London | Visual Artists Ireland

Open Call | Sunny Art Award 2017, London (Submission Fee)

May 31, 2017

Application deadline: 20 June

Sunny Art Centre is accepting submissions for 2017, for its international art competition – the Sunny Art Award.

The competition is open for a variety of submissions which can range from two-dimensional works such as paintings, drawings and photographs, to three-dimensional sculptures, ceramics and jewellery.

A total cash fund of £6,000 is awarded to the art prize winners, £3,000 of which are reserved for the First Prize winner. Group exhibitions will also be held at the Sunny Art Centre in London, as well as at the Haidian District Art Centre in Beijing, Chen Centre for Contemporary Art in Beijing, the AIP Art Centre in Guangzhou or the Blanc Art Gallery in Macau.

The competition is open to all artists from around the world, aged 18 years or over as of 10th April 2016. Each artist is allowed up to four (4) entries.

The Sunny Art Award 2017 exhibition will run at Sunny Art Centre, London (near the British Museum, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Museum of London) from 1st August to 31th August 2017.

Sunny Art Centre is dedicated to fostering an understanding of fine art from various perspectives and social viewpoints.

Sunny Art Award 2017 Entry Fee
The entry fee for this competition is £25 for one artwork, £32 for two artworks, £40 for three artworks and £45 for four artworks.

All artists are responsible for delivering their artwork to Sunny Art Centre; artists must also arrange collection of art works from Sunny Art Centre after the exhibition period. Alternatively Sunny Art Centre can arrange the return of artworks to the artist for an agreed upon packaging and delivery fee. If at any time during the exhibition period the artwork requires shipping to another location, Sunny Art Centre will cover all costs.

For more information and application details see: www.sunnyartcentre.co.uk/artprize

Open Call | Barbican Concert Hall Wall Commission, London

December 14, 2016

Deadline: 4 January, 4pm

Barbican are inviting artists, collectives and designers across all disciplines, including those working with digital technology and new media, to respond to the phrase: What’s going on here, then? The winning work will be installed from late January until May 2017 on the Concert Hall Wall. Thematically the work can touch on any area, but should consider the desired audience experience. There is a commissioning fee of £2,500 to be awarded to the winning entry.

This site can be viewed from the stalls floor on level -1, from the ground floor, and the balcony floor on level 1. On busy days, thousands of people pass through this iconic building and will encounter your work should it be chosen.

Background
This commission forms part of an ongoing foyer commission programme, which extends our ambitious, international artistic programme beyond the walls of our venues and into the public spaces, giving our visitors opportunities to experience outstanding art for free.

In addition to the commission fee, the Barbican will provide the following provision in kind:

Christie Digital Projector allocated specifically for this location with a portrait lens
Coolux Media Management Server to play/schedule content
Technician support during installation and throughout for trouble-shooting
Interpretation / labels
Customer service support and any necessary training for invigilation
Photography of work in situ.

For more information and application form see: www.barbican.org.uk/about-barbican/commissions/concert-hall-wall

Open Call | Transgender, Gender and Psychoanalysis Exhibition, London

November 23, 2016

site4 Deadline: 11 December, midnight

The Site for Contemporary Psychoanalysis is holding a conference on the 11th and 12th of March 2017 on the theme of Transgender, Gender and Psychoanalysis. A series of fringe events will accompany the conference during the preceding week – including an exhibition in London SE1 to run from 5th – 12th March 2017. There will be a PV and it will be open to the public at various times during the Fringe Week. We expect a large turnout from the art, psychoanalytic and transgender communities.

You are invited to submit any and all types of artwork that come under the theme for inclusion in the exhibition. Some of the work may also be selected for a new broadsheet publication, the first issue of which will feature the Fringe Week and will be distributed widely throughout the UK.

Selected work will need to be delivered to Elephant and Castle on Thursday 3rd March 2017 and collected on Sunday 12th March. We are unable to handle sales of artwork but all artist biography and contact details will be provided to visitors. There is no charge to submit work or take part.

Venue: Draper Hall, London, SE1

www.the-site.org.uk

To apply visit: www.curatorspace.com/transgender-gender-and-psychoanalysis–an-exhibition/

V22 London Launch Pilot Project – Studio Workspace Crèche Facilities

June 1, 2016

V22 is pleased to announce that it is developing workspace crèche facilities in its studio building in Dalston, London. This is a pilot project aimed to help parents who are also artists, creatives, freelancers and entrepreneurs, to continue their work whilst not giving up being hands-on parents. If successful V22 want to make it an integral part of all their studio and workspace buildings across London. V22 currently provides affordable workspace for over 400 tenants.

V22 is an art organisation, with a shared ownership structure, which specialises in the collection of contemporary art, the production of exhibitions, events and educational initiatives, and the provision of artists’ studios and artisans’ workshops.

www.v22collection.com

Some interesting stats:

In the UK, one third of mothers and a fifth of fathers with dependent children (Office of National Statistics) work flexibly.
Recent studies have shown that London has the lowest rate of parental employment in the country, with women disproportionately affected.
In London, 60% of women with dependent children are in work, compared with 69% in the rest of the UK.
The gender pay gap increases from 6% for 26 to 35-year-olds, to 20% for 36 to 45-year-olds.
Less than 10% of UK companies offer workplace crèches – although parents say having childcare within the same building really helps with breastfeeding, with unpredictable working hours and minimises the time wasted dropping children off at childcare facilities.
The UK is placed 18th in an international ranking on gender equality in the workplace, according to the World Economic Forum, Ireland is ranked 5th. (http://www3.weforum.org/docs/GGGR2015/cover.pdf)
A 2015 Harvard University study found that daughters of working mothers enjoyed better careers, higher pay and more equal relationships.

www.v22collection.com

VAN November/December 2015: ‘Humour was the Key’ Alan Phelan Talks To Caroline McCarthy About Her Career

January 11, 2016

Career Development:
HUMOUR WAS THE KEY
ALAN PHELAN TALKS TO CAROLINE MCCARTHY ABOUT HER CAREER.

Caroline McCarthy, detail of work from the Humbrol series, 2002 – 2008, found packaging, humbrol enamel paint, shelving , 495 x 137 x 38cm

Alan Phelan: You studied in NCAD but soon moved to London for a Masters at Goldsmiths. What made you remain in London?
Caroline McCarthy: It wasn’t a conscious decision. Studying in London, I had made a lot of new friends and everyone was organising shows, so it kept me busy. The next thing you know two decades have whizzed by. To be honest, these days you can be based anywhere.

AP: You have always had a footing in Ireland through exhibiting here regularly and with Green on Red Gallery. Why does this matter to you?
CM: My formative years as an artist were in Dublin. It’s where I established friendships and working relationships that have continued, and which I value very much.

AP: You have worked with many international galleries. Have any of these represented you or were they just for exhibitions (I am thinking here of Parker’s Box, Hoet Bakaert or Bugdahn and Kaimer)?
CM: Parker’s Box and Hoet Bekaert represented me for 10 years and 8 years respectively. They both had a very experimental approach to things. Shows were always a place where new things could happen, rather than the work being shipped in and out again. This model is extremely difficult to sustain, given the increasing dominance of art fairs and the pressure placed on galleries to go there and sell in order to survive. Some galleries just don’t want to play ball, and rightly so. [Read more…]

The Finnish Institute in London, Announces the Finnish Residency Artists, UK and Ireland

May 14, 2015

Four Spaces, Four Artists
The Finnish Institute in London announce the Finnish residency artists for the UK and Ireland

The Finnish Institute in London is delighted to announce artists Ville Haimala, Essi Kausalainen, Kimmo Modig and Hanna Husberg have been chosen for artist residencies in the UK and Ireland. The Institute organised the residency programme in collaboration with Frame Visual Art Finland and Helsinki International Artist Programme (HIAP).

Ville Haimala will be in residence in Lighthouse in Brighton, Essi Kausalainen in Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridge, Kimmo Modig in The White Building (SPACE) in London and Hanna Husberg in Temple Bar Studios and Gallery in Dublin.

“All the four artists are working in a wonderfully open-minded and border-crossing way,” says Pauliina Ståhlberg, the director of the Finnish Institute in London. “The Institute has found residency programmes an invaluable way for artists to develop their practice and gain wider international networks. We trust residencies greatly benefit the Finnish art scene as a whole.”

The Finnish Institute in London is a private, non-profit trust bringing together individuals, communities and organisations. Our mission is to identify emerging issues important to contemporary society in Finland, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. We encourage cross-disciplinary and cross-border collaboration by creating networks and building new partnerships.

Further information:
E: animaya.grant@finnish-institute.org.uk
E: info@finnish-institute.org.uk
T: +44 (0)20 3764 5090
The Finnish Institute in London, Unit 1, 3 York Way, London N1C 4AE, UK
www.finnish-institute.org.uk

VAN Critique March/April 2014: Jaki Irvine at Frith Street Gallery, London

April 10, 2014

Jaki Irvine, Shot in Mexico. On the Impossibility of Imagining the Numbers of Dead and Disappeared, 2014, wallpaper and set of 20 archival pigment prints on Hahnemühle paper, dimensions variable, courtesy the artist and Frith Street Gallery, London, photo by Alex Delfanne

Jaki Irvine
‘this thing echoes’
Frith Street Gallery, London
17 January – 1 March 2014

Golden Square, where Frith Street Gallery sits reservedly, is a be-statued lulling-patch just off the persistent traffic of London’s Regent Street. In what might be an homage to a visitor’s typical route to the gallery – traversing buzzing throngs of shoppers and caffeinated urban professionals – you’re greeted at the door by a short video piece depicting a sucrose-binging hummingbird. [Read more…]

eBulletin

March 19, 2014

Dear VAI,

I am writing on behalf of theprintspace, (www.theprintspace.com <http://www.theprintspace.com> ) a creative printing studio in London, following a recommendation from a client of ours. We are an innovative company – the first digital printing lab in Europe that allows clients to work on a ‘DIY’ basis, working on the basis that we give the artist complete control over the editing and printing of their work.

…

After sending out a newsletter to our clients about this new venture, and asking for contributions, one client wrote back saying how incredibly useful the VAI had been to her in Ireland, but that she had found no equivalent here in London. She was particularly admiring of your regular newsletters, and in light of this I am writing to ask whether it would be possible for you to send me a sample. I hope you agree that we are in no way attempting to encroach upon what you do. Although associated with theprintspace, the Metavisual blog will not be a commercial blog, or corporate mouthpiece; we simply want to provide an invaluable forum for information and discussion to be used by London photographers.

…

Regards,

Catriona Wright
Marketing Assistant

VAN September/October 2013: Critique Supplement | Pádraig Timoney at Raven Row, London

November 19, 2013

Pádraig Timoney, Consider the Lillies of the Field, 2009, Untitled, 2003, Swingeing Smithdown, 2008, the artist and Raucci / Santamaria Gallery, Naples; Collection Toby Webster, Glasgow, photo by Marcus j Leith

Pádraig Timoney
‘Fontwell Helix Feely’
Raven Row, London
27 – April – 23 June

Eminent American literary critic Harold Bloom’s concept of the ‘anxiety of influence’ theorised that poets were perpetually in contention with their own precursors, wrestling with the rampant references that inevitably populate art forms burdened by long traditions. The idea’s unhappily combative sensibility and formalist stricture have found it somewhat outmoded, but in an exhibition like Pádraig Timoney’s ‘Fontwell Helix Feely’ at Raven Row in London, its relevance sees a revival. Not unlike that of poetry, the history of painting, even attenuated to the last few centuries, is unforgiving in its immensity, and it looms over the gallery like a storm front over a dinghy. [Read more…]

VAN March/April 2012: Pure Imagination

March 13, 2012

Artist Angie Duignan Explains How She Created Work for the ‘Imagination of Childhood’ Exhibition at the V&A Museum of Childhood in London, which ran from October 2011 to February 2012

‘The Imagination of Children’ brings together nine visual artists who are fascinated by children’s ability to play and ‘make believe’; in particular, the ways in which they can live in their imagination. Historically, children’s imaginings have been seen as a source of conflict with the adult world, but this display recognises and celebrates the profound creativity of a child’s imagination. Some works observe that children can readily become someone they are not for the purposes of a game, and that fantastical stories are created on a daily basis. Other pieces take, as a starting point, the way in which a child’s perception of the world can often find expression through their physical activity. [Read more…]

First results of our meetings during the Venice Biennale

June 20, 2011

On Thursday we will have our decisive meeting with ArtQuest about future collaborations and partnerships. “Artquest provides critical engagement and practical support to London’s visual artists and craftspeople, working with practitioners in London throughout their careers.”

Following detailed discussions about partnering, VAI and Artquest are now investigating how to take the wealth of information contained within both organisations to create a cross pollinated information source, supported by a professional development programme that can provide artists with the skills and confidence that they need to survive in the present economic climate. This project is part of VAI’s 2011 programme which is addressing the widening of support structures so that professional visual artists will feel less isolated.

More about the project later. Check our twitter account for updates on the meeting.

VAN May/June 2011: Ongoing and Roundabout

May 13, 2011

Ailbhe ni Bhriain 'Great Good Places' (Video Still) Courtesy Domobaal, London

AILBHE NI BHRIAIN TELLS THE STORY-SO-FAR OF HER CAREER AS A PROFESSIONAL VISUAL ARTIST.

I recall reading an article (somewhere) in which John Baldessari said (to someone) that approximately one percent of art school graduates go on making work after college – and of that percent only one percent make a living from their work. I am sure his calculations were about as formal as my referencing of them, but, applied to my own (committed, talented) year groups through college, the figures still manage an around-about-rightness.

Of Baldessari’s percentiles, I belong to the former: I do not make a living from my work. I work chiefly in video and video is tricky. A benefit of this uncommercial niche is not having to store unsold bubble-wrapped works under beds and in other people’s garages. You could also say it gives the luxury of being a purist, removing the pressure to shape work towards a buying audience. The downsides are obvious enough: lack of money; need to do other things for-to-get money to make work; lack of time to make work because of doing other things to get money to make work etc. But for the majority of artists (aforementioned 99%) this is nothing new. I state it just to signal that, for me, career development means simply supporting the continued production of work, and is an ongoing and often roundabout process.

[Read more…]

VAN January/February 2011: Honouring Creativity & Craft

February 11, 2011

FE McWilliam Gallery & Studio

Anne Callanan talks to Deirdre Quail, acting Curator, FE McWilliam Studio and Gallery.

Tucked away between Newry and Belfast, it can be easy to drive past the FE McWilliam Gallery without even being aware it is there. Though easily missed, once visited, it is never forgotten. As well as the striking architectural layout, the permanent and temporary collection are sure to lure you back. The Gallery and Studio is dedicated to the memory of the renowned sculptor, Frederick Edward McWilliam, born in Banbridge in 1909. After his death in 1992 the sculptor’s studio and its contents was gifted to the town of his birth. The gallery and studio houses this collection in a superb exhibition facility of gallery, sculpture garden and reconstructed studio. It also provides a tourist information centre, café and craft shop. I spoke to the acting curator, Ms. Deirdre Quail, who very kindly answered my questions, but added many little anecdotes from her talks with the McWilliam family.

[Read more…]

VAN July/August: Signs of Change

July 16, 2010

2006, photographer unknown. Images of the state governor, Ulises Ruiz are depicted over different captions that read (from l - r): The Innocent, The Cynic, The Thief, The Authoritarian, The Repressor, The Ruiner, The Assassin, The Shit.

Adam Stoneman Considers why Ireland Needs Graffiti Art With a Message.

The question of whether graffiti counts as art or vandalism – or both, still divides the opinion of the average person on the graffiti covered street. However, the Irish cultural establishment has been less equivocal in embracing this countercultural practice. These days it is not uncommon for an ‘urban art’ event to be sponsored by a local council or business, and there are now legal walls designated for graffiti in many major Irish towns. It has also entered the galleries and museums; this February BaqsR and Crap have displayed their work in the Galway City Museum and stencil artist ADW held an exhibition at the Back Loft Gallery, Dublin in April. This follows recent major retrospective graffiti exhibitions at the Tate in London (2008) and the Foundation Cartier in Paris (2009). [Read more…]

VAN09 – Play is Older than Culture by Justin McKeown

July 10, 2009

In 2001 I had an epiphany, that just as the 20th century demanded new forms of art, so too does the 21st century demand new forms of leisure. To this end I proposed SPART: the ultimate hybridisation of sport and art, and therefore the most evolved form of leisure on the planet. In 2001, when I first articulated the concept of SPART, I was virtually on my own in my enthusiasm for the development of such a practice. And though my concept of SPART has grown a support network of collaborators in Europe, Canada and America, and even earned me a solo show in the Ludwig Museum in Budapest, these SPART practices have remained marginal. [Read more…]

Artist Angie Duignan Explains How She Created Work for the ‘Imagination of Childhood’ Exhibition at the V&A Museum of Childhood in London, which ran from October 2011 to February 2012

FE McWilliam Gallery & Studio Anne Callanan talks to Deirdre Quail, acting Curator, FE McWilliam Studio and Gallery.

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FE McWilliam Gallery & Studio

Anne Callanan talks to Deirdre Quail, acting Curator, FE McWilliam Studio and Gallery.