Art in Liverpool Magazine, issue #11, January 2019

Issue #11 - January 2019 News, Reviews & What’s On. Your monthly update on visual art in the Liverpool City Region

Cover Image: detail from a porcelain flowerhead, by Vanessa Hogge, part of Monochrome at Bluecoat Display Centre

Hi. This isn’t a print error, just a gentle welcome to 2019

Art in Liverpool magazine is a monthly newspaper promoting visual art across the Liverpool City Region.

Art in Liverpool, issue #11, January 2019

Published by Art in Liverpool C.I.C. and written by contributions from our partners, supporters and most importantly, volunteer writers, who add a unique voice to arts writing in the UK, thinking differently about what actually matters to people visiting galleries.

With issue #1 published in March 2018 we’ve got a lot of growing to do, and if you want to be part of that, get in touch: info@artinliverpool.com Equally, we’re here to support galleries and creative spaces, so make sure to keep us up to date about your events at least two weeks in advance of each issue.

If you’d like even more of a presence in the magazine we have advertising available every month, and take bookings well in advance. For details on pricing and deadlines contact Patrick: patrick@artinliverpool.com

How galleries can infiltrate our lives: She Dreams, Yan Wang Preston, on display in LiverpoolONE. Produced by Open Eye Gallery for 2018’s China Dream programme, this has become a really important part of the shopping centre after overstaying it’s planned dates.

Increasingly, we’re trying to find a reason for art. It might be education, wellbeing, discovery, freedom of thought, cultural understanding, community growth, etc. etc.

Key to that though is taking apart the elements of the art world that exist for their own sake, and discussing the value of simply existing as a part of a whole.

Understanding the difference between a discussion and a conversation is important too. It lays the path for better translating the arts to people who are afraid of it.

issue #11, January 2018 Editor: Patrick Kirk-Smith Contributors: Kathryn Wainwright, Samantha Browne

Advertising, sponsorship, distribution, stocking & event enquiries should be sent to info@artinliverpool.com Art in Liverpool C.I.C. Company No. 10871320

A discussion, you lead, or are led in. The topic is set, or comes about from a tangent of another topic. It’s not necessarily structured and it might change if you introduce the same subject to a new person; but the outcome will be of equal value to where the discussion began.

A conversation is free from purpose, it might twist through some tangential things, and leap from subject to subject, but its beginnings are innocent and open, and change from person to person. It could be sparked by anything; the outcomes of a conversation are not comparable to each other.

So a gallery, as a part of the art world is a starting point, or a host for conversation.

They choose what we talk about more than any artist, and they decide how free we can be with how we talk.

An artist is one of the participants in the

conversation. They try to lead, but they are ultimately held to account by viewers.

The viewer is the second participant, perhaps with more power of the results or outcomes, but with no say in the starting point of the conversation.

And the art itself takes a place in the conversation, and it’s here where the difficulties begin. If art is for its own sake, then how can it possibly be part of a conversation that is beneficial to anyone – the artist, the viewer, the gallery? Well it can’t really. So it has to have come from somewhere, some point of appreciation, or questioning that led it to being. If it exists purely to be beautiful then it opens a conversation about beauty.

For example, if I am presented with an object of beauty by one student, another student from another country, another city, another postcode, might entirely disagree.

That perspective on beauty is an important presentation of some culturally embedded norm.

Another example, outside the arts, and away from education; I would never have a velvet covered sofa in my house, I’d find it jarring and uncomfortable but they set trends and take regular window space in DFS; my sofa is covered in cat hair and shredded beyond repair – find me anyone else who finds beauty in that.

It’s entirely subjective, so the thing you produce has a purpose, if you make art. And it might not necessarily be your job to find

that purpose, but it’s your job as an artist to engage in the conversation about its value, and its origin.

Here, the gallery needs to take serious responsibility, because this is where the conversation takes place. If the gallery doesn’t do its job, art becomes stale and inherited. But when they do their job right, new paths are created, and new voices are added, as audiences, as artists, as curators or invigilators. In providing a space where everyone feels comfortable or capable of joining in, galleries create the future of art, as well as presenting the past and present.

While that’s slightly denser than anything I would usually write in an editorial, it’s in service to something (honest), which is that this January there is a vast amount of art with purpose in Liverpool. From Leo Fitzmaurice being taken over as a curator by the art itself, to Jade Montserrat’s new work at Bluecoat seeking to question who does engage and who should engage in gallery education.

The exhibition programme around Liverpool is an active catalyst for new ideas as we go into 2019, opening up a conversation to all who might be interested.

Four Words: Future Alan Dunn’s Channel 4 takeover.

Catch up on All4 You know how those adverts on facebook target you? Or down the side of your email inbox? Well Metal Liverpool have been working with artist Alan Dunn on a huge project that does just that – if you’re aged 16-34 and a regular viewer of All4, Channel 4’s catch up service.

which seem to be more important to his work than the outcome. They produce Random Acts, a weekly late night show promoting short film by emerging artists and have a commitment to new work throughout 2019 working with film makers, artists and choreographers.

Four Words: Future is part of an ongoing series by Alan Dunn, and this iteration comes as the new year begins, screened in the most accessible medium of our generation. Screened ahead of and during streaming services in place of adverts, the film focusses on technology, football, faith and youth and uses simple four word statements to reach its audience as efficiently as possible.

Four Words is the latest in this commitment to the arts from the channel, but is one of the most significant in its position as being absolutely art without global agenda in the way that Western Flag was, or supporting artists through Channel 4. Alan Dunn worked with Metal Liverpool on the work and has been producing Four Words project for several years.

It’s not the first time Channel 4 have supported visual arts on their platforms, with Western Flag by John Garrard marking Earth Day across their digital channels on Earth Day 2017, and live for the entire day on All4. The project was part of a global intervention by the artist, streaming the film from Texas to households around the world, with a physical film installation at Somerset House in London.

The channel also play the part of Grayson Perry’s eternal platform, with short series

Four Words: Academia, Four Words: Market, and Four Words: January are the best known, and many in Liverpool will remember the latter, as an intervention during the Liverpool Provocations series by Metal a few years ago.

The huge screen opposite Liverpool Lime Street was turned into a rotating billboard for visual art in 2016, presenting four word statements where contributors were invited to submit four word statements about value, money and exchange, engaging with teenagers, retired seafarers, ancillary

workers and ex-footballers from local communities alongside established artists Four Words: Future, 2019’s digital intervention, has been produced with Metal Liverpool as part of their Time and Space Residency, and developed with the help of Karl Bartos of Kraftwerk (on auditory media), Mark Stewart of the Pop Group (on the world), visual artist Amina Nazari(on technology), RedmenTV (on faith and football), and young people from Harthill Youth Centre (on youth) Metal Liverpool’s Time and Space Residency has supported the production of the work, with the organisation giving, as the ongoing residency’s title suggests, the time and space to produce new work with the support of the team at Metal.

The residency is an outstanding programme, and has produced really incredible work over the years, so for any artist working with the programme, it is a chance to make something outstanding, and take a project to its best conclusion Alan Dunn has been working in and around Liverpool as an artist since the millennium, working on huge projects including tenantspin, a project with FACT than ran

for ten years until 2012, a community media project that connected community, art, housing, landlords, tenants and galleries into a conversation that created over 600 hours of Community TV. Since then, while lecturing at Leeds Beckett University, he has worked with academics, markets, shops, galleries, studios, and artists to produce diverse projects that all explore how working with people can impact on complex issues.

To see the latest version of Four Words, spend January catching up on Channel 4 programming online, or head to Alan Dunn’s YouTube page, where the short film is available to stream on demand.

-Available on demand at All4, or Youtube, throughout January 2019 https://www.youtube.com/user/ alandunn67

Between You and Me, Everything Else is Different

Review: Leo Fitzmaurice at Walker Art Gallery Psamathe (1879-80) by Frederic, Lord Leighton looks away, with her back turned, as the subject of a distinctly average female nude that I’d likely not have paid much attention to if all other eyes in the empty room weren’t on her.

The empty room, a quiet Gallery 9 in the Walker, is in fact filled with dozens of images by over 30 artists, curated by Leo Fitzmaurice, from the Arts Council Collection. It is the eyes of these works, all directed at Psamathe, silently, subtly guiding visitors to do the same, without thinking for a moment they are being fooled.

You could easily miss it, the trickery, but once you notice what’s going on, it’s hard to feel comfortable there, in a gallery where the central gaze is taken away from the viewer, and given to a painting that directs the other works on show. As a viewer, you’re actually quite trapped in the directions the artist gives.

Leo Fitzmaurice, the artist behind this intervention at Walker Art Gallery, described the work as being a way of ‘making people conscious about the act of looking’. In fact it’s probably the opposite for most viewers, who end up either entirely unaware of the real intentions of the installation, or feel like their choice of view is actively taken away from them.

It’s quite exciting in that sense, battling against the work, feeling some sort of fight for a position of power in a gallery where hierarchies are usually set in stone. Here, neither the artist, the viewer, or the work has any absolute control of the response to the exhibition, and being part of that feels really quite special.

The works themselves aren’t new, mostly they’re taken from the Arts Council Collection, including 30 portraits by artists including Frank Auerbach, David Bomberg, Milena Dragicevic, Ken Kiff, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky and Philip Sutton.

But it doesn’t actually matter who painted those works, other than to justify the immediate difference in display style between the Gallery 9, and Gallery 8; their eyes are all that really matter, positioned according to the depth and direction of their stare. Thinking back to standing underneath the canopy of distracted paintings, I don’t actually recall seeing any labels; always a pointless distraction in an installation of this kind, and a useful omission from this exhibition. Seeing the work as without information sets it as an equal to me as a viewer, makes me have to get to know it – otherwise I just have to stand as part of the crowd and look in the direction of Psamathe.

it’s an exhibition of portraiture that could be passed casually on the way to the next room

You could, legitimately, walk around the gallery not paying attention to Fitzmaurice’s input for a second as they are all paintings of a calibre that suits Walker. Their style seems to have taken a few twists away from the surrounding gallery rooms, but other than their slightly jaunty mounting

Leo Fitzmaurice: Between You and Me, Everything Else is Different, continues until 17 March at Walker Art Gallery

The direction of view curated the exhibition, Leo Fitzmaurice just sort of ran with it. It’s a brilliant shifting of creative control within exhibition production, and a brave exhibition to mount at the Walker. And as it’s on until March, probably not one to miss – but do make time to see it in the context of the rest of the gallery, and not just run in and out for this by itself.

The power of this exhibition is context.

--

Words, Kathryn Wainwright

Robert Mapplethorpe at The Atkinson.

Samantha Browne on the era defining artist, and what his legacy means in hindsight “I’m looking for the unexpected. I’m looking for things I’ve never seen before.” These are the words of the American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989), whose career spanned approximately twenty years from the 1970s until his death in 1989 from AIDS (Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). This ambition was the premise of Mapplethorpe’s work.

‘dodge and burn’ printing techniques in the dark room as directed to his print maker Tom Baril (born 1952). ‘Dodging’ decreases the exposure for areas of the print that the photographer wishes to be lighter, whilst burning increases the exposure to areas of the print that the photographer wishes to be darker. Baril began working for Mapplethorpe in 1979 and continued to print for the Robert Mapplethorpe

and the echo of Michelangelo (1475-1564) and Caravaggio (1571-1610) is evident in the works shown. Indeed, in a 2009 exhibition Mapplethorpe: Perfection in Form, at the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, Italy, his photographs were presented alongside great Renaissance masterpieces such as Michelangelo’s David (1504). One of these photographs, Derrick Cross (1983), is on display in this exhibition. Another

ARTIST ROOMS is a touring collection of over 1,600 works of modern and contemporary art jointly owned by the National Galleries of Scotland and Tate. Collectively these works represent forty major international artists and, since 2009, they have been displayed in museums and galleries across the United Kingdom. This is The Atkinson’s first collaboration with ARTIST ROOMS. Prima facie Robert Mapplethorpe, renowned for his documentation of the New York sadomasochism (S&M) scene, is a surprising choice to exhibit in Southport, where The Atkinson is based. This seaside town in the far north of Sefton is essentially perceived as a genteel, Victorian retirement town. Nearly a third of Southport’s 90,000 population are over the age of sixty.

However, the disparity between subject and viewer is less than it appears. If Mapplethorpe had lived long enough to take advantage of the Terry Beirn Clinical Trials Act passed by the United States congress in 1991, which lead to ground-breaking research in the production of antiretroviral therapy in 1996, he would be 72 years old now. Mapplethorpe is thus being exhibited amongst an audience, in the main, intrinsically linked to his era. For them, it would not be difficult to identify Andy Warhol (1928-1987), Keith Haring (1958-1990) and Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) depicted in some of the portraits shown.

Studies in aesthetics research, which is aimed at understanding how visitors view art in gallery environments, show that, generally, older people feel more comfortable in art galleries because they possess more knowledge about art. They are able to rely on this knowledge in looking and assessing the worth of a piece of work.

In contrast, younger people, because they do not have this knowledge, feel that art galleries are elite and permeate a feeling of exclusion. This exhibition would make for a fascinating focus of study in aesthetics research because one thing Mapplethorpe gives younger people is knowledge. He is one of the rare twentieth century photographers who is a staple of most photographic courses taught in colleges and universities around the world today.

Such interest stems in various aspects of Mapplethorpe’s work, like his use of

does is provide a kind of autobiography of Mapplethorpe’s artistic career. The 25 photographs on display begin with his first images, self-portraits taken with the SX-70 Polaroid camera he acquired from the artist and filmmaker Sandy Daley in 1970. It moves on to portraits of his famous artist friends, some figurative shots and several still-life images, and poignantly ends with an image of a skull photographed in 1988 (printed in 1990) a year before Mapplethorpe’s death when he knew he was dying.

Foundation years after Mapplethorpe’s death. Mapplethorpe primarily used the Hasselblad 500 medium-format camera with an 80 mm and a 150 mm lens. The same camera was used by NASA on space flights, albeit with modifications. This fact may give a clue as to the reasoning behind Mapplethorpe’s choice, as it was said he liked having a lot of space between himself and the sitter.

Studying Mapplethorpe also provides an access route to the masters of the Renaissance period (1400-1700).

Mapplethorpe read for a Bachelor of Fine Arts, incorporating drawing, painting and sculpture, at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn

image, Dominic and Elliott (1979), in which one of them is depicted suspended by his ankles in the position of a crucified body, is reminiscent of The Crucifixion of St Peter (1601) by Caravaggio.

Mapplethorpe’s ‘mass appeal’ is subtly enhanced by the curatorial process of this exhibition. To his credit the curator, Stephen Whittle, when faced with a catalogue of Mapplethorpe’s photographs, did not choose to focus on the more commonly known aspects of Mapplethorpe’s work. For those seeking a plethora of erotic images and/or lilies, you will be left wanting, albeit these aspects of Mapplethorpe’s work are touched upon. What this exhibition

All the photographs are in black and white but there is a book available for perusal entitled Flowers by Robert Mapplethorpe (published in 1990 by Bulfinch/Little, Brown and Company), showing 50 of his colour illustrations from 1980 until his death. This book provides an extremely interesting contrast and should definitely be seen as an important part of the exhibition – the 26th image, rather than a complementary nonessential. One aspect of Mapplethorpe’s work that is not touched upon are his photos of children whom he found difficult to work with because, as he said: “You can’t control them. They never do what you want them to do.” Arguably, however, their presence would have jarred with the dominance of controlled studio shots in this exhibition, an environment that was, after all, essentially Mapplethorpe’s hallmark.

Review: Jasmir Creed, Dystopolis at the VGM

the terms of his visa, and he could barely speak English. However, by 2005 when the photo was printed some sixteen years after Mapplethorpe’s death, Schwarzenegger was Governor of California.

Similarly, one can perceive a difference in the works printed during Mapplethorpe’s lifetime and those after his death. For instance, the portrait of Patti Smith printed in 1975, which depicts her holding a neck strap, shows a range of tone in light, shadow and texture arguably superior to his selfportrait showing the back of his head, taken in 1977 and printed in 1992. One may argue the contrast of this self-portrait is not as defined, the whiteness of the background not as white as Mapplethorpe might have directed it to be, the shadows not as black.

This adds an intriguing dimension to this exhibition.

After this show the photographs on display will be ‘rested’ for two or three years because photographs, like traditional works of art, are sensitive to light. Given the rarity of their public showings, and their beauty, my advice is to take advantage of this opportunity and visit this exhibition ARTIST ROOMS: Robert Mapplethorpe - be prepared to see things you’ve never seen before and go on your own journey of selftransformation.

-An autobiography can give great insight into a person’s character, and through this exhibition one may see a man highly motivated by the ‘adventure’ of self-transformation.

He depicts selftransformation in many forms, such as in his escapist self-portrait as a knifewielding thug (1983, printed in 2005), and in making a clenched hand akin to a cluster of orchid petals as in Orchid and Hand (1983). However, Mapplethorpe was not prepared to go on this adventure without the security of control. His authoritarian approach, as amplified in his predilection for S&M, is reflected in his command of setting, pose and posture. This may be perceived as somewhat autocratic, but this allowed him to structure, cement and strengthen ‘the unexpected’ and arguably this is what made Mapplethorpe a great photographer.

The printing of Mapplethorpe’s photographs after his death is not dwelt upon in the exhibition but this practice belies the socio-political context in which these images came to be present. For example, the photograph of Arnold Schwarzenegger was taken in 1976 when Schwarzenegger had retired from bodybuilding following his Mr Olympia title in 1975. At this point in his life Schwarzenegger was considered an illegal immigrant, because of violations in

ARTIST ROOMS: Robert Mapplethorpe The Atkinson, Southport until 23 March 2019 This exhibition contains nudity and sexual references.

Words, Samantha Browne For more information visit: www.theatkinson.co.uk

Victoria Gallery & Museum has hosted some wonderful multimedia installations over the years, one was, I think, the first exhibition I wrote a review of, by Emma Gregory. It was a curious labyrinth of personal ephemera telling a story that transcended into a common tale anyone could relate to.

More recently, an exhibition of bafflingly delicate ceramics by Phoebe Cummings, New Perspectives, took the gallery space over in a thoroughly interactive piece of installation.

be fairly limiting. It’s this point where Jasmir Creed’s work is unique. As a flaneuse she seems to be poking fun at the flaneurs of patriarchal history, who lauded their ability to look up from the pavements, by using her painting to look everywhere.

So walking in to an exhibition of paintings was an unexpected surprise at their latest show, Dystopolis.

Even in the darker works, with their light taken from shadowed streets, there is a bright spirit behind them which uplifts you when you stand reading the works.

Jasmir Creed is the artist behind the exhibition, but there is more to the show than one artist. In fact, the most important part isn’t the art at all, it’s a book published by the University of Liverpool to accompany the exhibition, featuring new critical writing

by Dr Lauren Elkin and Dr Graeme Gilloch inspired by the artist and her work.

The artist remarks that she’s a flâneuse (for those of us who didn’t go to art college, that’s the female equivalent of a name given to a man who walks, observing as an occupation, paid or unpaid), which shows in her work.

It’s a particularly academic exhibition in that respect, visually brilliant, but at the same time, not entirely accessible in its subject, which is an observation of modern life from the eyes of an educated artist.

References to sky pop in and out, which will seem straight forward to many, but in the world of the flaneur, are more a poke at those of us who don’t take the time to observe the cracks in the metropolis that let the light in.

‘No one ever looks up’ is a typical lecturer’s training call, and getting stuck on that can

Slightly disorienting in a way, creating mountains out of people, and skies from the ground, her canvases express something whimsical, and excited – a blind fascination for the world around.

Alongside the paintings is a significant new publication, the first in a long time of its kind produced by Liverpool University, with Dr Lauren Elkin and Dr Graeme Gilloch exploring the images to develop new critically written pieces to accompany the work. The book is formally printed by Liveprool University Press which implies confiendence in the exhibition as well as Jasmir Creed’s career prospects.

She is an artist going from strength to strength, with this standing out as a particularly captivating exhibition, that has made a gallery most used to installation and sculpture embrace a painting show which requires time to understand.

So if you do find yourself with time (a particularly important task in a January filled with catching up) make it time well spent by reading into this unusual and unflinchingly confident exhibition.

-Dystopolis, Victoria Gallery & Museum until 21 April Words, Patrick Kirk-Smith

NEWS Blue Room celebrates ten years of creativity at Bluecoat, the UK’s first arts centre This year, Bluecoat’s inclusive arts project Blue Room, for adults with learning disabilities, celebrates ten years of creativity.

Since 2008, three Blue Room groups have met weekly at Liverpool’s contemporary art’s centre to explore the exhibitions, create their own artwork and share their work in a variety of ways. With nearly 700,000 visitors to the arts centre each year, Blue Room Members are supported to develop creative and social skills, building confidence and greater independence, at the heart of Liverpool’s oldest building and the UK’s first arts centre. The groups have access to unique resources such as Bluecoat Print Studio and collaborate with local and international contemporary artists.

Art interventions appearing on All4 streaming service throughout January

Artist Alan Dunn, in partnership with Metal Liverpool, has produced FOUR WORDS FUTURE; five short animations reflecting on the future of auditory media, the world, technology, football and youth.

In 2016 Alan Dunn presented FOUR WORDS: JANUARY as part of the Metal produced Liverpool Provocations, a series of artist interventions in the city, when the flow of adverts on the Liverpool Media Wall was interrupted by a series of four-word statements about value, money and exchange. The second realisation of the project this January will take-over the All4 streaming service during the advertising break for users in the North.

The four word statements on the future have been provided by Karl Bartos of Kraftwerk (on auditory media), Mark Stewart of the Pop Group (on the world), visual artist Amina Nazari(on technology), RedmenTV (on faith and football), and young people from Harthill Youth Centre (onyouth). Following in a rich tradition of artists broadcasting their work on television, these four wordinterventions will be screened 60,000 times between 1-31 January 2019 during programmes aimed at 16-34 year olds, representing how our television consumption has changed over recent years. The 30-secondanimation also features an exclusive soundtrack produced by electronic music composer Scanner.

Established in the context of Liverpool’s Capital of Culture, Blue Room was an early example of person-centred provision, where people are able to choose activities in which they have a genuine interest. The programme played an important role in the transformation of local day services for learning disabled adults and Liverpool City Council were key partners in getting the project up and running in the early years.

Now the project thrives as an independent programme and has provided over 1500 sessions, enabling more than fifty members to be involved in regular arts activity. This short film made with longstanding member Edward Rauer gives a flavour of the impact of the project on members.

have helped to establish a new Blue Room project at Norton Priory Museum and Gardens in Runcorn.

Recently, four Blue Room members have been expanding their individual practice by working with partners and artists across the city and beyond, including resident dance artists Liverpool Improvisation Collection (LIC), Tate Liverpool, Proud & Loud Arts, Tanya Raabe-Webber, Becky Peach and Sumuuya Khader. From November 2018 – March 2019 a programme of exhibitions and events will celebrate the landmark anniversary.

In Studio Me, emerging artists Joshua Henderson and Veronica Watson, for whom Bluecoat’s Blue Room programme for adults with learning difficulties has played an important role in their artistic journey, share the experience in their first studio residency. Blue Room at Ten, is a brand new exhibition inspired by images from the project’s extensive photographic archive.

Blue Room artists have collaborated with Louise Waller and Alice Odgers from Baltic Clay to create a collection of ceramics.

These reference Bluecoat’s acclaimed potter, Julia Carter Preston (1926 – 2012) and explore her sgraffito technique.

The exhibition also features screen prints created at Bluecoat Print Studio. As part of the ten year celebrations, Blue Room: the Journey will look back at the project’s development.

For 50 weeks per year Bluecoat’s team of facilitators and volunteers support members to integrate within the creative community of the building and take part in the cultural life of the city. What started as weekly workshops for learning disabled artists has grown a myriad of offshoots.

Members have been given access to other artforms, especially improvised dance and performance. Some members regularly co-facilitate sessions for children, families and at conferences and other events and

On Sat 1 Dec, you can meet members of Blue Room, staff and associated artists to discover how this unique project began, and future plans. The event features a screening of The Journey, a film to which Blue Room’s roots can be traced, made in 2003 –04 by Leo Fitzmaurice in collaboration with some current members.

Alan Dunn:

who has beautifully soundtracked the 30-seconds with a nod to ‘Revolution 9’, and The Redmen TV, one of the most watched independent online fan channels. The images we present also reflect this range, from a quick snapshot of ‘The World’ set of islands off the coast of Dubai through to a memorable image of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, provided by PropagandaPhoto.’

‘January is a complex month during which many think about debt, resolutions, selfimage or holidays. This latest version of FOUR WORDS continues where we started with FOUR WORDS: JANUARY on Europe’s largest outdoor screen, Liverpool Media Wall, and this time interrupts online TV advertising, an area that interests myself and Metal immensely in terms of how our teenage children were consuming content.

And, once again, we’ve invited a wide range of people to contribute reflections on the future, from important Kraftwerk member and musician Karl Bartos through young people from Harthill Youth Centre, Scanner

The project has been made possible through a Time and Space Residency at Metal. https://alandunn67.co.uk/fourwordsfuture. html

Find the latest news & more on these articles at www.artinliverpool.com

Mandela family to visit Liverpool to witness the start of work on a tribute to the Freeman of the City, Nelson Mandela THE family of revolutionary leader Nelson Mandela have announced they will be heading to Liverpool next year when work is set to start on a tribute to the Freeman of the City.

memorial. We look forward to meeting those involved in supporting South Africa’s struggle against Apartheid, and continuing our dialogue about educational opportunity.”

The former President’s eldest daughter Dr Makaziwe ‘Maki’ Mandela and his granddaughter Tukwini Mandela, will visit Princes Park on Monday 11 February 2019 – giving their seal of approval and allowing work to officially start on the permanent memorial to the revered freedom fighter.

Lynn Collins, Mandela8 Chair, said: “Our city has such a strong connection and history with the campaign to free Mandela, a campaign which brought community activists and trades unionists together with one voice. This visit is a chance for us to show Madiba’s family the solidarity and support of our city, to ensure the legacy, values and ideals of their loved one are formally marked here, and to begin the work to build our ongoing educational programme with their support and guidance.

The installation will reflect Mandela’s life, his love of gardens and horticulture, his teaching and passion for equality and humanity.

The announcement is being made today, as the 5 December marks five years since the death of Nelson Mandela.

The three day visit, which has been organised by the Mandela8 group in partnership with the city council, will also see the family members visit a number of community projects as well as taking part in a special civic reception hosted by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool Councillor Christine Banks, and a fundraising event hosted by the TUC, which will see proceeds go towards the development of the memorial.

“At a time when our city has been regularly called on to show its opposition to racism, fascism and xenophobia in all its forms, the visit and chance to celebrate the life of Mandela couldn’t be more appropriate in uniting us all.”

Sonia Bassey, Director and one of the founding members of Mandela8 said: “This visit represents so much to our community, Mandela8 and me personally as one of the founding members along with Stephen Nze.

Dr Makaziwe Mandela said: “I am delighted to be invited to the city of Liverpool, a city which honoured my Father with the Freedom of the City in 1994, a city whose links with South Africa are longstanding and whose communities have stood alongside South Africa, fighting injustice and Anti-Apartheid.

“Our political education and passion for equality was founded on the struggles of Liverpool 8 and South Africa, in particular the suffering Nelson Mandela endured in his fight for equality, and the tenacity and deep rooted passion he showed for people and his country. It is a special honour for us that Dr Maki and Tukwini will be visiting our community and hearing about our struggles from activists in our community who supported Anti-Apartheid.”

“Most importantly the visit will mark the 29 year anniversary of my father’s release from prison. It is significant to the family that we are marking that occasion in Liverpool, alongside the start of works on site for the Mandela8

Liverpool’s Deputy Mayor, Councillor Wendy Simon, said:“We’re delighted Dr Maki and Tukwini Mandela will be coming to the city next year and we look forward to giving them a warm Liverpool welcome.

“The city council and Mandela8 have been working closely with Dr Maki for some time on the memorial project, and we know how touched they are that this tribute will be taking centre stage in one of our beautiful green spaces.

“To have them here in person to kick-start the beginning of the work on the installation means a huge amount, and will be an opportunity for us to once again reflect on Mandela’s unforgettable humanitarian achievements.”

The Mandela8 group also aims to reinstate a bridge link in the Grade II* park which would link the mainland to the lake island. The area around the memorial will also provide space for learning, events and reflection. Plans are in place to integrate some of Nelson Mandela’s iconic words into the artwork, in a way which communicates his messages and relevance to Toxteth, Liverpool and wider community today.

NEWS Living Archive installation at Tate Liverpool completes 14-18 NOW Co-commission

Thriving Baltic Creative Community Poised To Grow Into New Digital House With Baltic Creative CIC’s Digital House at 61–65 Norfolk Street nearing completion, many of the first studios have been taken by existing Baltic Creative tenants who are at full capacity in their current studios.

While leases are now being offered to the wider digital and creative community, the brand new studios at Digital House have until now been prioritised for current tenants. And for many of them, this expansion can’t come soon enough.

App and software developers Citrus Suite have taken the top floor studio in the corner of the new scheme, and are anxious to move in as soon as they can.

Now 12 strong, their team has run out of space in their current shop front studio on Jamaica Street, forcing them to pause their successful hiring formula of testing young people via in-house placements.

“It just gives us capacity and room to give people try-outs again,” says Citrus Suite co-founder Steve Donovan. “We haven’t been able to do that for the past 12 months because we haven’t had the space.”

LIVING ARCHIVE ART INSTALLATION at TATE LIVERPOOL COMPLETES 14-18 NOW COCOMMISSION “THESE ROOMS”. OPENING 17 JANUARY 2019

ROOMS is a living archive project that will encourage people to touch, see, hear, smell and feel the tragedy through a highly focussed lens of the present day.

Ireland’s multi award-winning partnership of ANU and CoisCéim Dance Theatre are thrilled to announce that the final element of the THESE ROOMS project, the art installation BEYOND THESE ROOMS, will be presented at Tate Liverpool from 17 January – 09 February 2019. The residency will include live performances, film screenings and a symposium and will mark the completion of this major collaborative project between Director/Choreographer, David Bolger; Visual Artist, Owen Boss and theatre maker, Louise Lowe that began in 2015.

As part of the presentation of BEYOND THESE ROOMS at Tate Liverpool there will be a series of film screenings as well as a residency that will result in a symposium on Thursday 07 February. The symposium will feature contributions by David Bolger, Owen Boss and Louise Lowe with live performances from Jonathan Mitchell, Emma O’Kane and Mathew Williamson.

BEYOND THESE ROOMS is a visual art installation resulting from a live performance work THESE ROOMS. Co-commissioned by 14-18 NOW, the installation brings together artefacts, documents, imagery and video to propel audiences into the tragic events of Dublin’s North King Street in 1916, five days into the Easter Rising, where 15 civilian men were killed in house-to-house raids by British soldiers. Through witness testimonies from two key government enquiries, one in Ireland and one in the UK, BEYOND THESE

BEYOND THESE ROOMS is the result of live performance work THESE ROOMS staged at Shoreditch Town Hall as part of theatre festival LIFT 2018 and engages with the complexity of conflicted histories by returning to its starting point, the massacre of 15 civilians in Dublin’s North King Street. In a project that cross pollinates theatre, dance and visual art, THESE ROOMS investigates one story from two perspectives: those of the civilians who were victims of and witnesses to the North King Street Massacre, and those of the men of the South Staffordshire Regiment who committed this act – their identities largely anonymous, their actions controversially exonerated at a military enquiry.

Created by two of Ireland’s most groundbreaking original companies, this highly acclaimed, riveting project sheds new light on a pivotal moment in British-Irish relations.

Part of 14-18 NOW’s ambitious arts programme connecting people with the First World War and generously supported

by Culture Ireland, it began as part of ART: 2016, the Arts Council of Ireland’s programme as part of Ireland 2016.

For more information please see the dedicated website THESEROOMS.IE/ room03/

Citrus Suite were among the first to sign up for the new Digital House, although they will be sad to leave their beloved shop front space where they have been highly visible.

Steve says: “Believe it or not, the past few jobs that we’ve secured, some of which have been £100,000 plus jobs, are from people who’ve just walked in from the street and said ‘Can you guys do apps?’. The more you speak to these people, the more it turns out that they want big back-end systems.”

Find the latest news & more on these articles at www.artinliverpool.com

For other tenants, the move is key to empowering their ability to attract new talent, not just house them. Roderick Kennedy is founder and CEO of Simul.

Supported by his staff of three, he uses his background in plasma physics to create high-end sky renders for the games industry, trading with partners across the United States, Europe, Korea and Japan. The unique skills required to grow their team mean a dynamic environment is essential.

This new £2.6m Digital House (funded by ERDF and Charity Bank) is Baltic Creative’s next step towards providing high quality affordable space for digital companies in the Baltic Triangle. Conceived from the beginning as a grow-on space for digital/tech businesses, the scheme has the capacity to house 20 companies and will contribute massively to the Baltic Triangle’s status as one of the fastest growing clusters in the UK. Mark Lawler, Managing Director at Baltic Creative CIC says, “It’s fantastic to see existing Baltic Creative Tenants growing and creating high value jobs for the Liverpool City Region. An essential component for Baltic Creative CIC’s vision has always been to give tenants a space that would let them evolve naturally, without sacrificing their place within the community that has helped them thrive.

It’s Baltic Creative’s job to ensure that businesses have the right space to grow into. Our new Digital House will provide just that.”

Baltic Creative’s Digital House will be ready to let by February 2019. If you are interested in studio space at this new development and would like more information, please contact info@baltic-creative.com.

FACT appoints new CEO, Dr Nicola Triscott The Board of FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) is delighted to announce that its new Chief Executive Officer will be Dr Nicola Triscott.

Nicola is currently the Artistic Director/ CEO of Arts Catalyst, which she founded in 1994 and has built into one of the UK’s most distinctive contemporary art and research organisations. Nicola succeeds Mike Stubbs who stood down as FACT’s CEO in September after eleven years at the helm.

and critics alike, selling out in its opening weekend. Broken Symmetries, a major new exhibition presenting 10 new artworks by 12 international artists premiered in Liverpool last week ahead of its European tour in 2019.

FACT Chair, Rachel Higham, said: “We are delighted to have found in Nicola, such an accomplished and visionary CEO and Artistic Director with a strong history of

With over 25 years’ experience as a curator, chief executive and cultural entrepreneur, Nicola has led Arts Catalyst’s ambitious programme of artists’ commissions and exhibitions, establishing an international reputation as a pioneer and leader in the field of art, science and technology. Alongside her current role, she is also Principal Research Fellow in Interdisciplinary Art and Science at the University of Westminster.

Previously she worked in art and theatre production, art centre management, and cultural policy.

2018 has been a landmark year for FACT as it celebrated 15 years in its award-winning Liverpool home and also formed a key part of the city’s 2018 cultural programme to mark the ten-year anniversary of being European Capital of Culture. Aurora, FACT’s site-specific art installation in Toxteth Reservoir produced in collaboration with immersive art specialists, Invisible Flock, became an instant hit with audiences

changing artistic, social, scientific, political and economic landscape. Under Nicola’s leadership, I am confident FACT will grow into playing an even stronger national and international role in influencing thinking, artistic practice and models for transdisciplinary work across art, science and technology.”

Nicola Triscott said: “I am honoured to be asked to become the new Chief Executive of FACT. For 15 years, FACT has led the UK in the production of extraordinary visual art that embraces and explores creative technology, pioneering new forms of artistic and social interactions between art and our technological world. I am very excited to be coming to Liverpool, an amazing city, and to leading FACT in the next stage of its life. I look forward to developing the organisation’s reputation as a centre for creation, innovation and transformative encounters that cut across contemporary art, technology and society.”

Nicola takes up her new role in May 2019.

Until then, Matthew Brown continues as interim Managing Director.

building innovative partnerships. Nicola is a respected scholar who has conducted outstanding creative and innovative research in the field of interdisciplinary art and science studies and practice. The Board and Senior Management team are looking forward to working with Nicola to lay out a new future for FACT that critically evaluates and responds to the

Review: Stirling Prize Shortlist exhibition 2018, at RIBA North

Review: Monochrome at Bluecoat Display Centre Using the word monochrome to describe can give varying reactions, from the somewhat dull or demure to the ultrastylish and fashionable controlled interior design palette. In an exhibition in which you might think would contain be a certain level of restriction and limitation comes a celebration of just that. Monochrome in Bluecoat Display Centre hosts an array of artists from a range of disciplines not bound together by a lack of colour but by their dedication to just one.

My personal preference is, just like that of a magpie, towards small, shiny and intricate

Bushey Cemetery, Hertfordshire, (c) Lewis Khan

2018’s Stirling Prize Winner is Bloomberg’s European Headquarters. The annual award is an unlimited, uncategorized prize given to the best building completed in the year of competition. The fact any size, style or use of building is accepted means that literally anything could win, making it a monumental achievement for any architect or firm.

work with from their clients, and the end product is far less enriching that the other four.

Bloomberg’s European Headquarters is the largest stone built building in London since St Paul’s Cathedral.

The Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre had the added pressure of creating a building peaceful enough to learn, in a setting so beautifully distracting that it had to work both with and against it. The results are an astonishingly delicate space built for the purposes of knowledge. Just the images in the exhibition, and the story, gave me shivers of excitement.

The gigantic office, retail, and leisure space is said to have rethought the way city office space is contrived, but to be quite honest, the actual building, beyond its immediate scale and ambition isn’t why I’m writing this, or even particularly interesting.

Next up came Storey’s Field Centre, which serves as a children’s nursery. The overwhelming emotion is a grand joy, a huge sense of happiness, calm and wellbeing in a building that is as useful outside as it is inside.

What is, is the exhibition of the shortlist you can find at RIBA North until February.

But the race for the best was between New Tate St Ives and Bushey Cemetery. Tate St Ives extended and rethought the gallery, and by extending without overtaking have doubled the available gallery space, without detracting from any of the existing post-modern structure.

Documentation and stories behind the six shortlisted buildings, including work by the architects behind them pulls together to reveal a story of process, trials, errors and decision making. Not just what will look best, but what will function within its purpose, and when is form more important than function.

Fundamentally important questions for any creative person, but for architects that is their entire career, not just the ability to design, but to design with purpose.

The Stirling Prize shortlist is on show at RIBA North for the first time this year, adding to the already huge programme shown at the national gallery for architecture in just eight months.

The shortlist is made up of Bloomberg, Bushey Cemetery, Chadwick Hall, New Tate St Ives, Storey’s Field Centre and Eddington Nursery, and The Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre.

Bloomberg, and Chadwick Hall both fall a bit short, not in terms of outcome – they’re beautiful buildings – but they had less to

Bushey Cemetery though, is no frills, materials based architecture at its best, and was unfortunate not to win the prize. Designed to suit Jewish funeral arrangements, in their simplicity and austerity, matching the occasion they mark, the buildings create a space where the dead can truly be honoured. The walls, built from rammed earth, are built using materials that can be returned to the earth when the cemetery is full, and needs to be rebuilt, or extended.

But the winner of the Stirling Prize 2018, Bloomberg, did something undeniably incredible in scale. Judge for yourself by seeing the exhibition before it’s too late.

-Open at RIBA North until 23 February Words, Patrick Kirk-Smith

objects that can be easily overlooked, so the work of Antonella Giomarelli immediately drew me in.

Jewellery can be adorned with colourful gemstones of all shapes and sizes, but when presented as its bare essentials, precious metal can be manipulated, textured and patinated, to make the most of the material itself, and create something more precious than any the value any stone could have. The textures in Antonella Giomarelli‘s rope-like twisted silver pieces are touchable, and weighty. They have a simple rustic quality which needs no other

adornments. The main statement of the monochrome exhibition comes through here – it is about the skill and control of the artist to master their craft, rather than decorate and distract from the objects themselves.

Again using and celebrating the manipulation of metal, the quick sketches in iron wire by Helaina Sharpley are line drawings frozen in time. They start life as simple pen and ink drawings, which are used as the inspiration for the delicate wirework pieces, then mounted in a way that creates a second ghosted, and slightly distorted wiry shadow, crossing boundaries between sculpture and drawing.

Limiting the process of making art can have far greater impact, than allowing all the freedom of expression and over diluting the

creative journey. Miriam Maselkowski knew the effect she wanted to create and found that the use of hundreds of nails surrounded by wrapped thread gave the most delicate and atmospheric image as the end result.

Again, bordering on the boundary of drawing and sculpture, Miriam’s pieces slowly emerge from just the placement of nails hammered into board as she wraps thread around the markers; denser areas of darker thread and more heavily worked places give a depth, in contrast with the highlighted areas where the artist has restrained and let the lack of material fill in the gap, focussing on negative spaces, making them as important to the work as the work itself.

The process is important to Miriam Maselkowskis’ work, it is what gives it its edge. It creates an effect that the freedom of graphite would not achieve; another example of how important control is to this exhibition.

This same importance of process can be seen in the work of Richard McVetis. Specifically, the artist here is driven by questioning the go-to medium of choice when it comes to mark making. He explores the similarities between using pen on paper and thread on fabric, electing to draw with materials which limit the outcome, but enhance the

story. McVetis explores how time and place are felt, using deliberately subdued colour alongside the constraints of thread we see how the ritualistic and habitual behaviour of hand stitched embroidery can create subtle differences between outcomes.

Though there are few colours to see, those that are available are all the more rich showcased on their own, unsullied and pure. The viewer must look closer at the work, to see the artists’ skilled hand, and appreciate the expert craft.

You can see these subtle differences in the repetitive and ritualistic pattern of making seen in Vanessa Hogge’s floral wall works.

The minute differences between one tiny hand sculpted petal to another amongst hundreds of others. The labour is apparent, and these ceramic, botanical wall pieces are pristine and perfect but also so simple.

It is the detail that captures you and you can’t help but get a closer inspection. They force you to consider their conception and in doing that, to consider the importance of

the materials; something you can’t do when the results are smothered in gloss colour.

-Monochrome is on display at Bluecoat Display Centre until 12th January The next exhibition, 60 @thebdc, celebrates sixty year’s of outstanding art and craft Words, Kathryn Wainwright

images: top & bottom, left: Vanessa Hogge; centre: Miriam Maselkowski; right: exhibition view, with Lanty Ball vase in view

Blue Room at Ten, Review Blue Room has, for ten years, been working with learning disabled artists not just in creating new art, but creating new relationships, increasing confidence levels, and exploring ideas and techniques alongside each other.

one of Bluecoat Chambers’ longest serving studio members, whose sgraffito bowls are an iconic part of any local collector’s hoard. It’s a heart-warming reference to the building’s history as well as the group’s.

the support of Jade French and artists Mark Simmonds and James Harper, who made new work in an entirely new way, focussing on shared experiences of making and thinking, rather than assuming any learned understanding of art.

Since 2008, three groups of artists have met weekly at Bluecoat, with some utterly wonderful results, making the most of Bluecoat’s fantastic print facilities, flexible studio rooms and welcoming spaces.

Becky Peach, director of The Royal Standard and print room assistant at Bluecoat Print Studio, worked with Blue Room artists on a series of prints that accompany the ceramics, showing off the industry leading studio facilities the group has access to here at Bluecoat.

It made for one of the most accessible exhibitions Bluecoat has ever shown, where the viewers got presented with work that was absolutely to be taken at face value in the most blunt way. It was really wonderful and an exhibition I will never forget.

But as well as facilities it’s important to stress that Blue Room is about more than making, its about creating a community of artists who work together to build new relationships and new ideas through art. Over the last ten years there have been dozens of projects and exhibitions that have stood out, including a current initiative with Norton Priory in Halton, taking the work outside the city centre for more people to be able to access.

Blue Room has had ten brilliant years producing work like this, this exhibition is one of them, and long may it continue.

Until March 2019, an exhibition celebrating the ten years of brilliant work being done there is open daily in the gallery, Blue Room at Ten. The exhibition is built from sgraffito ceramics and screen printing (some of which was even for sale at Bluecoat’s reception desk) in collaboration with a handful of amazing crafters from Liverpool’s most respected studios.

Louise Waller and Alice Odgers from Baltic Clay worked with Blue Room members on a new collection of ceramics inspired by the archives of Bluecoat and Blue Room. What most obvious about the ceramics on show is the enjoyment of making them. They’re more tactile than most ceramics, made free-hand with free thought, proving exactly what’s Blue Room is about; the power to make art an enriching experience, and to make something valuable as a result.

The ceramics are inspired by the late Julia Carter Preston,

It was Auto Agents that has stuck with me most though, working with contemporary artists and academics, the artists at Blue Room engaged in passionate discussion about what art was to them, and took a leading role in curating an exhibition at Bluecoat.

Jannah Ballass, Tony Carroll, Diana Disley, Leah Jones and Eddie Rauer took the lead in curating the exhibition with

-Blue Room at Ten, and StudioMe are both open at Bluecoat until 10 March 2019 Words, Patrick Kirk-Smith

Review: Jade Montserrat, Instituting Care

“The quiet in this library is a sound in itself.”

A statement scrawled across the walls of the gallery seems to pour into your head as you try to take in the gallery. A statement probably just as true of the gallery as the library it references.

Libraries are spaces to discover new knowledge, where collections of information are kept. Galleries, and this exhibition is a key example of this, are spaces where new knowledge has to be actively presented by an artist every few months. As an audience member in a gallery you have the opportunity to build a relationship not just with the work, but with the artist who created it. They’re beautiful things in that respect, galleries; they allow anyone to understand and engage in new ideas in ways that have never been seen before.

But being allowed to take part doesn’t mean you do.

So who gets to be an artist? Who gets to be a viewer? Who gets to experience this intimate new discovery by creative new

minds? ‘Not everyone’ is the answer.

There are economic, cultural, racial, gender, and countless other barriers to the art world; a world too often presented in high school as offering no real career prospects.

In other words, if you’re not born of privilege it can seem genuinely scary, the prospect of leaving university without a clear path; putting all that effort in, to enter a world where it’s not what you know, but who you know, and skills are hugely subjective things, grading is based on potential, and success is based on originality.

The challenge of all that is precisely why I entered the art world, and why I’m still part of it, the joy of not knowing what the next day would bring. Yet those things seem to be road blocks in making the art world more diverse and more visitor friendly.

Bluecoat’s latest exhibition, Instituting Care by Jade Montserrat addresses all of these questions, but without projecting any personal experience, or anything that might intimidate an audience. The soft shuffle of metallic curtains entices you into the

gallery and around a series of words aimed at inviting a new understanding on who art education serves.

Using the exhibition as a loud speaker for information, quotations, and responses to key texts of decolonisation and decolonising knowledge, the artist, and the gallery in equal measure are not just setting a tone, but actively engaging artists in the discussion as part of the exhibition’s programme.

ROOT-ed zine founders and editors Amber Akaunu and Fauziya Johnson’s workshop on the language we use in art and politics is central to the exhibition’s calendar, on 7th February. Using the exhibition’s glossary of terms – a very literal dissection of the language behind the project (often the main barrier to engagement) – the artists, both recent graduates, will help to deconstruct the exhibition through open and unbiased discussion.

The library continues inside the foil curtains, as a safe space to develop a new connection to globally significant information, without

the pressure of a traditional library, research space or classroom. The gallery itself forces the quotes, and the carefully selected definitions on its occupants, but its central vide or the library give the space to escape and reflect.

The multitude of spaces in one room is ambitious, and the result is a venue that should allow anybody to feel comfortable, in this peaceful and welcoming space that takes Bluecoat into the New Year with a show that promises more of these questions in future.

-Open at Bluecoat until 10 March 2019 Words, Patrick Kirk-Smith

WHAT’S ON > CURRENT Monochrome Bluecoat Display Centre, until 17 Jan

Artist Rooms: Robert Mapplethorpe The Atkinson, until 23 Mar

Current Exhibitions Michael Goodwin & Amanda Oliphant The Artists’ Club, until 12 Jan -Freya Levy, Animal Mosaics 92 Degrees Coffee, until 26 Jan Liverpool based mosaic artist, hugely inspired by animals and the natural world -Joshua Henderson and Veronica Watson: Studio Me Bluecoat, until 10 Mar Members of Blue Room embark on their first studio residency -The Art Schools of North West England Bluecoat, until 10 Mar An exhibition of photographs and texts documenting 30 historic sites of art education

Blue Room at Ten Bluecoat, until 10 Mar Celebrating ten years of Blue Room, Bluecoat’s inclusive arts project -Monochrome Bluecoat Display Centre, until 17 Jan A mixed media exhibition that explores the work of makers who use one colour

Becka Griffin, Skylines Bold Street Coffee, until 29 Jan This is the first time Becka has exhibited so many of her skyline creations in the same room -The Echoes of Life Bombed Out Church, until 31 Jan A glimpse of the city through the eyes of people on the fringe of society --

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-Quentin Blake and John Yeoman: 50 Years of Children’s Books Lady Lever Art Gallery, until 3 Mar The first exhibition to celebrate illustrator Blake’s decades-long partnership with the author

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-Jade Montserrat: Instituting Care Bluecoat, until 10 Mar Bluecoat’s 2018 artist in residence presents responses to key texts on decolonisation and decolonising knowledge by writers such as Frantz Fanon, Audre Lorde and Stuart Hall

The Liverpool & Knowsley Book Art exhibition: Frankenstein 2018 Kirkby Gallery, until 26 Jan The theme of the exhibition marks 200 years since the first edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

The Liverpool Collection dot-art, until 12 Jan Close the festive season with the third in the annual exhibition series of local art --

Ralph Steadman, a celebration Williamson Art Gallery, until 27 Jan

Double Fantasy: John & Yoko Museum of Liverpool, until 22 Apr John & Yoko’s story, in their own words -The Provincial Grand Orange Lodge of Liverpool Museum of Liverpool, until 28 Sep From a marching drum and a King William tea set, to traditional orange sashes --

EXHIBITIONS

Find FULL listings and events information at www.artinliverpool.com

Artist Rooms: Alex Katz Tate Liverpool, until 17 Mar Op Art in Focus Tate Liverpool, until 2 June Op art – short for optical art – emerged in the 1960s, including work by Bridget Riley, Jesus Rafael Soto and Victor Vasarely -Ideas Depot Tate Liverpool, until 21 July A dynamic display of artworks chosen for primary school children to be enjoyed by everyone -Ugo Rondinone: Liverpool Mountain Tate Liverpool, until 23 Oct Swiss-artist Ugo Rondinone’s first public artwork in the UK --

Wake Up Together Open Eye Gallery, until 17 Feb A photography exhibition championing the rights of every person to love who they want

Scissors Paper and Paint Rathbone Studio, until 26 Jan Abstract work by Marie McGowan and June Lornie’s textural mixed media pastiche pieces

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Images of the Liverpool Blitz Quaker Meeting House, until 29 Jan Paintings and Indian ink drawings by Jan Sear --

RIBA Stirling Prize Exhibition 2018 RIBA North, until 23 Feb Exhibition of the six schemes shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize 2018 --

Fernand Léger Tate Liverpool, until 17 Mar Regarded as a forerunner of pop art, Fernand Léger (1881–1955) was key figure of international modernity -Artist Rooms: Alex Katz Tate Liverpool, until 17 Mar Elegant paintings present a modern, quintessentially American take on classical themes -Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho: News from Nowhere Tate Liverpool, until 17 Mar See Liverpool through the eyes of a man who has travelled through space and time --

Blue Room at Ten Bluecoat, until 10 Mar

The Art of Noise The Atkinson, until 16 Mar Enjoy a multi-sensory experience in the gallery

-Artist Rooms: Robert Mapplethorpe The Atkinson, until 23 Mar American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe’s vast, provocative and powerful body of work has established him as one of the most important artists of the twentieth century -Pen, Pencil, Mouse and Etching Point The World of Glass Museum, until 4 Jan Print, influenced by art history and cultural identities -Jasmir Creed – Dystopolis Victoria Gallery & Museum, until 21 Apr A new exhibition expressing alienation and disorientation in the modern city -Leo Fitzmaurice: Between You and Me and Everything Else Walker Art Gallery, until 17 Mar An assembly of portraits, which asks visitors to look twice at what might, at first, seem familiar -Will C Penn Williamson Art Gallery, until 27 Jan Marking the 90th birthday of the gallery, the Williamson looks at the influence of Penn as a painter, printmaker and teacher -Ralph Steadman, a celebration Williamson Art Gallery, until 27 Jan Part of the gallery’s 90th birthday celebrations, Wallasey born artist, Ralph Steadman, exhibits a 44 foot long painting, alongside recent prints from his latest publication, Critical Critters --

-Frank Hampson – The Man who drew Dan Dare The Atkinson, until 16 Mar The comic became phenomenally popular, with a million boys waiting expectantly each week for the next episode -Southport: Double Take (Old Southport Through a Modern Lens) The Atkinson, until late 2019 Local photographer Matt Dodd has blended historical photographs of Southport with images from the present

Animal Encounters Williamson Art Gallery, until 1 Sep Animals across six centuries of art

WHAT’S ON > COMING

Six Memos The Bridge Gallery, St George’s Hall, 11 Jan – 24 Feb

60 @thebdc Bluecoat Display Centre, 19 Jan – 2 Mar

The National Arts Education Archive: Playful Cultural Encounters through Time Tate Liverpool, Tate Exchange, 7 – 13 Jan

ROOT-ed OUTPUT Gallery, 24 Jan – 3 Feb

Exhibitions Between Land and Sea – 10,000 years of Sefton’s Coast The Atkinson, from 31 Dec The story of the many people who have lived and worked along our coast -The National Arts Education Archive: Playful Cultural Encounters through Time Tate Liverpool, Tate Exchange, 7 – 13 Jan The event will explore the history of arts education and engage gallery visitors in the theme of movement through activities based on the Archive’s collections. This interactive event will include games and workshops which explore learning and education through play.

Six Memos The Bridge Gallery, St George’s Hall, 11 Jan – 24 Feb Culture Liverpool & the CreArt Network of European Cities host a new exhibition of European Contemporary artists celebrating the works of late Italian novelist, Italo Calvino. The exhibition draws on photography, video, drawing, painting, installation and text to explore his essays; Lightness, Quickness, Exactitude, Visibility, Multiplicity and Consistency.

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60 @thebdc Bluecoat Display Centre, 19 Jan – 2 Mar A special exhibition to start the year with a bang which will celebrate the history and the mutually supportive relationships the Bluecoat Display Centre have developed over 60 years with the makers we promote and sell on behalf of -ROOT-ed OUTPUT Gallery, 24 Jan – 3 Feb Three Black women artists working across form and genre: Ivy Kalungi in sculpture and installation, Abeni Sheen in painting and Kiara Mohamed in video.

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Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing Walker Art Gallery, 1 Feb – 6 May To mark the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci, 144 of the Renaissance master’s greatest drawings in the Royal Collection will go on display in 12 simultaneous exhibitions across the UK.

SOON

Find FULL listings and events information at www.artinliverpool.com Beyond These Rooms: David Bolger, Own Boss & Louise Lowe Tate Liverpool, Tate Exchange, 17 Jan – 9 Feb

Film, A Taste of Honey Bluecoat 18 Jan, 6:30pm

Olive Morris International Slavery Museum, 12 Jan, 1pm

Olympische Spiele Munchen 1972 Williamson Art Gallery, 17 Jan, 7pm

Talks, Tours & Performance Daily Talks at Tate Liverpool Tate Liverpool, daily, 11:30 & 11:50am Join one of the Tate guides on a themed journey through the galleries --

Olive Morris International Slavery Museum, 12 Jan, 1pm Join poetess Empressjai for a talk celebrating the life of community leader, feminist and British civil rights activist Olive Morris.

Talking Poetry Bluecoat, 15 Jan, 6pm An eclectic mix of actors and poets reading their own work, other poet’s work, and poetry set to music.

Olympische Spiele Munchen 1972 Williamson Art Gallery, 17 Jan, 7pm A Talk around the unveiling of unseen posters by David Hockney, Max Bill and R.B.Kitaj designed for the 1972 Olympic Games

-January 2019 Art Club Lady Lever Art Gallery, 6 Jan, 2-3pm This month, the Art Club head to Port Sunlight to look at ‘Quentin Blake and John Yeoman: 50 Years of Children’s Books’ --

-Sunday Spotlight Walker Art Gallery, 13 Jan, 2pm Join a free talk on the work of the French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, covering work by Degas, Monet and Seurat

-Beyond These Rooms: David Bolger, Own Boss & Louise Lowe Tate Liverpool, Tate Exchange, 17 Jan – 9 Feb ANU Productions and CoisCéim Dance Theatre present Beyond These Rooms, a living archive related to Easter Rising in 1916

Film, A Taste of Honey Bluecoat 18 Jan, 6:30pm Showing in collaboration with Empty Spaces Cinema with an introduction in the gallery --

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WHAT’S ON > COMING Audio Description Tour: Fernand Léger Tate Liverpool, 26 Jan, 11pm

CI Sundays: Open Dane Sessions Bluecoat, 20 Jan, 1-5pm

Broken Symmetries: Curator Tour FACT, 30 Jan, 6:30pm

From Liverpool to Bandung to the Stratosphere (and back again) Bluecoat, 31 Jan, 6pm

Discussion: What was Art School?

Bluecoat, 19 Jan, 1pm The importance of the art school in British cultural life will be explored in this informal event taking its cue from The Art Schools of North West England exhibition

Talks, Tours & Performance

CI Sundays: Open Dane Sessions Bluecoat, 20 Jan, 1-5pm Liverpool Improvisation Collective (LIC) and INHABIT host monthly movement and improvisation sessions

Focus On… Portraits Walker Art Gallery, 24 Jan, 2:30pm Join a free talk on portrait painting, covering portrait art made from the 15th to the 20th centuries

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Broken Symmetries: Curator Tour FACT, 30 Jan, 6:30pm Beginning on the ground floor, the curator will discuss the themes and concepts behind the exhibition and how artists and scientists have worked together to create the 10 new commissions

-Culture Club OUTPUT Gallery, every Wednesday, 6pm Open to everyone to discuss culture, with a different focus every week

Sunday Spotlight: JMW Turner Walker Art Gallery, 20 Jan, 2pm Learn more about JMW Turner’s paintings ‘Linlithgow Palace’ and ‘Landscape’

Audio Description Tour: Fernand Léger Tate Liverpool, 26 Jan, 11pm An audio-described guided tour of Tate’s special exhibition with Anne Hornsby and a member of the Visitor Experience Team

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-From Liverpool to Bandung to the Stratosphere (and back again) Bluecoat, 31 Jan, 6pm Indonesian artist Nurrachmat Widyasena talks with curator Adam Smythe about his month-long residency at Bluecoat

SOON

Find FULL listings and events information at www.artinliverpool.com

3: Finding the right opportunity (Artist Professional Development) Heart of Glass, 15 January, 10am-4pm

New Years Revolution Bluecoat, 12 Jan, 1-4pm

Ballet Mécanique / Men and Machinery: Explorations in Printmaking Tate Liverpool, 11 Jan – 22 Feb

Adult Art Classes (new term) Williamson Art Gallery, from 18 Jan – 28 Mar

Classes & Workshops

Craft and Jewellery Workshops The Fox Studios, 9 Jan – 13 Mar Nine week course supporting the development of jewellery skills for beginners as well as those with experience

New Years Revolution Bluecoat, 12 Jan, 1-4pm Want to play outdoors more? Enjoy a range of fun family arts activities designed and delivered with members of Blue Room

Adult Art Classes (new term) Williamson Art Gallery, from 18 Jan – 28 Mar Join the new term of adult art classes at the Williamson, exploring new techniques each week

3D Art: Tiffany effect decorations & Jewellery Williamson Art Gallery, 26 Jan, 1:30pm Join Diana Taktak and Andy Green from 3D Primo for this workshop with 3D pens

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Cubism to Abstraction in Print Tate Liverpool, 11 Jan – 22 Feb Experiment with abstract relief printmaking in this 7-week course -Ballet Mécanique / Men and Machinery: Explorations in Printmaking Tate Liverpool, 11 Jan – 22 Feb Explore the idea of ‘man and machine’ in this 7 week course --

3: Finding the right opportunity (Artist Professional Development) Heart of Glass, 15 January, 10am-4pm The third workshop in a series of six practical artist professional development sessions. This workshop will give tools to help dissect and understand the opportunities you are offered.

-Adult Drawing Classes (new term) Williamson Art Gallery, from 17 Jan – 28 Mar A term of drawing led by Pamela Sullivan in the inspirational surroundings of the Williamson

Telling Tales Bluecoat, 19 Jan, 2-3pm Strange and wonderful tales of all kinds for children aged 2-5 and their grown-ups -Pottery Workshop Mon Ceramics, 20 Jan, 10am-3pm Fun and social pottery workshops near Clatterbridge, Wirral --

3D Art – Plumb Blossom Bowl workshop Williamson Art Gallery, Jan 26, 10am 3d pen workshop with Diana Taktak and Andy Green -Year of the Pig Challenge Bombed Out Church, every Thursday & Saturday in January, 12-5pm Pagoda Arts Centre, every Saturday, 10am5pm Help Pagoda Arts fold 50,000 lucky envelopes into fishes, lanterns and the 12 Chinese zodiac symbols, for an exhibition in February

JOBS & OPPORTUNITIES

For up more details on all opportunities, including links on how to apply, head to www.artinliverpool.com/opportunities-2/ To send us details on jobs or opportunities for artists, email info@artinliverpool.com

JOBS Front of House Manager, GLL, The Sands Centre DEADLINE: 6th January Operated by GLL, the UK’s largest charitable social enterprise, The Sands Centre is Cumbria’s and South West Scotland’s premier venue for entertainment and sports

Gallery Assistant, Bluecoat Display Centre DEADLINE: 11th January The Bluecoat Display Centre (bdc) is a registered charity and Liverpool’s leading independent contemporary craft gallery, fine out more about how to join their team online at www.artinliverpool.com/ opportunities-2

24 H urs of Peace Social Media Officer, Thomas Carter Projects DEADLINE: 7th January A major new large-scale performance piece by Neil Bartlett, a 24-hour durational performance about peace in 21stcentury, taking place at Royal Exchange Theatre and on Resonance FM

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Production Manager, Walk the Plank DEADLINE: 28th January One of the UK’s leading outdoor arts organisations, is looking for two hands-on Production Managers to help deliver its exciting programme of outdoor work

Finance and Executive Administrator, Wild in Art DEADLINE: 7th January One of the leading creative producers of spectacular, mass-appeal public art events, which connect businesses, artists and communities through the power of creativity and innovation

Event Sales Manager, National Museums Liverpool, DEADLINE: 14th January NML Trading Ltd are looking for an experienced Sales Manager to join their Events team. Based at the World Museum, Liverpool.

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-Regional Director, North West (Franchise), Bigfoot Arts Education DEADLINE: 5th January Bigfoot Arts Education is the UK’s largest drama-in-education provider and has been a leading light in creative education for nearly 20 years -Production Manager, HOME DEADLINE: 7th January Working on Made at HOME projects and HOME collaborations across art forms. This will include theatre productions, visual art exhibitions and festivals.

-Development Manager, HOME DEADLINE: 7th January HOME commissions, creates and presents contemporary theatre, visual art and film and provides a space for experimentation where art-forms meet and interconnect -Junior / Mid-weight / Senior Graphic Designer, United Creatives DEADLINE: 10th January A small award-winning Manchester-based design agency producing a wide range of work in the sectors of food, drink and environmental branding --

-Emerging Artist Training Manager, Collective Encounters DEADLINE: 7th January Collective Encounters is a professional arts organisation specialising in Theatre for Social Change and since 2004 has worked with marginalised and disenfranchised communities in Merseyside -Deputy Chief Electrician, Oldham Coliseum Theatre / Assistant Electrician, Oldham Coliseum Theatre DEADLINE: 3rd January An opportunity for an experienced and enthusiastic individual to join the busy producing theatre on a fixed term contract until 27th July 2019 -Digital And Social Media Officer, Bido Lito!

Magazine DEADLINE: 7th January Bido Lito is looking to hire a new Digital And Social Media Officer to help shape the magazine’s next chapter -Masterplan Assistant (North), Science Museum Group DEADLINE: 13th January As the world’s greatest alliance of science and industry museums, the Science Museum Group is undergoing a major transformation

Marketing & Media Offier, Hallé Concerts Society DEADLINE: 16th January A fantastic position for anyone wishing to develop a career in arts marketing.

Personal Assistant National Museums Liverpool DEADLINE: 11th January Responsible for providing timely and effective administrative support to the Director of Commercial & Business Development

--Hallé Audience Development Co-ordinator DEADLINE: 16th January Help the Hallé attract new audiences to our highly acclaimed and varied concerts. As well as continuing an existing programme of new audience initiatives.

-Communications Officer, National Museums Liverpool DEADLINE: 16th January National Museums Liverpool is recruiting for a Communications Officer (fixedterm contract) to join its award-winning Marketing and Communications Team -Business Support Officer, Windermere Jetty DEADLINE: 14th January They’re getting ready to launch a worldclass museum on Lake Windermere, and are looking for an outstanding Business Support Officer to join the team as soon as possible -Director, Liverpool Biennial DEADLINE: 7th January Founded in 1998, Liverpool Biennial is the UK biennial of contemporary art and has commissioned over 340 new artworks and presented work by more than 480 artists from around the world

Co-Producer and Community Champion, Thackray Medical Museum DEADLINE: 9th January The Thackray Medical Museum is looking for an exceptional, imaginative individual who has a passion for diversity and who loves working with people -Museums Partnership Officer, SHARE Museums East DEADLINE: 3rd January An opportunity to help develop the museums of Cambridgeshire -Communities Curator / Engagement Curator John Hansard Gallery, DEADLINE: 9th January John Hansard Gallery - part of the University of Southampton - is seeking to appoint an experienced Communities Curator and an experiences Engagement Curator who will be a key member of the Engagement and Learning Programme Team -Head of Marketing and Audience Development, Towner Art Gallery DEADLiNE: 2nd January Eastbourne’s Towner Art Gallery are seeking an experienced marketing professional to join their team

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CALLS Peterloo 2019, Animation Commision DEADLINE: 7th January Manchester Histories, People’s Histories Museum and Historic England are seeking expressions of interest from animators to co-produce an animation inspired by the Peterloo Massacre

North Wales Contemporary Craft Fair 2019 DEADLINE: 18th January North Wales Contemporary Craft Fair to be held at MOSTYN in Llandudno, North Wales on Saturday 9th March 2019

18th Knowsley Open Art Exhibition DEADLINE: 11th January This year, to make the exhibition all the more exciting, the artworks will be sold at a live auction conducted by celebrity auctioneer Adam Partridge

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Dover Art Prize DEADLINE: 6th January A 2-year bursary of £10,000 that will support excellence and experimentation in the arts and creative industries --

--Liverpool 2026 – Exhibition Open Call DEADLINE: 29th March dot-art and Bido Lito! are teaming up to curate and present an exhibition of work which seeks to critique and contemplate our city’s creative future -Pendle Hill Mobile Hut Commission, in-Situ DEADLINE: 4th January Looking for an individual, collective or organisation/company to design and fabricate a mobile studio and exhibition space, inspired by the idea of a Shepherd’s Hut -Public Art – Artists Commission, Mid Pennine Arts DEADLINE: 9th January MPA and Lancashire County Council, along with local partners, are working together to deliver a series of artist-led interventions which engage local communities -PARTIA Reunion Exhibition 2019 – Artist Call DEADLINE: 11th January PARTIA at Aintree University Hospital are looking for submissions that relate to ‘Reunion’, such as reunion with people (family, lover & friends), reunion with spring, reunion with nature & reunion with hometown etc.

-Call for Artists, Wirral Society of Arts 9th Open Exhibition 2019 DEADLINE: 1st July Wirral Society of Arts biennial exhibition is open to all artists – local, national and international – at all stages in their careers.

Design the logo for Borough of Culture Programme DEADLINE: 7th January An open competition to design the official logo for the Borough of Culture initiative -Guild: invitation for artist spaces, groups and collaboratives DEADLINE: 11th February Designed to tackle some of the biggest challenges in the sector, the programme will pool expertise, knowledge and funds to offer bespoke support to 20 artist groups

Open Call: Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize 2019 DEADLINE: 10th February The fifth anniversary of the internationally successful Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize is open for entries -Open Eye Gallery, Open Source DEADLINE: rolling giving developing and early-career artists the opportunity to showcase their work digitally on the gallery’s exterior screen

Great Place: Lakes and Dales, funding opportunity for artists DEADLINE: 25th January **Branching Out Fund** (up to £5,000) is available to cultural practitioners and businesses who want to diversify their work by expanding their knowledge. **Acorn Fund** (up to £10,000) is available to cultural practitioners, organisers and collaborative projects who want to diversify the creative offer in their area to appeal more to a younger audience.

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-My Liverpool, Open Call – Liverpool Echo & Liverpool Empire Theatre Trust DEADLINE: 31st March The brief is to use any arts form to show deep and abiding love of the city and to celebrate its role and position as one of the greatest and most famous Cities in the world -Upfront 2019 Open Exhibition, Penrith, Cumbria DEADLINE: 4th January The annual Upfront Open Exhibition takes place 29th January – 24th March 2019 and welcomes entries from all artists

-Be part of LightNight 2019 DEADLINE: 21st January LightNight is back on Friday 17 May 2019 and Open Culture are looking for artistic proposals relating to the ‘Rituals’ theme -a-n Artist Bursaries 2019 DEADLINE: 14th January a-n The Artists Information Company is offering 50+ bursaries of £500 – £1,500 to Artist and Joint (Artist and Arts Organiser) members wishing to undertake selfdetermined professional development in 2019 --

Dash Curatorial Commission Project, national call out DEADLINE: 20th January The Curatorial Commission Project, the first of its kind in the UK, will give the successful candidate the opportunity to draw upon the expertise and mentoring of specialist curators across the whole of MAC’s artistic spectrum -Artist Call Out: My Place, Bristol DEADLINE: 7th January Exciting artist commission opportunity to work with young children, engaging them through architecture & place --

-Metal LAB Call Out (Metal Peterborough) – Beyond Queer – strategies for changing the world DEADLINE: 7th January In the face of continued austerity, overpopulation, mass migration, global warming, and famine we are told we are past the point of prevention, and now in the era of adaptation.

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Rising Stars 2019 exhibition DEADLINE: 17th January Rising Stars aims to offer new makers their first step into the market place, through a curated, selling exhibition -Metal’s Time and Space Residencies DEADLINE: 30th March Open opportunities for artists working in all disciplines to access Metal’s spaces, the support of its staff and its local, national and international networks

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Wildlife Artist of the Year 2019 DEADLINE: 18th February This prestigious art competition celebrates the world’s diverse range of natural beauty.

1st prize, £10,000 .

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Happy New Year from everyone at Art in Liverpool Remember, we’re always there at artinliverpool.com, come rain or shine, whether you find our paper or not.

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