‘Celebration of Welsh Contemporary Painting’ 2022
Highlights from Celebration of Welsh Contemporary Painting Exhibition 2022
The penultimate exhibition in the 2022/23 series, sponsored by Dawn Bowden MS Deputy Minister for Arts and Sport. The exhibition brings together artists in ‘a broad and eclectic exhibition that celebrates painting as a specific art form present in Wales today’.
‘Past The Jumping Boys’ - one of seventeen new paintings shown earlier in 2022 at Found Gallery, Brecon - will be part of the exhibition.
This painting relates to a 3km bike ride, from a house in North East Cardiff to a studio in the South of the city. The route is calm, with an energy and dynamic unlike other ways through the city. Delicate ecosystems thrive along the pathways, creating an almost continuous green trail. Everything is in flux - the light, the wind, the mood of the day, the temperament of the people you pass, the background sounds of the city… and this changes the feeling and mood of the journey. Most days the river is muddy with a sombre green reflection, but this can change to a mirror reflection of animators blue sky.
‘Celebration of Welsh Contemporary Painting’ Futures Gallery, The Pierhead, Cardiff, CF10 4PZ
The exhibition runs from 15th December - 9th February 2023
Past The Jumping Boys
Y Silff, Cardigan 2022
Gilly Booth, Tess Gray, Cathryn Gwynn, Maggie James, Arwel Micah, Flora McLachlan, Jason Rouse
Curated by painter Sam Vicary, this exhibition is an invitation to the artists to display their work in carefully assembled ‘vignettes’ or installations including paintings, drawings, text, prints and ceramics.
“I’m interested in how we collect inspiration in our studio spaces. The shelf gives the public an insight into that creative process, but it’s also a way people might display their art at home alongside their treasures and other special objects”.
Some artists have chosen to display their ideas alongside the work for sale. Others have used it as a platform to present their work. The exhibition is designed to be a playful take on tradition still-life, where artists often use their spaces and objects around them to inspire new work.
Displayed across two rooms, the exhibition embraces the winter season and offers experienced and budding art collectors plenty of choice. The artwork can be bought off the shelf.
Welsh Group At Turner House 2022
Paintings and sculptures by members of the Welsh Group, at Turner House, Penarth until 23rd October 2022
Welsh Group at Turner House
Welsh Group exhibition at Turner House, 12 Plymouth Rd, Penarth, CF64 3DH.
Glad to be showing two paintings with the Welsh Group at Turner House in Penarth. The exhibition will show artworks from the group of just under forty members, who live across Wales - painters, photographers, printmakers.
‘The Welsh Group, the first national artist run group in Wales has tirelessly promoted the visual arts in Wales for more than 70 years. Through its extensive series of exhibitions in Wales, the UK and overseas, the group has shone a light on artists’ concerns and processes, providing a snapshot of current practice. Run by and for artists, The Welsh Group does not adhere to a dominant movement or style and the work is not filtered by a curators agenda; rather there is a wide range of responses and conceptual approaches to contemporary practice.
The artists in The Welsh Group come from different backgrounds and traditions — some born in Wales and some who have made their homes here — and has been a part of Welsh cultural life since it was founded in 1948, immediately post war, at a time of great social and cultural change in Wales. The group continues to contribute to the story of Wales today.’ Turner House Penarth
22nd September - 23rd October 2022
Across Two Valleys 2022
Across Two Valleys
Welsh Group exhibition at The Red House, Old Town Hall, High St, Merthyr Tydfil, CF47 8AE
Artists: Jaqueline Jones, Shirley Anne Owens, Paul Edwards, Wendy Earle, Chris Griffin,
Heather Eastes,Veronica Gibson, Philip Watkins, Maggie James, Gerda Roper,
Jennifer Allan
A companion exhibition takes place at The Cynon Valley Museum, Depot Rd, Gadlys, Aberdare, CF44 8DL
Artists: Karin Mear, Jacqueline Alkema, Angela Kingston, Gus Payne, Anthony Evans,
Dilys Jackson, Tomasin Toohie, Sue Hilley Harris, Paul Brewer, Alan Salisbury
Found Gallery, Brecon 2022
Seventeen new paintings at Found Gallery
Celebration of Contemporary Welsh Painting
Video of exhibition on lower floor gallery at Found Gallery, 1 Bulwark, Brecon, LD3 7LB
The Alternative Commute
Maggie James seventeen new paintings at Found Gallery relate to a 3km bike ride, from a house in North East Cardiff to a studio in the South of the city. The route is calm, with an energy and dynamic unlike other ways through the city. Delicate ecosystems thrive along the pathways, creating an almost continuous green trail. Everything is in flux - the light, the wind, the mood of the day, the temperament of the people you pass, the background sounds of the city… and this changes the feeling and mood of the journey. Most days the river is muddy with a sombre green reflection, but this can change to a mirror reflection of animators blue sky.
The paintings have a sequential element with different combinations of vegetation and buildings. They are a mapping of sorts, initially linked to a collaboration with Eu Jin Lim, an architect based in Kuala Lumpur, as part of Open BooksOnline in 2021, when the series took the form of 10 large 1.5metre drawings and a folding book. When this series started main roads were deserted, streets were empty, people kept a huge distance between each other, ghost buses kept running.
Alongside this work, a series of smaller, earlier paintings echo the atmosphere.
View my paintings on show at Found 14 September - 15 October 2022