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.
Galleries
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.
Katie O brings scary monsters and robots to The Lock
AN ARTIST is holding her second solo exhibition in Coventry, telling a story familiar to many young women.
Katie O’s exhibition Minor Malfunctions, Psychology of the Machine, is on show at The Lock at the Canal Warehouse beside the Canal Basin. It tells the story of a young girl setting out through life, beset with worries and indecisions, feeling scared by the – in this work – scary monster looming over her, and then here getting some guidance from the friendly robot. Dreams seem out of reach, life is empty and she wonders if it will ever change.
Coventry and Warwickshire offer the best in big-name art shows
Paula Rego, The Bride’s Secret Diary, Rugby Art Gallery and Museum, Rugby Borough Council © Paula Rego
THIS spring the London art world features a host of big-name exhibitions – but you can avoid the crowds and still see some excellent works in the Coventry and Warwickshire area.
In London, you can be sure to be in a big crowd seeing exhibitions of works by David Hockney, Lucian Freud, Damien Hirst, Yayoi Kusama, and shortly the Bauhaus design exhibition.
But at Compton Verney there’s lesser-known Gainsborough landscapes on show, plus in Into the Light great works by Renoir, Cezanne, Sisley, Monet, Whistler, Pisarro and lots more great artists. And although you pay to get in, there’s also the great permanent collection, with the naïve art on the top floor offering lots of treats.
Rugby Art Gallery and Museum has all the fantastic Rugby Collection on show for the first time, 175 items, including a good selection of women artists – Paula Rego, Bridget Riley, Prunella Clough, Maggi Hambling – and other well-known names such as Leon Kossoff, Bryan Wynter, Graham Sutherland and Lucian Freud. It would be mad to miss it. (see a full review in the Coventry Telegraph on May 4)
Coventry City’s day of glory lives on in The Herbert’s exhibition
SO today the Coventry City football season ended fairly ignominiously, but in The Herbert fans were still wandering around reliving the club’s most glorious day.
The largest exhibition on at the Coventry city centre gallery at the moment is From Highfield Road to Wembley Way, celebrating the Cup victory 25 years ago. There are pictures of all the team, as they are now, and a brief biog mostly stating what they’re now up to which is fascinating.
There’s the story of how Coventry reached the final, and lots of cabinets of memorabilia from the time, including the Coventry Evening Telegraph front page about the victory, and some bizarre items, such as a knitted set of all the players!
Fans are invited to write down their memories and put them up on the wall along with any pictures from the time. There’s some great reminiscences and some amusing 1980s looks in the photos. I wonder if the many fans for whom the day is a drunken blur now regret missing so much. For others it sounds like they had the time of their life.
Coventry City fans shouldn’t miss this one, and if some new visitors stop to have a look around the fantastic Coventry and Warwickshire watercolours exhibition, and the photos from Gaza in the Peace and Reconciliation Gallery that will be even better.
Compton Verney Gainsborough exhibition shows artist’s favourite landscapes
AN EXHIBITION of landscapes by an artist known for his portraits has revealed lots more varied work than Gainsborough is normally known for.
Gainsborough painted his 18th century portraits for a living, but apparently once said he was “sick of portraits” and wanted to paint landscapes “in quietness and ease”. The exhibition Gainsborough’s Landscapes: Themes and Variations at Compton Verney art gallery is the first for 50 years devoted to his landscapes, and brings together lots of works from public and private collections.
Architects’ space makes a great gallery
Coventry University art students are exhibiting their work in an interesting if hard-to-get-to space until the end of March.
The IDP Architects Practice in Spon Street, Coventry city centre, is in an old building which has incorporated some outdoor space into a spacious glass-fronted entrance and staircase area – you can see in from the street.
John Burns from the university’s School of Art and Design met some people who worked there while dining in Browns Independent Bar in the city centre, and the idea of using it to show students’ art grew from there.
John held an exhibition of some of his own work there last year, and now work by 40 students from the BA Illustration and Animation course has gone up on the brick walls.
Coventry University gets prime spot for new Lanchester Gallery Projects venue
Coventry’s newest and very prominent art gallery has opened with a conceptual exhibition which makes a statement about how it plans to progress.
The Lanchester Gallery has moved from inside Coventry University’s Graham Sutherland building, which houses the School of Art and Design, to a space on the front of The Hub in Jordan Well. In such an obvious position the pressure was on, and before this first exhibition, ÉVASION, opened there had been a week of near all-night work to get everything ready.
Private View II 