Posts tagged: 2019

Artist: Mollie Balshaw

Title: Painting Sandwich #7 & #5

Year: 2019

Medium: Paint on cardboard

Accession Number: US2022-12A,B

Acquisition info:

Painting in the expanded field, Balshaw’s work extends beyond the traditional bounds and restrictions of painting, exploring the painting as an ‘object rather than an image’. They consider the deconstruction and reconstruction of structures and surfaces, applying and manipulating thick brushes of brightly coloured paint on – and in between – layers of cardboard in abstract gestures.

Their work also considers the intertwined histories of gender and painting practice, where painting is ‘caught up in a push and pull between femininity and masculinity Identifying as non-binary, I find myself stuck in this whirlwind of tropes, questioning where a painter like me fits amongst the history of painting.’

Artist: Gordon Cheung

Title: Home

Year: 2019

Medium: Mixed media sculpture

Dimensions: tbc

Accession Number: Tbc-2020

Acquisition info:

Made from layered newspaper and bamboo, Gordon Cheung’s window installation series ‘Home’ refers to homes in China with traditional window lattice designs that were demolished due to rapid urbanisation. The sculpture hovers between states of being, suggesting a ghost architecture that would have supported the windows. They act as a demarcation between the march of unstoppable progress, and the framework of identity, history and culture that define the individual.

‘Home’ premiered at Edel Assanti Gallery London (2019) in a solo show by the artist. The exhibition draws together three years of research and creation; addressing the emerging science fiction realities surrounding China’s vast infrastructural expansion – from dystopic surveillance societies to the formation of unfathomable megalopolises of 130 million citizens via the fusion of what are already the world’s largest cities.

Cheung graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting in 1998 from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London and earned his Masters of Fine Arts in 2001 from the Royal College of Art in London. Select solo shows include Jack Shainman Gallery in New York, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The New Art Gallery Walsall, Walsall UK.

Artist: Lu Yang

Title: The Great Adventure of Material World #1

Year: 2019

Medium: Digital print on archival paper, mounted to aluminium

Dimensions: 130 x 150cm

Accession Number: US2019-04

Acquisition info:

Lu Yang is a Shanghai-based multimedia artist who creates fantastical, often morbid and shocking visions of death, sexuality (or a-sexuality), mental illness, and neurological constructs of both real lifeforms and deities. Deeply immersed in the subcultures of anime, video games, and sci-fi, Lu Yang’s output spans 3D-animated films, video game-like installations, holograms, neon, VR and even software manipulation, often with overt Japanese manga and anime references. Her works involve frequent collaborations with performers, designers, experimental composers, robot companies, and idol stars.

Lu Yang has been featured in major exhibitions at venues such as the UCCA, Centre Pompidou, MAXXI National Museum of XXI Arts. She has also participated in numerous Biennales such as: Shanghai Biennale, (2018 and 2012), Athens Biennale (2018), Liverpool Biennial (2016), Montreal International Digital Art Biennial (2016), 56th Venice Biennale, China Pavilion (2015), and Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale (2014).

Biography courtesy Bangkok Art Biennale

The Great Adventure of Material World #1 was commissioned for PHOTOFAIR Shanghai 2019, as part of the UOSAC exhibition Taking the Leap, guest curated by Ying Kwok. Read more about the exhibition here.

Image Courtesy of the artist.

Artist: Jesse Glazzard

Title: LGBT+ Letters

Year: 2018-19

Medium: Series, Film Photographs accompanied by letters from the subjects.

Dimensions:

Photographs: W: 59.4 cm, H:8 4.1 cm, each accompanied by an A4 letter.

Accession Number:

Acquisition info:

Jesse’s own coming-out at secondary school was fraught with the fear, and harsh reality, of violent backlash. But it was also hampered by what Glazzard saw as a complete lack of queer visibility. He had simply no experience of how to become queer. Glazzard’s first cultural experience of queer romance was of a single ‘chaste, lesbian kiss’ on the popular soap opera EastEnders at the age of 9.

While LGBTQI representation in popular culture has improved, Glazzard describes still seeing many stale stereotypes, which this photographic work seeks to rectify. LGBT+ Letters is an attempt at providing, through portraits and texts, queer aesthetics for people who find themselves without meaningful representation in the world. In the photography series, Glazzard demonstrates a lack of self-indulgence rather a strong belief in accommodating to his subjects’ individualities, and ultimately to build trust, capture intimacy, educate and inform.

The LGBT+ Letters series was gifted to the Collection at the culmination of the artists time on the Art Collection’s Graduate Scholarship Programme, run in partnership with Castlefield Gallery.

Portraits:

Letters:

Artist: Open Music Archive: Ben White & Eileen Simpson (both b. 1977)

Title: Everything I Have is Yours

Year: 2019

Medium: Single channel 4:3 HD video, installed with vinyl and shellac UK chart hit singles (1952-1962)

Dimensions: 30m43s, looped

Accession Number: US2019-02

Acquisition info: Commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella, Contemporary Art Society, University of Salford Art Collection and Castlefield Gallery. Presented by Contemporary Art Society, Mbili Foundation and the University of Salford.

The film premiered at Salford Museum & Art Gallery, from Thursday 4 July – Sunday 3 November 2019, complimented by a funded community engagement programme inspired by the film, entitled Together We Move.

More Information

Keywords: Music, Performance, Archive, Video, Socially Engaged Practice