Posts in Our collection Category

2 years have flown by! I’ve loved my time with the Art Collection and learnt so much along the way. From spreadsheets and meetings to manual handling and collections care, and even being able to develop my coding and documentary photography skills.

I’ve worked alongside artists, academics, and professionals alike; on exhibitions, projects, events, and programmes. I went from knowing that I wanted to be hands-on in the art sector, to being quite literally hands-on with everything. Both Steph and Lindsay have helped me immensely with my knowledge and conduct within the sector, but also with pointing me in the right direction and giving me every opportunity to learn and figure out where I was going.

All above images courtesy of Sam Parker.

I remember my first week on the job was collecting artwork from Howard Riley’s studio, and then straight into the install of Craig Easton’s: Is Anybody Listening? Our Time, Our Place with the Northern based Museum & Gallery transport and installation company; M&G. I loved install season whilst I was a student, and I think being thrown right into the thick of it with the Art Collection very much set a spark on where I wanted to go with my career.

From then on, I helped with every install, take-down, and manual handling job I could get with the Art Collection; working on many projects both big and small. Most recently was the Energy House 2.0: Mishka Henner & Emily Speed exhibition at Castlefield Gallery as a conclusion to their Residency with Energy House Labs at the university. This tested me immensely in both problem solving for the set-up of Mishka’s tree-root-like structure of cables and wires fanning out across the ceiling of Castlefield Gallery, as well as coding the ever-frustrating Raspberry Pi’s. Along with this is something you should all go and see, which is an exhibition I have curated as one of my final actions during this role – currently on display until January 31^st 2026 in the New Adelphi Exhibition Gallery; Mediated Realities.

Because as well as being hands-on, the Art Collection has given me many opportunities to expand my knowledge and dive head-first into art and politics. From in-conversation events with Craig Easton, to Symposium events like the Contemporary Photography From Ukraine symposium presented at the University in March of last year. Being able to witness and be a part of all of this has kept my mind sharp as well as my manual handling skills.

My time with the Art Collection has been an immensely useful and enjoyable experience, I’ve learnt so much, been able to hone skills I already have, and I’ve even managed to get a few laughs now and then during times of crisis.

I hope that the next candidate will take full advantage of the breadth of opportunities this position affords them.

Yue lives and works in Shanghai and internationally. Her video and photography practice takes the ‘everyday’ and the ‘beauty of insignificance’ as its focus, using readily available tools – such as her mobile phone camera – and minimal editing techniques to make deceptively simple works. She captures daily routines – from city life to natural scenery – seeking to offer both quiet moments of reflection, and to challenge tradition notions of what we consider beautiful, valuable or important.

C0018 was made on a short residency in Liverpool in April 2018, part of exhibition This is Shanghai curated by University of Salford Art Collection, Open Eye Gallery, and Liverpool City Council, which celebrated the twin cities. Although it was her first visit to the city, it felt strangely familiar to her – the Pier Head waterfront reminiscent of the Bund in Shanghai. Whilst adapting to being far from home, she found comfort and familiarity in the rhythm of the waves on the shore.

Yue has held exhibitions and residencies internationally, including the Power Station of Art Museum, Shanghai (2022) Salamanca Arts Centre, Tasmania, Australia (2020).

Photographs on this page courtesy of Sam Parker, UoS Art Collection Team Assistant

Bridget Riley is a British painter and printmaker known for being a leading figure in the ‘op art’ movement in the 1960s – a practice that uses geometrical forms, patterns and shapes to create optical illusions or effects.

She began her practice painting figurative and landscape work, before moving into neo-impressionism and pointillism. These approaches prioritised elements of light, colour and form, often applying complementary or contrasting colours next to each other to test out the subsequent visual effects.

Riley’s op-art work pushed these practices to new limits – inducing a variety of bodily sensations in viewers from dizziness to falling or floating. In this way, they serve to remind us of the physical act of looking.

Many of her works are inspired by the shifting reflections of sunlight on water. She grew up in a disused watermill turned family home, surrounded by rivers, canals and ponds ‘shining, sparkling, glittering, moving, flowing’ – as well as spending time living in Cornwall, exploring the changing qualities of the sea and sky.

Riley has exhibited extensively internationally, and her works are held in numerous public collections including the Arts Council Collection, London and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

The images above are close-up shots of Riley’s work.

Photographs on this page courtesy of Sam Parker, UoS Art Collection Team Assistant

Jessica El Mal is a British-Moroccan artist and curator, with a particular interest in ecology, globalisation, and migration. Her work addresses global structures of power through critical research, multidisciplinary project and collaborative approaches.

‘Spring Rain 09.12.22‘ draws contrast between the perception of rain in Manchester – where the regular wet weather is often a cause of annoyance – and Morocco – which experiences an annual drought, worsened each year by climate change.

Whilst undertaking a roof-top cyanotype printing workshop (a type of printmaking using sunlight) in Morocco, the session was interrupted by unexpected rainfall, signalling the end of the dry season. Far from a cause for frustration – as the papers became splashed with rain – the rainfall was a welcome sign, and the prints became a visual record of the raindrops.

Jessica has exhibited work in the UK and Europe including Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, Manchester Museum, and MAMA Rotterdam. The Spring Rain cyanotypes were originally commissioned for the collaborative touring project Hybrid Futures in 2022-24, and were jointly acquired by the University of Salford Art Collection, Grundy Gallery, Blackpool, and Touchstones, Rochdale.

Photographs on this page courtesy of Sam Parker, UoS Art Collection Team Assistant

Christiane Baumgartner is best known for her monumental woodcuts based on her own films and video stills, exploring themes of time, place and memory. These works are selected from a set of four prints presented by the Contemporary Art Society in 2023.

Many of Baumgartner’s prints take the form of sequences of images illustrating the same scene, captured moments apart. ‘Prometheus I-III‘ capture different views of the setting sun at the horizon. Whereas ‘Nordlicht 6.08pm‘ is from a group of works that recorded the sun setting through a wooded landscape, over a period of 9 minutes. The fleeting moments of light are slowed down and captured in the time and labour-intensive process of woodcut printing.

“Translating a still image into a woodcut makes the work a powerful instrument demanding an emotional, retinal and physical response. Through my selection and transformation of a single frame, I create a unique woodcut that brings experience and weight to an otherwise unexperienced moment.”

Baumgartner lives and works in Leipzig, Germany. She has exhibited extensively internationally, and her works are held in over fifty public collections including the British Museum, London and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. She is represented in the UK by Cristea Roberts Gallery, London.

Photographs on this page courtesy of Sam Parker, UoS Art Collection Team Assistant

Turner is a photographic practitioner based in the North West of England, who uses photography to explore and contemplate the relationship between the land and the individual. In an ongoing practice, he uses books and prints to gather ideas into bodies of work that are simultaneously concerned with existential ideas and personal interactions.

‘Float like a feather, sink like a stone’ explores the Chew Valley, a landscape to the East of Manchester where the Pennines rise.

This body of work weaves through the land, observing natural forms, ecological intervention, and post-industrial structures, considering the transitional aesthetics of the English countryside. 

Turner has exhibited across the UK, including at the Brunswick, Leeds, Paradise Works, Salford, and the London Metropolitan School of Art. He is currently Photographic Technical Demonstrator at the University of Salford.

The images above are install shots of Turner’s silver gelatine fibre-based prints.

The images above are close-up shots of Turner’s hand-bound book.

Photographs on this page courtesy of Sam Parker, UoS Art Collection Team Assistant

Mishka Henner is interested in making art that ‘challenges conventional perspectives and encourages viewers to reconsider their relationship with the world, technology, and the consequences of human activities’. He produces books, film, photographic and sculptural works, often repurposing imagery sourced online.

Selfie offers a different kind of self-portrait, using a highly reflective surface that acts like a black mirror. The camera has zoomed out far beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, allowing the viewer to simultaneously ‘see themselves, the world, and everything they’ve ever known, all in one frame’.

The work is inspired by a quote from Apollo 8 Astronaut Jim Lovell, seeing Earth on the first manned orbit around the moon in December 1968: “At one point I sighted the earth with my thumb – and my thumb from that distance fit over the entire planet. I realised how insignificant we all are if everything I’d ever known is behind my thumb.”

Henner was born in Brussels, Belgium and lives and works in Greater Manchester. He has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally, and from 2023-2024 was artist in residence at the University of Salford’s Energy House 2.0 research facility, in partnership with the Art Collection, Open Eye Gallery, and Castlefield Gallery.

The image above is an install shot from the exhibition.

Photographs on this page courtesy of Sam Parker, UoS Art Collection Team Assistant

Darren Almond
Fullmoon @ Fukushima Bay (2006)
Digital Photography

Almond’s practice spans installation, film, sculpture and photography, considering themes of memory, sense of place, and the passing of time. His ongoing ‘Full Moon’ series captures the unique light and atmosphere during full moon lunar phases.

This image appears to be shot in the daylight, however this image along with many of Almond’s images are taken at night. Almond’s shutter stays open for 15 minutes or more to create imagery like this.

Seeking out striking and often remote geographical landscapes, from the Arctic Circle to the Nile (this image taken in Fukushima, Japan) the artist generates images using an exposure time of 15 minutes or more, creating a ghostly, ethereal effect. Almond’s work is ‘intentionally concerned with memory and chance, with mobilizing light and time, and, in the choice of locations – zones outside the urban, untouched by artificial lighting – continuing the legacy of Romantic painting’.

Almond was born in Wigan in 1971 and lives and works in London. He was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2005 and has exhibited at Tate Britain and the Berlin, Moscow and Venice art biennales. His work is in the collections of Tate, MOMA, and the Metropolitan Museum, New York. He is represented by White Cube.

The image above is an install shot from the exhibition.

Photographs on this page courtesy of Sam Parker, UoS Art Collection Team Assistant

Betty Connal
Peninsula (1970)
Etching and Aquatint

This work, simply signed ‘Connal’, was an early acquisition for the Collection. Our research suggests this is Betty Connal (1935-1999). Connal was born in the UK and studied at the Atelier 17 art school in Paris, under the renowned surrealist and abstract expressionist printmaker Stanley William Hayter. The studio was known for its collaborative and experimental atmosphere; this likely informed her printmaking practice which falls somewhere between landscape and abstraction.

Peninsula appears to capture a marshy outcrop of land, blending with grey sky and sea. Connal has eight works in the Government Art Collection in a similar visual style, which explore hills, clouds and trees.

The images above are close-up stills of Connal’s work.

Photographs on this page courtesy of Sam Parker, UoS Art Collection Team Assistant

Charles Bartlett (1921-2014) lived and worked in East Anglia, and drew inspiration from the natural landscapes of the coast. Often out in all weather with his sketchbook, he captured the qualities of light, the movement of the sea, and the stark beauty of the flat marshlands. He produced landscape and abstract works in paint and print, and Blue Foreshore focuses on the patterns and colours of waves lapping the shore.

Charles originally undertook a scholarship at the Royal College of Art, and went on to teach at various art colleges around London, as well as being employed at print studios. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers in 1961, and Fellow of the Royal Watercolour Society in 1970. His work is in public and private collections, including the V&A, London and Arts Council Collection.

The image above is an install shot from the exhibition.

Photographs on this page courtesy of Sam Parker, UoS Art Collection Team Assistant