Art Fund: Top ten coastal galleries and museums
Art Fund Newsletter
29 June 2011
This summer, why not beat the beach crowds and visit some of our favourite cultural attractions on the coast? From dazzling modern architecture and world-class contemporary art collections to captivating maritime history and a fantasy castle packed to the brim with spellbinding objects, using your National Art Pass has never been so inspired:
Mostyn Gallery, Wales
(free to all)
You may not expect to find Wales’ leading contemporary museum in the beautiful seaside town of Llandudno in Wales, nor may you expect to find the stunning new architecture that lay behind the gallery’s impressive 1901 terracotta façade. Wales’s leading contemporary museum is set in the beautiful seaside town of Llandudno: a striking gallery set in a striking landscape, where old and new buildings have been merged into one harmonious design by architect Dominic Williams.
Don’t miss it! Although Mostyn does not have a permanent collection, the venue’s five galleries aim to showcase the best contemporary art produced in Wales and in turn bring to Wales some of the most exciting international art. Exhibitions change every couple of months and vary from large-scale shows to small projects and video projections.
Visitor information
MOSTYN Café ramps up the offering with a sea-view and light installation by Gavin Fraser of the noted lighting architects foto-ma. The licensed café offers dishes based on locally-sourced produce including home-made cakes. No modern gallery would be complete without a shop, and MOSTYN displays contemporary craft from around the United Kingdom, as well as books and cards. Don’t forget to explore the superb seaside town of Landudno and the famous Great Orme Tramway which takes you to the top of the Great Orme and dates right back to 1902.
Entry details
Free to all
Open daily, 10.30am – 5pm
Other Spaces: Jo Longhurst’s stunning shots of gymnasts are a joy to behold
Published on
by James Cartwright, Monday 23 July 2012
jo longhurst’s hero
Jo Longhurst has a CV longer than my arm (which is long) that includes seemingly hundreds of group and solo shows across the world, reproductions in numerous books and even a cheeky PhD from the Royal College of Art. All of which leads us to believe she’s an incredibly talented woman and this suspicion is confirmed by the sheer beauty of her work and the meticulous attitude she takes towards her practice.
Her most recent body of photographs Other Spaces focusses its lens on the Heathrow Gymnastic Club and the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, admiringly documenting the toned physiques and aerial prowess of the young gymnasts on display in an effort to “…explore the physical and emotional experiences of elite gymnasts through classic portraiture, appropriated photographs, performance and installation.” The resulting body of work is incredibly striking and delicately highlights the mental and physical conditioning experienced by these young athletes with incredible finesse.
Other Spaces is now open at MOSTYN, Llandudno, and runs till 30 September.
Cramerotti & Wales in Venice 2013 (newspapers articles) / Cramerotti e il Padiglione del Galles alla Biennale di Venezia 2013 (articoli giornali)
by / di Mariella Rossi
Corriere del Trentino
Friday 22 June / venerdi’ 22 giugno 2012
L’Adige newspaper
Sunday 24 June / domenica 24 giugno 2012
Alfredo Cramerotti curerà il padiglione del Galles alla Biennale d’Arte del 2013.
Artribune.com
24 June 2012
Text by Mariella Rossi
(Italian only)
È ufficiale: Alfredo Cramerotti, classe 1967, sarà il curatore del padiglione gallese alla prossima Biennale d’Arte di Venezia. Ed è ufficiale, concedetecelo, anche che Artribune porta buono, e comunque ci azzecca sempre: era accaduto per Vincenzo de Bellis alla direzione di MiArt, accade ora con Cramerotti, che noi davamo per favorito nell’incarico già un paio di settimane fa.
Da un anno è il direttore del centro d’arte contemporanea più importante del Galles – il Mostyn –, e lo abbiamo raggiunto telefonicamente nella città dove vive e dove si trova il centro che dirige: Llandudno. Non ha avuto dubbi la commissione dell’Art Council of Wales, che ha decretato la sua proposta (con Amanda Farr della Oriel Davies Gallery, presentando un progetto di Bedwyr Williams) vincitrice del concorso indetto per il padiglione a Venezia (“Qui si fa così: viene lanciata una open call per trovare il curatore”, spiega). Facile capire subito anche come fuori dall’Italia sia possibile farsi valere per il proprio merito, malgrado lui neghi di essere scappato definitivamente: “Tornerei anche in Italia, se ci fosse una buona occasione”.
L’ha portato fuori dall’Italia la continua sensazione di incompletezza, una necessità di continuare a imparare. Ha lasciato Trento per la prima volta per frequentare in Toscana la facoltà di architettura. Non l’ha finita, ma ha aperto una galleria: “In tre anni ho fatto cinquantaquattro mostre, secondo un ritmo intensissimo, quasi folle, che riuscivo a tenere solo perché ero giovane”, scherza. Del resto l’arte è nel suo DNA, visto che il fratello è pittore.
Lui stesso ama definirsi artista, piuttosto che curatore, perché “quando fai un lavoro curatoriale, approfondisci una ricerca e la presenti al pubblico in modo discorsivo, anche questo è fare arte”. E a Londra è giunto come artista in residenza al Florence Trust Studio, poi la sua eclettica formazione è passata nel 2000 per Berlino, per un master universitario triennale di “arte nel contesto”, poi studi critico-teorici a Malmö in Svezia. “Vivevo a Copenhagen, dove lavoravo anche in TV. A Berlino lavoravo in radio: mi è sempre piaciuto avere un piede nell’arte e uno altrove, ad esempio nei media o nel commercio”. Nel 2008 è a Derby, incaricato di inaugurare come curatore capo un nuovo spazio espositivo: il QUAD. Il resto è storia nota: “Non posso anticipare nulla per contratto –, oppone alle domande sulla Biennale -. La mostra di Bedwyr Williams sarà un percorso attraverso stanze diverse all’interno della Ludoteca tra i Giardini e l’Arsenale. Qui lo spettatore sarà coinvolto in una sfida della percezione fisica di quanto lo circonda”.
Mali Morris’ exhibition at Mostyn in RA Magazine
1 March 2012
RA Magazine (Royal Academy London, UK)
by Eleanor Mills
Adain Avion next in Llandudno – Pioneer
published on The Pioneer
by David Waddington
04.01.2012
Call for papers: ‘With Humorous Intent’
Call for paper-based presentations, playful provocations and serious badinage to be included in a two-day symposium interrogating the deployment of humour within contemporary art practices.
2 – 4 March 2012
Mostyn, Llandudno, North Wales, UK
Organised by Lee Campbell, PhD researcher, in conjunction with Politicized Practice Research Group, Loughborough University School of the Arts in cooperation with Mostyn, Llandudno. To coincide with ‘Ha Ha Road’, Mostyn, 03 December 2011 – 11 March 2012. http://www.mostyn.org
BBC Wales Arts: December exhibitions at Mostyn
Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Mostyn in Llandudno will open three new exhibitions on Saturday, in addition to the two current exhibitions already running at the gallery.
The work of Anselm Kiefer, one of Germany’s most significant post-war artists, will go on show at Mostyn from Saturday 3 December. The exhibition is part of ARTIST ROOMS, a new collection of international contemporary art that tours the UK with the aid of the Art Fund. It will be the first time that Kiefer’s work has been shown in Wales.
Works on display by Kiefer date from 1969, together with more recent works by the artists from 2006-2010.
The exhibition gives the chance to explore Kiefer’s work and in particular the way in which his work resonates with Welsh culture, for example in relation to the nature of mythology and its link with landscape.
Detail from Anselm Kiefer’s 1969 photograph Heroische Sinnbilder (Heroic Symbols). Image: ARTIST ROOMS, Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Acquired jointly through The d’Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art
Mostyn has previously hosted the work of American artist Alex Katz as part of the ARTIST ROOMS touring collection, while the National Museum Wales in Cardiff currently has work on show by another influential German artist Joseph Beuys, also as part of ARTIST ROOMS.
Meanwhile, Ha Ha Road also opens on Saturday at Mostyn. The exhibition has been curated by two Berlin-based artists Sophie Springer and Dave Ball, the latter is originally from Swansea.
Ha Ha Road is a group show of work by 25 artists and takes a look at the use of humour in contemporary art. Some of the artists involved include Pipilotti Rist, Ceal Floyer, Erwin Wurm and Welsh artist Bedwyr Williams, who won the gold medal for fine art at this year’s National Eisteddfod.
Curator Dave Ball will be at Mostyn to discuss the exhibition in a free talk at 2pm on Saturday afternoon. The exhibition will occupy gallery one and two at Mostyn until 11 March 2012.
Detail from Prank by Dan Witz, 2005
The other new exhibition at the Llandudno gallery is Shelter by Gareth Griffith. Shelter is a multi-dimensional exhibition that has evolved from a body of paintings by Griffiths that featured one of the most basics forms of shelter, a tent, that was used on his past family holidays.
Griffith began to build small constructions of tents and shelters, originally to be used as maquettes for paintings. Yet after constructing around 20 or so small examples of these structures Griffith invited his three sons, all of whom are artists themselves, to add their own constructions to the collection and this began a wider collaborative process with other artists.
Contributions from 60 artists from Wales and further afield, such as Peter Finnemore, Heather and Ivan Morison, Ivor Richards and Paul Granjon, who have each produced their own ‘shelters’ will form part of the exhibition at Mostyn, together with some of Griffith’s background research for the project.
Gareth Griffith’s Shelter exhibition at Mostyn. Image courtesy of the artist and Mostyn
Current displays at the gallery include The Colour of Words, an exhibition of work by local school children made in response to the recent David Nash exhibition at the gallery, plus Bruegel Boogie Woogie, an exhibition of small paintings – each measuring 18x24cm – by Georgian artist Misha Shengelia.
Visit www.mostyn.org for more details on the current and future exhibitions at the gallery.
Design accolade for Mostyn
Leisure Opportunities (via Durrants media agency)
9 August 2011
Mostyn Hires a New Director
Oriel Mostyn Hires a New Director
Photograph courtesy of QUAD / Lucas Graham CommonsCongratulations to Alfredo Cramerotti for his new appointment as Director of the Oriel Mostyn Gallery. Located in Llandudno on the north coast, Mostyn is the largest publicly funded contemporary art gallery in Wales.
Cramerotti brings a wealth of art world experience to his new position. He studied Art in Context at the Universität der Künste, Institut für Kunst im Kontext in Berlin followed by the Critical Studies Programme at the Lund University, Malmö Art Academy in Sweden.
In his current role as Senior Curator at QUAD Centre of Art, Media and Film in Derby, Cramerotti has fostered an ambitious programme of events including the launch of the FORMAT International Photography Festival.
He has authored several publications including All That Fits: The Aesthetics of Journalism which accompanies his current exhibition at QUAD. In addition to his innovative achievements at QUAD, Camerotti recently co-curated Manifesta 8, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art in Spain and the Furla Award for Contemporary Art in Italy.
Camerotti is enthusiastic about his new appointment. His aim, he says, is “to make Mostyn the place to visit for contemporary art in Wales, and the place to watch closer if you are abroad”
As Mostyn welcomes their new Director they also welcome their newly redeveloped exhibition space. In collaboration with The Arts Council of Wales, the Gallery has recently undergone a £5.1m expansion for which Ellis Williams Architects were honoured with a RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Award.
Succeeding Martin Barlow, who served at the Gallery’s Director for the past 14 years, Camerotti will take up his post at Mostyn in September.
Current exhibitions include Correlation featuring the work of abstract paitner, Colin Williams and Romuald Hazoumè, a solo show featuring the work of one of Africa’s leading contemporary artists both on view until 4 September.
Curatorview [Alfredo Cramerotti] 
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