An exhibition of luscious pop-art influenced works by a Coventry-grown talent has gone on show in the city.
Mini Padam went to Foxford School then did a foundation year at Coventry University before heading off to follow her interests with a degree in graphic design and illustration followed by an MA in illustration at Camberwell College of Arts.
Now working on her own designs and teaching graphic design, illustration and photography in a college, she’s back in Coventry for a big show of her own.
She works in screen printing and digital illustration, and there are several clear themes and influences emerging. Ice cream vans pop up in several images, and the show, which is upstairs at Browns Independent Bar in Coventry city centre, is called Ice Cream and Synth.
However Mini says of the ice cream vans: “I just like the shape”, though the important role of an ice cream van in Assault on Precinct 13, is also important to her: “I’m obsessed with films and music. ” (more…)
Author: Julie Chamberlain
Crime and closure
Not a good week in some ways for Coventry art world last week.
The Roots Gallery in Earl Street was broken into, and some electrical equipment used in two of the pieces of work was stolen.
The gallery had to close while police investigated and the council who own it were apparently going to put in extra security measure. However it’s not the first break in at the gallery – when it was just known as the glass showcase it was broken into a couple of years ago I think, and tools and other easily saleable items were stolen. You would think somewhere that is mostly glass-sided would put off burglars – but obviously not. Let’s hope this time the security measures work or it will limit what is used in exhibitions.
Emma O’Brien also announced she would be closing the Lock Gallery in the Canal Basin warehouse after a final exhibition in August.
Miriam’s flowers take form at Coventry’s Lock Gallery
Young artist Miriam Duffield is holding her first solo exhibition at the Lock Gallery at Coventry’s Canal Basin warehouse.
Miriam, aged 21, is from Hinckley and has just finished the second year of her Fine Art degree at De Montford University in Leicester. Her exhibition, Flowers as Forms, deconstructs flowers and plants to examine their form and colour in detail, or as the publicity for the exhibition reads: “Exploring the intricate forms and delicate shapes of flowers to make them more visually appealing to a contemporary viewer.”
Roots gallery aims to be new dynamic arts space in Coventry
A new art gallery has opened in an old space in Coventry city centre.
Roots gallery is in what people have known for years at the glass box or glass showcase opposite Browns and The Herbert in Earl Street. It was owned by the council and pretty much anyone could exhibit there as long as they paid the low hire cost.
The result was a bit of a mish-mash – some very good, some interesting discoveries, lots average and some quite poor.
A change of policy has resulted in the decision to support a Coventry University graduate, Sian Conway, in taking over the space for a year with a properly curated programme of exhibitions. Officially, the plan is to build on the gallery’s existing links with community groups, local artists and students, while adding a new vision and making it a “dynamic space for contemporary visual art”.
Jenny Saville’s first solo UK show explores bodies and babies
Picture by Geraint Lewis
Jenny Saville’s name belongs with the other YBAs of the 1990s, but she has waited longer to have her first UK solo exhibition.
While Damien Hirst has a retrospective this summer at Tate Modern and Tracey Emin had one last year at the Hayward and is now showing in Tate Margate, Saville’s show is in the cosier surroundings of Modern Art Oxford, in the city where she has her studio.
The exhibition includes works from the 1990s until the present – with one being finished just the day before the exhibition opened, and another being framed and hung in the gallery on the press preview day.
Coventry’s Henley College students put on a good end-of-year show
You’ve only got tomorrow (Saturday June 16) left to see it, but artworks by Coventry’s Henley College students are on show at The Herbert in the city centre, and worth a visit.
Around 60 varied pieces by students from the media, photography and creative arts courses are on show upstairs in the studio. It’s the second year the college has had its annual final show in the Herbert, and it’s just a shame it’s not on a big longer to let more people see it.
They include an area where visitors can have a go on a new Playstation game created and designed by the Games Development students.
I’m more comfortable with the traditional art forms, but there’s still plenty of variety.
See Graham Sutherland works in their own landscape
It’s possible to travel a long way from Coventry – and still find a familiar image on show.
On a short break in Pembrokeshire I discovered a fantastic exhibition of Graham Sutherland landscapes and other works in the Oriely Y Parc Landscape Gallery, a lovely light and airy space in a well-designed building which also houses the information centre in St Davids.
This seems to be the year to see Graham Sutherland, following the exhibition curated by George Shaw at Modern Art Oxford. That focused heavily on Sutherland’s Pembrokeshire landscapes, and some of them feature here too – along with a map suggesting places to visit inspired by the works! The Coventry connection was a practice image for the crucifixion for the Coventry Cathedral tapestry.
Coventry University art degree show opening draws the crowds
It’s the biggest art show of the year again in Coventry, and the crowds were out in force to get the first glimpse at the private view last night.
Coventry University’s School of Art and Design’s annual degree show allows the final-year students, and those completing a foundation year to put their last projects on display. The night itself can be a bit of an ordeal – each floor you climb up gets progressively hotter and sweatier, and the atmospheric pounding music in some room is a bit oppressive, but tottering round with a drink and bumping into old friends makes it fun.
Pluspace is venue for Artspace veteran Terry Williams’s works
A Coventry-based artist is showing his paintings at the city’s busiest new gallery.
Terry Williams’s works can be seen at weekends, mid-day until 5pm, until June 11 at the Pluspace Gallery, which can be found upstairs from the east entrance of Broadgate House in the city centre.
Terry is the longest resident of the Artspace Artists Studios in Lower Holyhead Road and graduated from Coventry University’s Fine Art degree in the 1980s.
More top exhibitions to view in Coventry, Leamington and Stratford
Douglas Gordon & Philippe Parreno Zidane, A 21st-Century Portrait Courtesy Anne Lena Films and Naflastrengir 2006
I must be going soft in my old age, three more exhibitions seen in three days, and I liked all three.
They will be reviewed at a later date in the Coventry Telegraph, but I wanted to give you early notice they’re there and worth seeing.
Private View II 