Blackwater Polytechnic, Feering, Essex
6 – 7 and 12 – 14 July 2013

Works left to right: Typoretum (Justin Knopp), Emery Whitworth

Works left to right: Freddie Robins, Paula Kane, Ben Coode-Adams

Works left to right: Rosalind Davis, Freddie Robins

Works left to right: Ben Coode-Adams, Freddie Robins
Works on white cabinet: Leigh Cameron, Freddie Robins

Blackwater Polytechnic presents an exhibition of exceptional construction in wood, textiles, ink, paint, metal & concrete made by men and women with their hands.

Happy Days presents the self-sufficiency and mental toughness of a group of artists whose work ploughs its own furrow. These artists are above all true to them- selves. And through commitment to a unique vision make amazing work. They are wildly different but together add up to more than the some of their parts.

All the artists in this exhibition share a sense of quality and joy of materials, some embracing the broken, damaged and fixed, some creating the perfect surface. In defiance of the quick fix they use craftiness and skill to create resonant structures and surfaces.

The artists offer the ‘consolation of the considered detail’ whether on an architectural wall slab or on a jewel encrusted finger of flint. Their work embraces the local, the emotional and handicraft. Building is our art.

Phrase taken from John Pawson, A Visual Inventory, Thames and Hudson, 2012

(Statement by Ben Coode-Adams, taken from www.blackwaterpolytechnic.com)

Exhibiting alongside: Leigh Cameron, Ben Coode-Adams, Rosalind Davis, David Gates – The Rural College of Art, Sara Impey, David Howe, Paula Kane, David Kefford, The Paintbox (Emery Whitworth), Annabel Tilley, Typoretum (Justin Knopp) and Sonia York.

Photography: Douglas Atfield

Out on a Limb

Saatchi Gallery, London
10 – 13 May 2013

I, 2013
machine knitted wool, glass beads, coral, antique earring, polished agate and lace, 130 × 210 × 50 mm. In Government Art Collection.

Limb, 2013
machine and hand knitted wool, crochet wool, expanding foam. glass beads, lace, dress pins, sequins and antique faux pearl necklace, 140 × 200 × 640 mm

i, 2013
machine knitted wool, hand crocheted wool, nails, beads, antique glass jewellery, polished agate on maple wood plaque, 180 × 200 × 50 mm. Private Collection

Bad Mother, 2013
machine knitted wool, machine knitted lurex, expanding foam, knitting needles, glass beads, sequins, dress pins, crystal beads on maple wood shelf, 780 × 160 × 160 mm. Private Collection

Still Breathing, 2013
machine knitted wool, hand embroidered wool, hand crocheted lurex, coppered nails, sequins, beads, antique faux pearl necklaces, antique crystal necklace on maple wood plaque, 820 × 1000 × 80 mm

One Letter Apart, 2013
machine and hand knitted wool, hand crocheted wool, expanding foam, ball of sisal, second-hand hand knitted wool glove, antique glass bead necklace, flints, sequins, glitter, mohair yarn, dress pins on oak base, approx 1700 × 550 × 430 mm

A Perfectly Good Marriage, 2013
machine knitted wool, expanding foam, hawthorn log with horse shoe embedded in it, flints, sequins, dress pins on oak, cherry and spruce wood stand, 360 × 440 × 1640 mm

Hacked, 2013
machine knitted wool, expanding foam, second-hand hand knitted wool glove, mohair yarn, beads, sea bamboo beads, balls of wool on hacked steel and wool IKEA stool (designed by Carmel McElroy and Graeme Findlay), 440 × 360 × 980 mm

Out on a Limb – samples and surpluses, things donated and inherited and found, domestic craft, mass manufacture, exquisite craftsmanship, embellished and encrusted, excess, needless, disembodied, immense violence, fear, loss, death, pain, pins and needles, and wool.

Portrait: Sophie Mutevelian
Installation photography: Ben Coode-Adams
Studio photography: Douglas Atfield

www.artscouncil.org.uk

Smiths Row, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk
11 July – 1 September 2012

Untitled drawings, 2006 – 2011, ink on paper, 370 × 460 mm

Heart 2 Heart, Kidney Stones, Spots on your Lungs, Paisley Kidney, Lily Livered and Floral Liver, 1996
screen-printed cotton, wadding,150 × 125 mm – 240 × 920 mm

Craft Kills, 2002
machine knitted wool, knitting needles, 2000 × 680 × 380 mm

Transformations is part of the celebrations marking Smiths Row’s 40th anniversary. It focuses on the work of a number of leading UK artists they have supported throughout their history. Their work was shown at Smiths Row at the beginning of their careers and for many of them it has made a big difference to their onward success.

Small, publicly funded galleries, such as Smiths Row, play an important role in supporting early and mid-career artists by providing opportunities to exhibit, create new work and professional training which enables them to move “up the ladder” to exhibit at major London or international galleries that do not have the remit or capacity work with them in their early careers.



Out of all the artists they have worked with over the years these artists have been selected because their work explores seeming contradictions within their use of media and a tendency to subvert conventions within contemporary visual art, particularly in using craft techniques.

(Taken from www.smithsrow.org)

Exhibiting alongside: Catherine Bertola, Maxine Bristow, Susan Collis, Ben Coode-Adams, Roger Hiorns, Haroon Mirza and Caroline Wright.

Photography: Douglas Atfield

Curated by Day + Gluckman
Collyer Bristow Gallery, 4 Bedford Row, London
26 May - 21 September 2011

He’s behind you, 2011, machine knitted yarn, metal coat-hanger, found wardrobe, 900 × 600 × 1640 mm

Untitled drawings, 2006 – 2011, ink on paper, 370 × 460 mm

An exhibition of iconic John French prints, from the V&A Archive, alongside highlights from the Museum and Study Collection at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, bespoke visualisations by FABRIC, work by WESSIELING, Carole Evans and new commissions by artists Alice Angus of Proboscis with Fee Doran (aka Mrs Jones) and Freddie Robins.

John French (1907-1966) created some of the most iconic photographic images in British fashion. Developing techniques that highlighted contrast, to work with the new mass media printing of images in newspapers, he secured fashion imagery a consistent place on the front page. In the early 1950s his jauntily posed models reflected the mood of buoyant confidence being promoted and spun by the British government. The 1951 Festival of Britain provided post-war Britain a conduit to re-secure its international standing through a celebration of new technologies, science and culture.

At the same time women, who had been essential to the war effort, were expected to return to the home and rebuild family life. 2011 marks 60 years since the Festival of Britain. Looking at the 1950’s as a starting point this exhibition considers the implications of those changing times, including the beginnings of feminism.  The Museum and Study Collection at Central St Martins holds printed fabrics and items that document the beginning of women becoming stakeholders and gaining creative freedom within the fashion and textile design worlds.

(Taken from www.dayandgluckman.co.uk)

Curated by Judith King
Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens, Northumberland
1 May–26 September 2010

Woodland Unhappy Families 2010, mixed media installation commissioned for Extraordinary Measures

Leading contemporary artists were commissioned to fill the grounds and rooms at Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens, a property in the care of English Heritage near Newcastle. The exhibition Extraordinary Measures explored and played with our concept of scale, taking visitors of all ages into an Alice in Wonderland world of dark enchantment.

Extraordinary Measures is the sixth in a series of contemporary art exhibitions to be staged at Belsay. Simon Thurley, Chief Executive at English Heritage, said: “Every few years, we offer Belsay up to the cream of contemporary artists, giving them the opportunity to use the estate as a blank canvas for their imagination. New art and great heritage should not exist in separate closed-off worlds. So next summer, within the ancient rooms and beautiful gardens of Belsay, visitors will discover a universe where the miniscule is made massive and huge surroundings hide tiny surprises”. (Taken from Press Release for Extraordinary Measures, 2010)

Exhibiting alongside: Mat Collishaw, Tessa Farmer, MGA (Jenny Gillatt and Tim Mosedale), Ron Mueck, Mariele Neudecker, Slinkachu and Ciaran Treanor