Uncategorized – Stephen Read

August 28, 2019

A Feld in England

Selected for inclusion in the Westmoreland Landscape Prize at the The Rheged Centre, Penrith, Cumbria - opening Friday the 13 September until Sunday 10 November 2019. I am often asked, ‘where is this?’ At the risk of sounding arrogant my answer is ‘in front of you’, meaning that it is what you see and not a representation of a specific place. I have been interested in the growing industrialisation of our countryside and in particular the landscape at the centre our food production. Fields are now producing crops 24/7, which can only be achieved with the help of the agrochemical industry. By portraying the familiar landscape and then overlaying an implied narrative that is ambiguous, possibly disconcerting but definitely ‘of our time’, our ‘green and pleasant land’ has the look of dystopia. As a genre in fiction dystopian societies are often characterized by dehumanisation, autocratic governments and environmental disaster, and are often used to...

August 11, 2019

in Uncategorized

by stephen-admin

Westmoreland Landscape Prize

Conceived and developed by Westmorland, the Westmorland Landscape Prize aims to document, celebrate and interrogate our relationship with the landscape. Following a national open call, which led to the submission of over 1,000 artworks, 71 artists have been selected to exhibit at the gallery at Rheged Centre, Penrith in Cumbria from 13 September – 10 November 2019. The exhibition was selected by a panel of eminent individuals from the art world: Cherie Federico, Editor of Aesthetica Magazine; Anne Desmet RA, Artist and Royal Academician; and Hazel Stone, Arts Development Manager for Forestry England. The panel were looking for work which reaches beyond the aesthetic, stimulating thinking and debate about the way in which we exist alongside, as part of, or sometimes in spite of our landscape. The range of creative approaches and mediums submitted for consideration delighted the selectors and they are confident that the exhibition reflects how artists are using their skills and talents to...

March 21, 2016

in Uncategorized

by stephen-admin

Camberwell Open Studios

17 to 19 June 2016 Denmark Place Studios 47 Coldharbour Lane London SE5 9NR Denmark Place Studios will be open as part of one of the first and now longest running local arts festivals in the UK, Camberwell Arts Festival works in partnership with local residents and artists studio’s, galleries and arts organisations to programme a 9 day festival of exhibitions, events, open studios, walks, talks and workshops. www.camberwellarts.org.uk...

January 26, 2016

in Uncategorized

by stephen-admin

The Columbia Threadneedle Prize: Figurative Art Today

1 to 24 July 2016 Palazzo Strozzi, Strozzina Piazza Strozzi 50123 Firenze Italy The Strozzina area of Palazzo Strozzi in Florence will be hosting The Columbia Threadneedle Prize 2016 @ Palazzo Strozzi from 1 to 24 July 2016, an exhibition designed to trigger a debate on contemporary figurative art in the work of forty-six international artists selected to mark the prestigious European award known as the Columbia Threadneedle Prize. Over forty works of art ranging from paintings and drawings to engravings will be coming together to probe the relationship between art and figuration today, taking a fresh look at such traditional genres as portrait painting, landscape painting and still-life. Addressing this theme inevitably means reflecting on the intrinsic value of the artistic image, playing realism off against the abstract and fostering an in-depth debate on our society today as it sinks beneath the weight of an ever increasing number of images disseminated via the new digital communication media. While artists such as...