sutton071

Black Eye Gallery is pleased to announce the September 2017 exhibition: WABI- SABI by Damien Drew. The Japanese concept of Wabi-Sabi is an appreciation of a transient and understated  beauty in the modest, imperfect, ephemeral or decayed. Drew’s exhibition expresses this  notion through his perspective of modern day Japan. Japan has one of the world’s largest economies and a population that is shrinking due to  low birthrates. With employment opportunities predominantly found in large urban centres  there has been a marked decline in rural regions. Drew’s images seek to document that which  is temporary and to celebrate its beauty in turn. The viewer is invited to consider details  and qualities in paired scenes that may be inconspicuous, congruent or contrasting. In a  world that is increasingly homogenised through global retail chains, Drew carefully observes the melancholy beauty of the many towns and villages that have now become neglected. “We ...

Black Eye Gallery is pleased to announce the August 2017 exhibition Liminal by Armando Chant Liminal builds an interest with the potential for engagement that exists with the relationship  between imagery and objects that sit within an in-between state of emergence and  realisation. This series proposes an encounter with the liminal image in construction, where there is  an exploration and interaction with the blurred boundaries between the real and  imaginatively unreal, and images that are in a process of slow and gradual emergence. Chant depicts an abstract landscape composed of marks and gestures that are  indeterminate and indefinable, embodying both bodily contours and vast panoramic  gestural landscapes. “My practice aims to explore and open up potentials for the dressed body to be reframed or  represented within an ephemeral and transient context across site and surface, and contribute  to another way of experiencing image and body withi...

A new exhibition at Rheged, Cumbria’s foremost arts centre, supported by Arts Council England, will challenge perceptions of quilt making this spring, revealing a strong and vibrant contemporary craft form. New Quilting , an exclusive exhibition at Rheged, will reveal the new face of contemporary quilting, an art form now just as likely to be found hanging on a gallery wall or urban loft apartment as it is in a rural farmhouse. Quilts by  over 30 national and Cumbrian makers  have been selected for their craftsmanship and design, colour and innovation. The unique story behind each piece will also be told in the exhibition, either through accompanying sketches and material revealing how each quilt came to be, or through the storytelling ability of the quilt itself. Alicia Merrett: The Island John Stokes, Arts Manager at Rheged, said “Quilting has been part of the needlework tradition in Europe since the fifth century and our exhibition celebrates those continuing the tradition ...

Deborah Taylor: I Like The Way You Dance The Surface Design Association of Washington State announces the Opening of Fiber Fusion, a year-long juried exhibition and celebration of textiles and surface design techniques, at the VALA Art Center in Redmond. The exhibition opened at Redmond Town Center’s VALA Art Center on November 10 and runs through January 15, 2017. Axford: Counterpoint 1 A public Opening Reception at VALA was held on Saturday, November 19. Rock Hushka, lead curator at Tacoma Art Museum and one of the Fiber Fusion jurors, were giving a talk at the Opening. Arisa Brown: Trepa Additional locations include: Northwind Arts Center in Port Townsend (February 2-26) and Schack Arts Center in Everett. (March 10 - April 3). The debut location was the Gallery at the Park in Richland, WA. Claire Jones: Whole Surface Vitality 2 Fifty-four artists were selected for the four-city exhibition. Fiber Fusion jurors were Layne Goldsmith, University of Washington Professor of Art and past c...

Ian Berry: Journey Home , 2013. Photo credit: courtesy of the artist ianberry.org From workwear to haute couture, historical to contemporary, rebellion to endeavour, a new exhibition opening this August, Love Thy Denim, celebrates the many faces of our beloved denim. This exciting and impressive fashion exhibition will explore the origins and versatility of denim, from its workwear heritage in the Wild West right through to its adoption into mainstream fashion and becoming the fabric of our everyday lives. There will be many key pieces on display, including a jacket and trousers from Vivienne Westwood’s 1991 Cut, Slash and Pull collection, the first time that this ensemble has been out on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum (the V&A). Among the other exhibition highlights are a Jean Paul Gaultier men’s ensemble on loan from the Fashion Museum Bath, a piece from Maison Margiela’s SS2009 Artisanal Collection, exhibits from British denim revivalists Blackhorse Lane Ateliers and n...

Henry Hussey: Betrayal Henry Hussey: Solidarity British textile artist Henry Hussey works with actress Maxine Peak to inspire Reliquaries  Henry Hussey’s solo show Reliquaries opens at  Gallery 8  in London on Monday 12 July 2016.  Hussey’s work for Reliquaries is drawn from three key inspirations from the artist’s life. His relationship with his father, death and memory, and a growing political awareness. Within the overall works of Reliquaries, there are two other bodies of work, The Last Breath and Locking Horns. Hussey describes the making of such artworks as cathartic in that they deal directly and honestly with the complexities of his familial relationships.  Hussey found out that his father had two families, neither of whom knew of each other, and the anger arising from this informed his work to date.  This inspired the body of work Locking Horns. Henry Hussey: Expulsion Now the artist has chosen to move on from the catalyst of this anger toward...

Illustration: Flower Boy , 2015 (fabric, thread, screen-printing ink, fusible adhesive) China Marks is an artist that was originally a sculptor, but over the years the artist has moved into textiles, and now produces a range of individualistic fabric-based compositions. China is best known for her large format drawings, which take the form of fabric collages. Source materials for these collages often include an eclectic range, such as old commercial tapestry reproductions of historical paintings, pieces of found fabrics, various embroidery pieces, and general ephemera.  Over long periods these eclectic raw materials are cut up by China, then formed, added to, removed from, and reformed, the process being repeated over and over, until both materials and process produce the desired effect that she wants to see within a composition.  Illustration: All Kinds of Lost , 2015 (fabric, thread, fusible adhesive) Illustration: Better Living Through Chemistry , 2013 (fabric, tea-dyed la...

The Fibre Fables exhibition, which is running at the The Stainless gallery, in New Delhi, India,  is a collaborative effort between contemporary artists/film makers/ photographers/sculptors ​/ installation artists and weavers in Raj Group's factory at Panipat ​, India.​ The eleven participating artists are: Abeer Gupta, Brahm Maira, Dhvani Behl, Durga Kainthola, Nidhi Khurana, Nikheel Apahle, Puneet Kaushik, Sahaya Sharma, Sandeep Biswas, Shivani Aggarwal, Vibhu Galhotra. This looks to be a fascinating collaborative effort between so many unique and individual artists, that it would be well worth visiting the gallery if you are in the New Delhi area throughout December 2015. The curator of the exhibition is Shailin Smith, and it seems only right that, after so much effort put into the exhibition, they explain the reasoning behind Fibre Fables. ​The Raj Group was established in 1939, a midst a growing industry of carpet weaving. They gradually evolved to establish high pr...