elliseadams: art blog.
Laing Gallery: 'Exposed'
The Laing Art Gallery had an exceptional range of work on during my visit. The first exhibition that I saw was the 'Exposed: The Naked Portrait' which had a large variety of paintings, drawings and photographs of the naked body. Being split into two parts, the first section was called 'Bodies Of Desire' which looked at the role of gender and sexuality in portraiture. What I liked about this part of the gallery was how it wasn't all the same sort of nude; the artists all had many different interpretations when creating their piece. I thought that it was a really interesting exhibition, I wasn't expecting there to be so many different pieces I thought it would be more cohesive; I'm glad it wasn't. I was definitely drawn to the paintings more than the photography; I think because of my personal practice, I was more intrigued by the paintings. These are a couple of examples of pieces that were my favourite. The first painting was one I was drawn to most because I love the unusual way the artist created the body, I think Corrigan used shapes really creatively and I love his colour palette.
The second section was called 'Reclaiming The Body' which addressed post modern and feminist ways in which it has brought reappraisal of the naked body in art. Personally, I preferred the first half of the exhibition, I think it's because there was more paintings with interesting styles. What I did like about the second half of the exhibition is I felt there was a lot of exploration within all the pieces. There was more exploration within scale, presentation and materials used. I really liked Lisa Gunn's 'Victoria' print, which was an image of her sitting in her wheelchair, facing away from the camera. This was one of my favourites because I thought the way she printed it on 3 separate canvases to make one image was really effective. It made me look more into the individual canvases more instead of looking at the whole piece. Also, she treats her prints with acid and paint to give it a complex image, which I thought gave it an interesting effect.
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In the Laing Gallery, there was an exhibition which was called 'Northern Spirit' which celebrated artists from the North East. One of my chosen artists for my project, Ken Currie was in the gallery, which I was so glad to see. This wasn't the exhibition I was reviewing but I thought I would appreciate the fact one of his paintings was in the gallery, and I thought I'd include it. The painting in the gallery was Shot Boy (first version) which is a painting of a boy who'd been shot dead, and Currie painted him hovering between life and death. He wanted to show how damaged society was, because we let this happen. I think the painting is really interesting to look at because of the way it's painted, and when reading why he made this painting I think it gives it so much more meaning and it's showing how powerful art can be.
Sunderland Winter Gardens: A Llife In Drawing
Sunderland Winter Gardens gallery had Leonardo Da Vinci's 'A Life In Drawing' exhibition, which showed 12 of his drawings that reflected his interests. Also in this show, there was artists that were inspired by similar things to Da Vinci. In this exhibition there were lots of detailed drawings, some with annotation around it, and portraiture. His detailed drawings were so fascinating, because you could see all the tiny little lines he was making, and the annotation around his work showing his thought process made it so interesting. I definitely liked those pieces better because it showed what he was studying and thinking when making his work. All of his work was incredible, you can really see the time and care he put into his pieces.
There was a variety of artists at the back of the Da Vinci exhibition. A lot of the pieces were portraiture, which I was definitely more interested in, but there was also some landscape paintings which I liked. One of the portraits that stood out for me was 'Head Of A Lady' by Richard Archbald Ray. I think I was drawn to this drawing the most because I loved the features of the drawing, I loved the strong tone to the piece, but I also liked the soft shading. It stood out on the wall because it was such a nice drawing. I also really appreciated Robery Wray's 'Sketch Of A Woman's Head And Shoulders' drawing. It's quite a soft drawing, but I think the annotations around the drawing was something I liked most about it. I love seeing artists thought process around their work, it shows the viewer what they were thinking at the time of making the pieces. Overall, I think this was a really interesting gallery to look at because it had a variety of pieces on show, and it also showed other artists who were inspired by Da Vinci which I really appreciated.