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
Examples of Work -
Displacement,
Oil, aerosol, roofing sealant on board, 55 x 44.5 cm
Oil, aerosol, roofing sealant on board, 28 x 28 cm
Aerosol on Concrete, 23 x 23 cm
Aerosol on Concrete, 19.5 x 19.5 cm
Aerosol on Concrete, 32 x 32 cm
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
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
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Guaranteed Pleasure,
Acrylic on board, 60 x 90 cm
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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.
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
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' 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
Jane Walker
Examples of Work -
Acrylic on paper, 66 x 86cm
Oil on canvas, 130 x 150 cm
Acrylic on paper, 86 x 66 cm
Oil on canvas, 130 x 150 cm
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 
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 -
Mixed media on condom packet, 6 x 6 cm
Acrylic paint on crisp packet, 16.4 x 13 cm
Acrylic painted onto self made sheet of acrylic paint, 9 x 11.5 cm
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
