Coller Elective

 



(Coller Elective flyer by Mike Snowdon)

Coller Elective

Friday 1st – Saturday 16 May 2009

PV Thursday 30 April 2009

Katriona Beales

Fiona Curran

Tracey Eastham

Ben Washington

Coller Elective is the inaugural exhibition at Arena Gallery, a newly established venue which aims to promote and support local, national and international artists and creatives. Working in partnership with Arena Studios, the original Arena Gallery was housed in Duke Street and after an immensely successful Biennial 2006 exhibition; the Gallery became defunct due to Arena’s relocation. With relocation to the Elevator Building in Parliament Street and dedicated funding from the Foyle Foundation, Arena is once again in a position to facilitate a Gallery Programme of exhibitions and events and is delighted to launch the programme with this exhibition.

Coller Elective presents the work of four contemporary artists who are working with the medium of collage in exciting and diverse ways. Intended to provide a loose overview of the high standard of work currently being produced in the medium rather than being a firm statement of the current position of collage, the artists who appear in this exhibition tackle the connotations and historical implications associated with collage in fresh and challenging ways. Amalgamating assemblage and three dimensional works alongside the flat image, the artists in Coller Elective create, select, manipulate and present a unique range of works that energise the selective processes that are the very foundations of collage.

Katriona Beales present’s new work, the first piece in a new series of 3D collaged pieces entitled ‘All the worlds…’ Drawing inspiration from model-making for theatre, her childhood dollhouse and a treasure trove of early to mid 20th century photographs of Liverpool, Katriona weaves these and other elements into 3D ’sets’ or ‘worlds’. These point to both the seen and unseen, the fantastical and gritty reality, and question power dynamics of scale.

www.katrionabeales.com

Fiona Curran utilises collage, often in three dimensional forms and installations, alongside colour, pattern and landscape imagery that creates artificial spatial planes that visually and physically reference utopian and dystopian scenes. Curran is interested in the use of light and colour present within her work. The seductive allure of this is intensified by her usage of illumination in her work, coupling this with explosive geometric bursts of colour, each layer of paper competing with the next. Fiona was part of the highly successful )Bracket This(3 exhibition at Arena Gallery in Duke Street during the 2006 Liverpool Biennial.

www.fionacurran.co.uk

Tracey Eastham constructs paper collages that are concerned with landscapes made up of stereotypes, representations, and metaphors that whilst being apparently false and superficial still conjure up passions of national and personal identity. Using references from the 18th century English school of romantic painting, portrayals of the ‘wild’ Western America, sci-fi and romantic book covers; her collages have a strong literary element – they are in effect story-telling yet there is an intriguing sense of depth through the flatness of paper and an oscillation with fantasy and reality.

www.axisweb.org/seCVPG.aspx?ARTISTID=11885

Ben Washington creates flat and three dimensional works that are subtlely composed yet offer a strong presence. Washington combines materials positioned in careful relation to each other, his works presenting a unique juxtaposition of form, material and structure.

themachineryofcash.blogspot.com/

Next exhibition

We are currently developing an exciting and dynamic programme of exhibitions and events for 2012.

Past exhibitions