The Open West 2012 - Gloucester Cathedral

Emma Critchley, Single Shared Breath, 2011, video installation

The Open West 2012 is currently installed in the glorious setting of Gloucester Cathedral where it is open to view until 31 March.

This, the 4th annual Open West competition, has been selected from an international submission, by organisers Lyn Cluer Coleman and Sarah Goodwin, together with artists Iain Andrews and Dan Chadwick. 90 works by 55 artists are on show. The cathedral is a formidable space in which to show contemporary art - however Lyn and Sarah have exercised great curatorial skill and sensitivity in their installation of the work which is  respectful of the architectural space but not overwhelmed by it.

A selection of works is illustrated below.

Aaron Distler, Between Here and Here, 2010, steam bent hardwood

Tina Hill, Excavating Babel, 2009, installation of over 2,000 books

Catherine Dormer, Shimmer (detail), 2011, digital print on silk

Ione Rucquoi, Ballet Shoe I, 2011, ballet shoe, gold plated acupuncture needles

Angela Conway, For One Removed, I, 2011, emulsion paint on paper, chalk, graphite

Jiho Won, Memory Pond, 2010, glass

Jackie Brough, Continuity, 2011, silk, organza, concrete

Kentaro Yamada, Hackney Sublime, 2011, broken glass window, perspex

Jonathan Wright, No Head for Heights, 2010 plastic, pewter, neon

HENRY/SEATON, Ante-Chamber: 187 Objects (detail), 2011, concrete and plaster

George Petrou, My Brother, 2010, video installation

David Teager-Portman, Other Side, 2010, concrete, canvas, boat, handmade bricks

Open West - Award Winners exhibition

4 Seen: The Open West 2011 Award Winners will be at The Gardens Gallery, Montpellier Gardens, Cheltenham from 7 September until 13 September.
The exhibitors are Shan Hur, Helen Murgatroyd, Ellen Nolan and David Theobald. Examples of their work appear below, together with blurbs supplied by Open West.
Open West 20112 will be held in Gloucester Cathedral: the deadline for applications is 31 October 2011 - details and application forms on the Open West website.

Shan Hur, Ball in the Pillar, 2010

Shan Hur will be exhibiting a site-specific sculpture, expanding on his maxim ‘one brick cannot make a wall’ and continuing the themes of intervention and surprise that run through his work. Shan sees language and images in the debris of construction sites and plays with the disruption of normal perception. He completed his MFA at the Slade in 2010 and was spotlighted in The Independent as one of the year’s 40 most promising UK art school graduates.    

Helen Murgatroyd, Five Onions Printing Jig, 2010

Helen Murgatroyd will also be creating an installation in response to the site and influenced by her recent residency in rural North Cornwall. Inspired by Royal Mail sorting offices, kitchen utensils and the ideals of cottage industries, Helen invents tools and workstations to allow the duplication of her drawings. Helen is the recipient of a number of awards including the RCA Sustain Award and the Wooda Residency Award, and has work in private collections including the Conran Foundation. She completed her MA in Printmaking at the Royal College of Art in 2010.

Ellen Nolan, Safety in Numbers: Untitled (Group 1)

 Ellen Nolan’s photographic project, Safety in Numbers, was developed as a result of a short but intensive collaboration with Cheltenham Bournside School and Sixth Form Centre. Safety in Numbers is an observation on the dynamics and identities of a group of Cheltenham school children within the context of a modern school. These photographs explore and reflect the collective realism of an institutional dynamic. Since graduating with an MFA from Goldsmiths College, London in 2008, Ellen has been exhibiting internationally. Gallery commissions and shows include The Photographers Gallery and Grimmuseum, Berlin.

David Theobald, Trill (2010) Screen shot from digital animation of original photographs and downloaded images.

 David Theobald’s new animation Workers Playtime is a playful contemporary reboot of the morale raising radio show of the same name broadcast from the factory floor throughout the 1940s and 1950s. His films are animated loops structured from photographs, scanned images or single fames extracted from video footage, blended together to create a familiar yet alien environment. Recent exhibitions include this year's Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and Re:Animate at the Oriel Davies Gallery, Wales. David completed his MFA Art Practice at Goldsmiths College in 2008.

The Open West - Summerfield Gallery, Pittville Studios

The 2011 Open West exhibition will be in the Summerfield Gallery, Pittville Studios, University of Gloucestershire from 9th February to 5th March. 45 artists have been selected by Richard Billingham, Matthew Raw, Lyn Cluer Coleman and Sarah Goodwin.

11 of the selected artists will give talks about their work at Pittville Studios, on Saturday 12th February: Fergus Jordan, David Kiely, Matthews & Struthers, Richard Ansett, Alicja Rogalska, and Bobby Nixon in the morning, from 10.00am; Ellen Nolan, Howard Silverman, Jon Mayers, Helen Murgatroyd and Laura Clarke in the afternoon, from 1.30pm.

 Open West, installation views.