Asphalt Expressionism: Mobile Phone Photography of NYC Pavements 14 Feb – 28 April 2023 Oriel Tessa Sidey Gallery, School of Art

Photo of concrete sprayed with colourful graffiti
Red, White and Green (Harry Heuser)

In 1958, the US American painter Allan Kaprow abandoned traditional media and called for a ‘new concrete art.’ Jackson Pollock, he argued, ‘left us at the point where we must become preoccupied with and even dazzled by the space and objects of our everyday life.’ A few years later, in 1961, sculptor and installation artist Claes Oldenburg declared: ‘I am for the art of scratchings in the asphalt,’ the ‘art of ice cream cones dropped on concrete.’

Asphalt Expressionism showcases large-scale digital prints of New York City’s scratched, streaked and splattered sidewalks – impressions of which were gathered during the curator’s monthlong return visit to the Big Apple in the autumn of 2022 – to consider contemporary mobile phone photography, the most common mode of capturing the mundane and memorable alike, in the contexts of canonical art and its histories. In particular, the exhibition relates the visual culture of those stumbled-upon public spaces to the artworld of the 1950s and 1980s, of which New York City was widely held to be the capital. Autobiographical and interactive, Asphalt Expressionism invites reflections on the relationships between life, art and the museum environment.

Asphalt Expressionism was conceived by Harry Heuser, Senior Lecturer in Art History, Aberystwyth University.

150 years of Ceramics at Aberystwyth: The gift, bequest and funding of the Ceramic Collection at Aberystwyth University 1872-2022, 8 October 2022 – 8 January 2023, Ceramic Gallery, Arts Centre

exhibition poster with a shallow brown and beige patterned ceramic dish and a partial view of a ceramic figures head and torso

This exhibition is selection of the gifts, bequests and purchases for the Ceramic Collection to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the foundation of Aberystwyth University. Continue reading

21. German Talk – School of Art – 16th November 2022, 5.30pm

Cronyn, Hugh Verschoyle; Janet; Aberystwyth University School of Art Museum and Galleries http://www.artuk.org/artworks/janet-60689

Dear German Talkers,

I hope you are all doing well.

Please find below the flyer for the next German Talk. This time, it will not be in one of our galleries, but in room 206. It is the seminar room next to our small gallery, just down the corridor on the left when you come through the main door.

I’m looking forward to seeing you!

All the best wishes,

Karen

Continue reading

‘Collaboration in Practice: British Lithography 1800-2022’ – 24th October 2022 to 27th January 2023, School of Art Galleries

This exhibition offers a visual narrative of British lithography from its beginnings at the turn of the 19th century to the present day. Many of the prints on show are taken from the Aberystwyth University School of Art Collections. Continue reading

20. German Talk – Follow-up

Hello German Talkers,

thank you very much to those of you who made it to the first in-person German Talk since pre-pandemic times. I hope you enjoyed Angus McBean’s wonderful works.

As always, please find below the PDF with the (almost) verbatim version of the talk. You can download and print it free of charge, but please be aware that all images are subject to copyright.

I’m planning to do another German Talk before the end of the year and will publish the date on this website in due time.

All the best wishes, und hoffentlich bis bald,

Karen

Paul Scott: New American Scenery – Ceramic Gallery, Aberystwyth Arts Centre – 9 July-25 September 2022

Paul Scott is well known for his provocative, politically conscious work. He uses familiar transfer-printed tableware designs like the Willow Pattern to comment on our life and times. This exhibition features ceramics inspired by the so-called ‘American transfer-ware’ that was made in 19th century Staffordshire and decorated with imagery celebrating the new American republic.

Many of the pieces on display have resulted from periods of travel and research in the USA, when he studied examples of American transfer-ware and visited the locations depicted. Paul’s up-dated views reflect current events as well as historical, social and environmental change. Back-stamps are printed on the reverse of each piece. Part signature, part narrative, they often provide substantial information about the subjects depicted.

These ceramics have involved technical wizardry. The original visual motifs of central image and border pattern are manipulated and seamlessly altered. Undecorated antique pieces are over-printed with contemporary views. Sometimes the Japanese method of Kintsugi has been employed, applying a mixture of resin and gold leaf to joins and cracks, thus honouring the marks of time and use.

Paul Scott is based in Cumbria, North West England. This exhibition marks 20 years since his work was first shown in the Ceramics Gallery at Aberystwyth Arts Centre. His ceramics are now held in many important collections world-wide, including the V&A Museum London, The National Decorative Arts Museum Norway, The Museum of Art and Design New York, The Smithsonian Institute Washington and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He was awarded a PhD in 2010 by Manchester Metropolitan University, where he was Research Fellow from 2012-2014. From 2011-2017 he was Professor of Ceramics at Oslo National Academy of Art. His book on the creative application of print techniques to clay is considered a definitive text. Ceramics and Print London: Bloomsbury; Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania 2013 [1994]

Jo Dahn June 2022.

Jo Dahn is an independent writer, curator and researcher. She is the author of new directions in ceramics; from spectacle to trace (Bloomsbury 2015)

Research in the USA supported by the Alturas Foundation

Research at Wedgwood, Spode and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London was supported by Arts Council England.

Mae Paul Scott yn adnabyddus am ei waith heriol a gwleidyddol. Mae’n defnyddio llestri bwrdd wedi’u hargraffu â troslun, gyda dyluniadau cyfarwydd fel y patrwm helyg glas, i wneud sylwadau ar ein bywyd a’n hamseroedd ni. Mae’r arddangosfa hon yn cynnwys crochenwaith a ysbrydolwyd gan y ‘llestri troslun Americanaidd’ fel y’u gelwir, a wnaed yn y 19eg ganrif yn Swydd Stafford a’u haddurno â delweddau sy’n dathlu’r weriniaeth Americanaidd newydd.

Mae llawer o’r darnau sy’n cael eu harddangos wedi deillio o gyfnodau o deithio ac ymchwil yn UDA, pan oedd yn astudio enghreifftiau o lestri troslun Americanaidd ac ymweld â’r lleoliadau a ddangoswyd yn y dyluniadau. Mae’r golygfeydd cyfredol a ddarlunnir gan Paul yn adlewyrchu digwyddiadau heiddiw yn ogystal â newidiadau hanesyddol, cymdeithasol ac amgylcheddol. Mae stampiau cefn wedi’u hargraffu ar gefn pob darn. Llofnod yw’r rhain yn rhannol, ond maent heyfd yn naratif, ac yn aml yn darparu gwybodaeth sylweddol am y pynciau a ddarlunnir.

Mae’r darnau hyn wedi’u creu drwy ddewiniaeth dechnegol. Mae’r motiffau gweledol gwreiddiol, sef y ddelwedd ganolog a phatrwm yr ymyl, yn cael eu trin a’u newid yn ddi-dor. Mae darnau hynafol diarddurn wedi cael eu gorargraffu â golygfeydd cyfoes. Weithiau defnyddiwyd y dull Siapaneaidd o’r enw Kintsugi, gan roi cymysgedd o resin a dalen aur ar linellau asio a holltiau, gan ymfalchïo yn yr olion amser ac ôl defnydd sydd ar llestri.

Mae Paul Scott yn byw yn Cumbria, yng ngogledd-orllewin Lloegr. Mae’r arddangosfa hon yn nodi 20 mlynedd ers i’w waith gael ei ddangos yn yr Oriel Gerameg yng Nghanolfan Gelfyddydau Aberystwyth am y tro cyntaf. Mae enghreifftiau o’i grochenwaithbellach ar gadw mewn llawer o gasgliadau pwysig ledled y byd, gan gynnwys Amgueddfa V&A Llundain, Amgueddfa Celfyddydau Addurnol Genedlaethol Norwy, Amgueddfa Gelf a Dylunio Efrog Newydd, Sefydliad Smithsonian Washington, ac Amgueddfa Gelf Sirol Los Angeles. Dyfarnwyd PhD iddo yn 2010 gan Brifysgol Fetropolitan Manceinion, lle bu’n Gymrawd Ymchwil o 2012-2014. Rhwng 2011 a 2017 bu’n Athro Cerameg yn Academi Gelf Genedlaethol Oslo. Mae ei lyfr ar gymhwyso technegau argraffu yn greadigol ar glai yn cael ei ystyried yn destun awdurdodol. Ceramics and Print Llundain: Bloomsbury; Philadelphia: Prifysgol Pennsylvania 2013 [1994]

Jo Dahn Mehefin 2022.

Mae Jo Dahn yn awdur, curadur ac ymchwilydd annibynnol. Hi yw awdur new directions in ceramics; from spectacle to trace  (Bloomsbury 2015)

Noddwyd yr ymchwil yn UDA gan Sefydliad Alturas

Noddwyd yr ymchwil yn Wedgwood, Spode ac Amgueddfa Victoria ac Albert, Llundain gan Gyngor Celfyddydau Lloegr.

Ein Bro, Cyd-fyw â’r Tir / Y Tir yn ‘Estron’ | We live with the land / The Land as Other School of Art Gallery, 27 June – 26 August 2022

Ein Bro, Cyd-fyw â’r Tir / Y Tir yn ‘Estron’ | We live with the land / The Land as Other is a multi-disciplinary art exploration that invited artists whose work responded to the history/story of the land, language and land, a sense of place, the environmental and rewilding movements or the positioning of land by outsiders as other – a visual / playground commodity (tourism) in Wales.

This project, funded by the Joy Welsh foundation and supported by the School of Art Aberystwyth University, invited Wales-based artists and writers to respond to ‘the land’. All the artists involved were working on land based or environmental projects or visualising the landscape. The project was framed within the theories of environmental theorists, Anne Whiston Spirn and Val Plumwood, who argue that by listening and acknowledging the land’s agency we (humans) can provide a new way to interrogate land’s current and historical usage.