Press Release
24 | 05 | 19
The Art of Gathering
on show as part of the St Ives September Festival
14 September to 12 October
Stuart Cairns | Blackthorn Pouring Vessel
The New Craftsman Gallery St Ives presentsThe Art of Gathering, a multidisciplinary exhibition showcasing the work of seven artists who use the act of gathering, collecting or harvesting materials as an integral part of their arts practice. The exhibition includes paintings byMichael Porter, sculptural baskets byJoe HoganandAnnemarie O'Sullivan, jewellery and gathered objects by silversmithStuart Cairns, ceramics byPatricia Shone, and bystudio collectiveForest and Found, applied textiles byAbigail Boothand turned wood vessels byMax Bainbridge.
This is the first time many of these artists have exhibited in Cornwall, from basket maker Joe Hogan living in the wild, ancient landscape of County Mayo in Ireland, and ceramicist Patricia Shone's workshop on the remote Isle of Skye, Scotland, to urban collective Forest and Found in London and silversmith Stuart Cairns' studio base in Belfast. The exhibition also includes paintings and photographs by local Newlyn based artist Michael Porter, who will be showing his exquisite Dirt Series of paintings and a selection of limited-edition photographs that have never been exhibited before.
Patricia Shone |Land Marks| photo credit Shannon Tofts
Award winning artist partnership Forest and Found have been selected for the Jerwood Makers Open bursary prize 2019 this year. They will use materials foraged and sourced from the Cornish landscape to make sculptural wood-turned vessels, and use gathered plants such as gorse and seaweed for naturally dying textiles. Patricia Shone was awarded by the V&A at Ceramic Art London 2019, and Irish Basket maker Joe Hogan was shortlisted for the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize in 2018. Joe is also one of the selected makers for Portfolio an exhibition of outstanding makers organised by the Irish Design and Craft Council.
The exhibition includes a specially commissioned, site-sensitive installation titledFluent,which will be open to the public during the festival. Constructedby Annemarie O'Sullivan, it will be sited in the historic Fishing Cellar at Porthmeor Studios, where fishing nets are still set and in use today.
St Ives September Festival events in association with the exhibition include talks by Belfast artist Stuart Cairns and Newlyn painter Michael Porter. There will also be an intensive three-day workshop with Annemarie O'Sullivan, and a Spoon Carving workshop with skilled woodsman Felix Kary.
Annemarie O'Sullivan | photo credit Alun Callender
The exhibition is curated by Sarah Frangleton, and a catalogue will be published to accompany the exhibition.
Associated September Festival Events:
WorkshopWillow Basketmaking Workshop with Annemarie O'Sullivan
Date13th / 14th / 15th September
Time10 - 5 pm
VenuePorthmeor Studios
Limited Places: £300 including all materials
Description:Working with Annemarie in a historic studio space overlooking Porthmeor Beach, learn to make a simple basket or functional bag over three days using beautiful native willow. Attach a leather or wooden handle. This is an immersive course for beginners or anyone wishing to improve their willow basketmaking skills.
ArtistInstallationFluent
Artist-makerAnnemarie O'Sullivan
Annemarie O'Sullivan is an Irish basket maker, working on small-scale domestic objects to large-scale architectural forms.Exploring traditional skills and modern materials in her making processAnnemarie has constructed a site-sensitive installation, titledFluent, drawing on her current work around fishing baskets, traps and lobster pots.
VenuePorthmeor Studios: Fishing cellar I
Opening Times throughout the Festival
Artist TalkSilversmith and Applied Artist, Stuart Cairns
TitlePoems to the Landscape
DateThursday 19th September. 1pm, Arts Club:
Description:Stuart Cairns is an Irish artist and silversmith whose practice is concerned with investigating the environment and his relationship with it through walking, photography, drawing, making and the collection of found objects. Stuart is one of the selected artist-makers forThe Art of Gatheringexhibition at the New Craftsman Gallery.
ArtistTalkArtist Michael Porter
TitleOrdinary/Extraordinary
DateWednesday 25th September -
Time6pm
VenuePorthmeor Studios:
Description:Newlyn based painter, Michael Porter will talk about his most recent work, their origins and development. From the highly innovative landscape paintings using unorthodox combinations of techniques and mediums to the more literal images of natural ephemera often overlooked within the landscape. His work is currently showing at the New Craftsman Gallery.
Workshop- Spoon Carving withFelixKary
DateFriday 27th September (details of venue tbc)
Time10 - 5 pm
VenuePlease contact New Craftsman Gallery
Limited Places £45 including all materials
Description:Spend the day carving spoons on this intensive course with skilled woodsman Felix Kary. Using wood sustainably sourced from native Cornish trees, each step of the process will be demonstrated. From the selection and cleaving of greenwood to final finishing using traditional carving tools and techniques with their origins from Europe and Scandinavia.
Artist Statements:
Forest and Found
Studio collective and creative partnership, Forest and Found, work alongside one another and are influenced by their deep relationship to the land. Abigail Booth and Max Bainbridge tread the line between art and craft, crossing between contemporary art practices and the traditions of craftsmanship. They produce sculptural and wall-based works that look at landscape as a site of exchange between material and the maker. Booth's large, abstract textile pieces are rooted in the conceptual language and materiality of painting, while Bainbridge's sculptural forms hewn from wood, reflect a need to create a tangible, physical presence in space.
Stuart Cairns
Stuart Cairns works as a silversmith combining natural materials and found objects alongside precious metals to create artefacts in the tradition of tableware and domestic objects. He describes his studio practice as "not just about the landscape, but the experience of being within it, of being part of it. The walking, the collecting and even the swimming is about immersion, of feeling fully connected as part of the ecosystem relating to the tides, the seasons and the swoop of seagull equally. This is what I explore through the richness of materiality planted within the forms of domestic objects of silversmithing to reference the daily experience of being human."
Joe Hogan
Joe Hogan lives in Co Mayo, Ireland and has worked as a basketmaker for over 35 years. For the last fifteen years he has become increasingly interested in making artistic or sculptural baskets. This work is prompted by a desire to develop a deeper connection to the natural world that surrounds him. He harvests wild material such as larch and birch twigs, stones and bog wood combined with willow to incorporate them into his sculptural baskets. Poetryis another source of inspiration in his work. The world around us, he says, presents us with wonders everyday if we are open to seeing them.
Annemarie O'Sullivan
Annemarie O'Sullivan's work draws on the sturdiness of agricultural baskets, the curves of the landscape, and a deep respect for ancient crafts. She is inspired by simple connections to basket-makers from the past. Growing around twenty different types of willow, Annemarie is passionate about seeing the making process through from source material to finished piece, creating small-scale domestic objects through to larger-scale architectural forms. Her current work references traditional fishing baskets, traps, and lobster pots, employing weaving and binding techniques, which have been used for thousands of years.
Michael Porter
Michael Porter paints highly innovative landscape paintings using unorthodox combinations of techniques and mediums to the more literal images that focus on highly detailed observations of natural ephemera. These include found natural objects like seaweed, rocks and feathers collected from the shoreline around his Newlyn studio. His imagery is often a subject matter that is, more than often overlooked, literally under our feet or dismissed by their insignificance. The sods and clumps of dug earth, tangled roots and decaying leaves are the inspiration for the exquisite and meticulous ‘Dirt series' paintings. They are both ordinary and extraordinary. Also showing for the first time are a series of limited edition photographs.
Patricia Shone
Patricia Shone's hand built ceramic vessels are influenced by the landscape around her studio on the Isle of Skye: the erosion of the hills by forces of climate and human intervention; patterns of the past drawn across the surfaces; the natural textures of the clay reflecting this process. The pots are hand formed by texturing, stretching and carving. Patricia uses several firing processes, raku, wood and sagger to achieve a wide and subtle range of colour and density. She says "I make functional forms, mostly bowls and jars because they are innately human vessels."
See the exhibition from 14 September to 12 Octoberat New Craftsman Gallery, 24 Fore St, St Ives, Cornwall, TR26 1HE | 01736 795652 | info@newcraftsmanstives.com | www.newcraftsmanstives.com
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Print Ready 300dpi images for press use:
For further text and images contact curator Sarah Frangleton | sarah@dohertyporcelain.com
STUART CAIRNS Blackthorn Pouring Vessel
PATRICIA SHONE Land Marks
Anne Marie OSullivan_photo Alun Callender
Editors Notes
New Craftsman St Ives
With an international reputation amongst art and craft collectors for its painting, sculpture and quality studio ceramics, the New Craftsman is regarded as one of the most important spaces for contemporary artists in St Ives. Founded in 1962 by Janet Leach, wife of Bernard Leach, it holds an unrivalled reputation as one of the country's leading art and craft venues. Now in its 55th year, the gallery's annual programme of mixed and solo exhibitions continues to support the work of Cornwall's and the UK's very best painters and craftspeople.
New Craftsman Gallery, 24 Fore Street, St. Ives, Cornwall TR26 1HE | Tel: +44 (0)1736 795652 |info@newcraftsmanstives.com|www.newcraftsmanstives.com
Fine Art Communications| director@fineartcommunications.co.uk | Tel 07825 270235 www.fineartcommunications.co.uk
