MOSTYN: New Exhibition Seasons Opens
Anj Smith
Chiara Camoni
Nobuko Tsuchiya
November 9, 2019–March 1, 2020
MOSTYN
12 Vaughan Street
Llandudno LL30 1AB
United Kingdom
Anj Smith, Desert Epochs, 2014. Oil on linen. Copyright Anj Smith. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth.
Anj Smith
This is the first solo exhibition in a UK public institution by Anj Smith.
Working primarily with painting, Smith’s practice reflects on the very possibilities and limitations of the medium itself. Her work excavates often overlooked art histories which she combines with her lived experiences to form the layers within her work. Exploring the very edges of representation, Smith’s intricately rendered paintings explore issues of identity, eroticism, mortality and fragility. Wildly feral landscapes, ambiguous figures, textiles, flora and fauna are intricately depicted.
Drawing upon sources as disparate as the works of Lucas Cranach, and the couture of Madam Grès, Smith weaves archaic traditions and contemporary signs together into a personal cosmology. Her paintings are rich in detail, colour and texture, collapsing strict definitions of portraiture, landscape and still-life whilst allowing elements of each to coexist.
About the artist
Anj Smith (born in Kent, England, in 1978. Lives and works in London) studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and Goldsmiths College in London. Smith has exhibited internationally in museums and galleries such as the Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland; Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany; Fondazione Stelline, Milan, Italy; Museum Arnhem, Arnhem, Netherlands; The Bluecoat, Liverpool, UK; Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville TN; Hudson Valley Centre for Contemporary Art, Peekskill NY; Galerie Isa, Mumbai, India; La Maison Rouge, Paris, France, and Me Collector’s Room, Berlin, Germany. Smith’s work is also displayed in the collections of many leading international museums and collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK; MOCA The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles CA; DRAF David Roberts Art Foundation, London, UK and the Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland.
Chiara Camoni, L’esercito di terracotta, 2012. Terracotta galestro Variable dimensions, detail. Courtesy SpazioA, Pistoia
Chiara Camoni
About this and that. The self and the other. Like everything
Featuring new and recent works, this new solo exhibition by Chiara Camoni includes a collaborative site-specific work created for MOSTYN.
Working primarily across drawing, sculpture and installation, Camoni creates spaces imbued with poetic sensibility. Her work is the result of a process which she calls “deviations” where materials are sourced through chance encounters and individuals or “various authors” close to her. Through this process, Camoni claims that “meaning is shared, it’s a small miracle. It’s her and their way of resisting—the fear, the passage of time, the news of the day.”
About the artist
Chiara Camoni (born in Piacenza, Italy, in 1974. Lives and works in Fabbiano, Italy) graduated in sculpture from Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan and later worked at the Institute of Natural Sciences in Naples. Together with other artists, she founded the MAGra Contemporary Art Museum of Granara and the Vladivostok group. Camoni has exhibited widely in Italy with recent solo exhibitions at Arcade, London (2018) and MIMA, Middlesborough (2017).
Chiara Camoni’s exhibition is supported by Arcade, London & Brussels; SpazioA, Pistoia, Italy and Q International.
Nobuko Tsuchiya, Asteroid Absinthe, 2019. Courtesy Private Collection, Wiltshire.
Nobuko Tsuchiya
30 Ways to Go to the Moon
This is the first solo exhibition in Wales by Japanese artist Nobuko Tsuchiya.
Tsuchiya’s practice combines a wide range of materials, often including household objects, collected over time, which she assembles and casts to create amorphous, hybrid minimalist mechanical objects. Presented across the gallery floor, the works enter into dialogue with one another creating arresting and poetic installations.
Through a careful shift in scale from the minute to the monumental, Tsuchiya’s installations engage with the viewer’s relationship to space. Her sculptures are in constant transmutation; they are repositories of memory and experience, signifiers of past, present and future imaginaries, hovering and shifting through time and space.
About the artist
Nobuko Tsuchiya (born in Japan, in 1972. Lives and works in Japan) has exhibited widely, most notably in 50th Venice Biennale, Italy (2003); New Blood at the Saatchi Gallery London, 2004; Unmonumental: The Object in the 21st Century, New Museum, New York in 2007; Busan Biennale, South Korea in 2016 and Roppongi Crossing 2019: Connexions, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, earlier this year. Recently showing at Leeds Art Gallery as part of Yorkshire Sculpture International, Tsuchiya is also a finalist in the Nissan Award 2020. She is represented by SCAI the Bathhouse, Tokyo; Galerie Aline Vidal, Paris and Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London.
Nobuko Tsuchiya’s exhibition is supported by Anthony Reynolds, London.
The exhibition is also supported by the Japan Society and is an official event of the Japan Season of Culture in the UK.
The exhibition season is curated by MOSTYN Director, Alfredo Cramerotti.
Derek Boshier & S Mark Gubb | Recent Press for MOSTYN Exhibitions
Derek Boshier: It’s Only When the Tide Goes Out…
Selected works and ephemera 1976-2018
S Mark Gubb: The Last Judgement
March 16–June 30, 2019
MOSTYN: Launch of 2019 Summer Season of Exhibitions
MOSTYN Open 21
13 July – 27 October 2019
Exhibition opening event and announcement of winner of MOSTYN Open Award and Exhibition Award: 13th July 2019 from 4.00pm
SELECTED ARTISTS:
David Birkin, Rudi J.L. Bogaerts, John Bourne, Alexandre Camarao, Javier Chozas, Martyn Cross, Eugenia Cuellar, Jessie Edwards-Thomas, Sarah Entwistle, Expanded Eye, Julia R. Gallego, David Garner, Thomas Goddard, Oona Grimes, Georgia Hayes, Nick Hornby, Sooim Jeong, Nancy Jones, Adam Knight, Piotr Krzymowski, James Lewis, Neil McNally, Irene Montemurro, Anna Perach, Jessica Quinn, Ariel Reichman, William Roberts, Samantha Rosenwald, Klara Sedlo, Corinna Spencer, Chris Thompson, Richard Wathen, Paul Yore, Madalina Zaharia
Selected from over 750 submissions from across the globe, the 21st anniversary edition of this internationally significant exhibition presents over 30 artists working in disciplines including textiles, photography, painting, sculpture, installation and film and video.
A prize of £10,000 is awarded to the winner of the main prize, selected by the judging panel, with a further Audience Award of £1,000 granted to the artist who receives the most votes from visitors during the exhibition’s run. New, for MOSTYN Open 21, the ‘Exhibition Award‘ will award an exhibition at MOSTYN to the artist/collective that the selectors feel would most benefit at this point in their career.
SELECTORS
Jennifer Higgie, Editorial Director, Frieze, London;
Katerina Gregos, Independent Curator, Brussels;
Hannah Conroy, Co-Director and Curator, Kunstraum, London;
Alfredo Cramerotti, Director, MOSTYN.
The visiting public for the ‘Audience Award’
Elisabetta Benassi: EMPIRE
Elisabetta Benassi‘s EMPIRE is an installation of terracotta bricks, hand-crafted in the UK from clay ranging in colour from red to black. The bricks are configured as a site-specific installation – the size, shape and appearance of each installation determined by its relationship to the setting; self-supporting structures assembled without mortar and in an intrinsically stable conformation. The work addresses the crux of the relationship between ancient spaces, archaeological heritage and the contemporary museum.
EMPIRE takes the basic building unit, the Roman brick, and transforms it with new symbolic and aesthetic meaning.
The work is exhibited for the first time in the UK at MOSTYN and at the Italian Institute of Culture before travelling to various venues in Rome.
In-sight 17
Helfa Gelf artists in our café
A new collection of work by artists from North Wales upstairs at MOSTYN, in partnership with Helfa Gelf Art Trail.
Catherine Bailey / Elizabeth Bolloten / Jenny Ford / Eleri Jones / Nerys Jones / Lucy Elizabeth Jones / Dave Roberts
The exhibition is curated by Barry Morris, MOSTYN. This showcase offers you a glimpse of Helfa Gelf Art Trail, Wales’s largest open studio event, which takes place across Gwynedd, Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham. We see this as a valuable opportunity for our visitors to experience some of the exciting and diverse work being produced in the region.
Ann Bridges
The Welcome
Inspired by her travels to India, Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand, Ann Bridges fills her sketchbooks with colourful observational drawings of textiles, food, flowers, animals, objects and moments in time. These visual diaries are then developed into beautiful print-based images.
Each piece is unique, usually produced in a small series combining an eye for detail with an imaginative interpretation. Using monoprint techniques, oil based printmaking inks are applied to the picture surface using small rollers and hand cut stencils to define areas of the composition.
Prints are for sale framed or unframed, and the Collectorplan scheme allows you to spread the cost of your purchases over 12 months interest free.
Portffolio Student Exhibition
4 June – 14 July 2019
What is Portffolio?
MOSTYN’S Portffolio programme is an Arts Council Wales funded initiative for young people with a passion for the visual arts. Aimed at students in Conwy aged between 14 and 18, the programme sets out to nurture and support more able and talented students. Experienced artists from a range of disciplines will share their work and help you develop your skills in exploring materials and techniques you may not have used before. There will be opportunities for you to discuss your work and develop your personal portfolio. Experienced artists from a range of disciplines will share their work and help you develop your skills in exploring materials and techniques you may not have used before. There will be opportunities for you to discuss your work and develop your personal portfolio.
More information on exhibitions at MOSTYN here.
IDEAL-TYPES [Chapter 2]
Curated by Alfredo Cramerotti and Elsa Barbieri
Marignana Arte
Venice, from 7 May to 7 September 2019
Opening: Tuesday, 7 May, 5:00 – 10:00 pm
Special openings: from Wednesday 8 to Sunday 12 May, 10:00 am – 8:00 pm
Inspired by Max Weber’s theory, whereby for studying a social action without reducing its particularities to a collection of individual events we must start from the perception that the individual has of the real world, this ongoing exhibition project is designed as a speculative tool which makes possible to measure reality: the ideal-type (Idealtypus).
Athanasios Argianas, Maurizio Donzelli, Nancy Genn, Artur Lescher, James Lewis, Alice Pedroletti, Antonio Scaccabarozzi, and Verónica Vázquez, are the eight international artists invited to formulate an artistic language that visually translates the thought relationships when trying to set out a concept; they do so through the dialogue between their respective art works, and with gallery spaces. A methodological paradigm that is never traceable empirically in its conceptual purity, the ideal-type is intended as a utopia that shares characteristics with real objects, even if it does not correspond to any specific example. With it, the materiality of existence must be compared in order to illustrate the
significant elements of its empirical content.
It is thus a matter of adopting something imaginary or intangible to better understand the concrete. The concept does not copy real life but underlines its most intrinsic connections. Without any expectation of objectivity, the artists build a kind of seductive, meticulous and inconsistent verisimilitude to verify empirically. By isolating a particular phenomenon from the complex of interactions, and catching uniform elements in the repetition of the same, each one proceeds in structuring the ideal-type that operates as a unilateral and rational measuring device of reality.
The artworks on display question the viewers by encouraging them to develop always new readings on the being within a visual and spatial conversation. The three wall low reliefs from the series “Clay Pressings” (2016-18) by Athanasios Argianas suggest a liminal space where systems and mechanisms freely swap with intuition. The tapestry “Angelicato” (2014) by Maurizio Donzelli is the result of in-depth research about the manipulation of the image. Works on paper by Nancy Genn, “Construct Blu I” (2003),
“Construct Yellow” (2003) and “Rainbars 6” (2011), are earthy, solid, layered, full of spirituality. Their pure and raw material fits in the unique variations of colours and textures, releasing a sharp and delicate lyricism. The steel sculpture “Sem Título, Da Série Nexus #2” (2013) by Artur Lescher is composed of single pieces in suspension, which highlight their volume and deny the action of the force of gravity. The wood,
paint, resin and lead work by James Lewis, “Diseases of Warm Lands (Rhombus)” (2018), corresponds to an extinct star constellation and is a visual monument to the impossibility of defining the parameters of human understanding and endeavours. “Study for a sculpture” (2016-19) by Alice Pedroletti is a series of photographs and paper sculptures, accompanied by sketches, that recreate a hypothetical landscape. They are fragile and temporary prototypes that constitute a city inspired by organic shapes. The works from the series “Essenziali” (1990-95) by Antonio Scaccabarozzi are self-representations of the pictorial body; free strokes of pure colour, wide, oblique, accurate and strong, without any support. Result of the interpretation of the practise of assemblage and contemporary weaving, “De la série tapices con metales” (2016), “Escultura en acero I” (2016), and “Sin Título” (2018) by Verónica Vázquez express the reperforming value of the material
Artists:
Athanasios Argianas (1976, Athens, Greece; lives and works in London)
Maurizio Donzelli (1958, Brescia, Italy; lives and works in Brescia)
Nancy Genn (1930, San Francisco, United States; lives and works in San Francisco)
Artur Lescher (1962, São Paulo, Brazil; lives and works in São Paulo)
James Lewis (1986, London, England; lives and works in Vienna)
Alice Pedroletti (1978, Milan, Italy; lives and works in Milan)
Antonio Scaccabarozzi (1936 – 2010, Lecco, Italy)
Verónica Vázquez (1970, Treinta y Tres, Uruguay; lives and works in Uruguay)
Alfredo Cramerotti: A Conversation on Performance and Video at Museo del Paesaggio, Italy
Museo del Paesaggio
Saturday | 30 March, 2019
A Conversation on Performance and Video
http://www.museodelpaesaggio.it/
DEADLINE EXTENDED| MOSTYN Open 21: call for submissions
MOSTYN Open 21: call for submissions
Deadline: March 18, 2019
Since its inception in 1989, the MOSTYN Open has nurtured and presented the talent of established and emergent contemporary artists internationally.
The exhibition of selected works takes place at MOSTYN, with a cash prize of GBP 10,000 awarded to a single artist or collective. In addition, the ‘Audience Award’ grants a cash prize of GBP 1,000 to those who receive the most votes from visitors during the exhibition.
New, for MOSTYN Open 21, the Exhibition Award will award an exhibition at MOSTYN to the artist/collective that the selectors feel would most benefit at this point in their career.
The confirmed selectors for MOSTYN Open 21 are: Jennifer Higgie, Editorial Director, Frieze, London; Katerina Gregos, Independent Curator, Brussels; Hannah Conroy, Co-Director and Curator, Kunstraum, London; Alfredo Cramerotti, Director, MOSTYN. And of course, the visiting public for the “Audience Award.”
MOSTYN Spring Exhibition Season
Derek Boshier, Guadalupe Mountains, 2017. © the artist. Courtesy of Gazelli Art House.
Derek Boshier: It’s Only When the Tide Goes Out…
Selected works and ephemera 1976-2018
S Mark Gubb: The Last Judgement
March 16–June 30, 2019
Artists Talking: March 16, 2:30–3:30pm, Derek Boshier & S Mark Gubb will be in conversation with Chris Fite-Wassilak
Exhibition preview: March 16, 4–6pm
MOSTYN
12 Vaughan Street
Llandudno LL30 1AB
United Kingdom
www.mostyn.org
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MOSTYN, Wales UK is pleased to present two new exhibitions “In Conversation” by Los Angeles based Derek Boshier and Cardiff based S Mark Gubb.
The gallery’s ongoing “In Conversation” series brings together two solo exhibitions and presents the dialogue, collaboration or similarity in exploring themes that can occur between artists. This iteration, which stems from a chance introduction through a mutual friend between Derek Boshier and S Mark Gubb, takes the series a step further with Gubb co-curating the exhibition by Boshier in collaboration with MOSTYN Director, Alfredo Cramerotti.
Derek Boshier, who first came to prominence as part of the British Pop Art movement in the early 1960s, is also known for his work with cultural icons such as The Clash and David Bowie.
The exhibition includes a range of drawings, paintings, prints and videos, along with lesser-known photographic and sculptural works, and ephemera from the artist’s personal collection. Through this broad collection of works and artefacts, the exhibition reveals how Boshier’s creativity steps beyond the studio or gallery space. Containing works from the last four decades of the artist’s career, presented here is a never before seen portrait of an artist whose own work he has described as “art that’s political, not political art.”
The exhibition also includes works and archive photographs made in the 1970s when Boshier lived in the Welsh village of Llangadfan.
Taking Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel painting of the same name as a starting point and reference,The Last Judgement by S Mark Gubb includes a range of new and existing sculptural works exhibited as an installation.
The exhibition builds on Gubb’s long-standing use of popular culture and history in his work, along with his interest in historical paranoias, created by things such as The Cold War, and in our ability as individuals to influence the world around us, for better or for worse. As part of his research for The Last Judgement, Gubb revisited classic works from art history such as Goya’s “Black Paintings,” key works by Hieronymous Bosch and works by the acclaimed Welsh artist, Edgar Herbert Thomas, the latter a great-great uncle by marriage.
To accompany the season a combined catalogue, funded by the University of Worcester, will be produced containing a new essay by Jonathan Griffin.
Derek Boshier’s exhibition is thanks to generous support of Colwinston Charitable Trust and the assistance of Gazelli Art House, London. S Mark Gubb’s exhibition is supported by the Arts Council of Wales
Alfredo Cramerotti: In and around and about contemporary art
Alfredo Cramerotti: In and around and about contemporary art
Alfredo Cramerotti, MOSTYN Director, will talk about his career as a Curator, the current programme, including the Open 21 exhibition, and future plans for Wales’ foremost contemporary art gallery.
Alfredo Cramerotti is a cultural entrepreneur, writer, curator and broadcaster. Alfredo is the Director of MOSTYN Wales; Head Curator of APT Global–Artist Pension Trust; and Associate Curator of CCANW (Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World).
See more information and the programme’s full timetable here.
MOSTYN Open 21 | Call for Submissions
Deadline | 4 March 2019
MOSTYN, Wales UK is delighted to announce the call for submissions for the 21st anniversary edition of the MOSTYN Open contemporary art exhibition, to be shown from July 2019.
£10,000 Prize
Audience Award: £1,000 The NEW ‘Exhibition Award’ will award an exhibition at MOSTYN to the artist/collective that the selectors feel would most benefit at this point in their career.
Confirmed selectors for MOSTYN Open 21:
Jennifer Higgie, Editorial Director, Frieze, London
Katerina Gregos, Independent Curator, Brussels
Hannah Conroy, Co-Director and Curator, Kunstraum, London Alfredo Cramerotti, Director, MOSTYN
And, of course, the visiting public for the ‘Audience Award’.
For more details regarding key dates and submission process, please visit: https://www.mostyn.org/open21
Curatorview [Alfredo Cramerotti] 
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