NAN

Biographies of the NAN advisory group members, who served until March 2011.

Edward Adam
Lens-based artist based in Somerset. He is also co-founder and curator of site-specific arts organisation Second Site - recent projects include 'Mobile: Cardiff Constellation', an exhibition of newly commissioned video works showing as part of the arts festival, 'May You Live In Interesting Times' in conjunction with Chapter Arts Centre. He has recently completed the British Art Show 6 mentoring scheme, working with Paul Rooney. He also works as Project Co-ordinator for Alias (Artist-Led Initiative Advisory Service) and for a-n's AIR Time events. Recent exhibitions include: 'The Shortest Day Of The Year Film Festival', Lemon Monkey, London, 'If You Build It They Will Come', g39, Cardiff, 'Tatton Park Biennial Film Programme', Cheshire and 'Start Making The Most Of Your Memories', Novas Gallery, London. Edward Adam's profile as a writer can also be found on Interface at www.a-n.co.uk/interface

Catherine Bertola
Catherine Bertola is an artist based in Newcastle upon Tyne, where she has lived since graduating from Newcastle University in 1999. Her practice involves creating site and context specific installations and objects made in direct response to the architecture, history and function of the given space, using pattern, materials and imagery familiar to the site. Over the last seven years Bertola has undertaken a number of residencies and commissions, working with organisations such as; Locus+, Workplace and Vane in Newcastle upon Tyne, Beacon Art Project, Lincolnshire, Further Up in the Air, Liverpool and Triangle Arts Trust, London. She has exhibited widely across the UK, including solo shows at International 3, Manchester (2005), Fabrica, Brighton and Firstsite, Colchester (both 2006). A monograph Lost Narratives, was published in 2005 by Art Editions North, Sunderland in association with Work and Leisure International, Manchester. Recent projects include Frills and Flounces commissioned by the Government Art Collection for the Department for Culture Media and Sport building, London.
www.workplacegallery.co.uk/artists/_Catherine Bertola

Chris Brown
Chris Brown is an artist and co-founder of the artist-run organisation Contemporary Temporary Artspace and its gallery base, g39. g39 works closely with artists, curators, writers and arts organisations to build up a strong network of support and advocacy across Wales, and has an increasing focus on the country’s relationship with the rest of the world. Recent international projects include: On Leaving and Arriving, a major project across Cardiff using shipping containers to exhibit artists from international ports linked with the City; Anima, an exchange with B-312, an artist-run space in Montréal, Québec; We’re not here to give you pleasure, a floating artist-led group and evolving exhibition that tours the members’ respective home towns across Europe. He is on the board of Second Site, a Cardiff-based group organising mobile film workshops in rural areas, and a member of Go Faster Stripe, an independent production collective that promotes high-profile UK comedians through its programme of live acts and DVD production.
www.g39.org

Paul Clark
Paul Clark is a Cumbria-based artist based at the Green Door Studios, a not-for-profit artists’ cooperative in Kendal. Over the last 12 years, his work has been abstract paintings and drawings based on ideas and themes from Morecambe Bay and the River Kent estuary. Paul is currently a member of the Cumbria Network committee and an active member of the network’s South Lakes Hub that is currently developing its international links to foster collaborative artistic activity. Paul was a recent contributor to the FRED 07 art in the landscape programme in Cumbria when he collaborated with 20 other artists and volunteers in his Full Circle land art installation out on the tidal sands of Morecambe Bay. An 80metre elliptical trench, 90 metres from the shore, was dug on an east/west axis so that from a cliff viewpoint it appeared foreshortened as a circle that filled with water after the high tide and reflected the light into the evening. Paul trained in the 1970s at St Martins School of Art, London and Hull Regional College of Art. His artistic practice continues to develop. For more information about his work, visit his website www.paulclarkart.co.uk

Sonya Dyer
Sonya Dyer is a London based visual artist and art consultant. Currently, Sonya is working on The Satyricon Project, an exploration of Sayricon, the oldest novel in Western culture (by Petronius) and Fellini’s 1969 film of the same name. Her focus is on Donyale Luna – model, mannequin, actress and subject of an Andy Warhol Screen test, who features in the film. Sonya is a current Artsadmin Bursary recipient. Previous exhibitions include ‘Reclassified Disembodiment’, Novas Gallery, London (2006) and ‘Cockney Karaoke’ , Bow Festival, (2004). Sonya currently supports her practice by working as a Programme Co-ordinator at Artquest and ARC artists advisor at Turner Contemporary, Margate as well as other freelance projects for clients including Arts Council England / LCACE (Inspire:Curate). She has organised Current Thinking, a series of talks taking place at Tate Modern in March.
www.artsadmin.co.uk/projects/bursary-artists

Lucy Bannister
Lucy Bannister is based in West Yorkshire. She has spent the last few years working as a freelance artist, curator, project manager and part-time lecturer. Lucy has a BA (Hons) in Fine Art Sculpture from Glasgow School of Art (2000) and an MSc in Electronic Imaging from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee (2005). She works with a variety of media to produce artwork that responds to particular sites and contexts and she is specifiically interested in sound. She was a founding member of Emerged, an artist-led organisation based in Glasgow and has developed a number of innovative projects in Scotland and Leeds. She currently works part time for Axis as the editor of online contemporary art journal, Dialogue.
www.itchyfingers.org

Guyan Porter
Guyan Porter is an artist working with sculpture, installation, political dialogue and multi-media arts events, combining performance, music and visual art. Based in Glasgow since 1994, Guyan has been organising, exhibiting in and curating artist-led projects, as well as working on commissions at home and abroad. He has also worked in public art and community projects combining various art forms with practical philosophy and philosophical inquiry. Guyan was a founder member of the Scottish Artists Union, and in 2001 was elected as first President. In 2005 Guyan became the Artists Networks Coordinator, Scotland for the NAN Initiative. Recent projects in 2006 have included Stake, a performance installation with Emilia Telese, for the FreeShout Festival, Prato, Italy and Beatson Head, a portrait bust commission on Sir George Beatson, Glasgow University. In 2005: ‘States of Union’ at Catalyst Arts, Belfast; ‘Call for Entry’, Market, Glasgow and a Scottish Arts Council funded research trip to Documenta, Berlin and London. Recent projects include a collaborative public art residency at Dodanduwa Creation Centre, Sri Lanka; an environmental art show in Callendar Park, Falkirk as an artist and curator; and The Rice Pavilion, a collaborative public art and engaged practice project in Brighton with Chris Biddlecombe and Emilia Telese.
www.guyanporter.co.uk

Jonathan Swain
Jonathan Swain is an itinerant artist. His mission is to wheedle the unpredictable from the most banal and parochial contexts. As a core member of Visual Stress he is one of the thinkers behind the Urban Vimbuza, Death by Free Enterprise series of large scale events. He organised the Tracey element of the first Liverpool Biennial and created the Aconvention for the second. Recently he has worked with video artist Haim ben Shitrit on a narrative that links Brighton people with Molohiya, a nutritious leaf vegetable popular in Egypt. An exhibition of his photographs of boarded up ATM machines is planned for later this year. After that he intends training as polygraphic technician, part of his continued search for ultimate truths.

Emilia Telese
Emilia Telese is an Italian born UK-based artist who, until February 2011, combined her arts practice with her role as Artists’ Networks Coordinator for a-n within the NAN initiative and work with UK and international arts organisations. She is also an independent artists’ trainer specialised in professional development advice for artists and has worked for Artquest, FilmLondon, Chelsea School of Art/University of The Arts London, Fabrica, Persistence Works and SPACE among others. Having graduated in Painting in 1996 from the Fine Arts Academy in Florence , she has lived in the UK since 1997. Her practice spans several art forms, from interactive and body-responsive technology, film and live art to installation and public art. Emilia Telese’s practice deals with non-verbal communication and the questioning and deconstruction of social clichés. She has exhibited worldwide since 1994, including work at Ars Electronica, ZKM, the 2005 Venice Biennale and the 2005 Rio de Janeiro Multimedia Art Festival. In July 2006 she curated ‘Can We Break the Speed of Light?’ during the Off The Wall contemporary art festival in Hastings. Recent work includes ‘Paranoia’ at the Freud Museum, Leeds City Gallery and Focal Point Gallery, and and The Rice Pavilion, a large-scale public art and engaged practice installations in Brighton in collaboration with Chris Biddlecombe, Edoardo Malagigi and Guyan Porter.
www.emiliatelese.com

Jonathan Waring
Jonathan Waring is an artist based in Nottingham. Recent solo work, such as A machine for viewing the back of your own head (2006), has used specific embedded functions as a strategy for investigating the role of the audience in activating an artwork. In addition to his own practice, Jonathan produces collaborative work as part of the collective Reactor. With recent events such as Total GHAOS and Ivan’s Dogs, Reactor engineer complex situations and environments, which test the limits of artist-led activity. Jonathan coordinates the twenty-strong artists’ studio group Stand Assembly, which he co-founded in 2004. He has been a member of the NAN Advisory Group since 2005, and organised the artists’ networking events NANASAUR and NAN-NANA.
www.reactorweb.com
www.standassembly.org

First published: Updated December 2007