LOCAL ART
A Conjunction of Stamford Stars If you haven’t yet visited Robert and Diane Fogell’s new gallery this is an ideal time to do so. Last year the gallery moved from St Leonard’s Street to a better location at 23 High Street, St Martin’s – a gallery with more space and better natural light. Fogell is widely regarded as Stamford’s star sculptor and as you would expect there are a number of his works on exhibition. But the larger space permits him to display others’ artworks as well as his own sculpture. And it gives him the high quality space needed to curate exhibitions of the works of single artists of exceptional talent. From 25 May until 19 June, the Robert Fogell Gallery is exhibiting paintings by Eva Aldbrook. After studying costume design at St Martin’s School of Art, Aldbrook worked for stage and screen and later as a fashion artist for newspapers and magazines. She lived in London before moving to the farm in Tuscany where her husband cultivated olive groves. Aldbrook’s work is characterised by a sense of joyous immediacy when painting, drawing
or sketching in oils, pastels and charcoal. Portraiture, flowers and people at work are the subjects that inspire her especially. Aldbrook has shown her work in solo exhibitions at Hamilton Gallery, Campbell & Frank and the Camden Art Centre in London, in Stuttgart and in Castellina and Florence in Italy. Represented in private collections in Europe, North America and the Middle East, this is her first exhibition in Stamford since moving here in 2007. The relationship between a gallery owner and an exhibitor is a subtle one. As so often in life, you are known by the company you keep. The gallery owner has to be confident that the artist’s work he is displaying will add to his reputation as a connoisseur and good judge of lasting value. For the artist it is vital that he or she only exhibits in galleries that are going to maintain or enhance her reputation. Happily, this delicate minuet has been danced to perfection, giving us Aldbook’s art in Fogell’s Gallery.
Browne’s Hospital
A Burghley Season Have you ever wondered what happens during a year at Burghley House? Well, Anthony Carr may be able to provide some insights through his photographic exhibition A Burghley Season. During the 2009 season, the artist placed a series of home made pinhole cameras throughout the house and its grounds. These rudimentary devices captured blurred traces of human activity, against a backdrop of the regal furniture and fittings of the state rooms and other locations, such as the Orangery restaurant. Thus, the movements of regularly shifting furniture, cleaning routines or table laying gradually accumulated on the negatives. In contrast to the grainy black and white shots we widely recognise from CCTV cameras, which explicitly document events, Carr’s photographs evoke an atmospheric sense of movement. According to the artist, because the cameras were left open for the 28 week duration of the season, they “formed a network of eyes, continually watching, never blinking. However, whilst everything was recorded, much evidence of activity is actually absent. Consequently, months mirror moments.” As the artist himself notes “in our digitally instant age, where images are continuously taken, seen and deleted in a matter of moments, I’m inspired by the unexpected.” Aspects of life at Burghley that you might not anticipate, may therefore be visible at Carr’s resulting exhibition of photographs. These will go on display in the Goody Rudkin Room, located above the gift shop at Burghley House from the 29th of May until the 26th of June. Open daily (except Fridays), 11am5pm. Preview Sat 28th May 5-8pm. Admission is free.
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Browne’s Hospital is now open on summer weekends and Bank Holidays to see the mediaeval buildings and the beautiful cloister garden. You can visit the Common Room in which the men lived until 1870 and the Chantry Chapel with its famous stained-glass of 1475. Upstairs is the Audit Room and the Victorian Confrater’s Sitting Room with more mediaeval glass and this year’s Special Exhibition, “The World In Miniature”. This features hand-made scenes of bygone days such as “The Wartime Garden” with its dug-out Anderson shelter and its flower-beds converted to vegetable growing in the “Dig for Victory” effort. There is also a grocery shop, as it might have appeared in the High Street here, with the ground floor laid out for business and the upper floors furnished for the proprietor’s family home. This part of the Exhibition was crafted by Lana Wells of Stamford. For the railway enthusiast there is a transport section, also hand-crafted, by Vic Millington. • Open until the 25th September from 11am until 4pm on Saturdays and Bank Holidays (except for the Saturday of the Stamford Festival) and on Sundays from 2pm until 4.30pm admission costs £2.50 (£2)
STAMFORD LIVING June 2011
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