Jerwood Painting Fellowships at Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea

July 19, 2011 - PRLog -- Jerwood Visual Arts presents an exhibition of new works by the inaugural Jerwood Painting Fellows: Clare Mitten, Cara Nahaul and Corinna Till curated by mentors, Paul Bonaventura, Stephen Farthing RA and Chantal Joffe.

The Fellows were selected from an overwhelming number of high standard entries. During the Fellowship period (October 2010 – April 2011), the mentors have engaged with the Fellows both in critical review of their work and working practice, and by aiding their professional development through involvement with the wider contemporary art community.

Each Fellow also received a bursary of £10,000 to support them during this period.
In this exhibition, Corinna Till shows a selection of “gate paintings”. Her work begins with photographs of cropped glimpses of paths, gates, doorways framed by wooden posts and brick walls from ordinary suburban terraces.

From the photographs she makes a painting, then returns the painting to the site of the photograph. She then photographs the painting in situ and presents this in the gallery.

There is slapstick humour as we see the hands of the artists struggling to hold up the painting, but these works also beg serious questions about the complex ways in which we represent reality.

Clare Mitten’s work begins from a curiosity about the objects we use to view, capture, communicate and archive visual information. Objects, such as cameras, editing tools and film making equipment, are turned into painterly constructions and collages. She makes the constructions with various everyday materials, such as packaging, paper and other stationery.

These constructions are then used by the artist as preparatory objects to make drawings, paintings and collage. Throughout Mitten’s work there is an ongoing dialogue between object and image, between one form of representation or reality and another.

In Cara Nahaul’s painting there is a personal dimension depicting figures from her father’s homeland, India – a country she only knows through second-hand material. In one painting, a group of men assemble in the manner of a school photo, in another, four elderly Sikhs stand together solemnly.

Rather than the subdued palette that would point to the painting’s black and white source, Nahaul has introduced vivid shades. The brilliant red flash of a jacket worn to pose for the camera, for instance, could suggest a special day being commemorated.

Otherwise though, these paintings are open and unbiased, inviting us to make of them what we will. In fact, both recent news and old documentaries, relating charged stories of assassinations and honour killings, have inspired her works. Plucked from the flow of information by Nahaul, the photos used to illustrate these narratives bear little trace of such troubled histories.

Jerwood Painting Fellowships is a new open submission initiative from Jerwood Visual Arts (JVA), designed to identify and support emerging artists in the field of painting. It follows the critically acclaimed Jerwood Contemporary Painters series, and previously the Jerwood Painting Prize.

The opening exhibition was held at JVA at Jerwood Space, London from 11 May – 26 June 2011. The exhibition is now touring around the UK.

A Jerwood Visual Arts touring exhibition. Jerwood Painting Fellowships are part of Jerwood Visual Arts, a contemporary gallery programme of awards, exhibitions and events. A major initiative of the Jerwood Charitable Foundation.

www.jerwoodvisualarts.org

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