece painting opened last Friday evening. Paul was with us to hang the show and it has been a pleasure to talk with him and watch the show unfold in the gallery space.

All the works are made using raw sheep fleeces gathered locally to the artist's home and studio in the Brecon Beacons. Each piece is treated with a process involving oil paints and other media along with human hairstyling products and techniques, and then named after the farm from which it was sourced. The catalogue essay for the show has been written by Karen MacKinnon, Exhibitions Officer at The Glynn Vivian Gallery in Swansea who has watched the working process of the series develop.

Paul Emmanuel - Fleece Paintings (waiting to be hung)

Although I had seen some of the fleece works in the flesh as part of Oriel Mostyn's post refurbishment show, We have the mirrors, we have the plans... , I had mostly encountered them through photographs and had developed a particular expectation of the finished pieces which was very much confounded by the actual objects. I have been working on publicity with the lead image for the show Cefn Coed Isaf, a particularly powerful image. There are overtones of blood, violence, sex in this piece that are not necessarily typical. I was surprised that generally, I found the work light and funny alongside its many other conceptual layers.

Perhaps the first interpretation of this body of work addresses Emmanuel's role as an artist in a farming community, and specifically in Wales with its ever-present sheep farming stereotypes and jokes. Beyond that and an initial association with landscape and place there are complex issues at play. An investigation around 'nature versus culture', where do these two states and their particular languages meet, where do they cross over? Personally, I am reminded again of the philosopher John Gray's book, Straw Dogs: On humans and other animals. In a post-Darwinian age of evolutionary theories and genetic mapping, what distinguishes human and animal? What claim can human beings have to a unique position in the world?

Emmanuel's past work has questioned the idea of the 'painter' and the business of painting and that is also an important element in the work, he is playing with the boundaries of the discipline. The identifying dyes and markings which farmers apply to the fleece are still visible in some of the pieces and that is also part on the conversation. Bringing these works out from the studio, away from their natural environment and into a white space gallery demands another layer of conceptual interpretation, Paul mentioned that even the journey to bring the pieces into the gallery had been part of his ongoing dialogue with the work.

With its references to the human body and allusions to pubic hair there is an unsettling psychological aspect to the work, it challenges ideas about our sexuality and the overlays of romance and refinement we bring to it.

I'm looking forward to having the works in the gallery for the next six weeks and continuing to think about what they might mean and how they effect me.

The show continues until 26 February.