Exhibition Review- Julia Hugo: 'Reflections'

The other exhibition I visited at home for Easter holidays was by an artist Julia Hugo who moved to Jersey 10 years ago. 'Reflections' was inspired by experiences relating to her time in Jersey. This exhibition was held from Monday 18th March until Saturday 6th April. The process she used to make each piece of work involved layering images and textures in order to reach a completed image which creates depth and meaning to her paintings.






















The painting that stood out was no.8 Crown which was not for sale unlike every other painting in the exhibition. It just did not seem as fitting in the exhibition but the detail was more accurate then the rest. The viewer was able to see the resplendence with Jersey but for once it was not straight up landscapes and seascapes, it was close up things giving some of the paintings a slight abstract feel to them.





Sources:

http://artscentre.je/event/reflections/

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.508158762579353.1073741827.481860178542545&type=3

Exhibition Review- Graham Tovey: 'Paintings from the Edge'

When heading back to Jersey for Easter holidays I looked up exhibitions I could visit,  however there are not many galleries at home so the choices are limited. I found two exhibitions being held at the Berni Gallery at the Jersey art center, one was on until the day after I got home and the other was just starting. This meant I could see both during the holidays which was very convenient.

The First Exhibition started on the 4th of March and ran until 16th of March. It was titled 'Paintings from the Edge' by local artist Graham Tovey. He is landscape painter who is highly influenced by Joseph Mallord William Turner, a famous British landscape painter. As well as making and exhibiting work Tovey also teaches art. He mainly works in oil paints with a palette knife which allows him to execute his work with speed and spontaneity. His painting are mostly of places in Jersey and France which he always revisits several times which helps him understand the place.

Turner, Peace-burial at sea 1842

Graham Tovey

Before seeing his exhibition I was not expecting much from it but it is one of those shows that look better in real life. Seeing a variety of his work in the one room helped me to get a better perspective of his work however I don't think one piece on its own works well.but the two series he displayed were more prominent. In my opinion the series helps the viewer to understand the meaning to his work. I think this was due to the compositional layout of each painting within the series. His work is very abstract but having lived in Jersey all my life I was still able to associate a place with the painting which to me was quite comforting.

Overall I was more impressed with the exhibition then I expected to be as viewing the work made me understand his way of working. The colour and depth throughout his work was visually appealing and is the type of work I would expect to see in many homes but I don't think it is the most skillful artwork
I have seen.

Sources:

http://artscentre.je/event/paintings-from-the-edge/

Exhibition Review- Matt Collishaw: 'This is not an exit'

A gallery we decided to visit was Blain Southern which had an Exhibition on by British artist, Matt Collishaw titled 'This Is Not An Exit'. This exhibition was on from the 14th of February to the 30th of March which seems a long time for it to run as they are normally a few weeks to a month.

This exhibition was made up of 14 detailed oil paintings, many of which were hung at an angle. Being hung at an angle must of been a way to draw attention to them. The angled paintings were defiantly the ones I noticed first, it is almost as if he wants you to read them in an order to make a story. Although I noticed the angled ones first by the end I was much more drawn the the colour and detail in some of the others.

Above left titled: Sinners, 2012 (detail), Oil on canvas, 225 X 225cm

I initially found his work drew me in as I walked into the white open space and although quite liked it had very little idea about the concept about it. While doing research on Matt Collishaw's exhibition I came across this film of him speaking about it which helped me understand his work much more.

http://www.blainsouthern.com/artists/mat-collishaw/multimedia/7   

This quote from the Blain Southern gallery about Collishaw's work  '... nothing is literal; the primary source material - magnified images drawn from the pages of glossy magazines - is a simple metaphor,..' reminded me about a lecture we had about Metaphors and Allegory and it is only now while writing this review the reason of having that lecture has become clear.

 Metaphor: Representation that is symbolic of something else but does not literally apply.

Allegory: A story with hidden meaning not just the literal one.

Metaphors and Allegories are something that are used within every piece artwork as they always have more then meets the eye and it takes a lot to understand the concept of  it. I know realize how helpful this lecture was as it helps us look at artwork as more then 'nice', everything has a reason for its making.

The first thing I wanted to know was the reason behind the title of this exhibition,'This is not an exit' which my first thought was there is no escape which is part of what he was trying to say and in fact he actually got the name of his exhibition from a film made in 2000 called 'American Psycho' when the  man realizes there is no escape. Collishaw really emphasized no escape by creating illusionistic paintings  which give potential to feel escapism into another world but its a flat surface.The scale of his paintings played a significant part to this as they were very large scale it helped you lose yourself in them which creates a field of void.

This was by far the best exhibition I saw during the day I spent looking at West end galleries. Although the work on display was not the more outstanding work I saw this day, however it was a close second, the gallery layout was easier to view then any other exhibition I went to while in London. Collishaw's work is one of those exhibitions that going to the opening day would help a lot because the artist would be there to talk about his work. It is not something you can view to its full potential until you really understand it. His work is out there to make people aware of these issues more then to sell the work, it is not really something you would expect to see in a home. After seeing this exhibition of his I would be encouraged to go to future ones as I think he raises important issues and I love the abstract way he works.

Sources:

http://www.blainsouthern.com/exhibitions/2013/mat-collishaw-this-is-not-an-exit

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144084/

Exhibition Review- Taryn Simon: 'The Picture collection'

During our day in London The Gagosian in Davies street was one of the galleries we visited as a group towards the end of the day. It was an exhibition of a New York artist, Taryn Simon's most recent body of work titled 'The Picture Collection'.

TARYN SIMON

 Express Highways, 2012

47 x 62 inches framed  (119.4 x 157.5 cm)

This collection was made to go with the online database 'Image Atlas' something she earlier created with computer programmer Aaron Swartz. It is made up of forty-four works found in the New York public library picture archive. The archive contains 1.2 million prints, postcards, posters, and printed images, most of which have been cut from secondary sources, such as books and magazines. Taryn Simon found it important to  put well known images throughout history next to others that are by unknown artists in order to make the viewer question it and to tries to question the way in which contemporary culture works. 

The gallery had a professional layout that you would expect to see with the white walls beaming, matching frames, photographs hung at the correct height and spaced out equally in the space. There is nothing good about this way out although its clear its just missing the excitement and I personally would hate my work to be in a gallery space like this. The white walls really draw the attention away from the work because your normally feeling quite blinded by the walls which is rather overwhelming.  

Although I understand the idea behind her work I just dont see a college of lots of images a final peice for me its just a mood board and a starting point. This type of gallery is not what I enjoy because I just feel too fresh and perfect can take away from the quality of the work so I dont see myself going back there anytime soon. 

Sources:

http://www.tarynsimon.com/

http://www.gagosian.com/

Overview of London Trip to the West End Galleries

On the 11th of March we took a coach to the west end in London to visit galleries of which we had two arranged by tutors at the Photographers Gallery and another at the Gagosian gallery to finish the day off. These planned out ones were helpful as we had speakers come and tell us about the work and the gallery which is not available with a normal viewing. Having a speaker allowed me to get a better insight on what the work is about which you cant always tell just from looking but more importantly it gave me a good idea on how a gallery is run.

Layout of Blain Southern Gallery with Matt Collishaw Exhibtion- This is not an exit)

We started at the Photographers gallery in which we had a talk which really helped me get a good insight bout how galleries are run and I liked that this gallery was more about the work getting known the commissions. We then had some time to view galleries alone which was helpful as I could see galleries that were more interesting to me an individual. During the spare time with a small group of others we headed to White Cube but that was closed due to it being a Monday so we then made our way to Blain Southern gallery that had the work of Matt Collishaw on display. This gallery was quite small but used the space well and made it look very spacious  We then headed up to the Gagosian gallery were we had to meet for the arranged talk but with some half an hour to spare we decided to see what was a bit further up the road and came across another gallery called Gimpel Fils Limited. After having a talk in the Gagosian about the work of Taryn Simon we headed back towards the meeting place to some galleries we spotted on the way up and went to Studio Voltaire and Simon Lee Gallery.

Sources:

http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/

http://whitecube.com/

http://www.blainsouthern.com/exhibitions/2013/mat-collishaw-this-is-not-an-exit

http://www.gimpelfils.com/exhib_popup.php?exhib_id=124

http://www.blainsouthern.com/exhibitions/2013/mat-collishaw-this-is-not-an-exit

http://www.studiovoltaire.org/home.htm

http://www.simonleegallery.com/artists/jim_shaw/exhibitions/2013_02/press_release.html

Is it all about instagram ?

My Statement in the forum: Instagram describes its self as a “fast and fun way to share photos with family and friends” therefore I don’t understand why would anyone even think it was anymore then a fun social networking app making it easier to share photographs with others. I completely agree with Emma’s statement, “is a fun thing rather than a professional thing. Exactly why it's linked to facebook because it fits within the social scene.” The majority of people use it in the way it is set out for so I disagree with most statements made about it such as Aaron’s statement, “Instagram is a poor excuse for teenagers and adults alike that have no photographic skill what so ever to call themselves a photographer for 5 mins.” And when he says this he really is talking about a small minority of people using this app. I really agree with Tom it is a great app to see what your friends are up to so I see no issue with the app what so ever and feel that people can post what they wish to on it and if you don’t like it ignore it.

Overall all from the forum it has been said that Instagram is an app for fun and keeping up with what your friends and doing and it not really somewhere you would post your proffesional quality photographs.

I do have Instagram myself but have only actually posted once myself of a cat I was looking after and this is  a common theme on this app because it is used to show friends what is happening in your day to day life in picture form. Here is an example of someone I follow on Instagram who is also a Beauty You-tuber called Fleurdeforce and I love being able to see cute pictures of her puppies and what she is up to and such. I really don't see whats wrong with this app but it is not a photography app it is a social app like Facebook. A positive for photography that has come of this app is photography is more accessible so it gets it more well known in the world which can only be a good thing.

The quote that most stood out to me throughout the whole forum was from Fran because this is so true just because you use Instagram does not mean you are a bad photographer and training doesnt make you a better photographer either,
"Does it mean that all the users are bad photographers or that they have no right to call themselves photographers because they haven't had training? I'm quite sure there are people in the profession who didn't go to college or university but produce beautiful thoughtful images and people who've been trained who turn out rubbish."

Sources:

http://instagram.com/

http://mycourse.solent.ac.uk/mod/forum/view.php?id=101690