On Friday 16th February I went on an art trip to the Firstsite Gallery in Colchester with my university peers to see a show presenting the work by Grayson Perry and Rose Finn-Kelcey.Grayson Perry is one of Britain’s best-known contemporary artists. He often works from his memory, basing them on growing up through his childhood. He works in a range of mediums, from iron, bronze, printmaking and also ceramics.
I really enjoyed looking round this art gallery, it is the first time I’ve ever visited Firstsite and I was particularly drawn to the work by Grayson Perry. I loved the detail within the large art work by Perry and the bright colours of thread he had chosen. Below is a photo I took of one of my favourite pieces of work he had on display, I learnt that he makes small sketches in his sketchbooks then he has a company who enlarges this for him, he doesn’t stitch the works himself.
I thought it was extremely interesting that the gallerists had displayed the sketchbooks open pages alongside the final pieces. Not many galleries show the private sketchbooks so I felt as though that was a really nice touch to have that really brought all of his work together. Here is an example of one of the sketchbook pages alongside the final pieces:
I also really enjoyed looking through the work of Rose Finn-Kelcey, who unfortunately is no longer with us today so the show was accompanied by two of her close friends. I particularly enjoyed looking at her work because it is something very different to how I work, her art was very focused on empowerment and personal identity. A lot of her work was digital, including a large slot machine where you enter 20p and receive a prayer, and then once that prayer is finished, you get your 20p back! Below I have attached a photo of some of Rose Finn-Kalcey’s work.
