The second event in a-n’s Assembly series was hosted by Eastside Projects in Birmingham and aimed to address the increasing amount of development taking place across the city region and the opportunities this might offer for artists. Confirmed conference sceptic and Birmingham-based artist Pete Ashton reports.
Last June, Birmingham based arts organisation Eastside Projects unexpectedly closed its gallery space, with rumours circulating as to the reasons why. Director Gavin Wade speaks to Jack Hutchinson about the real reasons for the closure, how it highlighted the support for Eastside Projects from Birmingham’s art scene and the organisation’s plans for the future.
Four projects from a-n members, selected from a-n’s busy Events section and including exhibitions and events in Birmingham, Cheltenham, Eastbourne and Thurrock.
With reference to Edmund Clark’s current Ikon Gallery exhibition ‘In Place of Hate’ – the result of three years as artist in residence at the therapeutic prison HMP Grendon – a recent symposium in Birmingham explored the role of art and its use as a rehabilitative tool. After a day of talks and presentations, Carrie Foulkes finds her belief in socially-engaged practice reaffirmed.
The Birmingham gallery and artists’ studios was added to Arts Council England’s national portfolio this year, marking a new chapter in its development. Programme director Kim McAleese and associate curator Seán Elder map out the before and after of “a pretty incredible year”.
Keep it complex headed up to Birmingham to have some tea and Teressa May cake at Grand Union. Our local supermarket had refused to print Teressa May on a Cake, we’re not sure why, something about not being able to […]
What to expect when you visit us this year
Shocking and curious dance performance art. Warning : this review contains adult themes and a couple of spoilers.
With a solo show at ICA and as part of a group exhibition at Eastside Projects, Sonia Boyce is exploring ideas around play, improvisation and sculpture – including a collaborative project with ukuele-playing skateboarders. Anneka French talks to the artist during the first of two lively, nerve-wracking performances in Birmingham, as skaters fly by and instruments are played.
Birmingham’s Grand Union is developing its programme and making plans for the future having secured £130,000 from Arts Council England and with the appointment of Mac Birmingham’s former director as its new chair.
Best known for Seizure, his 2008 Artangel commission for which he covered the interior of a South London flat with copper sulphate, Roger Hiorns’ current show at Ikon Gallery sees him back in his home city, where he also hopes to soon bury a decommissioned Boeing 737. Fisun Güner talks to the artist.
Five a-n News writers – based in London, Birmingham and Glasgow – pick, in no particular order, their top five exhibitions of the year.
John Stezaker, known for his photographic collages constructed from found images, has turned curator for ‘Turning to See: From Van Dyck to Lucian Freud’ at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Anneka French talks to the artist about his new departure, how he selected works for the show, and where his own art fits in.
A new exhibition featuring proposals for a permanent artwork in the city has just opened, featuring scale models from Brian Griffiths, Roger Hiorns, Heather and Ivan Morison, Susan Philipsz and Keith Wilson
For her Clipping the Church project in Erdington, Birmingham-based Czech artist Tereza Buskova has combined idiosyncratic customs and community workshops to create a public procession involving baked goods, live music, elaborate costume and the local church. Anneka French speaks to the artist and parish priest Reverend Freda Evans.
The Office for Art, Design and Technology is a new two-year programme of residencies, events, exhibitions and professional development for new and more established artists with digital practices. Anneka French talks to the artist leading the programme as well as artists and mentors involved in Post-Modern Plant Life 2, the recently completed first stage of the initiative.
Birmingham artist Barbara Walker’s latest collection of drawings explores the often under-recognised role of black servicemen and women in the British Armed Forces.
The STEAMHouse project will see the former Typhoo tea factory in Digbeth transformed through over £14 million of funding into a creative space featuring studios, workshops, equipment and support staff.
AUDIOBLOG – Please click here I read Stuart Mayes’ blog with interest as he also searches for studio space… This week I stepped my own search up a bit, in that I became rather more proactive, and instead of whinging […]
Stair/Slide/Space is a Hampshire based group of artists and curators that work collectively to foster research and concept-led artistic practice. We explore individual and collaborative ways of working, often conducting experimental visual conversations.
As part of the New Art West Midlands 2014 group exhibition, there were six prizes available. As I have mentioned in the previous ‘post’, I was living in London at the time, juggling full-time employment and constantly travelling up and down the country […]
The Birmingham-based artist-run organisation has spent the year trying to be ‘useful, productive, supportive and critical’, while grappling with the ‘highs and horrors’ of the world. Gavin Wade explains.
In 2014 GRAIN Photography Hub and the Library of Birmingham approached artist Mat Collishaw, creator of spectacularly crushed butterflies, corrupted, syphilitic flora, and monumental, dark zoetropes, to respond to the rich photography archive held at the Library.
