LAUNCH PAD: Meanwhile See This

For the first Launch Pad exhibition, Castlefield Gallery is pleased to present Meanwhile See This organised by artists Nina Chua, Tiago Duarte, Nicola Ellis, Shona Harrison and Ana Rosa Hopkins.

Graduating from the MA Fine Art at Manchester School of Art in 2011, their work playfully explores the transfer of materials from the banal to deliberated art object evolving from a shared dialogue within their shared studio space. The artists have since pursued their practices independently and this exhibition reconnects and re-evaluates their collaborative practice.

“The similarities between our practices are as significant as the characteristics that separate them. Inevitably one finds a certain ethos throughout the work related to common art making concerns: material, process and production are elements that link these practices but it is in the healthy articulation of the idiosyncrasies of each piece that the real substance for the art can be found.

Indeed what connects us and our work is the ease and complicity that each individual shares with the other, a lasting legacy from the academic experience, a sense of cooperation in the making, whilst the work itself is left open to its characteristics as a unit of artistic labour.” 

Launch Pads are short exhibitions or performances that punctuate the main gallery programme providing artists with the opportunity to use the space as a test bed for production, display and consumption of contemporary art. They feature emerging talent from the region selected from CG Associate member submissions and an annual award with Manchester Metropolitan University. 

Artists’ Biographies:

Nina Chua was born in Manchester. Chua’s drawings forge a symbiotic relationship between image and process. Gesture is intentionally limited to its most fundamental form, leaving line, colour and support to assume a pivotal role in the work. The drawings emancipate any narrative intention to express these characteristic elements. Her work has been exhibited at Chinese Art Centre, Manchester; Castlefield Gallery, Manchester; DJCAD, Dundee and Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle. She was artist in residence at 501 Artspace, Chongqing, China in 2011.

Tiago Duarte was born in Portugal and lives and works in Manchester. Duarte’s practice challenges the traditional reproductive conventions of printmaking to create one off pieces. Constrained by the derivatives of process such as repetition, differentiation and variation, the work bypasses models for reproduction and edition. Selected exhibitions include Dilue Noir, Celine Poisat, Paris; Part of the Program, FaFa Gallery, Helsinki; Afternoon Tea, WW Gallery, 54th Venice Biennale, Venice; Secs and Death Cells, The Hive, Manchester; Axis stand, The Manchester Contemporary, Manchester. Duarte has recently been nominated for an Arts Foundation fellowship in the printmaking category, other awards and nominations include Ken Bromley Award, Neo:artprize Bolton,  London International Creative Competition, 2010, London, St Wilfrid’s Open Art Competition, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester. Duarte will be based at UCLan as part of the AA2A scheme 2013.    axisweb.org/tiagoduarte

Nicola Ellis lives and works in Manchester. Her practice is underpinned by an interest in the synchronisation of the natural with the unnatural. Drawing and printing are used to expose aspects of materiality inherent in synthetic materials. Sculptural objects are then produced which combine these material experiences with processes that play with levels of physical control. The subject of these objects evolve over time according to the environment in which they are positioned and the production of other sculpture, drawings and prints that contextualise them within her practice. Recent works explore the surface of a material with other materials, including polyurethane foam, silicone sealant, sand and stone chippings. Solo exhibitions include Full Circle, PAD Gallery, Preston. Group exhibitions include Neo: artsprize 2012, Bolton and Part of the programme, FAFA Gallery, Helsinki, Finland in 2012. Awards include Best Young Artist at Cow Lane Open 2012, Salford. Future exhibitions include Cabedal, Plataforma Revolver, Lisbon Portugal. mirabelstudios.co.uk/NicolaEllis

Shona Harrison lives and works in Manchester.  Her practice involves working with found, manipulated and created objects to form sculptures and installations that trap, divide and animate the inanimate. Her works take the form of peculiar tools, mechanisms, creatures and spaces forming elements of a surreal landscape. Often her works perform, moving, changing with time or suggesting gestures of movement.  Recent group exhibitions include, Temple of the Occult, Norman Rea Gallery, York; Fayre, Rogue Project Space, Manchester; Part of the Programme, Gallery FAFA, Helsinki; Chester Performs, Chester Castle; Emergency Accommodation, Blankspace, Manchester; The Ghost in the Machine, The Others Gallery, London; Secs and Death Cells, Hive, Manchester and ICA Live Weekends: Shunt, ICA, London.  She has also recently had work included in the conference Placing the Artist, Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester and in the show garden Interplantatory Travel at RHS Flower Show, Tatton 2012.  She was winner of NADFAS North West Artist Award 2010.  shonaharrison.co.uk

Ana Rosa Hopkins is an Argentinian-born British artist based in Manchester. She is currently undertaking a PhD by Practice in Fine Art at MIRIAD, Manchester Metropolitan University. Over the last six years she has worked extensively with glass in all its forms, exploring its physical qualities and inherent dualities; hard and fragile, solid and transparent. She works in the liminal region between sculpture and glassmaking, challenging the boundaries of how the material can be used. Glassmaking for Hopkins is a process of experimentation where substances are added to the process leading to unpredictable and unexpected outcomes. Her fine art practice uses the medium of glass as a vehicle to transport multi-layered messages and meaning. The resulting works are predominantly achromatic. Her doctoral research is focused on the back-story in contemporary sculptural practice and the legacy of Joseph Beuys. This has led to an exploration of the physical and metaphorical dimension of everyday materials and objects and their ability to catalyse meaning through association and suggestion. Her work exploits the sediments of history and narrative embedded in materials and this back story, inherent or invested, becomes important in the work’s interpretation and understanding.

Hopkins was the winner of the neo:artprize in 2012, and in 2010 she was awarded a NADFAS North West Artists Bursary. Exhibitions include neo:artprize 2012, Gallery 22, Bolton; Part of the Programme, Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki; Secs and Death Cells, The Hive, Manchester; Sculpture Installation, Victoria Baths, Manchester. Forthcoming exhibitions include Cabedal, Plataforma Revolver, Lisbon and 21st Century Rural Museum, Palacio das Artes, Porto; Ciclo de Artes Plasticas de Coimbra and MUDE, Lisbon.   anarosahopkins.com

Preview: Thurs 18 Oct, 6-8pm – All Welcome

Join us to celebrate the preview of Meanwhile See This at Lock 91 from 8pm on Thurs 18 Oct.

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