'Overlooked' - drawn from the works of 5 contemporary Sheffield artists who all share a common interest in exploring the unseen and mundane. Focussing on marginal, liminal spaces that most people wouldn't give a second glance. Creating observational paintings that use landscape to create a narrative and emotional tension.

'Look beneath the surface, let not the several quality of a thing nor it's worth escape thee' - Marcus Aurelius

The Scottish Queen,
21-24 South Street, Park Hill, Sheffield, S2 5QX

Acknowledgements
The artists would very much like to thank:
Urban Splash (particularly Tom Bloxham and Mark Latham) who have generously provided the Scottish Queen for us to site our exhibition.
Leila Alexander (Art Consultant) for her invaluable input and advice
Andrew Mathews (Graphic Designer at Urban Splash)
Louise Hutchinson(Artistic Director) and Pippa Cook(Programme Coordinator) from S1 Artspace for their help and guidance in curating the show
Thornbridge Brewery for sponsoring our Preview Event
Paul Allender for his contribution to our catalogue
Ecclesall Print for the creation of the show brochure

Tuesday 17 March 2015

'Overlooked' Press Release

P R E S S  R E L E A S E
The Scottish Queen
21 - 24 South Street, 
Park Hill, Sheffield S2 5QX
contact - mandypayne24@gmail.com | 07412 415 676 | www.overlooked-sheffield.blogspot.co.uk

 
THE SCOTTISH QUEEN

PRESENTS

OVERLOOKED

Preview: Saturday 18 April 2015, 6.30 - 8.30pm
19 April - 10 May 2015, open Friday - Tuesday, 12.00 - 5.00pm

Overlooked is the inaugural exhibition of a new 12-month arts programme presented at The Scottish Queen, a former pub located within the iconic Park Hill, the largest listed structure in Europe and an outstanding example of Brutalist architecture.

Showcasing painting by five contemporary Sheffield-based artists, this exhibition explores marginal places, the unseen and the mundane. With a strong focus on overlooked, liminal city spaces, a diverse range of approaches utilise the language of landscape to create emotional tension and narrative.

Andy Cropper (b. 1971, lives and works in Sheffield)
Cropper is a realist painter concerned with issues relating to the ordinary, everyday and unremarkable. He captures glimpses, ephemeral moments usually unseen or missed. His paintings are beautifully observed, kaleidoscopic and multifaceted. He was recently selected for the Harley Open and as well as for Stillness, an Arts Council-funded exhibition, at Bloc Studios, Sheffield.

Mandy Payne (b. 1964, lives and works in Sheffield)
With a strong focus on Park Hill, Payne creates observational paintings working with materials integral to the estate itself, namely, concrete and aerosol spray paint. Most recently, she was a John Moores Painting Prize winner, she was shortlisted for the John Ruskin Prize and Threadneedle Prize, and she also exhibited at the 2014 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.

Conor Rogers (b. 1992, lives and works in Sheffield)
Painting directly onto found objects such as beer mats and cigarette packets, Rogers’ photorealistic depictions of everyday life emerge from a tension between the illusionism of the image and the substrate of the paintings. He graduated from Sheffield Hallam in 2014 and was shortlisted for the John Moores Painting Prize in the same year.

Jane Walker (b. 1961, lives and works in Sheffield)
Walker’s city paintings are networks or patterns, often resembling textiles, wiring systems, abandoned cities or archaeological sites. Her works begin life as aerial views, later reworked to create abstract compositions. Walker graduated from the Royal Academy Schools, London, and has exhibited both nationally and internationally. She has previously been shortlisted for both the Jerwood Drawing Prize and the John Moores Painting Prize. More recently she was selected for the Paul Ricard 5th International Painting Symposium, France and the 9th International Biennial of Drawing, Pilsen, Czech Republic.

Sean Williams (b. 1966, lives and works in Sheffield)
Williams’ paintings focus on the fringes of suburbia, places that feel familiar but escape our conditioned response. His mundane scenes of the everyday project a subtle yet tangible tension and suggest something is just about to happen. Between 2011 and 2013, Williams was shortlisted for the Marmite Painting Prize, the Neo: Art Prize and the John Ruskin Prize, while more recently he has exhibited at the Millennium Gallery, Sheffield and within British Contemporary Painting at Huddersfield Art Gallery.

Sponsored by
Urban Splash and Thornbridge Breweries

The Scottish Queen, 21 - 24 South Street, Park Hill, Sheffield S2 5QX
mandypayne24@gmail.com | 07412 415 676 | www.overlooked-sheffield.blogspot.co.uk

Monday 16 March 2015

Preview Invite

 
|-- Image and map for invite to 'Overlooked' show. If you can read this sentence you may have images being blocked by your email software --|

further information at

THE SCOTTISH QUEEN

PRESENTS

OVERLOOKED

Preview: Saturday 18 April, 6.30 - 8.30pm
19 April - 10 May 2015, open Friday - Tuesday, 12.00 - 5.00pm

Andy Cropper | Mandy Payne | Conor Rogers | Jane Walker | Sean Williams

An exhibition showcasing the work of five contemporary Sheffield-based artists united by an interest in marginal urban landscape and explorations of the unseen and the mundane

The Scottish Queen,
21 - 24 South Street,
Park Hill, Sheffield S2 5QX

for further information regarding the show contact
mandypayne24@gmail.com | 07412 415 676
www.overlooked-sheffield.blogspot.co.uk

Jane Walker



Jane Walker

Examples of Work -

River Estuary,
Acrylic on paper, 66 x 86cm

City Verneer,
Oil on canvas, 130 x 150 cm
 
Disused,
Acrylic on paper, 86 x 66 cm

Divided City,
Oil on canvas, 130 x 150 cm

Destruction, Construction,
Acrylic and collage on paper, 101 x 200 cm

Bio - Jane Walker studied at the Royal Academy Schools 1987-90. She was artist in residence on the cross channel ferries between Newhaven and Dieppe (1992) and was a prizewinner in the John Moores 19, Liverpool (1995). In 2014 she participated in the Paul Ricard 5th International Painting Symposium, France, the 9th International Biennial of  Drawing, Pilsen, Czech Republic, Essential Elements, St.Brides Gallery, Liverpool Biennial Independents, and Lost, an artistic archaeology of the recent past, at Salisbury Art Centre. 

jane.walker61@yahoo.co.uk
www.axisweb.org/p/janewalker/
0114 266 3985

Andy Cropper



Andy Cropper


Things are important.

Things? Ephemeral moments, glimpses that catch your gaze. Mundane spaces, moments and actions that hold your attention and seem to freeze time.

Andy is interested in serendipity - "happy accidents", "mini-sublimes" - and the emotions that come about from noticing them. Familiar examples might be a water droplet dribbling down the side of a glass, a speck of dust in a shaft of sunlight or a magnificent sunset over the brow of a hill.

It is not a case of something being beautiful or filled with huge momentous meaning, sometimes he will respond to something without truthfully knowing why. For some reason, at one moment of time, a thing has importance.

This may suggest photography as being a way to go, but Andy wants to reconstruct the moment that has passed. He wants to pay homage to it, actively deconstruct it, then reconstruct it, adding himself to the mix as after all he is the person that had the moment and choosing to portray it. Some of the photos he takes, if enlarged, would become seriously uninteresting but by the action of painting, having made an image out of many marks, it gains a vibrancy, a texture, which is substantially different to a photograph even if the initial impression of his work is photographic.

Being a painter he is unable to capture these moments immediately and photography can miss them or lose the emotional connection as it records the event. He uses his camera as a sketchbook, to test, record and then expand on.

He is not aiming to glamorise the mundane, but searching to find interest in the things around us that we usually ignore. There are fascinating uncanny things, often unobserved around each of us. He is interested in those things that we miss, that we tend to use 'entertainment' to distract us from. He is fascinated by the world around him not in an engaging way, but as an observer. He loves watching the world go by. He is a voyeur.

Andy's work can appear kaleidoscopic when viewed in its entirety but for this show he has selected works that are reactions specifically to external urban spaces around the area of Sheffield that he moves within.

Examples of Work -

 
Shutters
Oil on canvas, 100 x 100 cm

 
Posters
Oil on canvas, 100 x 100 cm

 
Cardboard
Oil on panel, 25 x 25 cm

   
X Marks The Spot
Oil on panel, 25 x 25 cm

Bio - Andy was born in Bristol in the early 70's, and grew up in Blackpool in the 80's and he came to study painting at Sheffield Hallam in the 90's. He was artist in residence in the Sheffield Winter Gardens from 2008-2009 and it was in this time he painted the then Liberal Democrat Leader of Sheffield Council Paul Scriven. He was the first artist in the Moor Window Gallery in 2010. He says "I'm a painter responding to the world around me and using what is in front of me as source. I'm not a painter of dreams, desires, distractions or romances."

andy@artbyandyonline.com
www.artbyandyonline.com/
www.twitter.com/Andy_Cropper/
www.facebook.com/artbyandyonline
0114 255 2037

Conor Rogers



Conor Rogers

My photo-realistic depictions from everyday life emerge from an ‘argument’ between the illusionism of the image and the substrate of the paintings. When viewing paintings, the main focus is usually the representation created by the artist on a flat surface. Although my works have a familiar subject matter- the landscapes I experience every day- I intend that they go beyond the illusion of what I see to become both object and image at the same time. The success of my work lies not just in the quality of the representation, but in the moment the viewer’s attention strays away from seeing the image and into the concrete reality of all the components of the painting. In combining image and object I endeavour to convey the intense reality of small moments of daily life. On the one hand my works are hyper-ordinary, but at the same time, I hope, extraordinary. The ordinary - the quotidian, or even abject - is turned into something precious, even jewel-like, through hours of time and labour.

Examples of Work  -

One Day You'll Have to Pay for Your Own Kids
Mixed media on condom packet, 6 x 6 cm

88 Calories
Acrylic paint on crisp packet, 16.4 x 13 cm

The Alchemies of the 1960’s
Acrylic painted onto self made sheet of acrylic paint, 9 x 11.5 cm

Brenda I'm Awake
Acrylic paint on beer mat 

Bio - Conor graduated from Sheffield Hallam University 2014 and one of his degree pieces was selected for the John Moores Painting Prize. His photo realistic depictions of everyday life and landscape are painted in acrylic on found objects (crisp, cigarette and condom packets and beer mats). A dichotomy is produced as on the one hand the moments he depicts are hyper-ordinary but at the same time the paintings themselves are extra – ordinary, exquisitely, meticulously painted, almost jewel like.  An intertwining dialogue between image and object is created as Conor paints the locations which convey the intense reality of everyday life. Conor has also had work exhibited in Sheffield (Millennium Gallery) and recently exhibited in Manchester and New York with Paper Gallery.

conorrogers1992@hotmail.co.uk
www.axisweb.org/p/conorrogers/
www.twitter.com/conorrogers_art
0788 020 7747  

Sean Williams



Sean Williams

My paintings are views of the fringes of suburbia, places that feel as though they are familiar, but then escape our conditioned response.  I aim to place the viewer as still points of a turning world - alone, for a while, then possibly watched as they look on.  The scene switches between mundane and suggesting something may be about to happen.
I have been making paintings based on this premise for over two years.  These areas are much more interesting to me because there is an inherent mystery and, crucially for me, there is doubt.  There is uncertainty because they could claim to be both urban and rural, but are arguably neither fully urban nor rural.  There is an undecidability to this landscape.  We stand on the cusp of one thing or the other.
My intention is to depict generic scenes that could be anywhere in the country.  I take della Francesca’s ‘Ideal City’ as a suitable model for a painting with an almost inexplicable psychological weight, and seek to capture a similar atmosphere.  As soon as a place is definitively identified, by a familiar landmark for example, the work becomes about that specific place and the opportunity for viewers to create their own narratives is lost.  My painting technique has been described by artist & curator Robert Priseman as ‘contemporary pointillism’ and it is a deliberate attempt to acknowledge and, in part, evoke the spirit and social conscience of Camille Pissaro.
My creative process takes the form of walking around areas on the edge of conurbations – exploring with camera in hand, looking for things that may be slightly out of the ordinary, and which, by painting, I can draw attention to in the hope that they reveal something hitherto unsaid about contemporary existence.

Examples of Work -

 
Release,  
Acrylic on board, 30 x 40 cm
 
Guaranteed Pleasure,  
Acrylic on board, 60 x 90 cm
 
Lies About Nothing
Acrylic on board, 130 x 85 cm

Bio - Sean Williams was born in 1966 and is based in Sheffield.  Recent group exhibitions include ‘Contemporary British Painting’ at Huddersfield Art Gallery, ‘@PaintBritain’ at Ipswich Art School, and ‘Picturing Sheffield’ at the Millennium Galleries.

His paintings are views of the fringes of suburbia, places that feel as though they are familiar, but then escape our conditioned response.  The scene switches between mundane and suggesting something may be about to happen.

His painting technique has been described as ‘contemporary pointillism’ and is a deliberate attempt to acknowledge and evoke the spirit and social conscience of Camille Pissaro.

swseanwilliams@gmail.com
www.swseanwilliams.wordpress.com
www.twitter.com/SeanWilliams23/
0771 136 5221

Mandy Payne



Mandy Payne - main contact for information regarding the show
 
Mandy Payne is a painter and a printmaker, although for this body of work she has focussed largely on painting. Her principal painting medium is mixed media, working primarily in acrylics, oils and aerosol. The physicality of paint and surface texture are important elements in her work, as are exploring different media and processes.
She is interested in marginal spaces, places that are often maligned and thought to be devoid of traditional aesthetic beauty. For past 3 years she has been exploring Park Hill in Sheffield, the Grade II* listed council estate and one of Britain’s largest examples of Brutalist architecture. 

Park Hill is currently undergoing regeneration and as such is an interesting place to observe.  Part of the estate has undergone transformation into shiny, luxury flats whilst half remains boarded up and derelict.

Mandy’s earlier work has focussed mainly on the un- refurbished parts of the development where the memories and layers of the past are almost tangible. Her intentions were to create observational paintings that spoke of the displacement of the established communities and the temporality of urban landscape. She also wanted to draw attention to what she considered to be the hidden beauty of the estate, the geometry of the imposing architecture, the play of light and shadows on the walkways and the myriad of colours present in the spalled and tarnished concrete.

Spending time at Park Hill reinforced to her that concrete is the unifying link throughout the site. With this in mind she has been working with materials that are integral to the estate itself, namely concrete (which she has mixed both into the paint and as a substrate) and aerosol spray paint (referencing the graffiti).

For further information/ examples of Mandy’s work please visit her website
www.mandypayneart.co.uk

Examples of Work -

 
Displacement, 
Oil, aerosol, roofing sealant on Board, 55 x 44.5 cm

Surprisingly Green
Oil, aerosol, roofing sealant on board, 28 x 28 cm

Silent Shadows 
Aerosol on Concrete, 23 x 23 cm

Transience
Aerosol on Concrete, 19.5 x 19.5 cm

Regeneration
Aerosol on Concrete, 32 x 32 cm
 
Everything of Value Has Been Removed
Mixed media on board 27 x 23 cm

Bio - Mandy Payne is a Sheffield based artist and studied fine art at Nottingham University graduating in 2013. Recent group exhibitions include the John Moores Painting Prize 2014, (where she was a Prize Winner), Threadneedle Painting Prize, (Mall Galleries, London 2013), Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London (2014), The John Ruskin Prize (2014) and ‘Picturing Sheffield’ exhibitions at the Millennium Gallery, Sheffield (2015).

mandypayne24@googlemail.com
www.mandypayneart.co.uk/
www.axisweb.org/p/mandypayne/
www.twitter.com/mandypayne24
www.facebook.com/mandypayneart
0741 241 5676