ARTISTS TALKING
Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
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Something in the ether
Sandwiched between the mountains and the sea, Llandudno’s modest, faded Victorian gentility is home to Oriel Mostyn Gallery. ’Something in the Ether’ was a discussion using ’Mostyn 12’ - the gallery’s twelfth annual open exhibition - to ask whether and how an open show pinpoints emerging trends in artists’ practice.
Unlike a lot of open exhibitions the Mostyn Open has, at least on paper, no restrictions or limitations in terms of background, age, geographical location and artform. This year it has resulted in an exhibition of thirty-eight artists, selected from 484 entries (mainly from the UK but including a growing number of international entries) by a panel of four: Martin Barlow, Director of Oriel Mostyn Gallery; Jonathan Watkins, Director of the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, and artists Craig Wood and Rachel Lowe. Barlow, Watkins and Wood were joined by artist and curator Lucienne Cole from Liverpool in a panel discussion organised as a collaboration between the gallery and [a-n] THE ARTISTS INFORMATION COMPANY, chaired by consultant and writer David Butler. One of the main issues up for discussion was the question of how selectors are selected, and to what extent the final exhibition reflects their particular sensibilities rather than the range of work entered. For Martin Barlow the key to choosing selectors was to try to avoid potential conflicts of interest that could lead to a disjointed exhibition, and to strike a balance by including people who have an open and broad knowledge and...
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