Coventry Telegraph - Private View

Missing Naiad is 'locked away' reveals Coventry sculptor George Wagstaffe

2013-04-30T20:30:38Z

EXCLUSIVE

The mystery of the missing Naiad has been partly solved, but it's not a happy ending.

For years the sculpture of a the dreamy nymph sat in the pool in Priory Square in Coventry city centre, but after suffering vandalism and the removal of the water, which exposed the fact she has no lower limbs, she was moved to Lady Herbert's garden.

Recently, the Roots gallery in Priory Square showed an exhibition including work by artist Caroline James - which Naiad artist George Wagstaffe visited and enjoyed - which focused on the square. At the opening Caroline lamented what it had become since her childhood memories of it. One of her photographs was of the pool, now lacking water and its Naiad, and she wondered where it was now.

Speaking at the opening of the new Ragley Gallery and Studios at Ragley Hall, where he is showing two sculptures and a painting in the inaugural exhibition, George Wagstaffe said: "The council have got her locked away somewhere.

]]> "She was stolen from Lady Herbert's garden, then recovered, and now they have locked it away for the time being. Apparently some people have formed a group to try to get her out."

The Naiad was recently spotted in a temporary exhibition of a range of George's works at the University Hospital in Coventry. This, however, turns out to have been an original which George still owns.

He remembers vividly when things were different, and the sculpture was bought to be a starring part of the new, vibrant Coventry city centre in the 1950s. Back then George was a teenage art student.

He said: "The Naiad was originally something I did at college when I was 17. I put it in an exhibition at the ICA and it won the Young Contemporaries sculpture prize. A guy told me there was an art collector who wanted to buy my piece and it was the city architect Arthur Ling and he wanted it for the city centre."

George had studied at Coventry College of Art, and the commissioning of the Naiad in brass for Coventry instantly made his name.

The statue was originally bought for the city to sit in the pool in Priory Square back in 1958, when the square was one of the highlights of the new city architecture. Over the years it became less so, and how to improve it and bring it back to life has been a frequent topic of debate in the city centre.

George is still working from his studios in Hawkes Mill Lane in Coventry, and doing some teaching. A former student and now friend, Michala Gyetvai, the successful Coventry-based textile artist who has had national attention and staged her own exhibition at the Herbert, is joining him in a joint Open Studios this summer at George's studios, from 29 June- 14 July, where both artists' works will be on show.

Exhibition in stables gallery launches artist in residence at Ragley Hall

2013-04-30T19:59:55Z

Dawn Harris (left) and Kitty Kovacevic arts tour guide at Ragley in the gallery

It has to be the most impressive Private View I've ever sipped a glass of wine at. But then I've never been to an art exhibition opening at a stately home before.

I drove through the large Capability Brown-designed parklands to park right in front of the very impressive portico of Ragley Hall. Inside, along with the other guests I enjoyed lovely nibbles, a glass of wine and a wander around some of the rooms of the Hall, which dates from 1680. The massive Great Hall, with baroque plasterwork by James Gibbs dating from 1750, has several other State Rooms leading off it, including one set for dinner for 24, a bedroom used by visiting royalty in the past and sitting rooms with old masters on the walls. From some of the windows the vistas stretch for miles across parkland, woods and a lake.

]]> The Hall is owned and lived in by the ninth Marquess and Marchioness of Hertford and their family, who were there for the opening of a new on-site attraction.

For the summer, Dawn Harris is the artist in residence at Ragley, On select days between now and October she will be based in the Ragley Gallery & Studio within the Grade 1 listed stables and will use it for reflection and research to produce work that responds to the Ragley environment. The residency is entitled Negotiating Heritage, and Dawn will be considering why heritage is important to the community.

To celebrate the opening of the new gallery and studios, there's an exhibition on until May 19 entitled Curating Curiosity, featuring work by Dawn and 12 other artists who she selected to be in the exhibition. The impressively-large stable block - complete with atmospheric horse braying in the background - has been partly converted into the studios, but the brick floor and all fittings including metal feeders remain. In the different bays instead of horses there's work by different artists on the walls.

The artists range from the newly-graduated to the very established, with Coventry's George Wagstaffe the best known. Dawn's rationale for who she picked was simple: "I recently graduated from Worcester University and some of the artists were people who I

Perspective by Dawn Harris

knew from university and I know what their struggle is about and I knew them personally and their work, and what it's like being an artist moving from education into the big wide world.

"The other artists, I had become aware of their art more recently. It's essentially about how different artists approach the same subjects in different ways."

Two of the artists and Dawn will be taking up residence in the studio area after the exhibition. Dawn added: "It's about Negotiating Heritage and they will be looking at their practice in that way. The real hope is to build a really nice community of artists."

The Curating Curiosity exhibition has a small number of works from all 12 artists. Upstairs there are two video pieces, one intriguing one of the Baghdad ballet by Stuart Layton, whose accompanying information is the most interesting of them all, and Karen Gazey's work including a carpet projected onto the floor. Both are in competition with the amazing wooden framed building and exposed roof which are equally eye catching.

Downstairs the works include Carolyn Morris's abstract paintings inspired by the Worcestershire countryside. Anne Bate-Williams is showing collages made up of architectural photographs which seem fitting in such an architecturally-impressive setting. Former writer Deborah Catesby is showing large, colourful oil paintings, and Brian Cook's sculptures, inspired by classical architecture, stand in the middle of a stable block.

Tor Hildyard's collagraph prints of heads and bodies show her interest in capturing the range of human and animal forms, and Zarina Keyani uses bright colours to capture stories about mythical beings.

Coventry-based George Wagstaffe's sculptures dominate the largest room. Phoenix II is a large piece symbolising rebirth, tall and white but not perfectly preserved, with what appears to be an egg inside, bursting open and spilling its contents down the rest of the work.

The Gift is a colourful, dreamy painting of a girl and horse, in one of George's favourite themes, and Crow is a sculpture influenced by the poetry of Ted Hughes, a beaky head twisted on top of a larger piece.

The exhibition is only on until May 19, so it's a great opportunity for a day out to see an interesting collection of works in a lovely setting, or to find out when Dawn and her fellow artists are going to be in residence after that see the website at http://www.ragley.co.uk/days-out-in-warwickshire/heritage-culture-seekers then either art-exhibition or artist-in-residence.

The impressive stable block housing the gallery and studios

Metropolis explores varieties of city life on a global scale

2013-04-04T20:29:03Z

A new exhibition of contemporary artwork in Birmingham offers visions of modern cities and urban life from 25 artists from all over the world.

Metropolis: Reflections on the Modern City has been jointly collected by Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, the New Art Gallery, Walsall, and developed in partnership with Ikon Gallery as part of the Art Fund international initiative.

There are more than 60 works on show in many types of media.

]]> Mohamed Bourouissa's photographs of disaffected youths in France show the potential conflict between Algerian and French youths, and the menace of constant trouble between young people with little to do. The photographs are staged like pauses in an action film.

Dayanita Singh's Dream Villa shows a series of photographs taken at night in India, using artificial light to give a very yellow effect and highlighting what would be crowded places mainly empty of people.

Grazia Toderi's Orbite Rosse is a huge double video installation of images of cities at night, and Nicolas Provost's film shows Las Vegas from four different angles, emphasising the brightness and fake colours even more.

Semyon Faibisovich's photographs show the plight of street people in Russia, doing private activities like sleeping in public bus stations, and two men leaning on each other for support and warmth after sharing a drink.

Romuald Hasoume's long photographs and small stills of the Republic of Benin show the details of city life where people are desperate to sell to make any sort of living.

A very varied show which reflects the disparities between cities around the globe. It is on until June 23.

Coventry University graduates land starring role in West Midlands shows

2013-04-04T20:24:20Z

Above, Man Versus Motherland by Dean O'Brien, at the Barber Institute

Four Coventry University graduates are showing work in top Birmingham art galleries as part of the New Art West Midlands initiative.

They are among 22 recent graduates chosen from West Midlands university art schools for the exhibition.

]]> At the Barber Institute there are photographs by Dean O'Brien which are part of a project called Uncertain Future, which looks at the social changes and challenges that Ukraine has experienced in the 20-plus years since it gained its independence from the Soviet Union.

They include a photo of a man about to go swimming in a lake, dwarfed by an enormous statue which is much further away. There is Room with a View, endless rows of identical flats, and several which comment on gender relations and advertising in the country.

One photograph shows an advert on a bus where a made-up little girl sucks her finger while admiring a plate of sausages, and in another a bowed elderly woman, dressed up against the cold, walks past a poster of an attractive young woman, designed to attract football fans in 2012. Other women are pictured, their eyes hoping for rescue from western men. The photographs tell a story and are skilfully taken.

Sally Larke creates ceramic, porcelain pieces and those for her final year project commemorated the life of her brother David who died from epilepsy in 2003. This poignant work, including pictures from his life, is on show at the Barber, with another set of ceramic pieces on show at Birmingham Art Gallery & Museum.

Also at Birmingham Art Gallery are prints and etchings by Lizzie Prince, who hopes to pursue a career as an art therapist. Her sharp, concise images are inspired by Brutalist architecture.

Corey Hayman's work at the same gallery challenges ideas by using old 1940s film footage and cartons condemned for using racist imagery of black people. She has created A Corrput Beauty, a book of colourful squares from the film, and also shows one cartoon with a square of it blacked out to see if that detracts from the tale. It's clever manipulation of one image to create an entirely different one.

Both the exhibitions are on until May 19.

Legacy of Coventry's post-war modernist architecture is inspiration for fascinating exhibition

2013-03-27T19:21:14Z

An exhibition by two artists has found new ways to focus on the legacy of post-war modernist architecture in Coventry, and both are fascinating in their separate ways.

Jo Gane and Caroline James, who met on the London College of Communication's photography MA course, are exhibiting in Nostalgia for the Future (Past) at the Roots Gallery in Coventry city centre.

]]> Jo is an award-winning artist, curator and lecturer, whose passion for a house led to her work in this exhibition.

She had always liked a modernist-designed house she had passed numerous times in Bulkington Lane in Nuneaton. The house had been owned since the 1960s by Julian Henry Beck, a Coventry-based artist and engineer, who died in November at the age of 97.

Jo said: "I'd always loved the house and it came up for auction and I went along just to see, and it went for a price we could afford.

"At the auction we were sitting next to the former owner's family. We got talking to them afterwards and said what we did, and we went round to the house before the house clearance people. There was some lovely 1950s furniture and lots of things we found under the carpet, and I thought they needed documenting and preserving. I feel I have pieced together a sense of what he was like by his things."

You can also see the work of Julian Henry Beck in the exhibition, partly in a cabinet containing photographs of him and his own art and sculpture work. But more than that you can see his touch, in large photographs Jo took of the backs of doors from the house that he had painted red, with his brushstrokes still clearly visible.

Beck lived and interesting life, as an artist, sculptor and photographer, who worked as an engineer during the war, and for Standard Triumph.

Jo describes her work as domestic archaeology, and has written that the work is also "creating a wider picture of the activities and lifestyle which post war architecture aspired towards supporting and creating. The nostalgia inherent in such a project is examined in relation to the stripped back aesthetics of modernism in order to mechanically explore the evolution of middle class suburban values and aspirations."

Caroline James's work also has a personal element to it, related closely to her growing up in Coventry, and her memories of Palace Yard, which can be seen through the glass walls of the Roots gallery. The yard was designed in 1960 by Arthur Ling as part of Coventry's optimistic post-war reconstruction, but is now less attractive than some early pictures in the exhibition prove.

She said: "As a little girl in the mid 60s we used to come up here with my father to get newspapers and comics and we'd look at the pond, the fish and the Naid [sculpture in the pond by George Wagstaffe]. When my father died a few years ago we came up here to register the death and I thought what has happened to it."

Caroline's photographic work includes an emphasis on change and instability in the landscape, and she was appalled by the state of the area. Her father had also been behind saving the clock on Stoke Green, which is now part of a children's play area, and this added to her despair about how Coventry looks after its historic past.
Her close-up photographs show details of surfaces which are hard to identify on their own.

She said: "I am very interested in surfaces and what's not readily noticeable and you have to look hard at what's there."

Both the artists will be in conversation about the exhibition in the gallery tomorrow, Thursday March 29, from 6-8pm.

Jane and Louise Wilson's beautiful and intriguing Kubrick-inspired work goes on show in Coventry

2013-03-17T16:02:54Z

A film researched and then abandoned by legendary film director Stanley Kubrick is the basis for a new exhibition in Coventry.

Former Turner Prize nominated artists Jane and Louise Wilson's film installation Unfolding the Aryan Papers is showing at the Herbert, as an addition to the Caught in the Crossfire exhibition about how artists deal with conflict and reconciliation.

]]> The work followed research the sisters did in the Stanley Kubrick Archive. They found Kubrick's own research into a film he planned to make about people fleeing the Holocaust, based on the Louis Begley novel Wartime Lies about a Jewish boy and his aunt who escaped Second World War Poland by pretending to be Catholics.

Speaking as the work was still being installed, Louise Wilson said: "Obviously Kubrick was such an amazing artist, director, when we went to see the archive we thought how do we access a lot of that work that is so iconic and already exists in the consciousness and it led to us looking at the projects that weren't realised.

"It was not necessarily to develop into our own work, but something that could become a starting point. We were very intrigued because we'd seen so much research material that was related to the Aryan Papers.

"We were researching and looking through the stills for locations and everything such as wardrobe and that's when we sort of happened upon the pictures of Johanna, and that became a way of accessing it in a sense. The book itself is a fascinating book."
Johanna ter Steege had been cast by Kubrick to play the lead role, and there were a number of pictures of her in the wardrobe her character would wear, and also trying out lots of positions and gestures.

The Wilsons got in touch and went to Holland to meet her.

Louise said: "Johanna was extraordinary, very generous, amazingly intelligent, brilliant - an amazing actress.

"Jane and I went to Haarlem to meet Johanna the night before we were doing the interview. We went for a dinner and it was like she was interviewing us and several glasses of wine later .... We knew that she was in her own way sounding us out and decided how much she wanted to reveal in a sense and she was very generous and after we'd done the interviews she said she knew we didn't have much of a budget but if we wanted her to come to London she would, and that was amazing."

The 17-minute film combines Kubrick's research and still photographs he took of Johanna, with file photos of the Holocaust, a new interview voiceover with ter Steege and film the Wilsons have taken of her in costume in the wonderfully-atmospheric art deco Hornsey Town Hall, reading from the book and the script which was a work in progress in 1993. Louise said ter Steege's interview was very much reflecting on what had happened.

In the film Johanna talks about meeting Kubrick, and how after he scrapped the project she took to her bed for two days. She appears now in the empty building looking vulnerable and fragile in a delicate petticoat, touching the wall nervously, while her voiceover in character talks about saving her nephew from the Nazis, while all the time she has a German officer lover.

Louise added: "It was brilliant and obviously we showed her all the pictures of the wardrobe - she was very trusting and generous. It was the first time we'd filmed in Hornsey Town Hall, this weird art deco building, and it felt really the right context to recreate some of those images. Johanna says in it that Kubrick said she didn't want to change her accent, she could come from anywhere in Europe, but that building was very indicative of art deco and all that period."

At the Herbert, the film is shown on a large screen, reflected on two side screens which gives it extra depth.

The cinematography, combined with the mixture of images, the shots of Johanna then and now, and the beautiful old building which could indeed be anywhere in Europe in the last 80 years combine to make it a fascinating work, which feels a very short 17 minutes to watch all the way through.

Matthew finds inspiration in Welsh seaside residency

2013-01-28T21:27:19Z

Slipping into reverie as I listen to the playfully pleasant tumult overheard, by Matthew Macaulay

Far away from the Midlands, Matthew Macaulay who is normally based in Coventry is currently on a residency in Aberystwyth.

Matthew, who is originally from Shetland, gained a BA Hons in Fine Art at Coventry University in 2010. He has worked in the city since, most recently from a fantastic studio at Pluspace Radio, overlooking Broadgate, where he is also the director of the Pluspace Gallery, which is taking a holiday.

]]> Since the start of December he has been Artist in Residence at Aberystwyth Art Centre, and has made a series of paintings that focus on his experience in and around the town.

They are described as vague and fragmented in their meaning, so we explore our relationship with what we see and know. Inspiration includes personal memories and photographs, postcards, film stills and magazine adverts.

Matthew is taking part in residence talks with other artists at the Art Centre on Thursday, 31 January at 6pm, and will also be operating an Open Studio on February 21 - 24 inclusive, if you happen to be on the Welsh coast.

If that's a bit far away, his new work will be on show at the Lewis Gallery at Rugby School from April 23 - May 4.

Serious start to new year with Coventry and Warwickshire exhibitions

2013-01-28T21:20:28Z

Begging near Covent Garden car park in Leamington by Josh King

For those prone to a bout of post-Christmas depression, the subject matter of several new exhibitions in Coventry and Warwickshire may not seem like the best antidote. However don't be put off - the standard of work on show might actually cheer you up.

]]> In Coventry, the Herbert is offering Caught in the Crossfire, which 'explores how artists grapple with both the brutality of war and the desire for peace'.

It's a large exhibition including works by a huge variety of artists from early last century to the present day. Some works will impress you more than others, but it's well put together with some informative, intelligent and well-written extended captions to go with the artworks.

After the busy launch last week I'm planning a second visit as there's so much to take in - a proper review will follow in the Friday art column in the Coventry Telegraph soon.

The Leamington Art Gallery & Museum is staging the first retrospective for sculptor John Bridgeman, who lived in or near Leamington for 40 years. Bridgeman, Head of Sculpture at Birmingham School of Art for 26 years, turned down an offer to be Henry Moore's studio assistant, and was a conscientious objector in the Second World War.

One of his largest works here is Torture Wall, lots of individual models of victim or aggressor, and there are other pieces looking at the plight of refugees and war victims.

However he also made lots of wonderful pieces for children's playgrounds, and it's a shame many have since been lost for use. Again, a full review will follow in a Friday column.

At Gallery 150 in Leamington, photographer Josh King has taken homeless people in the town as his subject, and Iris Berger paints refugees, and the horrors of Anne Frank and the concentration camps.

Both are talented and don't treat their subject matter lightly. A review of this exhibition should appear in the column this Friday, 1 February.

Josh will also be giving a talk about his work at the gallery in Regent Court Shopping Centre, Livery Street, tomorrow (Tuesday January 29) from 7 pm.

Work hard to make an exhibition of yourself at the Mead

2013-01-10T17:37:21Z

Today I had fun making an exhibition of myself. Lots of friends may think there's nothing new there, but this time it was for real.

Workplace is the title of a new exhibition at the Mead Gallery at Warwick Arts Centre at the University of Warwick, featuring works by six artists or groups of artists, plus a few related photographic works, all related to the world of work.

As an extra feature, the Mead is inviting people to book in to use a desk space and computer for two-hour slots in the gallery, or book a space for a meeting, an offer I couldn't refuse. Well how often do you get to be an actual part of an exhibition?!

]]> The desk was well appointed, with a nice lamp and plant, and if I got bored there were some shadow puppets to play with, or I could have made some origami items from a guidebook and paper also available - well done Emma O'Brien from the gallery, and daughter Ellie, for making them!

I wanted to see people's reactions when they walked round. Most studiously ignored me, and several glanced and quickly walked on - now I know what it feels like to be an invisible gallery attendant!

I however had a wander round the exhibition, and got on with writing this blog and my review, which will hopefully appear in the Coventry Telegraph on Friday, 18 January.
In the meantime, if you need a spot to get on with some work, fairly undisturbed, or a different space for a meeting, contact the Mead.

Oh, and the exhibition is interesting, amusing and very varied to look around too.

Spectacular dramatic end to exhibition - kicked down by artist Aeneas Wilder

2012-12-01T17:34:16Z

Picture of a kick-down at another gallery - but very similar to today's event

WOW - stunning - spectacular. It was hard to think in more than single words as I watched the deafening end of Aeneas Wilder's exhibition at the Mead gallery at Warwick Arts Centre.

Untitled #162 was a huge installation built entirely from small, identical lengths of wood in the gallery. It took the form of two rooms and a narrow corridor connecting them, several feet above head height. Wilder created this and his previous works with no fixings.

At the end of every exhibition he has a kick down - and attending it was the hottest ticket in town today, and an unforgettable sight.

]]> Building Untitled #162 must have been painstaking, slow work, and the artist's knowledge of what he's doing showed too in its demolition. One almighty kick at the open door end and it went down like dominoes, all the bits of wood collapsing down on themselves, and the demolition snaking around the structure in sequence taking around a minute.

I foolishly hadn't expected it to be so loud - though wood fallen on to a wooden floor would have that effect....this was the destruction of an artwork to be heard as well as seen. Previous kickdowns had been described as emotional affairs, and I can feel that too - after it was all down and a cloud of dust hung in the air, there was a round of applause then most people loitered, not wanting to leave it but not knowing what to do either.

Professionally unmoved was Aeneas. What is the meaning of destroying it, is it Auto-Destructive art or something else?

"The bottom line is you are proving a point, this thing is a transient thing, and you are not cheating people with bits glued together," he said.

"What I was thinking as I was doing it was I don't feel anything. I am just looking at some sticks falling down, I am completely detached from it. When I put that last stick on, that was the piece finished. Either it's going to fall down, or some kid's going to run into it, or a bag's going to knock it. It's not going to come out of here any other way."

Gallery staff have nervously monitored the work, aware of the risks of it coming down before the kick-down date, and one piece mysteriously fell off one night, but otherwise it remained intact.

The pile of sticks is staying there tomorrow - then gallery staff will be collecting them up on Monday. And where is the potential artwork off to then? "A lock-up garage in Musselburgh", said Aeneas with a smile, but its reinvention in Bologna is on the cards for next year.

Winter wonder exhibitions on show at London galleries

2012-11-30T21:28:55Z

If you're heading down to London any time soon there are a few exhibitions that are worth seeing and are varied enough for there to be something to suit anyone's tastes.

I wasn't excited at the thought of Bronze at the Royal Academy but it turned out to be a real winner. Featuring items made out of bronze dating back BC until the present day it delights with its scope, its variety of subject matter, its world-wide range of exhibits and the many uses they were put to.

From the decorative to the useful, the ceremonial, the religious and sculptural representations, they're all here. My favourites include Buddhas, such as a late sixth century Buddha Shakyamuni ubn Abhaya-Mudra from India, to much more recent works by Brancusi and Giacometti.

]]> The exhibition ends on December 9, so don't miss it if you're in London before then.
At Tate Britain the Pre-Raphaelites, Victorian Avant-Garde tries to convince us the group had a "self-conscious, radical project of overturning artistic orthodoxies".

The exhibition tells the story of their work and lives, featuring what you will see as lots of stunning works if you're a fan like me, although some find their work too sentimental. If you're familiar with some of the Pre-Raphaelite works in Birmingham Art Gallery and Museum, you may find they're at the Tate until January 13.

Also at the Tate is the Turner Prize exhibition, on until January 6, featuring the shortlisted works by Spartacus Chetwynd (installation, paintings and performers), Luke Fowler (film exploring the life of RD Laing), Paul Noble (highly-detailed drawings of a fantasy world) and my favourite Elizabeth Price (a mixture of imagery, texts and music exploring an historical fatal fire). This exhibition can take up a lot of time if you want to see everything properly.

At the National Portrait Gallery is the fascinating The Lost Prince, The Life and Death of Henry Stuart. It tells the story of the life of the boy who should have been king but died tragically young from what now is believed to have been typhoid fever - and who knows how British history may have gone if he had lived to take the throne and not his brother who became Charles I?

There are portraits of him and his family and favourites, but pictures from the collection he gathered at such a young age, plus the remaining parts of the effigy of him which went on top of his carriage as it was drawn through the streets. There are portraits by Holbein and Nicholas Hilliard, designs by Inigo Jones and hand-written poems by Ben Jonson.

There's also letters between him and his family, showing their concern for the quality of his handwriting. A wonderful exhibition for anyone interested in history, and on until January 13.

Nearby at the National Gallery, a small free exhibition is The Late Works by Richard Hamilton, which is on until January 13. There are lots of sparse works featuring the female nude an interior design.

If you get to see all of these - it will certainly be a varied day.....

Adie's weird world of the imagination is transported to The Herbert

2012-11-30T19:09:54Z

Strange creatures and cabinets of curiosities dominate the first solo exhibition by Coventry-based artist Adie Blundell.

The exhibition, entitled His Dark Materials, at The Herbert fills a room and is a strange mix of things, feeling like a look into the mind and obsessions of its creator.

]]> Best are the row of different-named masks, given a back story that they were discovered on the dried up salt planes of the island of Borneo in 1850 by a doctor, and taken back home. They are constructions made of materials including plaster, wire and salt. The Voyeur looks nosy, The Sailor has a rope between his teeth, the Albatross has an enormous bird's beak, and the Unicorn has a horn coming out of its face. The Comedian looks like it's got a laugh on its face, and the Wolf in Sheep's Clothing is a strange combination of the two creatures' features. They all are quite attractive and intriguing.

There's a couple of huge sketchbooks of sinister characters and scenes with text on it, made from paper, stucco, pigment and charcoal.

A ladder with two feet on it, symbolising the steps that can lead up to freedom, but the fear that can hold you back and leave you stuck on the first steps.

In the middle of the room hang other strange creatures including the Ancient Mariner and The Child with their own stories, the latter's that his body fused with the protective outfit he had worn to protect him to create this strange thing that remained. This part of the fantasy involves a 21st century scientist discovering the masks and realised the wearers died inside them.

The Cabinet of Curiosities side of the room features things Blundell has found and collected. In many ways it's like going into an old traditional musty museum - lots of old scientific and medical instruments and artefacts, things relating to his interests in science, medicine and natural history. There's also a few oars and fencing masks.
Most interesting is a mirror apparently used in a searchlight on the roof of Coventry Technical College in the Second World War.

A couple of Finch Cages contain various other items, and there are two items which fit his work from the Herbert's own collection - an amazing mummified cat found in the attic of a house in Temple Grafton in Warwickshire in 1986, and a stuffed raven, which Blundell has used as inspiration for drawings of the bird.

Another huge cabinet we are invited to open to reveal lots of his drawing books.
It's a strange exhibition, a step into another world which is hard to define or pigeonhole but is a voyage of discovery.

*This column was due to have appeared in the Coventry Telegraph newspaper today, but didn't, so is reproduced here instead.

Artist Susan Moore is opening her new studio in Fillongley to visitors from 11am-5pm this weekend, December 1 and 2, and also January 5 and 6, with admission and refreshments free, but donations so Shelter are welcome. Susan paints a wide variety of subjects including portraits, musicians, animals, landscapes and children on beaches. There will be more than 80 paintings on show including silk paintings and cards. 10 per cent of all sales will be donated to Shelter. The studio is at The Old Granary, Castle Close, Fillongley, CV7 8PB.

Compton Verney art gallery was used in the filming of Gambit, starring Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz, and is now hosting an exhibition of film memorabilia to celebrate its release. Items on show include plans and a scale model of the Compton Verney film set, film stills and signed photos of the stars. The exhibition is on until December 16.

Hearts Gang's Handsome Gentlemen exhibition is a Coventry must-see

2012-11-07T19:52:52Z

Sometimes you find fantastic gems in the most unlikely of places.

On an old industrial estate back from a row of pizza takeaways is the debut exhibition, Handsome Gentlemen, from a bunch of "Coventry creatives", the Hearts Gang.

Officially the address is Unit 7 of Fargo Creative Village, off Far Gosford Street in Coventry. The exhibition is on from 2-8pm, and if you go after dark watch out for the trip hazards and careering vehicles on your way to find the Unit across a dark car park. But it's worth it!

]]> This is a really exciting development on the Coventry arts scene.

Many Coventry arts happenings seem to stem from people who met through a common source - frequently Coventry University, or Artspace, and there's nothing wrong with that. But although the artists in this exhibition may have contacts within both groups, they seem to be just an assortment of city people who know each other, or a "rabble", and haven't come to staging this exhibition through conventional means.

Bring Colour - who Facebook tells me is otherwise called John - said they had been planning an exhibition in an empty shop for ages, then this empty warehouse space became available.

The white walls are well decorated with works by a number of artists from the Hearts Gang of tattooists, graffiti artists and photographers.

Graffiti art is painted directly on to the walls, or colours come tumbling off canvases to create the whole image, one including a building that looks suspiciously like Coventry Cathedral. There are cartoon and Manga influences, plus a bit of flower power in the colours.

The photos of Kevin Donnelly stand out - this young man is going places. Actually, he's already been quite a few places, and either he has found trouble, or trouble has found him, in all of them. There's a photograph of a woman suicide being dragged from the water in Hong Kong, trouble on the London streets, a protest in Paris, and a great one of a shirtless young man grinning at him as he's bent over a car being arrested in Los Angeles.

Kevin said the only one that was staged was one using light brilliantly to show a scary, hooded stranger on a path - and that path is nearer to home, between Willenhall and Stoke Aldermoor.

Kevin said he's been to university in Bangkok and England and dropped out both times, and says he believes you don't need to study photography at university to do well, and he proves it, but at 23 he's happy to state his ambition is to be World's Best Photographer.

Now he's temporarily back home in Willenhall saving money for more travels, though he's just been to Poland, the Ukraine and Belgium - where he got put up in a five star hotel to take band photos. He's not only going to be showing in a Coventry warehouse for long. You can see more of his work for now at http://itchylabels.tumblr.com/

The beautifully-named Body Odour has contributed several works including Easter Island-style heads, one on its own in a LoveBox on the wall, and loads in a wooden box on the floor - they're great.

Abel has created Jesus-inspired paintings in spray paints, and Andrew John Smith, whose artist's statement reveals he has been inside a cell, creates tattoo-style drawings which look beautiful but spell out statements such as "Exceptional Pickpocket".

The exhibition is only on until November 17, so get there before you miss the chance to say you saw it.

New exhibitions for Lanchester Gallery Projects and Roots in Coventry centre

2012-11-02T20:17:04Z

It seems at the moment if there's one gallery having an opening night in Coventry, then there's two.

A few weeks ago it was the Mead and The Herbert, and the Herbert also clashed with the Coventry Transport Museum last week. Last night it was the turn of the Roots Gallery and Lanchester Gallery Projects to double date, but as they're so close together it was possible to get to both, as quite a few of us proved, as familiar faces were spotted in both, quaffing a couple of glasses of wine.

First on my schedule was the LGP, which is staging On the Desperate And Long-Neglected Need For Small Events. Arriving a bit after 6.30pm, I found I'd missed this small event, though luckily it was repeated at 7pm.

]]> The information tells us the title comes from the subtitle of a Barbara Vanderlinden 1990s curatorial project, and will involve LGP in a programme of "live research". There will be lectures, readings, screenings, conversations, club nights, performances and print. Local organisations and community groups, along with artists, will be invited in to coffee mornings to help "contribute to and build a sustainable cultural ecology in Coventry."

The first event was the singing of Sing Me a Song With Social Significance, performed by a choir of Coventry University students. It was written apparently for the 1930s musical revue Pins and Needles and was the only trade union Broadway hit. It certainly has something about it, so I was glad it got performed twice!

For details of lots of other events you could get involved in pop in for a leaflet, or see the website at http://lanchestergalleryprojects.org.uk/

For my second free drink of the night it was off to Roots gallery, for what was the launch of a solo exhibition by Dresden-based artist Jean Kirsten, and which also launched the 2012 Coventry Peace Festival and piloted the Coventry Dresden Arts Exchange.

Coventry-based artist John Yeadon founded the exchange which he said had been in his head for a long time, as he thought of other ways Coventry had exchanges with its twins. This exhibition was made possible with help from Coventry City Council Small Arts Grants Committee and the Coventry Peace Festival.

Jean Kirsten's exhibition is called For R Laban, and follows previous work he has done on the theme of expressionist dance. He explained: "You can see here works from two series. In 2009/10 I came to see the lecturers at the Metropolitan University in London and I took photos and I transferred them into prints and I looked for titles for the prints but I didn't want to write so I came to these Labanotation. (a system used to record and analyse motion).

"I thought these signs were really interesting so I created the signs series where I worked with the signs. The next step for me now is to translate these and bring these again into dance."

The prints are small and interesting, each movement filling the space. The symbols from Labanotation have been used to 'name' them, and the signs themselves used in big black and white collages.

Jean is hoping to go to London during his visit to the UK to make more studies of Laban dance in action, but is also holding an In Conversation at the gallery on November 8, from 6-8pm.

So with the Herbert's current exhibitions to be viewed between LGP and Roots there's lots for the art and culture lover to see in a short stretch of Coventry city centre.

Souren's exhibition at Gallery 150 is a triumph over suffering

2012-10-31T21:17:25Z

A life that promised riches but was then followed by the horrors of imprisonment lays behind the works of art on show now in Warwickshire.

Souren Mousavi's exhibition at Gallery150 in Leamington features varied works focusing on the female form, her Persian heritage and the fight for freedom.

]]> Souren was born in Iran in 1969 with an Iranian mother, Baraini father and claiming an ancestral line linked to the Persian monarchy. She gained an MA in Fine Art at the University of Teheran, and used her art in the fight for women's right. She was arrested, her images of women being considered pornographic and offensive to the regime, and she was imprisoned for eight years before coming to the UK in 2006, and living first in London and now Stratford.

Throughout it all she has continued to paint, with the nude female form and the need for freedom still her focus.

Unbelievably for someone who had already suffered so much, she broke her back in a gardening accident two and a half years ago, and spent months in hospital.

Six months ago she started looking to stage her own exhibition, and came across Gallery150 to show the paintings that come from her innermost feelings.

Looking as though her thoughts were a long way from Leamington for a minute, speaking at the opening Souren said: "All my paintings are a reflection of my feeling and experiences and humanity, and the bad times I have had in the past.

"It's been years ago but I am still seeing a counsellor and trying to cope with every day as it comes. Some people write and some paint. I have found it quite good therapy."

Her works have previously been shown in exhibitions in London, Geneva and Vienna, and those here are watercolours, acrylics and oil paints.

Souren says in particular she is enjoying working in watercolours, finding she can relate the sensitive, dedicated nature of the paint with her own experiences.

The works are varied in style, some paintings in oil of the ideal nude female form. Others are more symbolic of Souren's life. Why features a naked woman, head bowed, arms open, asking about her life as the seemingly abstract landscape slowly reveals contorted human forms.

The Bridge seems to be just that until you see the curled up body of a woman underneath, and Dream also features distorted and contorted faces and bodies.

One painting shows a woman cracking in half to just reveal a blood-red interior, and in other works the pretty colours and shapes belie a deeper meaning as the people emerge.

Another series shows Souren exploring her heritage, with classical Persian images and statues included in the human scenes.

Visit to see the outpourings of a woman who paid the price for her art as she strived for freedom and is still seeking it through her work.
* Souren will be giving a talk at the gallery on Tuesday, November 6 from 7-8pm.