Exhibition Review

Subterranean's

The Gallery at Blenheim Walk

21st November - 5th December

The Strip
Bonnie and Clyde

I recently went to the exhibition Subterraneans at Leeds College of Art, where it explored the broader implications of Beat culture and how it influenced visual art and design. The exhibition had a vary of artists who are designers, film makers, photographers, illustrators and print maker. The art on show was really interesting and inspiring to see, with work from famous artist such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Yoko Ono. 

My favorite piece in the exhibition was by Diane Wakoski (above) as I just thought the image captured a lot with having the gun as the focus point then with the person in the background, as well as having the white lines going around the gun. The piece is very busy but not too cluttered to ruin the overall piece and it also looks very modern and contemporary what I prefer when it comes to art.  

The gallery had a wide collection of artwork from paintings to photographs to sculpture to even video pieces.   

Overall I thought it was one of the best exhibition Leeds college of art has had up to now, because it was full of artwork that was all very varied so you had plenty to see. 

Fine Art Graduate Forum

Fine Art Graduate Forum 

On the 27th of November I took part in the Fine Art Graduate Forum that Leeds College of Art hosted, this was a fantastic day and was full of useful information on how to get into the art world after you leave university. It was really interesting listening to the artist talk about what their doing now and what they have done in between leaving university and to present day. All the artists lead different paths some went on to further education, some had normal jobs but still pursing a career as an artist and some was just a full time artist. Even though I only heard two artists speak about themselves I heard about all the other artists when it finished when all the students was talking to each other. I was a bit worried when a lot of people told me that quite a few Graduates was just working in ordinary shops at the moment as they was struggling to get their foot in the door in the art world. When I heard this I was doubting if I took the right course as taking a Fine Art course is very risky when it comes to getting a career out of it as there are quite limited jobs available, but I love creating artwork and I want to try my best to pursue a career in the arts. 

In the afternoon I had a tutorial with graduate Joe Hancock who is a multidisciplinary artist who creates a vary of art from sculptures to performances to text pieces. Having a tutorial with Joe Hancock was very useful as he told me to look at artist I never heard of that could influence my work in the future and ideas and advice that I could use in my work. 

Climb, Joe Hancock, 2010 

I found the overall day very useful and it was nice to talk to an array of artist to see what their doing now in their careers and to hear what type of artwork they are creating at the moment as it was very helpful and influenced me a lot to pursue a career in the arts. 

Image taken from: http://joe-hancock.com/

Below the belt exhibition

Below the Belt is a exhibition about feminism but created by all male artist, what I find really interesting as I haven't really seen artists do this before as you don't really see a man who is a feminist. The exhibition night was full of people and there was a great atmosphere with people drinking and discussing art. I especially liked how they exhibited the work on International Men's day to set a statement. 

Some pictures from the event

Karl Sims, Crucifixion, 2014

Ryan Smith, 7 kg's of carrots, 2014 

Ryan Smith, Chest of Draws, 2014 

I found the work that was on show was really interesting and unusual. 

 Performance piece Fruit Orgy, Karl Sims, 2014

The performance piece was fantastic, there was a great atmosphere of everybody gathering outside the exhibition to see the piece through the shop window. No one knew what to expect because for quite a while there was just men in suits eating fruit, but then it turned, they chucked fruit at each other at the walls and destroyed the room they was in covering both the windows and the walls with fruit, it was fantastic and funny to watch. I would of just liked a description before the piece to tell you what the piece was actually about fully. But still a great exhibition. 

Gego. Line as Object

My first Gallery I visited at Leeds whilst starting Leeds College of art, was at the Henry Moore Institute where I viewed the exhibition Gego Line as Object. Gertrude Goldschmidt was a modern Venezuelan artist and sculpture, who created very popular artwork around the 1960s-1970s as it was this time when Geometric abstract art and Kinetic art was very popular.





Gego. Line as Object is Gertrude Goldschmidt first UK's solo exhibition, where she explores the unrivalled engagement with the issues of form and space. This exhibition was very modern and spacious with a lot of negative space even though the exhibition space was filled with a vary of 3D sculpture's and 2D work. I was amazed by the 3D sculptures and how delicate and interesting they looked even though they was created with such a basic material such as steel wire.



'Esfera N° 5' ('Sphere No. 5'), 1977
Steel wire with metal clasps



I really enjoyed viewing this exhibition even though its not really like the art work I tend to produce as I don't tend to create work that's fragile and delicate, but it was useful to see and gave me ideas that I could use in my future work as I loved all the negative space.  

Images was taken from:

 http://www.henry-moore.org/hmi