Author: metal

Mary Fitzpatrick

Mary Fitzpatrick 1 (click image to resize)

Battle Scene 1 (click image to resize)

Mary Fitzpatrick is a contemporary Fine Artist who works with photography, video and painting.  Working on long term art projects primarily in Belfast and the Middle East  Mary has exhibited in Ireland, England, throughout Europe and the USA. Her art projects have included themes such as the Peace Process in Ireland and the aftermath of the First Gulf War. She studied Fine Art at University of Ulster, Belfast on the MA programme taught at that time by, amongst others, Susan Hiller and performance artist Alastair McLennan.

Originally a painter, Mary exhibited in London and then after moving to Northern Ireland made large scale photographic sculptures based on a two year art documentary of events within the Irish Peace Process before the ceasefires. She continued making work in Belfast until her move to Kuwait. Mary is now mainly known for her large scale atmospheric installations incorporating images from places left abandoned after conflict.  Mary exhibited a black and white photographic installation in the Blade Factory in Biennial 2004 as part of the much talked about ‘Streets of Desire’ exhibition curated by Jump Ship Rat. Ref: www.recirca.com/reviews/maryfitzpatrick. The work provoked a lot of comment and interest. The pictures give hints of stories and presences. Her last major body of work is the Failaka project in Kuwait. She is currently working on a project in the West Bank having recently returned from an art residency programme at the Al Qattan Foundation in Ramallah. She has built up a substantial body of work over time that exists in the dualistic sense as both personal art statement and important historical archive on the times we live in.

solo

2006 Fotografije, Zlatno Oko Galleria, Novi Sad, Serbia
2006 Fotografije, SKC Galleria, Belgrade
2006 Failaka, The Art Organisation at Roscoe Street, Independents Biennial, Liverpool

exhibitions

2006 Boundaries, Chobi Mela International Photography Festival IV, The British Council, Dhaka
2006 Intercommunication, Project Fabrica, Moscow
2006 Intransit, Likovni Krug Gallery, Novi Sad, G.L.U.S, Nis Fine Art Museum,
Modern Gallery, Subotica, VIP Gallery, Belgrade
2005 Re:Location, International Art Studio, Valyevo, touring Serbia
2004 Streets of Desire, curated by Jump Ship Rat at The Blade Factory, 3rd Liverpool Biennial Independents
1997 Looking Out of the Frame, Old Museum Arts Centre, Belfast
1997 National Wearable Art Awards, Brisbane, Australia
1996 Photoworks, Irish Arts Centre, New York
1996 Free For All, Catalyst Arts Centre, Belfast
1995 Feh Melancholia, The Bedroom Gallery, Belfast
1994 Belfast Young Contemporaries, 1 Oxford Street Gallery, Belfast
1994 Iontas, Sligo Art Gallery, Ireland
1993 Iontas, Sligo Art Gallery, Ireland
1991 Painting Today – British Graduates, Bonhams, London
1990 Painting Today – British Graduates, Bonhams, London

also:

1997 Videowork ‘Derry’ for Mary Ellen Strom/Ann Carlson installation WEST in ‘Commonsense’, The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles

Residencies:
2007  Al Qattan Foundation Residency, Ramallah, West Bank
1997  Austrian Government Art Residency, Kunsthaus, Vienna
1996  The Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annamakerrig, Ireland

www.iranqpg.com

Gareth Kemp

Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow No. II (click image to resize)

Kintyre Painting No.I (click image to resize)

Gareth Kemp is a painter based in the North West of England. He is a self-taught artist, although he trained as an Art Historian. Gareth is creative director of Cube noir, a nomadic exhibition space he recently set up, through which to curate exhibitions in various locations and under-used spaces. During the Liverpool Biennial 06 he curated 5 exhibitions; Inaugural, Soup v Gazpacho, Half cut for confidence, new paintings by Tim Ellis, Score Draw, recent paintings by Gareth Kemp and The North West Passage by Mcfaul.

The Flight No. III

For the past few years Gareth has been working on a series of paintings called Fifteen feet of pure white snow. These canvases are inspired by a set of old family photographs of a remote part of Wales where he grew up. The paintings allude to more innocent times, whilst hinting at some kind of impending horror or disaster. Some of the pictures have figures in them; which lends an eerie, creepy and voyeuristic feel to them. In others, the landscape appears bleak and olde worldy; the only signs of the modern world are subtly painted electricity pylons or telegraph poles.

Gareth Kemp often works in series. Kintyre painting NoI is part of a series of paintings based on photographs taken whilst on holiday in Scotland last year. He tends to spend many hours carefully planning the composition, a process of mentally cutting and pasting within and between the photographs, before realising the composition. The painting is then painted relatively quickly. Like The Fight, all of the ‘action’ of the painting is placed within one quarter of the picture

www.re-title.org/artists/gareth-kemp.asp

Jayne Lawless

The Workers (click image to resize)	Tunnel (click image to resize)

My most recent work Tunnel was a temporary installation for the public to walk through created in response to my residency at The New Wolsey Theatre. Its purpose was to stimulate the imagination and to provoke a sense of anticipation as you prepare to see a live performance. I employed a number of mechanisms to create a heightened multi-sensory experience including light and sound.

The Thing That Holds You Back

CURRENT PROJECT

Liverpool Art Prize 2007
Research and development to make new work for exhibition of shortlisted artists

PREVIOUS PROJECTS AND EXHIBITIONS

Tunnel Oct 05 – Mar 07 The New Wolsey Theatre Ipswich
Artist in Residence

Red Wire Open Nov – Dec 06 Red Wire Gallery Liverpool
Mixed exhibition of selected artists

Beyond the Call of Duty Aug – Sep 06 Town Hall Galleries  Ipswich
Mixed exhibition of invited artists

Breastissues Sep 05 – Jan 06 Stowmarket Health Centre Ipswich
Mixed exhibition of invited artists

English & Art in the Holidays July 05 Bucowiec  Poland
Artist in Residence

Service Not Included July 05 The Adi Gallery London
An exhibition by artists inspired by the mundane jobs they do to subsidise their work

Labour to Lush Mar – May 2005 Wolsey Art Gallery Ipswich
Solo exhibition in ‘The Room Upstairs’

EDUCATION
2001-2004 Suffolk School of Arts
Graduate BA Fine Art. 2.1 Suffolk College, Ipswich

BIBLIOGRAPHY
2007 Radio interview, BBC Radio Suffolk
2007 Article in East Anglian Daily Times
2005 Article in a-n magazine
2005 Article in Polish Newspaper, Blizej Ciebie
2005 Article in The Guardian Newspaper

The Singh Twins (Amrit & Rabindra)

Liverpool 800 Coat of Arms

Mr Singh’s India

Wirral based, London born twin sisters Amrit and Rabindra are contemporary British artists of International standing whose award winning paintings have been acknowledged as constituting a unique genre in British Art and for initiating a new movement in the revival of the Indian miniature tradition within modern art practice. Describing their work as Past – Modern (as opposed to Post Modern), their work engages with important areas of critical debate – challenging existing stereotypes and redefining generally accepted, narrow perceptions of  heritage and identity in art and society. Combining elements from Western and Eastern aesthetics they assert the value of traditional and non European art forms to the continuing development of Contemporary Art practice – exploring cultural, social and political issues of global significance within a highly decorative, often witty and symbolic style which has universal appeal and transcends cultural barriers.

With paintings in private and public collections world wide the Singh Twins continue to be invited to speak on their work at institutions such as the Tate Gallery, London; The Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada; The National Museum of Modern Art in Delhi and Mumbai; the University of California, Santa Barbara and the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco. At the same time a significant interest from academics, individual art students and University research graduates has resulted in their work being incorporated into the Open University syllabus and other sectors of Britain’s formal education system.

The Singh Twins

Two fine art books, Twin Perspectives and Worlds A-Part have been published on their work.  In addition they are profiled in numerous main stream arts journals and publications including the Penguin History of Scotland, The Oxford History of Art:Portraiture, The National Portrait Gallery’s The Portraiture Now and Marg Publication’s New Insights into Sikh Art.

Attracting International media attention, Radio and Television appearances include interviews for BBC’s Womens’ Hour, Mid Week, Front Row and Belief; CBC’s Here And Now and the Granada TV documentary Singh Out Sisters. An independently commissioned Arts Council film about their work, ‘Alone Together’, received ‘The Best Film on Art’ prize at the 2001 Asolo International Film Festival.  In the same year they were short-listed for the Asian Women of Achievement Awards (in the category of Arts & Culture) and in 2002 were appointed official Artists in Residence to the Manchester Commonwealth Games. The work they produced in response to the Games gained international publicity and was featured as a question on the popular TV quiz show Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?

In 2002 their Arts Council England, British Council and Air Indian sponsored solo India tour was launched at the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi – making them the only British artists (besides Henry Moore) to have been offered a solo show at this, one of India’s foremost venues for Contemporary Art. In 2003 their work toured USA and Canada and they currently have works on loan to the Smithsonian Institute Washington.

In 2005 a major retrospective of the vast body of work they have created since 1987 was hosted by one of Britain’s prestigious National Galleries, The Walker, in their home city of Liverpool.

Future plans include a South Pacific tour of their work including New Zealand, Australia, Singapore & Thailand.

In 2006 The Singh Twins were commissioned by Liverpool Culture Company to create two paintings for permanent public display to celebrate Liverpool’s 800th birthday and its status as European Capital of Culture in 2008.

The Singh Twins are also published authors and film makers. Their writing includes books such as Bindhu’s Weddings and Images of Freedom as well as numerous articles for magazines, journals and websites both in the UK and abroad.

In 2006 they completed their first film, Nineteen Eighty-Four and the Via Dolorosa Project – a short documentary on the making of one of their most famous works, Nineteen Eighty Four, which has been screened at film festivals internationally.

Artists’ statement

Our art and collaborative partnership developed largely in response to the serious criticisms we faced during our first degree for pursuing common interests and goals in developing personal styles which were not only deemed to be unacceptable because of their similarity, but because they were ‘inappropriately’ rooted in Eastern cultural aesthetics and our experience as British Asians.

Against this hostility our determined exploration of the Indian miniature style and established practice of working and exhibiting together (as well as dressing identically), is a political statement against the hypocrisy of an establishment which advocated self expression as the ‘be all and end all’ of Modern Art, yet denied the validity of anything which did not comply with the expectations dictated by a selective, Eurocentric perspective.

Whilst asserting the right to define our own cultural and artistic ‘individuality’ in a way that is meaningful and true to who we are as British Asians, artists and twins our work, more importantly, redresses the need to re evaluate established cultural definitions, values and role models within the wider context of an evolving global society dominated by western consumer markets and popular culture. This is because ultimately, our artistic strategy is defined by a sense of responsibility to look beyond personal issues of identity towards exposing wider cultural prejudices and highlighting other concerns of more global significance.

The desire to make a real difference through our work has fuelled our determination in establishing an international profile that demands acceptance on our own terms – creating a recognised platform for serious debate which has meaningful impact in challenging pervading social, political and cultural attitudes.

http://www.singhtwins.co.uk/

Listed here are the 6 artists short-listed by the panel of judges for the 2008 Liverpool Art Prize

Mary Fitzpatrick	Mary Fitzpatrick a photo-based artist who has worked in Northern Ireland, Central America, the UK, the Middle East, and South-East Asia on various projects in recent years.	Emma Rodgers	Emma Rodgers – Wirral-based sculptor with works in many national and international galleries including Lady Lever
Gareth Kemp	Gareth Kemp is a painter based in Liverpool. For the past few years Gareth has been working on a series of paintings called Fifteen feet of pure white snow	Imogen Stidworthy	Imogen Stidworthy Based in Liverpool, Imogen deals with language and its translation into sound and image in her videos, films, photos and sound installations.
Jayne Lawless	Jayne Lawless from Liverpool has recently completed a residency at The New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich where she created the Tunnel installation	The Singh Twins	The Singh Twins Wirral based, London born twin sisters Amrit and Rabindra are contemporary British artists of International standing.