Monday 29 July 2013

AirSpace Gallery - a new artwork arrives


Coming from its starring roll at Lichfield Cathedral, part of 2013 Lichfield Festival, AirSpace Gallery is now the proud guardian of Pete R. Smith's latest creation, "Bird Bath for the weary Bird"

Pete says -

As an artist I create installations sometimes involving mechanical surrogate forms, other times involving remoulded debris that have been retired from their previous duties and reclaimed into artistic duties. Within this they often take on mass and menial functions reflecting the everyday chores in our lives. I am interested in what mass production means and how this affects our day to day living. I am curious about those ghosts of our presence having been there and what we may leave behind us if even it is but only an echo?

Made from reclaimed debris from my explorations and childhood, the bird bath features two car trailer mud guards converted into luxury bathing suite’s for any weary bird that just happens to be in the Herb Garden and needing a good wash and preen.

The Bird Bath now has a permanent place in the AirSpace Yarden.

Thursday 25 July 2013

AirSpace Gallery - Who Dares by Malarky and Gold Peg

Who Dares - AirSpace Gallery 03/08/13-10/08/13

The first AirSpace show of the new season opens on Saturday August 3rd with a short sharp bang. Responding to the city's many hinterlands, neglecteds, overlookeds and forgottens, the site and location inspired Who Dares sees London artists Malarky and Gold Peg  transforming the gallery spaces into an alternate world, at once familiar, full of home comforts, but on closer inspection, things aren't as they initially seem.


In amongst the wastelands, backsies, and car boot communities, we’ve been conjuring up a chaotic selection of wild animals for their upcoming exhibition ‘Who Dares’. With an array of neons, smashed bricks, and combustible fuels the private view promises to be dangerous, and well worth the expedition. - Gold Peg

Malarky and Goldpeg have been creating a stir in their short time in the city, with several murals popping up in unexpected places, and with Who Dares the promise of the unexpected and the unconventional is transferred to a gallery setting. 

The Private View is open to everyone and will be on Saturday August 3rd at 6pm, with the show running from Tuesday 6th-Saturday 10th, 10am-5pm. 

For more information visit the facebook event page https://www.facebook.com/events/412088375573296/
and

Wednesday 24 July 2013

AirSpace Gallery - Graduate Residency

Today we at AirSpace Gallery are happy to announce 2014's Graduate Residents.


Chloe Ashley is a fine art practitioner specialising within archaic and alternative photographic techniques. Recently completing her BA (Hons) Fine Art at Loughborough University, Ashley has exhibited frequently across the Midlands.
Influenced by artist such as Mariah Robertson and John Stezaker, her interests revolve around the notion of the uncanny; this is investigated through photographic distortion to discover the jarring from the mundane. Ashley’s current fascination with Sigmund Freud’s discussion of the Unheimlich as a ‘species of the frightening that goes back to what was once well known and has long been familiar’ (Freud, 1919: 124), has directed her exploration of the unfamiliar/familiar within the everyday. The focus on the contemporary everyday is due to its association with the familiar, alongside the cognitive dissonance that is provoked through the exploration of contemporary spaces and objects with archaic photographic processes.

In pursuing distortion through photography, a vast range of alternative processes has featured within the practice. Though at present, her focus on Collage and Bleach processes has occurred due to the level of distortion these can generate. The creation of the preparatory imagery occurs primarily with the use of a Houghton Quarter Plate Camera, manufactured in 1911, loaded with large format film.

Bob Catterall's practice starts off with narratives that are developed from his research, which has a focus on inequity and iniquity in current international political and social affairs. These narratives often have apocalyptic and dystopian themes, inspired by the unjust reality portrayed through main stream media. Like the media he filters the information available to the viewer to suit his intent, offering excerpts in descriptions and publications. 


From these narratives he constructs architectural models, sculptures and installations that illustrate the stories, giving hints to the morals behind them. Though he works in miniature scales, his interest in space and the way it is interacted with has lead to the production of several large scale pieces.
 



Into its second year, the AirSpace Gallery Graduate Residency Scheme has just got underway. Over the next 6 months, two 2013 Fine art graduates will be offered free studio space, regular monthly support meetings, and an interim and end-of-residency solo show, plus all the associated benefits of working within a studio environment and being attached to a successful contemporary art space.

The reasons for the scheme are two-fold. There is a sense of a yawning chasm greeting the newly graduated art student, faced with the trying to operate as an artist without the safety net of an academic institution. Through provision of a supportive and cost-effective artistic environment, this scheme seeks to offer our residents a chance to carry on their artistic endeavours and explore the possibilities of life as a professional artist. 

Secondly, Stoke-on-Trent, along with many other cities, has had a struggle to retain its arts graduates, as the bright lights and opportunities of bigger cities has proved too irresistible. Alongside other art organisations such as Grand Union and Eastside Projects in Birmingham and Many Studios in Glasgow, AirSpace is happy to provide an impetus and opportunity to work without having to relocate South.

Our 2012 Graduate residents, Adam Gruning and Adam Kelly, found their residencies rewarding and instructive, and only today we found out that Adam Kelly has just accepted a place on an MA course, something he attributes to the confidence he found from the 6 month residency here. 

Adam Gruning said of his time - "I would definitely recommend the residency to other artists looking for opportunities after University. The residency offers the valuable debut solo show opportunity artists dream of as well as a supportive artist community that makes the transition from University to practicing artist positive, productive and enjoyable."

Friday 12 July 2013

AirSpace Gallery - Art in the Heart



Over the past few months, AirSpace has been working with Art in the Heart - a Birmingham Museums Trust Project, which seeks to group together and promote the wide range of art activity and institutions in the region. The upshot is that 23 of the regions art institutions are put together in a physical and online brochure - and AirSpace Gallery is a flagship for the artist-led sector.

The launch was really well attended, we got a mention in the Speeches as an indicator of the project's breadth of coverage, and there were were bespoke cupcakes. 

Art and Cake - perfect bedfellows.

here's a link to the Art in the Heart website, some images from the launch 





and a preview of the brochure. Come and see the amazing provision for the arts in the West Midlands.