Washington Green, the UK’s leading fine art publishers, has announced the launch of its ‘Summer Exhibition 2016’.
Now in its third year, the month-long exhibition will take place from Saturday 30th July – Sunday 28th August at Castle Fine Art in Birmingham’s International Convention Centre.
The exhibition will feature work from 16 contemporary artists – including several aspiring artists from Birmingham – who were chosen to feature in the show following a call for innovative visual artists to submit their work to a panel of art reviewers.
The shortlisted submissions have now been brought together into one beautifully curated display of more than eighty artworks where work by established names sit alongside those by emerging and aspiring artists in a range of mediums, genres and subject matter.
From Irish artist Ian Pollock’s bronze sculptures to New Yorker David Welker’s new surrealism and Korean artist Kim Byungkwan’s abstract portraiture, the shortlisted artists hail from all four corners of the globe and cover the entire artistic spectrum.
Artist Collective Plume, who specialise in abstract photography, and Tom Bird – a photographer who at 25, is the youngest to take part – are several of the artists to be profiled in the ‘Summer Exhibition 2016’.
Those featured in the exhibition are in with the chance of securing a publishing contract with Washington Green. If successful, they will join the ranks of the art scene elite with Ronnie Wood, Bob Dylan and Raphael Mazzucco just some of the names represented in the company’s portfolio.
Glyn Washington, Founder and Creative Director of Washington Green Fine Art, said:
In an increasingly competitive industry, it can be hard for artists to get noticed. Our ‘Summer Exhibition’ offers a platform for artists to get their work seen by a critical audience.
Last year, three aspiring artists went on to launch publishing careers with the company – abstract artist Robert Oxley, landscape painter Elaine Mather and figurative artist Nigel Mason, 63, all joined Washington Green’s diverse portfolio following the ‘Summer Exhibition 2015’.
Robert Oxley, who is now one of the company’s most successful limited edition selling artists, said:
Taking part in the ‘Summer Exhibition’ was an incredible experience for me. Seeing my work in a beautiful exhibition catalogue and my name in print, was just magic. I’m so relieved that I took part and would urge anyone else looking to pursue their art career to do likewise.
Washington Green’s ‘Summer Exhibition 2016’ will take place from at Castle Fine Art, ICC, Broad Street, B1 2EA from Saturday 30th July – Sunday 28th August. For more information please see www.castlegalleries.com.
The full list of artists taking part are:
· Tom Bird, 25, Birmingham – Born in Wellington, Tom is currently living in Birmingham.
Having studied an Art Foundation course in Birmingham before going on to gain a First Class BA Hons degree at Birmingham City University, Tom’s work seeks to give the viewer a new, different perspective through the medium of digital photography. His photographs often highlight the beauty that can be found in industrial settings such as the Queensway tunnel in Birmingham city centre.
Tom said: “Most of my work removes the subject from its environment allowing pure focus in its entirety of that subject. Allowing colour, texture, form and shape to take precedence in the piece so that the subject almost falls to the back of the mind allowing its aesthetic to take over. It is this impact I want to have on a viewer, an alternate vision that they perhaps had never seen before.”
· Plume – Artist collective Ernest Otoo, 29 and Andrew Pilsbury, 29, Birmingham –
Plume is the Birmingham based artist collective featuring Ernest Otoo and Andy Pilsbury. Plume artwork focuses on organic processes which are predominately presented through digital media in order to create visually stunning work. The works featured in IN:SIGHT come from Plume’s successful Tabula Rasa project, a multifaceted art project combining high-speed photography, moving image and ethereal soundscapes to create surreal flourishing landscapes. Their work is a voyeuristic look at the hypnotic behaviour of different coloured inks in water. cesses which are predominantly presented through digital media, in order to create visually stimulating work.
Plume said: “The process starts with getting all the lighting set up around the fish-tank. After cleaning to make sure we don’t pick up any blemishes, it’s filled with water. Then Ernest drops the inks in and builds a composition while Andy starts shooting. The final stage involves vetting the images to select what we want for a collection then some slight re-touching to enhance the images and bring out colours and vibrancy.”
· Damien McGinley, 38, Nottingham – Combining oil paint and collage, Damien’s mixed media works are inspired by the dialogue between humans and the urban realism that envelops us.
· Nigel Humphries, 49, Stoke-on-Trent – Nigel’s oil on canvas works are inspired by comic books, movies, soundtracks, music and all things nostalgic.
· Kim Byungkwan, 57, Seoul – Kim’s work primarily seeks to disrupt everyday familiarity – he is renowned for breaking up his portrait and figurative paintings with scribbles and smears of paint.
· Gordon Harris, 38, Ireland – Working with oil on board, often embellished with genuine gold and silver leaf, Gordon’s contemporary realism fuses classical and modern interpretations.
· Casagrande&Recalcati – Artist collective Sandra Casagrande, 48, and Roberto Recalcati, 47, Milan – Inspired by artists such as Giovanni Bellini and Cosmé Tura their work conveys a sophisticated and translucent hyper-realism in which pop style meets the latest trends of ‘new figuration’.
· Malcolm Barrett, 65, Devon – Malcolm is a self-taught fine art sculptor who uses car body filler, fiberglass and rubber moulds Malcolm to create his tactile sculptures.
· Ian Pollock, 41, Dublin – Working exclusively in bronze, Ian sees his work like a three dimensional diary, letting his art reflect his emotions and imagination.
· David Welker, 52, New York – David is a New York based contemporary artist known for his elaborate posters, murals and paintings, ranging from surreal landscapes to urban realism.
· Adrian Boyce, 56, Bath – Using just pencil, Adrian creates intricately detailed, lifelike depictions from the animal kingdom drawn on society journals about the preservation of flora and fauna.
· Irina Starkova, 28, London – Irina combines elements of realism, pop art and portraiture in her works which draw inspiration from natural history, Russian literature and photography.
· Ottilia Aviram, 41, London – Combining carefully sourced vintage ephemera with hand-drawn illustrations, she creates intricate, unique canvases which evoke a sense of a bygone era.
· Katrin Bulka Matlacz, 51, Poland – Using the ancient technique of lost wax casting, Katarzyna’s fascinating sculptures combine elements of surrealism, grotesque and fairy tale.
· Carl McCrow, 46, London – Carl aims to destroy 1,000,000 guns through the charity he set up to honour his friend who was wounded in Afghanistan, with each gun destroyed and given new life as a unique and provocative piece of art.
· Linda Charles, 46, Hertfordshire – Linda has always had an overwhelming attraction to colour using collected materials, Linda structures patterns, texture and colour to emerge organically in her work.