Launch Pad: The Drawing Project. Curated by Jenny Core

Castlefield Gallery is pleased to present its next Launch Pad exhibition, The Drawing Project, curated by Jenny Core. The exhibition was selected through open submission by a panel including Kate Jesson, Curator at Manchester Art Gallery and Castlefield Gallery’s Interim Programme Manager Matthew Pendergast.

Core has exhibited her drawings widely throughout the UK, Europe and the USA.  Castlefield Gallery, through it’s Launch Pad programme is now excited to be giving her the opportunity to curate her very first exhibition that will explore her interest in the development of drawing as a medium even further.  Alongside her own work she will present six artists including Sophia Crilly, Hondartza Fraga, Mary Griffiths, Lesley Halliwell, Jenny Steele and Claire Weetman, all at different stages in their career, and all based in the Northwest and who each respond to the medium of drawing in diverse and innovative ways including 2D & 3D drawing, drawing installations, animation and performance.  And during the public preview event on Thursday 15 February there will be a Drawing Performance by artist Claire Weetman.

Previously thought of as simply a means of an artist making a preparatory study, drawing, since the Modernist period has become accepted in the art world the ‘final outcome’, with artists continually redefying what drawing might be in order to realise their work and ideas.

This Launch Pad exhibition at Castlefield Gallery is accompanied by a limited edition publication and e-book, Drawing – A Line Going For A Walk that includes contributions from the exhibiting artists and their response to contemporary drawing and essays from PhD candidate Sophie Preston and Undergraduate Lewis Cornish (The University of Manchester) that investigate the progression of drawing since the Modernist period. The papers take you on a journey of how artists’ perceptions and approaches to drawing have evolved from the mid 20^th Century to now.

Launch Pads are short exhibitions or performances that sit in-between Castlefield Gallery’s main exhibition programme providing artists, writers and independent curators with the opportunity to use the gallery as a test bed for the production, display and consumption of contemporary art. Launch Pads feature emerging talent selected from CG Associate members’ submissions (three times a year) and from the MA and BA art courses at Manchester School of Art (once a year). For more information about the CG Associates visit the members page.

About the artists

Jenny Core graduated in 2009 from The University of Huddersfield with a BA Hons in Fine Art: Drawing and Painting, she now lives and works in Manchester. Recent exhibitions include Some Misunderstanding, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, UK (2013); Self Portrait Exhibition, Brooklyn Art Library, New York, USA (2012); 60 Drawings Exhibition, Bankley Studios & Gallery, Manchester, UK (2012); Drawing Connections, Siena Art Institute, Italy (2011); Twitter Art Exhibition, Exhale Unlimited (E.U.) Gallery, Los Angeles, USA (2012). Awards include: Special Recognition Award, Abstract Competition, Light Space & Time Gallery, USA (2013); shortlisted for the Neo: Artrpize 2012, Bolton, UK (2012). jennycore.com

Sophia Crilly graduated with an MA in Visual Culture and BA in Fine Art from Manchester School of Art, UK. She now lives and works in Manchester and is Director and Curator of Bureau, a contemporary art gallery and consultancy based in Manchester. Recent exhibitions include: Sixty Drawings, Bankley Gallery, Manchester, UK (2012); Tattooed Tear, Malgras | Naudet, Manchester, UK (2012); International Drawing Project, PR1 Gallery, UCLAN, Preston, UK (2012); Salon Neu, Embassy, Edinburgh, UK (2012); Jerwood Drawing Prize 2011, Jerwood Space, London and touring, UK (2011-12). sophiacrilly.com

Hondartza Fraga graduated from a BA (Hons) in Fine Art at The University of the Basque Country, Spain and completed an MA in Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. Fraga now lives and works in Leeds. Recent solo exhibitions include A Still Better Seaward Peep, various venues, Hull, UK (2013); Seaward Bound, La Caverna de la Luz, Santander, Spain (2013); Ese Centro Frágil e Incierto, Sala Bretón, Astillero, Spain (2013). Residencies include Leverhulme Trust artist in residency at the Maritime Historical Studies Centre at the University of Hull, UK (2013). hondartzafraga.com

Mary Griffiths lives and works in Manchester, UK. She graduated from the MA Fine Art at Manchester School of Art in 2009 and is also Curator of Modern Art at the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, UK. Recent exhibitions include Some Recent Examples, Manchester, UK (2013); Cabedal, Plataforma Revolver, Lisbon (2012); Fathom, Bureau, Manchester, UK (2012); Memory of a Hope, Ceri Hand Gallery, Liverpool, UK (2011); Workhouse, The Hive, Manchester, UK (2011); MA Show, Holden Gallery, Manchester School of Art, UK (2009); This and That, Triple Base Gallery, San Francisco, USA (2009); Four Artists from the Manchester School of Art, FAFA Gallery, Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, Finland (2009); Jerwood Drawing Prize 2008, Jerwood Space, London and touring UK (2008-09). Her book, Pictures of War, was published by Carcanet (2009). Mary Griffiths is represented by Bureau, Manchester. marygriffiths.com

Lesley Halliwell lives and works between Cheshire and Manchester. She originally trained as a painter at Nottingham Trent University and has gone on to gain an MA in Twentieth Century Art History at Goldsmiths, London and an MA in Fine Art at Manchester Metropolitan University. Exhibitions include Beauty is the First Test originating at The Pumphouse Gallery, London, UK (2012-14); The Infinity Show, NN Northampton, UK (2013); The Jerwood Drawing Prize 2010, Jerwood Space, London, UK (2010); The Drawing Shed, Project Space Leeds, UK (2010); Superabundant – A Celebration of Pattern, Turner Contemporary, UK (2009); Bloomberg New Contemporaries, London, UK (2002). lesleyhalliwell.com

Jenny Steele is a graduate of Goldsmiths MFA and lives and works in Manchester. She has exhibited widely in the UK, Europe, USA, Japan and China. Solo exhibitions include Why buildings stand up/ Why Buildings Fall Down, Malgras | Naudet, Manchester, UK (2013). Group exhibitions include BALTIC Artists Book Fair, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK (2013); The Jerwood Drawing Prize at Mac, Birmingham and UCA, Bournemouth, UK (2013). Residencies include: Manchester School of Art, UK (2012); InCertainPlaces, Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston, UK (2011); 501 Artspace, Chongqing, China (2011). jennysteele.co.uk

Claire Weetman studied Fine Art at Liverpool John Moores University and now lives and works in St Helens. In 2011 she co-founded the artist-led studios and artist network Platform Art St Helens. Exhibitions include Small Change, Airspace Gallery, Stoke on Trent, UK (2013); Two installations, The Bluecoat, Liverpool, UK (2013); Trace, Motorcade/Flashparade, Bristol, UK (2012); Animated Drawings: screening of works by emerging artists, Parasol Unit, London, UK (2012). Residencies include METAL International Residency Award in partnership with Shanghai Fine Art University, China (2012). claireweetman.co.uk

Preview: Thursday 13 February 6-8pm – All welcome

Castlefield Gallery’s Launch Pad programme is supported by Soup Kitchen, Manchester.