Grundy Art Gallery announces winter 2022 programme celebrating art made close to home

Grundy Art Gallery is delighted to announce details of its upcoming winter 2022 programme with a number of exhibitions opening on the 15 January.

Linked together by a commitment to showcasing artists from Blackpool and more widely from the North West, the exhibitions on display throughout winter 2022 will offer a dynamic and diverse range of activities celebrating artworks made close to home.

The winter programme will be supported by a range of workshops, talks and events that will provide opportunities to find out more about the art and artists on display, as well as exploring and developing the participants’ own creativity

Cllr Kathryn Benson, Blackpool Council’s Cabinet Member for Community Engagement, Aspiration and Community Assets said: “Grundy’s winter programme highlights the strength of local and regional creativity. From our youngest artists who are still at school, to artists such as Patti Mayor who is no longer with us, these exhibitions will show how art has the power to impact us at all stages of our life. With a wide range of exhibitions and events, winter 2022 at the Grundy, promises something of interest for everyone.”

EXHIBITIONS:

Collection Spotlight: Patti Mayor (1872-1962)

15 January – 11 June

Collection Spotlight exhibitions are an opportunity to highlight individual artists, or showcase a specific selection of works from the Grundy Art Gallery collection.

In 2022, Grundy Art Gallery is marking the 150^th anniversary of the birth of Patti Mayor with a Collection Spotlight exhibition that will be presented in two parts. The first part will focus on Patti’s painted portraits, while part two will present other gems from the Grundy Art Gallery collection, including sketches and preparatory drawings, many of which have not been exhibited before.

Born in Preston in 1872, Mayor studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, one of the most prestigious art schools at the time. With 28+ paintings by her in the Grundy Art Gallery collection, alongside numerous works on paper, Patti Mayor is by far, the artist that is most represented in the collection.

Mayor’s work predominantly takes the form of painted portraits. Part 1 will focus on some of Mayor’s portraits of women and young girls, who, mostly unnamed, are often featured at work or in domestic settings. Her most celebrated work is perhaps, “The Half-timer”. On loan from Harris Museum and Art Gallery for this exhibition, “The Half-timer”, depicts a young girl in a shawl, a ‘half-timer’ who split her time between work and attending school. The painting was famously taken out of its frame and carried as part of a protest march by suffragettes and their supporters in London in 1908.

In addition to Grundy Art Gallery, Patti Mayor’s work is also held in the collections of Harris Museum and Art Gallery and Gallery Oldham and together the galleries will jointly mark this significant 150th anniversary of the artist’s birth.

Annual Schools’ Exhibition with Nicholas Delap

Signs of Light

15 January – 26 February

Each year Grundy Art Gallery invites a contemporary artist and groups of schoolchildren from across Blackpool and the Fylde Coast to work together to develop an exhibition.

In 2022, artist Nicholas Delap has interpreted drawings that the schoolchildren have made to create a new digital artwork.

Taking inspiration from Grundy Art Gallery’s recent exhibition of neon light works by Chila Kumari Singh Burman, the schoolchildren have produced signs, symbols and motifs that they think represent Blackpool, just as Burman’s work was inspired by her childhood visits to the town and its world-famous Illuminations. Artist Nicholas Delap has then transformed the images that the schoolchildren have made into 3D digital sculptures that form part of an immersive environment that visitors are invited to explore.

The range of images will expand throughout the duration of the exhibition to produce an evolving digital artwork. ‘Signs of Light’, considers the future possibilities of the Blackpool Illuminations as imagined by a contemporary artist and Blackpool’s local children.

OPEN 2022

15 January – 26 February

Following last year’s online only exhibition, ‘OPEN 2022’, returns to the physical exhibition spaces of Grundy Art Gallery.

This annual Open Exhibition aims to be demonstrate the wide range of artwork being produced throughout Blackpool and the Fylde Coast today.

In line with Grundy Art Gallery’s founding principles of showing the ‘art of the day’ and echoing Blackpool’s motto of ‘progress’, we have requested that artworks submitted must have been created within the last 12 months and that the artwork has never been shown at Grundy Art Gallery before.

Bringing together works produced in a wide range of media, from painting, drawing, photography and sculpture, the annual Open Exhibition always provides viewers with an exciting and diverse viewing experience.

The pARTnership: Watch This Space

15 January – 26 February

‘Watch This Space’ is a group exhibition that brings together a selection of artists who have worked together over the last 12 months as part of a project called, ‘the pARTnership’.

Bringing together artists with and without a learning disability, the pARTnership is an Arts Council England funded, 12-month pilot project that has seen these artists sharing ideas, skills and experiences in weekly art making sessions.

‘Watch This Space’ brings together some of the work that has been made both inside and outside of these sessions.

The pARTnership is being delivered via a collaboration between Grundy Art Gallery, The New Langdale (a daytime service in Blackpool for people with a learning-disability), Venture Arts in Manchester and artist, Tina Dempsey. Now, just over half way through the initial pilot period, plans are evolving to ensure that the pARTnership can continue in the future, so ….’Watch This Space’.

Grundy newsletter

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COVID Security Measures

Please check Grundy Art Gallery’s website for further details of the COVID security measures that are in place for your visit. www.thegrundy.org