Cumbrian Blue(s)

A job, Exhibitions - and ON Tour

Wed, 7 Sep 2011 12:37:36 +0100

Since I last blogged I’m very happy to have accepted a position as Professor 2 at Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO) Norway. The post is a part time professorship, based at the newly renovated, KHiO Seilduken campus. ‘The site was originally one of Oslo's pioneering factories Christiania Sailcloth (Seilduken), founded in 1856. The industrial architecture provides a physical structure which has been customized to create flexible interdisciplinary workspaces for Fine Art and materially based disciplines (Ceramics, Graphics, Metal and Jewellery, Textiles). The recently adapted buildings house a new library, gallery space, exhibition rooms, light, spacious studios and well-equipped, state of the art specialist workshops. Oslo National Academy of the Arts is Norway's largest college of higher education in the field of arts’.

I’ve had several months at home, working in my studio and garden - which has been very agreeable. Now as autumn comes storming in I’m getting ready to head off again on my travels. Feel a bit like a touring musician listing gigs... Actually when you look at the punishing schedule the likes of the great Tom Russell take on, then my travels seem vaguely leisurely. Anyway first of all I head off for North America:

September 12 - 26, Artist Residency at Medalta, Medicine Hat Alberta Canada.
September 21/22 Alberta College of Art and Design, (lectures workshop) Calgary
Sept 29 - October 2 - University of Illinois, Champaign, (lectures workshop) USA
October 7 - 9 - University of Indiana, Bloomington, (lectures workshop) USA
October 11 - Research visit to Lithophane Museum, Toledo, USA
October 14 - NW Ceramics Foundation + Emily Carr University (lectures workshop) Vancouver, Canada

In October and early November I’m in Norway, at first in Bergen:

October 26 Bergen National Academy of the Arts KHiB (lecture)
October 27 to 29 Speaker at the conference Making or Unmaking. Exhibitor in Ting Tang Trash
October 31 - Nov 2 at Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO) (lecture)

Then to Belgium...
A workshop at Atelier Circle 2 November 11 - 13 and a series of lectures for Art Schools in the area.

Finally for 2011, The University of Ulster, Belfast (lectures workshop) in early December - dates to be confirmed.

I may get some blogging done when I’m on my travels, but will certainly be tweeting along the way.

Work in exhibitions:
le décor est planté, Bernardaud Foundation, Limoges France.
Ting Tang Trash Bergen (opens September 17 to Jan 8 2011)
Changing Paces, Mixed Media, New Faces - Joanna Bird Nov 2 - 9

Exhibitions

Fri, 3 Jun 2011 15:15:20 +0100

Been a busy year for me in every way (hence the lack of blogging - but then I do tweet and these now appear on the front page of the blog). I seem to be ‘flavour of the month’ at the moment and have been involved in a lot of exhibitions - in April/May I had a very successful show at blas&knada in Stockholm. You can download the invite (bit late I know) here if you like.

Then I showed with the Bluecoat at Collect and amongst other sales, sold one of my Spode Casseroles to the V&A. The Bluecoat Collect exhibition now continues back in Liverpool in
Collect(ed) - connection linking with the City of Radicals programme of exhibitions and events.

I am in my first Cumbrian Show for seven or eight years at Rheged near Penrith in 12.

The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh has a number of my plates for its exhibition Thinking Horizontally - Thinking Out of the Box. Invite from here. (Paid a visit to Ian Hamilton Finlay’s inspirational garden Little Sparta in the Pentland Hills between Edinburgh and Carlisle on my way home last Friday after delivering my work to the Gallery. I can’t recommend the garden highly enough - if you ever have a chance to visit it - make sure you make time to go.)

I also have work in the exhibition Ceramic Cities, dialogues in design at the Potteries Museum in Stoke on Trent.

Then Flow Gallery in London has an exhibition Blue opening on June 15. Invite, featuring the wonderful work of Caroline Slotte on the card from here.

Finally - for now - work is currently on its way to the Bernardaud Foundation at Limoges in France, for the exhibition le décor est planté opening June 21.

Studio work is focussing on new/old plates which I have been collecting from ebay/junk shops for some years now. I’m particularly enamoured by the cracked, crazed and broken ones. I’m working on a Willow for Wei Wei just at the moment. It will be one of the pieces going to Bergen for the exhibition Ting Tang Trash - Upcycling in Contemporary Ceramics, an outcome of research project art value at KHIB.

Working on my essay for the catalogue these next few days too....

All for now..

Been in Bergen

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 13:34:12 +0000

I’ve been in Bergen for quite a few weeks, running a course - Print as Object - for the Bergen National Academy of the Arts (KHIB). This extended version of my Vitrified Print courses features time spent in both the Ceramics and Graphics/Printmaking workshops, exploring basic and more advanced transfer technologies, including mono, relief, intaglio, lithographic and screen printing. It also presented an historical and conceptual overview of the field.

The interesting thing about an extended workshop time exploring skills, concepts and technologies was that it raised awareness of the need for more knowledge and understanding of inks, paperclay processes, the role of acrylic mediums - and more. The field of printed ceramics is relatively young in terms of artistic exploration and use, and it is clear that there is much to be investigated - visually, conceptually and materially. As more specialised material disciplines become part of wider Fine Art/Design Departments in Universities, the syntheses of areas of study will surely lead to other innovative material and conceptual investigations....

I’ve also been collecting objects and doing research for new work to be included in the exhibition Upcycling in the autumn at The West Norway Museum of Decorative Art. The exhibition is linked to Art Value - A Research Project on Trash and Readymades, Art and Ceramics - part of the research programme on Assigning Cultural Values (KULVER), the Research Council of Norway's programme for cultural research for the period 2008 to 2012.

Shipley work

Tue, 7 Dec 2010 14:41:45 +0000

Its been a couple of months since I blogged anything about my Shipley Commission. I’ve made a new blog site for it, as I intend to be updating quite a bit over the next month or so...

Its here

travels, conferences, courses, meetings and exhibitions

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 17:34:21 +0000

Been some months since the last blog update... I’ve been working away - attending the International Academy of Ceramics Conference in Paris, running courses in Ballenberg Switzerland and the Ceramic Research Centre in Denmark. Each time I travel I try to co-ordinate so that a journey is multi-useful... so on the way to Ballenberg, Switzerland - I stayed in Geneva delivering new work to Valerie and Peter at Galerie H, meeting one of Peter’s clients about a possible commission. In connection with my preparations for the new edition of Ceramics and Print I met with artist/researcher Magdelena Gerber at the Experimentation and Research Centre for Contemporary Ceramics. I had a meeting with Anne-Claire Schumacher, curator of the Musée Ariana about work for an exhibition in 2012, and visited the new Bruckner Ceramic Research Centre in Carouge. Had a great print course with interesting and enthusiastic participants, including the Kurszentrum director Adrian Knusel. On the way home I stayed overnight at an excellent B&B near Appeldorn and spent the next day at the spectacular gardens at Paleis Het Loos before my ferry home.

My time in Denmark included a wood soda firing with Ane-Katrine von Bülow and teaching a print course (both activities ably assisted by the excellent Laura Mckibbon from Vancouver). Great workshop participants again - people from Denmark, Sweden, Iceland and the USA. The came the opening of an exhibition (with Kurt Weiser and Stephen Bowers) at Ann Linnemann’s beautiful gallery in Copenhagen. I also met up with Nina Hole and we discussed our ongoing plans to work together on a printed kiln sculpture. Also talked with the Research Centre about a Print Symposium for 2012, and a commission for a life sized printed tree for the sculpture park....

En-route to Denmark I stopped off at the Royal Tichelaar Pottery, Makkum. On the way home stayed at a great B&B at Finkum - spent the next morning at the wonderful Keramiekmuseum Princessehof Leeuwarden before heading to Ijmuiden for my ferry.

It always takes more time to recover from my travels than I think and so this past week or so has involved catching up on all the stuff that gets neglected when I’m out of the studio... travelling really knocks me out of a routine and the running of my business. Its also important to make time to reflect on travels, experiences and connections made.... and I also miss family and garden...

Now its back to work in the studio - the commission for Gateshead, as well as new artwork creation for the Scott Linnemann collaborative works.

Some pics... the top one being one of the porcelain pieces that inspired the printed English pattern, now produced by Burleigh called Calico, and inspiration for the Cumbrian Blue(s) contribution to the Hanoi Mosaic Mural.

More to follow another day