Posts in Art Archive Category

How do public art collections evolve and how and why are works acquired?

Charting a 100-year history of collecting this exhibition explores artworks from Salford Museum and Art Gallery and the University of Salford collections.

Paintings, ceramics, sculpture, print and digital works from the two collections are displayed together, some for the first time in public.  The exhibition aims to tell the story of how the collections in Salford have been developed over the last century and in turn considers how public collections can, and do, support artists.

Works on display include paintings by Vanessa Bell, Graham Sutherland and Mandy Payne; sculptures by Jacob Epstein and Willow Rowlands; prints and drawings by Albert Adams and Jai Redman.

The exhibition also includes recent additions to the University of Salford Art Collection; Mountain of Crowds by Yang Yongliang, purchased with support from Art Fund, and in association with Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA), and Bhangra Muffins by Shezad Dawood, donated from the Thomas Frangenberg Estate (London) through the Contemporary Art Society.

Exhibition tours 
Find out more about the works in the exhibition in these free guided tours:
Wednesday 6 February , 1 – 1.45pm
Wednesday 13 March, 6 – 6.45pm
Thursday 2 May, 1 – 1.45pm
Admission: Free, booking required

Exhibition dates: Saturday 3 November 2018 –  Sunday 9 June 2019
Opening hours: Tuesday – Friday, 9:30 am – 4:30pm  and Saturday and Sunday 11:30 am – 4pm
Christmas closure: From Monday 24 December – re-opens Wednesday 2 January 2019 at 9.30am
Venue: Salford Museum and Art Gallery, Salford

We are pleased to once again be exhibiting work by Alumni from our Graduate Scholarship programme at The Manchester Contemporary.  Now in its tenth year, The Manchester Contemporary takes a uniquely artist-focused approach, inviting the most exciting international and UK galleries to participate. With careful selection and bold curatorial vision, The Manchester Contemporary showcases the strength of the UK’s regional artists and galleries alongside key international presentations that can only be seen in Manchester.

Showcasing the practice of three intentionally disparate artists, our 2018 ALUMNI artists have been selected from the growing network of past and present University of Salford Art Collection and School of Arts and Media Graduate Scholars.

Works on display draw inspiration from outer space, Lizzie King, the immediate environment, Joe Beedles, and the internal environment, Meg Woods. The project has been curated by Amy Stevenson, who is also an alumna of the Graduate Scholarship Programme. 

Joe Beedles
In video piece OP_dewel and the accompanying stills, Beedles considers the changing landscape and skyline in Salford and Manchester.

Lizzie King
Taking inspiration from scientific articles and literature King presents a collection of images which serve to both replicate and fabricate our universe.

Meg Woods
Woods is a multimedia artist who produces work that is often autobiographical and centred around the theme of mental health. In the two wall hangs presented for The Manchester Contemporary, Woods reflects upon her recovery from depression and anxiety.

More details regarding the exhibiting artists can be found in this ALUMNI artists for The Manchester Contemporary 2018 document. 

Dates: Friday 12 – Sunday 14 October 2018
Opening times: VIP Preview, Friday 12 October, 5 – 9pm; Saturday 13 October 10am – 6pm; Sunday 14 October 10am – 5pm
Venue: Manchester Art Fair, Manchester Central, Windmill Street, Manchester, M2 3GX
Admission: VIP Preview, Advance: £12.00 (tickets are not available on  the door).
Weekend Tickets, Advance: £5.00 and on the Door: £6.00.  For bookings visit The Manchester Contemporary website.

Artists: Lubna Ali, Claudia Alonso, Tara Collette, Elliott Flanagan, Jamal Jameel, Fuchsia Summerfield

Island Life brings together six artists whose work can be said to be culturally, socially or politically engaged. It comes as no surprise in a transitional world where ideas of borders and truths are constantly being challenged, that these artists choose to explore worldviews through their lived experiences and those of others around them.

In this exhibition, the artists reflect and connect the complexities of modern living in this island nation in north western Europe with its neighbours and beyond. The personal endeavours of the artists resonate with wider social concerns, with questions of co-existence, equality, and most of all, a sense of shared humanity.

This exhibition is supported by the University of Salford Art Collection and School of Arts and Media Graduate Scholarship Programme. The artists in the 2017/18 programme were selected by open application and are graduates of the University’s Creative Music Technology, Graphic Design, Photography and Visual Arts BA courses.

Island Life Press Release

Public Preview: Thursday 6 September 2018, 6 – 9pm
Exhibition Dates: Friday 7  –  Sunday 16 September 2018
Opening hours: Saturday – Sunday 12 – 5pm, and other times by appointment contact islandlife.contact@gmail.com 
Venue: Paradise Works, Salford
Admission: Free. The gallery is located on the 1st floor, which accessible only by stairs.

Where is print now? How did we get here? Where to next?

Sean Rorke, Artistic Director of Hot Bed Press gives an illustrated talk on innovative approaches to printmaking, past, present and future. Printmaking is constantly being re-invented and re-appropriated by artists.  Printmaking is constantly being re-invented and re-appropriated by artists.  See how artists have challenged what is a print and how a new generation of artists are breaking the rulebooks, re-thinking processes and questioning the norms.

Date: Wednesday 5 September 2018, 6 -7.30pm
Venue: Salford Museum and Art Gallery, Salford, M5 4WU
Admission: £3.50, tickets available on Eventbrite.

PRINT UnLtd. is an exhibition by Salford Museum and Art and Salford Community Leisure in partnership with University of Salford Art Collection and Hot Bed Press, funded by Arts Council England: Grants for the Arts.

Curator Jiang Jiehong is originally from Shanghai, and has lived in the UK since 1998. Travelling regularly and working between the two countries over the last 20 years, he has a unique understanding of cultural differences and exchanges.

Join Open Eye Gallery and Culture Liverpool at This is Shanghai, in Cunard Building on Tuesday 21 August at 3 – 5pm for a conversation with Jiang Jiehong, hosted by Culture Liverpool’s Head of Creative Development, Robin Kemp as they discuss the exhibition, why he chose the works from these leading and emerging Shanghai artists and how this exhibition could make the visitor rethink about their life in Liverpool differently.

This is Shanghai is the second of three chapters of China Dream, a 9 month festival celebrating and exploring contemporary Chinese culture.

If you can’t make this event, the exhibition is open Tuesdays – Sundays until 7 September at 10am – 5pm. For more details on the exhibition, visit chinadreamliverpool.com

This Is Shanghai is a group exhibition of contemporary Chinese art, looking at the connections, parallels and urban processes taking place between Liverpool and Shanghai, twinned cities.  The exhibition features our recent co-commission by artist Liang Yue.

Date: Tuesday 21 August 2018, 3- 5pm
Venue: Cunard Building (entrance on Water Street), Piers Head, Liverpool, L3 1DS. Wheelchair users, please use the entrance on Brunswick Street.
Admission: Free, register for your free ticket at the Eventbrite page.

In his first solo exhibition at PAPER gallery University of Salford Visual Arts graduate Daniel Wiltshire combines the monochrome surface of the Neo-Classical sculptures with the textures, patterns and colours of glitches image flies.

This work was first shown at the Technology: Past and Future hosted by Quays Culture.

Private view: Thursday 16 August 2018, 6 – 9pm
Exhibition dates: Saturday 18 August – Saturday 22 September 2018
Opening hours: Saturdays 11am – 5pm, or by appointment.
Venue: PAPER gallery, Manchester

This is Shanghai is a group exhibition of contemporary Chinese art, looking at the connections, parallels and urban processes taking place between Liverpool and Shanghai, twinned cities.

The exhibition features our recent co-commission by artist Liang Yue.

Next week there will be two additional chances to catch the exhibition.

On Wednesday 15 August 2018, 8.30 – 11am Open Eye Gallery and Culture Liverpool are hosting a free breakfast and viewing of the exhibition at the The Cunard Building.  Then on Thursday 16 August 2018 the gallery will be open until 7pm further details can be found on the Eventbrite page.

If you cannot make either of these events, but would still like to see the exhibition, it runs until Friday 7 September, Tuesday – Sunday, 10am – 5pm.

Venue: Cunard Building (entrance on Water Street), Piers Head, Liverpool, L3 1DS
Admission: Free

On 15th August Islington Mill welcome one of their Temporary Custodians, Bob Miller, as special guest to the Islington Mill Art Academy (IMAA). This will be the first in a series of ‘Temporary Custodian Talks‘ where we hear in person from our growing community of Custodians, forming a special series of events in the ongoing IMAA programme of free open public sessions. Each Custodian will share their motivations for purchasing a piece of Temporary Custodians, their relationship with art, and their story as an owner in this experimental collective.

Temporary Custodians of Islington Mill, 2018–2028 is a single work by Maurice Carlin, divided into 100 unique prints, distributed amongst a community of owners. 84 pieces have found homes so far, with the remaining 16 still for sale. The University of Salford Art Collection holds four Temporary Custodians prints, two of which were kindly donated by Bob Miller. The project has formed a key strand in the development of Carlin’s art practice and in the fundraising and expansion plans for Islington Mill.

Bob will be discussing his art collection, his motivations to begin collecting art, and will bring along 3 of his favourite pieces to focus on in more detail. A great opportunity to consider work from a serious collector’s point of view and to get a personal look into the art buyer’s world. The event will include a barbecue on the Mill courtyard, so please feel free to bring along some food to share if you are able.

Date: Wednesday 15 August 2018, 6.30pm
Venue: Islington Mill, Salford
Admission: Free, for further details email lucy@islingtonmill.com

In this live performance by University of Salford Popular Music and Recording graduate and former Graduate Scholar, artist and musician Joe Beedles blurs the line between nightclub culture and the contemporary art world.

For this one-off, site-specific installation Beedles generates music, accompanying visuals and audio-reactive lighting throughout the evening. By drawing focus to the aesthetic qualities of water such as reflection, refraction and its beautiful flowing nature there will be subtle implicit questions that underpin the piece in response to the theme of the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art’s (CFCCA) current exhibition Aquatopia.

Date: Thursday 26 July 2018, 6 – 7.30pm
Admission: £4, includes a glass of wine or tea on arrival. Book your place on Eventbrite.
Venue: CFCCA, Manchester