GALLERY ROUND-UP
Tim Lenathen: A Time and a Place
The Park Gallery
Callendar Park, Falkirk
01324 506850
www.falkirk.gov.uk
Until March 5
The Park Gallery, now decanted into the slightly less cosy surroundings of Callendar House, has always had an eye on keeping a local slant on showing work while never compromising on the quality of the work.
Falkirk born and bred painter Tim Lenathen is the first artist to exhibit his work at the Park Gallery for 2011 - a new decade in a newish century. The subtitle of this exhibition is New Paintings from Dundee at the End of a Century. Lenathen completed a Diploma course at Falkirk College of Technology before completing a fine art diploma at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee in 1998.
He then worked from WASP studios in Dundee where he concentrated on producing this cohesive body of figure painting and portraiture painted over a three year period.
Since then, Lenathen has returned to his home town of Falkirk and continued to paint between periods of employment, on commissioned work. He has exhibited at the RSA Edinburgh and gained a BP Portrait Award in 2001.
A Time and a Place is Lenathen’s response to a way of life, more notable in our big cities, in times of hardship. “As unemployment increases and working hours decrease, more people have time on their hands,” he comments. “An idea encapsulated by the image of people standing waiting in doorways.
“These paintings are my attempt to capture that figure framed in the doorway. A neutral background allows the viewer to focus on the subject, giving importance to an otherwise mundane and ordinary subject. What is their story? What is their reason?”
Tim Lenathen will be leading a day class painting in oils, learning how to capture a realistic skin tone next Saturday afternoon. Cost is £20 and booking is essential. Call 01324 506850 to book a place.
Reflecting Glenfiddoch: Key works from the Glenfiddich Artists in Residence Programme
Fleming Collection
13 Berkeley Street
London
020 7409 5730
www.flemingcollection.co.uk
January 25- February 26
The Glenfiddich Artists in Residence programme has established a reputation for producing radical contemporary art in the traditional surroundings of the Scotch whisky industry, hosting 70 artists from 26 different countries at the Glenfiddich distillery in Speyside since the scheme was founded in 2002.
The Fleming Collection, which has carved out a reputation as an ‘embassy for Scottish art’ in London is about to host the first ever exhibition outside Scotland of work by artists on the programme.
Among the leading Scottish contemporary artists whose work will go on display in Reflecting Glenfiddich will be Kenny Hunter, Alison Watt, Alex Frost, Ross Sinclair and Christine Borland. The international character of the scheme will be represented by artists such as Qi Xing from China and Michael Sanzone from the United States.
The Artists in Residence scheme was born after William Grant & Sons, producers of Glenfiddich single malt whisky and one of the few remaining family- owned companies in the industry, decided to set up an arts programme. Instead of taking the more traditional approach of building a corporate collection, it was decided to found the residency programme.
The scheme allows artists from around the world to live at the distillery in Dufftown, Banffshire for three months producing art inspired by its people, craftsmanship and surroundings. As well as accommodation and studio space, they are provided with a monthly payment, a production budget and travel expenses. The value of the award to each of the eight selected artists nows totals more than £12,000. Each artist leaves at least one newly-created work behind to join the collection.
The Fascination of Islands
Simon & Tom Bloor
Cooper Gallery,
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Dundee
01382 385330
www.exhibitions.dundee.ac.uk
January 29-February 26
Simon and Tom Bloor are Birmingham and London based artists (and brothers) who have been working collaboratively on their art since 2003. The language and over-reaching anxieties of childhood have seeped into their work, which investigates what they call ‘moments of utopian potential and flawed idealisms.’
Stretching out into a spectrum of publications, prints, drawing, sculpture and installation, their work often adapts existing texts and images culled from a variety of sources. Filtered and re-presented, their accumulations of information reveal the hidden connections and obscure histories lurking in the municipal urban landscape.
Crossing the boundaries between art, design and social history, their work moves beyond art’s continued fascination with the aesthetics of Modernism and into an uncertain territory haunted by apparitions of the future.
The Bloors brothers will be mixing elements from the actual fabric of the art school building with ‘abstractions of playgrounds’, giving the viewer an opportunity to rethink their views of familiar municipal spaces.
Taking a critical look at our nostalgia for modernist playgrounds of swings and climbing frames, they question whether or not the act of playing is the only utopian act left.
This the latest in a line of high profile exhibitions for Simon & Tom Bloor whose most recent success was Hit and Miss at Modern Art Oxford last year.