MICHAEL LYONS – THE ALCHEMIST
November 2019 – January 2021
Michael Lyons (1943-2019) was an alchemist, turning base materials into objects of beauty and wonder. An internationally renowned sculptor, he first gained recognition as a ‘Young Contemporary’ in the 1960s and came to be regarded as one of the finest steel sculptors of his generation. He was a founder member of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and his potent architectural forms always command attention in their relation to landscape. Through his teaching he contributed significantly to sculptural practice in the UK and in China and his drawings and sculpture are represented in public and private collections both in the UK and internationally.
Michael Lyons’ sculpture ranges from steel construction, to organic bronzes modelled on an intimate or monumental scale. Although predominantly abstract, it draws on aspects of human form, nature, cosmology, myth and ancient cultures.
Michael Lyons: The Alchemist featured steel and bronze sculptures plus related works on paper from various stages of Michael Lyons’ career. We are grateful to the Michael Lyons Estate for their support and for allowing us to extend this exhibition through 2020 because of the pandemic.
Michael Lyons: Half-Light
June – August 2015
We published a slim volume of reflections and commentary to accompany the exhibition:
Michael Lyons: The Mithras Suite
July – August 2013
Michael Lyons: The Mithras Suite
Artist’s Film
Date created: June-July 2013
Medium: HD video, 5′ 18″
Summary: A short film documenting the ideas and process behind Michael Lyons’ Mithras Suite exhibition in 2013. Michael Lyons was a founder of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
Links: http://www.ysp.co.uk/channel/277/michael-lyons-the-mithras-suite
BRUMBY & BELL: RENDEZVOUS
July-October
A beautiful exhibition of new work by Robert Brumby and Christine Bell that combined painting, ceramics and print techniques. As the Californian purchaser of one of Christine’s paintings put it: ‘Only a few times in my life has an image stuck so strongly in my mind. I’m happy to be reunited with it.’
Brumby and Bell met in the Sixties, and for a few years worked together at the ‘Ceramic Projects’ studio in the Shambles, York. After years of working independently, widening their experience and wisdom, but remaining true to their values, they now come together again in this exhibition.
Alun Kirby: ‘All Small Things Must Evolve Slowly’
An exhibition of Cameraless Photography
28 August – 8 October 2017
Presenting the first solo show by emerging York artist Alun Kirby. All Small Things Must Evolve Slowly showcases cameraless photographs made using an early-Victorian process called the cyanotype. Alun Kirby’s work has mastered this process to address themes of memory and self in visual imagery.
The cyanotype was invented in 1842, at the birth of photography. The pictures are made without cameras, and there are no negatives and no copies; each piece is completely unique. Whereas traditional photography requires fractions of a second, this process can take anything from a few minutes, up to several months to capture the final image.
Alun has invented a new process, called the ‘metamorphogram’, which combines origami and cyanotype to make pieces which essentially make a photographic memory of themselves. We are delighted to be showing this new technique for the first time.
You can read Charles Hutchinson’s excellent extended article on the exhibition in the York Press here.
ICE
Between September 2016 and January 2017, we installed the Institute for Cultural Experimentation (ICE) at the School House Gallery, piloting the gallery as a ‘live’ studio/residency space and transforming it into a centre for production, exchange, creativity and ideas.
ICE’s culture of collaboration and experimentation made it a point of interchange, and its combination of artist-makers mirrored the current zeitgeist of a yearning for a ‘post-survival’, off-grid, hand-made culture.
Here was a space where beautiful and useful things are made by hand – a space embodying a ‘making and doing culture’ (David Gauntlett, Making is Connecting) – a space where ideas were shared and dialogue happened.
The ICE Manifesto:
ICE is a centre for production, exchange, discourse and research that:
1. provides affordable studio spaces for inter-disciplinary artists/makers/creative thinkers
2. nurtures and offers professional development support to its members
3. creates opportunities for showcasing artists’ work
4. curates a range of activities such as talks, open studios, discursive events, networking sessions, workshops, courses and residencies.
5. works with interested members to develop a more socially engaged practice and become agents of social change.
ICE was supported by Arts Council England.
Context and Curating
ICE piloted a new direction for the School House Gallery that led to an increase in social engagement and the development of a new, interested audience. It built on the the Gallery’s organisational experience of developing artistic social practice, interdisciplinary collaborations, artists’ professional development and audience participation.
This pilot laid the groundwork for ICE to become an associate membership organisation offering a digital platform to showcase members’ work, developing new markets and pathways for professional development.
Activities and events at ICE happened as part of a curated programme run by Robert Teed and Paula Jackson. This robust curatorial framework facilitated contexts for interesting work to happen in, and ensured that organised events achieved the desired outcomes for both artists and audience.
HUMAN TRANSFERRAL
29 April – 14 May 2016
Part of the New Curators programme
The New School House Gallery’s New Curators programme was delighted to present ‘Human Transferral’, showcasing the work of artists Desmond Brett, Vanessa Corby, Sally Taylor, Lucy O’Donnell, Helen Turner, Catherine Sutcliffe Fuller, Ken Caffrey and Christina Kolaiti. These were all members of the York St John Faculty of Arts Staff and this was the first time they have exhibited collectively in the city.
BARTOSZ BEDA: FEELING GOOD ABOUT THINGS
FEBRUARY – MAY, 2016
It was with great pleasure that we were able to curate Feeling Good About Things, a solo exhibition of paintings by Bartosz Beda, one of the most exciting early career painters currently working in the North. We first came across his work in 2012, when we selected him as part of our 53 Degrees North exhibition of graduate artists.
Since completing his MA in 2012, Bartosz has rigorously and successfully developed his practice, dividing his time between studios in the UK and in the US. As Sarah Ryan notes in a recent article in Money Week, his work is proving an attractive investment to collectors, having increased in value 500% in three years. Yet it still remains affordable: works in the current show range from £390 to £3,800.
Originally from Poland, Bartosz Beda relocated to the UK in 2008 to study at Manchester School of Art. After graduating with a BA in Fine Art in 2011, he was selected for the 2012 Catlin Art Guide for most promising emerging artists in the UK. Bartosz progressed on to the Masters programme at Manchester Metropolitan University to develop his practice as a painter.
Beda won the esteemed Torwy Award for the Best of the North of England in2012, and in the same year was short-listed for the Title Art Prize, the Door Prize and Saatchi New Sensations. Since then he has continued to develop his practice, has been short-listed for numerous awards and has exhibited in the UK, the US, Poland, Germany, Spain and Colombia.
EXTRACTS
Extracts was a group exhibition of paintings and ceramics by seven established artists based in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
The exhibition features works on canvas, board and paper by Linda Ingham, Pamela Knight, Miles Linley, Rob Moore, Malcolm Race and Wendy Tate alongside ceramics by Ilona Sulikova. We are grateful to Studio Eleven Gallery, Hull, for their collaboration on this exhibition.
Pamela Knight
Pamela Knight is a painter and printmaker living and working in York. She is inspired almost exclusively by landscape, particularly that of the Yorkshire Wolds. Pamela works in a loose, semi abstract style, drawing in situ and making paintings from these sketches in the studio.
Linda Ingham
Linda Ingham is a visual artist and curator based on the east coast of Lincolnshire, who exhibits nationally and abroad. She has work in several national and international collections including the Arizona Museum of Art, Rugby Art Gallery & Museum and The East Contemporary Collection at University Campus, Suffolk. Ingham uses media and process to develop her visual language upon themes of memory and place, often making use of found objects, or bringing in aspects of audience participation.
Miles Linley
Myles Linley was born in Yorkshire in 1967 and studied fine art at Bristol Polytechnic, graduating in 1989. Myles is known for his expressive and dramatic cityscapes and landscapes. He has recently been shortlisted for The John Ruskin Prize (Recording Britain Now).
Rob Moore
Rob Moore makes paintings and drawings inspired by landscape. His work can often stem from drawings made travelling and walking in that landscape. More recently he has also made images that touch upon the fragility and vulnerability of our environment that will be seen in a large touring show starting at Dean Clough Gallery at the end of January.
The work in Extracts suggests landscape that is mapped and marked fusing with his obsession with surface, touch and quietly expressive use of colour.
Malcolm Race
Malcolm Race is now a full-time artist after recent retirement from being Course Leader for BA Contemporary Fine Art Practice at Hull School of Art & Design
He describes his paintings as a physical manifestation of forgotten and lost fragments from the subconscious, discovered and remembered and even prompted through the process of painting. “I do not work to a plan. I paint as if to discover or unearth an image that already exists which when found is deliberately buried again. I love and respect a blank canvas for its infinite possibilities, just like a field of fresh snow. Who knows what’s in there? That first mark is stark and lonely but meaningful, challenging me to respond.”
Ilona Sulikova
For the last fifteen years, Ilona Sulikova has been making hand built, raku-fired, individual pieces. Her work seeks to achieve harmonious relationships between the 3D form and surface decoration. She enjoys experimenting with a variety of post firing processes, using the elusive dry copper glaze, to achieve vivid colours.
Wendy Tate
“I have always had a very emotional engagement with my subject and often it takes on a more metaphorical aspect in which some echoing of the human experience or the numinous occurs. I try to give the viewer a space to rest in and identify with. Some people on a purely familiar basis; they like trees or the sea. Others will enter into a more intimate space of identification with another like spirit and gain solace that they are not alone.”
ELEANOR WORTHINGTON PRIZE
We are delighted to welcome back the Eleanor Worthington Prize for its second year in the UK. The exhibition previews on Tuesday 23 February (6-8pm) and runs 24-27 February inclusive (11am-6pm).
The Associazione Premio Eleanor Worthington is pleased to present the second exhibition in York on Art and Disability, which shows works submitted for the Eleanor Worthington Prize. The Prize has been established in memory of Eleanor Worthington, an Anglo-Italian young woman who throughout her brief and difficult life kept a strong enthusiasm for living, which was inspiring for the many people who met her. The Prize concentrates on visual language, because of its immediacy; it is addressed to young people, whose work requires sustained concentration on the issue of disability. The exhibition rewards the efforts of the competitors, addresses a wider audience, and encourages society to take full responsibility for people with disability.
Some drawings by Eleanor are shown in the gallery entrance.
Every year the Prize proposes a theme on a specific issue related to disability. The theme of this year’s Prize is the “International Day of Persons with Disability”, a day which the United Nations have celebrated every year since its establishment by the UN General Assembly in 1992.
Students from various British and Italian institutions have taken part in the competition and the works you see exhibited at the New School House Gallery have been submitted by students of the Glasgow School of Art, St. John University, York, the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan, the Centro Sperimentale Cinematografico, Turin, the Accademia di Belle Arti, Urbino, the Istituto Superiore Industrie Artistiche, Urbino, the Corso Superiore di Perfezionamento “Scuola del Libro”, Urbino, the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti, Turin, the Accademia di Belle Arti, L’Aquila, and the Accademia di Belle Arti, Naples.
Videos can be seen on the screens; one contains entries in the shape of sculptures and multimedia, in addition to the works shown in the exhibition itself; another video shows the initiatives promoted by the Associazione Premio Eleanor Worthington for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, celebrated in Urbino for the first time.
The first prize winner among British students, Paula Doherty, from the Glasgow School of Art, describes her work LET’S BREW A CONVERSATION ABOUTas follows:“ A multispouted clay teapot designed to create a neutral territory for conversation about disability. The common impediment of the multiple spouts results in necessary communication between participants in order to navigate pouring the tea. This is intended to create a communal experience and aid participants in feeling more at ease to converse about their own/others’experiences of disability” (P. Doherty)
The first prize winner among Italian students, Elena Mazzi, from the Corso di Perfezionamento “Scuola del Libro”, Urbino, describes her work PIECES as follows: “We are all different, but if we carefully look at each other it will not be difficult to recognize a piece of ourselves in the other person.In the diversity we are all the same, all capable in a different way with respect to other people, all able to get richer through the other one and viceversa, to be a source of enrichment, all part of a book without beginning or end, without an order, without hierarchies” (E.Mazzi).
All works exhibited stress the capabilities of disabled people.
AND HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT (PART 2)?
16 December 2015 – 16 January 2016
Curated by Tilly Heydon and Catrin Podgorski
The New School House Gallery is delighted to welcome back And How Do You Feel About That? for its second showing, once again curated by Tilly Heydon and Catrin Podgorski.
The exhibition presents an exploration of “affect” in a post-internet age, showcasing recently graduated and emerging artists from across the UK in a new multi-media group show.
For Part II, Heydon and Podgorski have reorganised the exhibits in an attempt ‘to work with them in a more relaxed manner’. As they put it: ‘We already know how the pieces converse with each other and so have attempted to see if this dynamic can be changed; and it appears that it can be.’
The exhibition aims to explore the complex conversation between contemporary art and realising our unconscious emotions. In bringing together bold works by eight different artists, AHDYFAT is an attempt to force the viewer to reacquaint themselves with the base feelings and emotions that form their identity, away from the cacophony of social media that ordinarily surrounds us.
The reciprocal relationship between artwork and viewer is both lucrative and paramount to a work’s true meaning; we invite you to engage and converse with the pieces you see before you. You will encounter your own psyche, that of the artist’s, and that which is truly unexpected.
In a world that is at once isolating and overcrowded, a sense of impersonality is omnipresent. We forge to reflect inwardly and encounter a loss of self that this exhibition aims to help you reclaim.
And how do you feel about that?
And How Do You Feel About That? is part of the School House Gallery’s ‘New Curators’ programme, which the gallery launched in 2015. New Curators provides undergraduates at both the University of York and York St John University with hands-on opportunities to develop their curatorial skills by testing and proving their concepts in the arena of a professional contemporary art gallery.
RELISH
FINAL YEAR FINE ARTISTS SHOWCASE THEIR WORK
Fri 4 – Wed 9 December, inclusive
10am – 5pm daily, free of charge
The work of York St John University’s newest emerging artists will go on display this week at York’s contemporary art space, The New School House Gallery and will offer a rare opportunity for the public to see their developing practices ahead of their Degree Show next May.
The artists, all Fine Art students in their third year, are presenting their most current work in this final year interim exhibition showcasing one artwork from each undergraduate student.
The exhibition, Relish, opens to the public this Friday at The New School House Gallery on Peasholme Green. The artist say the exhibition will offer a taste of their developing work and promises to be both eclectic and experimental.
Helen Turner, Head of Fine Art at York St John University, says: “Our third year students are working across a range of media and we are sure that this exhibition will be not only varied and exciting but also a good foretaste of their Degree Show in May 2016”.
Robert Teed, co-Director at The New School House Gallery, says: “We are delighted to provide another opportunity to work again with York St John University undergraduate students to test their ideas in a professional contemporary art gallery space”.
COMING NEXT: AHDYFAT PART 2
AND HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT? (PART 2)
16 December 2015 – 12 January 2016
Previews Friday 13th November, 6-8pm
Curated by Tilly Heydon and Catrin Podgorski
The New School House Gallery is delighted to present an exploration of “affect” in a post-internet age, showcasing recently graduated and emerging artists from across the UK in a new multi-media group show.
The exhibition aims to explore the complex conversation between contemporary art and realising our unconscious emotions. In bringing together bold works by eight different artists, AHDYFAT is an attempt to force the viewer to reacquaint themselves with the base feelings and emotions that form their identity, away from the cacophony of social media that ordinarily surrounds us.
The reciprocal relationship between artwork and viewer is both lucrative and paramount to a work’s true meaning; we invite you to engage and converse with the pieces you see before you. You will encounter your own psyche, that of the artist’s, and that which is truly unexpected.
In a world that is at once isolating and overcrowded, a sense of impersonality is omnipresent. We forge to reflect inwardly and encounter a loss of self that this exhibition aims to help you reclaim.
And how do you feel about that?
And How Do You Feel About That? is part of the School House Gallery’s ‘New Curators’ programme, which the gallery launched in 2015. New Curators provides undergraduates at both the University of York and York St John University with hands-on opportunities to develop their curatorial skills by testing and proving their concepts in the arena of a professional contemporary art gallery.
JAKE ATTREE: THE CITY BENEATH
Jake Attree: The City Beneath
5 September – 31 October 2015
We were delighted to welcome back Jake Attree for his third exhibition, The City Beneath.
‘The City Beneath’ brought together a new body of work exploring perennial Attree themes of place, nature and belonging. It includes both figural and abstract works, in oil and oil pastel, whose subjects range from York’s city skyline to the Yorkshire landscape.
As Jake Attree observes: ‘I am a figurative artist in the sense that everything I paint is based on something I have observed and almost certainly drawn. No matter how far the paintings may depart from the subject that inspired them, they nevertheless are rooted in and dependent upon those initial observations.’
The exhibition was presented in association with Messum’s of Cork Street, who represent Jake Attree nationally and internationally.
TRANSFORMATION
Transformation by Jo Shapcott is a beautiful, tactile volume featuring previously unpublished works by this award-winning poet.
The book is available in a strictly limited edition of 250. It was designed, illustrated, typeset and hand printed by Paula Jackson and Robert Teed in 2013.
Jo Shapcott’s Transformation poems were originally commissioned as part of a 2012 inter-disciplinary project curated by Jackson and Teed at the New School House Gallery in York. Shapcott’s poem ‘Piss Flower’, which originally responded to Chadwick’s eponymous sculptures, formed the foundation of a new set of poems – each of the newly written poems springing from a word or phrase in the original.
Transformation was supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation and Arts Council England. It is also now an integral part of the Education programme at York St John University.
Jackson and Teed hand-composited each poem in metal letterset then printed them using an Albion press onto Hahnemuhle paper. Their illustrations respond to each of Shapcott’s poems and were hand-printed from laser-etched plates.
In an age of ubiquitous digital literary consumption, Transformation is testament to both the craft of poetry and the craft of making books in the time-honoured way.
For a digital preview see here.
The book was first launched at the Jerwood Space in London in July 2015.
ISBN: 978-0-9575147-0-6, 28 pp.
To purchase a copy of Transformation for £20, please contact Robert Teed
MICHAEL LYONS: HALF-LIGHT
Michael Lyons is a major figure in British sculpture, whose career has spanned over 40 years. His practice ranges from steel construction to organic bronzes modelled on an intimate or monumental scale. Through abstract forms, Lyons’ sculpture draws on aspects of nature, cosmology, myth and ancient cultures.
The Michael Lyons exhibition ‘Half-Light’ (July-August 2015) brought together sculptures from the 1980s to the present with drawings and prints, some of which were completed during a residency at Grizedale Forest in Cumbria in 1984. At the heart of ‘Half-Light’ is the forest: suffused with mystery, it is a liminal space of infinite possibility. As Michael Lyons notes: ‘‘Half-Light’ can refer to the black and white emphasis of the drawings, the play of shadows beneath the trees and, indeed, to events glimpsed or imagined in the depth of the forest.’
A volume of reflections and commentary was published to accompany the exhibition.
PH1: ARTISTS IN PLACE
PH1: Artists in Place is a project that investigates a city centre artist residency model, curated by Jackson and Teed and supported by Arts Council England.
John Newling’s ’21st Century Eden’ was the first residency, taking place during July 2014. An exhibition of interim works was held at the New School House Gallery between 22 July and 23 August.
DELAINE AND DAMIAN LE BAS
Work: Film of John Newling’s 21st Century Eden performance in St Helen’s Square
Date created: July 2014
Medium: HD video, 80′
Summary: A film documenting the live performance by six readers in St Helen’s Square of John Newling’s ’21st Century Eden’.
Part of PH1: Artists in Place, supported by Arts Council England.
Sound: Eliza Gregory and Dan White
Broadcast: First broadcast at New School House Gallery (July-August 2013).
Work: John Newling performance at York Minster
Date created: July 2014
Medium: HD video, 3’30”
Summary: A short film documenting a performance by John Newling outside York Minster during his ’21st Century Eden’ Residency.
Part of PH1: Artists in Place, supported by Arts Council England.
Broadcast: date to be confirmed.
Work: John Newling Documentary 1
Date created: July 2014
Medium: HD video, 10’15”
Summary: A 10 minute documentary charting the first stages of John Newling’s ’21st Century Eden’ Residency.
Part of PH1: Artists in Place, supported by Arts Council England.
Broadcast: First broadcast at New School House Gallery (July-August 2013) and on PH1 Youtube channel.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXaB25nb5Ks
Work: Memoria: Berlin
Date created: August 2013 – January 2014
Medium: HD video, 6’13”
Summary: An experimental film exploring landscapes in Berlin and their relation to acts of memorial, including footage from ‘Crystal Ball Genocide’ by kind permission of Delaine Le Bas.
Work: Outdoor Projection: Sampo
Date created: August – October 2013
Medium: HD video, 6′
Broadcast: 30-0ct – 2 Nov 2013. Projected against facade of St Helen’s Church, York.
Sound: Eliza Gregory
Summary: Commissioned as part of Illuminating York 2013. Sampo was inspired by Sampo Lapellil a Finnish folk tale, exploring themes of good and evil, light and dark, innocence and experience.
Watch a recording of Sampo on Vimeo
Work: Michael Lyons: Mithras Suite film
Date created: June-July 2013
Medium: HD video, 5′ 18″
Summary: A short film documenting the ideas and process behind Michael Lyons’ Mithras Suite exhibition in 2013. Michael Lyons was a founder of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
Links: http://www.ysp.co.uk/channel/277/michael-lyons-the-mithras-suite
Exhibition: Imagination of Matter
Date: 18 January – 1 March 2014 Artists involved: Mikhail Karikis, Nikolaj Bendix Skyum Larsen, Uriel Orlow, Annika Ström, Suzanne Treister, Paula Jackson and Robert Teed. Summary: An exhibition for Monica Ross, exploring themes of otherness, difference, and remembrance.
Exhibition: Jake Attree: The City, the Gardens and the People
Date: 14 September – 24 October 2013 Artists involved: Jake Attree Summary: An exhibition of new works by a prominent regional artist inspired by a city and its people.
Exhibition: The Stall of Gathered Economies (Part 1)
Artists involved: John Newling Date: May 2013 Summary: The ‘Stall of Gathered Economies’ brings into differing relations many objects that Newling has deployed over 20 years of installations that review ‘social capital’ and ideas of an ‘ecology of place’ through transactions with and through people as participants in the work. From gilded calves to a lottery machine each object sits in relation to the other within the frame of a market stall; all gathered together in a complex set of conversations both material and metaphoric.
Exhibition: Transformation
Date: 15 November – 21 December 2012 Artists involved: Helen Chadwick, Jo Shapcott, Joseph Hartley, Laura McGrath, Jackson and Teed. Summary: An exhibition combining sculpture, poetry and interdisciplinary arts that centres on Helen Chadwick’s Piss Flowers and new poetry commissioned from Jo Shapcott in response. At the heart of Transformation is the exploration of a very specific artistic idea: how does art – be that sculpture, poetry, or the blurred boundaries in between – transform experience and convey the joy of a single moment?
