The White & Red Exhibition @ Triangle Shopping Center, Manchester

A collaborative exhibition held by second year design students from both sides of the Pennines - Manchester School of Art and Leeds College of Art. I went to the preview in Manchester held in an empty shop in Triangle Shopping Centre, a different yet engaging space for such a small exhibition. There was some good work on show, a nice mix of typography and illustration but being honest, I preferred the cropped versions of work on the postcards the student’s had made for people to take with them. It’s always nice to take something away to keep, which reminds me I need to create something similar for the degree show, it’s a way for someone who liked your work to keep and remember you by and maybe they’ll even get in touch for possible work. The postcards are ultimately business cards but actually physically showing your work on them. 

The Walls are Talking @ Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester

This exhibition had some really interesting wallpaper designs, before this I'd never really thought about designing for wallpaper use. 

Damien Hirst's pill wallpaper. 

Damien Hirst's Butterfly wallpaper

Andy Warhol's Cow wallpaper

:)

My work in the Holden Gallery.

Ron Mueck @ Manchester Art Gallery

Ron Mueck creates hyper-real out-of-scale sculptures of people at their most intimate, isolated and vulnerable, they are amazing. 

Mask III

Spooning couple

Wild man

Some other pieces of his work I found online:

'The Long Dark' & 'Spoiled' @ Hatton Gallery, Newcastle University

We swung by Newcastle University and visited the Hatton Gallery. There were two exhibitions the first was curated by Michelle Cotton which took a text by John Ruskin 'The Nature of Gothic' as its starting point for an exploration of 'medievalism' in contemporary art. The work on display reminds me of foundation experimental work which doesn't really appeal to me with no clear meaning.

'The Long Dark'

I preferred 'Spoiled' which explored received ideas about women and femininity and the perpetuation of romantic stereotypical ideals through the language and tradition of *breath* ornaMENTal sculpture and figurines. 

'Spoiled'

This is my favourite piece from both exhibitions, created using mixed media. 

Damien Hirst 'Pharmacy' Exhibition @ Baltic in Newcastle

I have been in Newcastle this weekend for my best mate's birthday so in between celebrating her 22nd we decided to visit The Baltic to see Damien Hirst's Pharmacy exhibition. It's a weird coincidence that I've just completed a project based around the theme of 'resistance', where I specifically chose to explore the idea of resisting death and this exhibition also parodies the idea of cheating death. The installation was arranged around an Insect-o-cuter which, for Hirst represents the merciless god, killing without emotion and without distinction. His installation included rows of cabinets filled from top to bottom with prescription drugs, the work suggests that medicine, like art, provides a self belief system which can be seductive but deceptive. This exhibition is like a temple to modern medicine which is ironically centered around the insect zapper, it's to remind us of our societies unquestionable confidence in modern medicine and our reliance on medicines which is fundamentally centered on death. It was all very surreal seeing the display counters full of drugs arranged by their colour and shape, the brightness of the packaging distracts you from the small print on the side which highlights the side effects from the drugs and how this confidence in image works for the drug companies reminding us that it's not always what we see is what we get. It had a very clinical and somewhat authoritative atmosphere as you entered the room from behind the counter, it almost felt like I shouldn't of been there. It's weird to think I've never really thought about how there is effectively, a drug for every possible condition and how heavily we rely upon these to make us better.

Alan Fletcher 'Fifty years of Graphic work (and play) @ Cube Gallery

Delightful & free wine.

Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2009 @ Cornerhouse, Manchester

This exhibition was the harvest of current Art School talent or those who have just graduated. There was a wide range of experimental work from new and emerging artists graduating from art and design schools across the UK.

There were several pieces of work which caught my eye, the first was a large scale biro drawing by Amir Chasson of what looked like a drunk who’d clearly wet himself, I just thought it stood out from all the other serious ‘deep conceptual’ pieces because it amused me.

Labelled 'Piss pants.' LOL. If i remember correctly this was an A1 biro drawing, and what a brilliant drawing it is.

'Crying upwards.' A watercolour piece. I just love this image, really surreal and spooky.

The American Scene @ Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester

I’d never been to Whitworth Art Gallery before so I didn’t really know what to expect. The work that caught my eye was 2 prints by Leonard Baskin. ‘The Hydrogen Man’ which was a disturbing image of a human figure with its flesh ripped off by a hydrogen bomb. Totally anti-war and represented the post-war anxiety beautifully and powerfully from the raw images.

‘Man of Peace’ was the other of his prints I loved, it featured a half naked man caught in barbed wire holding a bird. I was fascinated by the darkness and scale of the prints and the powerful message behind them.

There was also some really interesting wallpaper on display. The ones I found most spectacular were the foil wallpapers with colour screen prints over, very retro.