calendario eventi  :: 

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21/1/2005

Two exhibitions

The City Gallery, Leicester

The Beautiful People - David Hancock, Home - Julie Arkell

David Hancock’s Beautiful People inhabit the margins of urban life, deeply involved in ‘alternative culture’; they challenge social conventions and create their own home environments as shrines to their way of life.

Two recent painting projects by the young Manchester artist David Hancock are brought together in Hancock's one-person show at The City Gallery, The Beautiful People from 22nd January to 5th March 2005. Hancock's intensely coloured, panoramic photo-realist paintings present the lives of independently minded young people in larger-than-life detail.

Hancock's latest series of works Jane Says is a collaboration between the artist and a young writer, Janie Doll. Drawing on both the narrative elements and elaborate symbolism of the natural world found in Pre-Raphaelite painting and Victorian fairy painting, Hancock constructs an installation that takes the form of a faux Victorian room set with paintings. Elaborately painted furniture makes sly reference to the fascination with fantasy found both in Victorian painting and 21st century computer games and digital animation. Jane Says takes as its subject matter a series of grim life stories of modern youth, as narrated by Janie Doll.

Each tale is treated as an episodic vignette, with titles such as Bleach and The Drowners, in which the heroine is depicted with an unsettling, hyper-real intensity. Presenting us with the mindset of a young woman, Jane Says is an uncomfortable blend of fantasy and fact, depicted in intense, hallucinatory colour.

Hancock's earlier series of large-scale paintings The Beautiful People also takes as its subject matter the experiences of young people. Undertaken as an ambitious project to portray the lives of individuals involved in contemporary sub-cultures, Hancockâs Beautiful People inhabit the fringes of urban culture. Often artists in their own right, his Beautiful People create their own chaotic environments and customise their clothing to accentuate their individuality. Hancockâs panoramic paintings transport the viewer into three-dimensional environments saturated with colour, offering an intense encounter with the personality of a young person.

David Hancock lives and works in Manchester, he studied Fine Art at Manchester Metropolitan University, graduating in 1996, and was included in the 1996 Northern Graduates exhibition at the Royal College of Art. In 1999, he was selected for the John Moores 21 Contemporary painting exhibition. In 2000 his work was included in the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery, he was also resident 'Artist at Work' at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. In 2001 David was the first artist to have a solo exhibition at Comme Caâs new Chorlton Mill Gallery in Manchester, and won City Life's 'Visual Arts Exhibition of the Year 2001'. He was also profiled in the March edition of Art Review. His work was Commended in the BP Portrait Prize and he was short listed for Fresh Artist 2001 at the Business Design Centre. David had solo exhibitions at the View 2 Gallery, Liverpool, and at the Dean Clough Galleries, Halifax. In 2002 David was short listed for the BOC Emerging Artist Award and throughout October, embarked upon a one-month artistsâ residency, funded by the Arts Council and British Council, at DDM Warehouse in Shanghai. In 2003 David held solo exhibitions at the Kirkby Gallery, Merseyside, the Storey Gallery, Lancaster, and at Comme Ca in New York. He recently co-curated a touring group exhibition titled 'We didn't mean to be bad kids, TV made us do it' at Warrington Museum and Art Gallery.

David Hancock Talks - Thursday 10 February 2005 - 11.30am – 1.00pm and 2.30pm – 4.00pm - Free – booking essential. Join David Hancock as he talks about the progression of his work through to The Beautiful People and Jane Says.

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Julie Arkell’s irresistible ‘people’ are the product of the rejected debris of everyday life: broken, cracked and worn objects that live in her studio, before eventually being incorporated into her work

The City Gallery, Granby Street, Leicester presents Home, an exhibition by Julie Arkell from 22nd January to 5th March 2005. Julie is one of Britain's most important contemporary folk artists, working in papier-mâché and mixed media. Influenced by her 1950's childhood, prior to the age of consumerism, fast food and throw away culture, Home pays tribute to craftsmanship and home-making, knitting socks, baking and sewing clothes both for family and dolls.

Home introduces us to her curious 'people creatures'; knitheads, rabbit poets, jar creatures and dolls of many parts. An avid collector, she recycles 'the rejected debris of everyday life', using paper from old books often found at markets or jumble sales, fabrics from vintage clothes and objects that have been sourced from her local hardware and haberdashery stores. Julie employs traditional techniques such as papier-mâché, stitching, knitting, painting, embroidery and collage to create her exquisite 'people'.

By using scraps of text and objects, which have already had a history, she perpetuates their sentiments and breathes new life into them. She is fascinated with the layering of meaning, age, use and emotion that can be found in these 'second-hand' objects. 'I respond to the imperfection of things. Something frayed, faded, stained or coming undone has more meaning to me than an object perfectly put together'.

In Conversation with Julie Arkell - Saturday 12 February 2005 - 2.30pm – 3.30pm - Free – booking essential - Join Julie Arkell as she talks about the background of her work and the journey that has brought her to ‘Home’, her current exhibition.

Admission is free. A national touring exhibition originated by The Gallery, Ruthin Craft Centre.

The City Gallery - 90 Granby Street - Leicester - LE1 1DJ

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