Gallery Visit: Received Wisdom

Visit to Sunderland Winter Gardens - Received Wisdom:

-This exhibition features many artists who have a variety of work. The theme to this exhibition is the question 'Who is deemed creative?' and it doesn't actually answer that. There was a lot to view in this exhibition, from unusual paintings, to sculptures of chairs and photos of cows. What stood out to me about this gallery was just how playful it was, and how nothing really mattered if it was similar to the piece next to it. That's what made this gallery so interesting, it was such a burst of energy to see people of different ages, cultures, gender to really play around with this idea of creativity.

In this exhibition, I liked a few pieces of the artwork but I was more interested in the curation. As Shannon, Matthew and myself were putting an exhibition together, it's important for us to get a nice flow to it, and I think this exhibition did just that. The use of painting one wall a deep blue, and having the rest white was an interesting choice. It made it almost a focal point to me when I don't think that was the intention. There was a piece of work which I have added in pictures, which really uses the space well of the wall. As it is on this blue wall, there's the fear of it getting lost behind the vibrant colour - which I don't think it does. It manages to place the work so perfectly that the blue wall is actually pushed back which I thought was really interesting. Another artist also used the space of the wall so perfectly, her small but many paintings managed to give this idea of one massive canvas which is something that I thought was really well done. Whilst I should have been focusing more on getting the details of the work, I was more interested in the curation being honest. When I go to galleries for inspiration, the curation never came to my mind, but as I was setting up my own space with my other artists, it's something I started seeking out for in exhibitions.

Overall, I thought this was a good exhibition, the theme personally wasn't to my taste - although I will say a few of the pieces were interesting to look at. I just wanted to include this because as I mentioned, curation is really important when it comes to an exhibition space, and I think this gallery did it perfectly for this theme. I will also say, I liked the variety of work shown, as it felt to me like art and creativity has no limits.