29/7/2005
Three exhibitions
firstsite, Colchester
Leo Fitzmaurice, Neat Stuff - Paintings, Prints and Pissarro, Lucien Pissarro and other celebrated artists - Michael Goodey, Signs in the Landscape Artist Space
Leo Fitzmaurice
Neat Stuff
Neat Stuff is the first major UK solo show of work by Liverpool-based artist Leo Fitzmaurice.
Working from a studio in a high-rise block of flats, Fitzmaurice is interested in the bombardment of information modern life presents us with. He explores this through large-scale installations and small-scale sculptures, working with discarded packaging, flyers and magazines. This use of materials questions what is important, how we interpret the world around us and our place within it.
He cuts away text and other information to re-present familiar materials as sculpture, images, installations and publications. By removing the text from packaging in this way, the artist enables viewers to concentrate on the forms of the graphic design without being blinded by information. The process is, however, more than just an exercise in graphic appreciation. The removal of this text information is crucial to Leo’s ethos.
“We are the first generation that may suffer from receiving too much information,†he said.
The removal of the information of everyday discarded objects goes beyond everyday packaging and a razor blade. An entire Littlewoods catalogue where every page has been folded into a package and then each of these stacked in the corner of a room is another of his works. Crisp packets arranged by their colour in rainbow sequence. All the work attempts to take from everyday objects an improved element of aesthetic; large carpets made of supermarket flyers, billboards robbed of text. Leo works in a third floor flat of a council high-rise block in Liverpool, which is due for demolition. He works without music, or sound of any kind.
“I hate information,†he said.
studied at Leicester Polytechnic 1988-89, Liverpool Polytechnic 1989-92 and Manchester Metropolitan University 1992-94. Recent exhibitions include:
Mappin Sheffield Art Gallery, 2002 (one-man)
Further Up in the Air Linosa Close Liverpool and tour 2002-3
Art Trans-Pennine www.artranspennie.org.uk 2003
From a Distance Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool 2003
On Side Centro de Artes, Coimbra 2004
Inter Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston 2004
Neat stuff is presented at firstsite in collaboration with Blueprint magazine.
---
Paintings, Prints and Pissarro
Lucien Pissarro and other celebrated artists
A small spotlight exhibition presenting selected landscapes from Colchester Borough Council’s Art Collection, centering on celebrated artist Lucien Pissarro’s painting depicting a view across Hilly Fields. This superb painting inspired Michael Goodey’s unusual artwork Signs in the Landscape, for which Michael has created his own painted versions of Pissarro’s masterpiece, from ten locations around Colchester.
---
Michael Goodey
Signs in the Landscape Artist Space
As part of Signs in the Landscape project, Michael Goodey presents an ambitious gallery installation. He invites us to step into a huge ploughed field to view different representations of Colchester’s distinctive skyline: the Town Hall spire and Jumbo water tower.
The gallery piece relates directly to his offsite artwork - a cycle trail encircling the town of Colchester with a series of artworks along the way. Inspired by Colchester’s distinctive skyline - the Town Hall spire and Jumbo water tower - we are invited to travel around the circumference enjoying views of them. At ten locations we come across signs depicting the view. Looking like manufactured road traffic signs, these are in fact meticulously handmade paintings, each taking the artist over two weeks to create!
firstsite
the minories art gallery
74 high street
colchester
essex CO1 1UE