Alison Stolwood

Catlin Guide press in The Guardian 17th Jan 2011

alisonstolwood — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:02:13 +0000

Young British Artists 2.0 try to make way in wake of Hirst and co

The YBA days of pickled sharks and stardom are long gone, but as a new art guide shows, there is top talent for a soberer time

Alex Needham
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 17 January 2012 15.01 GMT

Artists in the 2012 Catlin Guide – back row (from left): Gabriella Boyd, Adeline de Monseignat and Alison Stolwood. Front row (from left): Jonny Briggs, Catherine Parsonage and Max Dovey. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

As Damien Hirst dusts off his £50m diamond skull in preparation for his Tate Modern retrospective this spring, a new generation of young British artists are working in a very different climate from the brash super-confidence of his 1990s heyday.

“Before I did an art degree I knew I wasn’t doing it for financial gain,” says Max Dovey, 24, who graduated with a first in fine art from Wimbledon Art College last year.

“At art school I was always telling everyone else that no one would be a successful artist, to make sure they had a skillset so they’d be employable and [not to] wait to be picked by [Charles] Saatchi because it won’t happen.”

Yet there are flecks of light for Britain’s fledgling painters, sculptors performance artists and video installation-makers – not least from the Catlin Guide 2012, being launched at the London Art Fair on Wednesday.

The guide showcases what its editor, Justin Hammond, claims are the country’s 40 most promising young artists.

Some art world observers say the guide is premature, as it is based on BA and MA graduate shows. But many of those chosen – from recommendations by tutors, bloggers, collectors and critics – have received recognition elsewhere.

Alison Stolwood‘s work was selected for the influential Bloomberg New Contemporaries show at London’s ICA. That work, a photographic animation of a wasp’s nest spinning back and forth, has been sold and will be exhibited at Preston’s Harris Museum later this year.

Smiling Inside by Jonny BriggsMeanwhile, Royal College of Art graduate Jonny Briggs has defied Dovey’s dire prediction and has sold work to Saatchi, But the days of Hirst and the Young British Artists (YBAs) – when this would have been a fast track to stardom – have long passed.

In October Briggs, 26, won New Sensations, a competition created by the Saatchi Gallery and Channel 4 to find Britain’s most talented art graduate.

His work documents his attempts to “connect with his childhood self”, and includes a photograph of him wearing a giant wooden mask made to look like his father’s face.

This theme could be taken as making a virtue out of necessity; Briggs cannot afford to move out of his parents’ home, though he does rent a studio in a former factory in south London “where Twiglets were invented”.

Of the other artists picked by the Catlin Guide, Gabriella Boyd, a graduate of the Glasgow School of Art who was runnerup in the competition, has managed to fund her large-scale oil paintings through portraiture commissions.

Emerging by Adeline de Monseignat Photograph: PR/Richard WhitelawAdeline de Monseignat, who makes disconcerting sculptures she accurately calls “hairy eyeballs”, works as a nanny to pay the rent on her studio. But she has recently sold two works.

Catherine Parsonage, 22, considers herself “incredibly lucky” to have won a scholarship from the RCA, though, she says, she is “struggling – it’s expensive to live in London”.

Her portrait of her friend Charlotte was longlisted for the BP Portrait award at the National Gallery last year.

Few young artists are producing work with the in-your-face iconoclasm of classic YBA works such as Hirst’s shark in formaldehyde or Tracey Emin‘s My Bed.

Dovey is a performance artist. Previous work includes The Emotional Stock Market, which recreated an exchange based on the “trading” emotions every time they were mentioned on Twitter.

He says that the bold individualism of the YBA years, when art schools encouraged students to create their own brand identity to make them stand out in the art market, has given way to more diverse, less easily digested work, as well as a more sober attitude. “The YBAs made art school a very cool place to be, and possibly a very golden route to stardom,” he says.

“Slowly there are becoming more and more realists around the art school environment. “With the rise in fees, I hope prospective students looking at creative courses in art school will value coming out with an employable skills-set over a strong professional art identity.

Emotional Stockmarket by Max Dovey”So the effect of the YBAs on academia is slowly wearing off, which – looking at the economics and the politics – is probably a really good thing.”

Most of the artists say the tough financial climate has led to a greater atmosphere of collaboration and mutual support.

Stolwood says that her peer group from Brighton University “email if there are any competitions people should apply for”, while Boyd’s colleagues band together to try to stage exhibitions.

Though this year’s students have to contend with increased fees, the British art market is still buoyant, outperforming the stock market by 9% last year.

De Monseignat says that while she will go and see Hirst’s retrospective, the YBAs are now part of art history.

“At some point every artist has to be interested in them and understand what happened at that point in the UK,” she says. “It’s a very important period.”

And despite Hirst’s continuing presence, one that seems a long way in the past.

sourced from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/jan/17/new-young-british-artists-guide?intcmp=239

Catlin Guide 2012

alisonstolwood — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 21:01:40 +0000

My work has been selected for this year’s Catlin Guide, which will be launched at the London Art Fair on the 18^th of January.

Dark Green Fritillary on Wildlife Attracting Garden Mix, 2011, © Alison Stolwood

The Catlin Guide 2012: New Artists in the UK will launch at the London Art Fair 18 -22 January at the Business Design Centre, Islington with a limited number of copies given away free to visitors to the The Catlin Guide stand. Now in its third year, this beautifully designed limited edition book is an essential guide for collectors of emerging artists. Each year, curator and art writer Justin Hammond visits MA and BA degree shows across the UK and picks 40 of the most talented UK graduates for inclusion. The Catlin Guide is the only publication to provide an authoritative overview of the graduate art scene….

The Catlin Guide itself is fast becoming a collector’s item. The first edition has sold out and is changing hands at inflated prices, while just a few copies of the 2011 Guide remain. The Catlin Guide 2012 will be published on 18th January and will be available from Amazon, Culture Label and selected book sellers (£12.99). Each copy provides details of future shows, news of where to see and buy artists’ work and full colour reproductions of each artist’s key pieces.

Above Text from the Catlin Site http://www.artcatlin.com/press-and-media/press-releases/2012-guide-press-release.aspx

Alison Stolwood www.alisonstolwood.com

The Catlin Guide http://www.artcatlin.com/

London Art Fair http://www.londonartfair.co.uk/

2011 Catalogs

alisonstolwood — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 15:52:02 +0000

Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2011 Catalog (above)

Brighton MA Photography 2011 Graduation Catalog (below)

Bloomberg New Contemporaries, ICA, London, 23rd Nov 2011 – 15th Jan 2012

alisonstolwood — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 22:52:36 +0000

David Ben White, Painting Pavilion 1, 2011

Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2011: In the Presence

23 November 2011 – 15 January 2012

Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2011: In the Presence opens a window onto the future of contemporary art, bringing together some of the best work currently emerging from the UK’s art schools by 40 recent graduates.

The exhibition shows the range of materials and processes employed by artists today – appropriation, traditional studio practice, spatial interventions, digital production, collaboration and the use of chance and found objects, and offers an indication of what audiences may encounter in art galleries in the coming years.

Participants are selected by a panel of artists who have often previously taken part in the exhibition themselves. This year they are Pablo Bronstein, whose exhibition Sketches for Regency Living is at the ICA until 25 September 2011; Sarah Jones; and Michael Raedecker. Over half the participants in Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2011: In the Presence come from outside the UK reflecting the international intake of the UK’s art schools and their importance in attracting artists to this country.

The artists selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2011: In the Presence are Marie Angeletti, Cornelia Baltes, Joshua Bilton, Sarah Brown, Savinder Bual, David Buckley, Leah Capaldi, Alicja Dobrucka, Tomas Downes, Peles Empire, Katie Goodwin, Kate Groobey, Noel Hensey, Anna Ilsley, Kim Kielhofner, Minae Kim, Se-jin Kim, Sui Kim, Ute Klein, Hyewon Kwon, Ian Marshall, Georgina McNamara, Sophie Neury, Rasmus Nilausen, Nick Nowicki, Marco Palmieri, Selma Parlour, George Petrou, Yelena Popova, Jessica Sarah Rinland, Anne Kathrin Schuhmann, Dagmar Schurrer, Alison Stolwood, Jonathan Trayte, David Ben White, Samuel Williams, Lisa Wilkens, Poppy Whatmore, Hyun Woo Lee and Rafal Zawistowski.

Complementing the exhibition are talks and weekly artists’ salons that bring together differing viewpoints to discuss contemporary modes of production and structures of professional artistic development. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with an introductory essay by Professor Peter Osborne, which discusses the history and definition of contemporary and suggests how we might understand the word in relation to the artworks selected. Texts on the artists’ works are by Patrick Coyle, Siôn Parkinson, Chinmoyi Patel and Heather Phillipson.

Bloomberg New Contemporaries: Archives and Artist Publications
Recent delvings into the archives of Young Contemporaries and New Contemporaries has unearthed a treasure trove. Some of the best finds are presented in the Fox Reading Room, along with artist publications by artists with work in this year’s exhibition.

Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Mall,
London,
SW1Y 5AH

Brighton Photo Fringe Open Events 2011

alisonstolwood — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 22:47:25 +0000

more info here

alisonstolwood — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 19:47:56 +0000

Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2011

23 September – 5 November. Opening Hours: Tue – Sat | 11am – 6pm | FREE

Private View: Thursday 22 September 6.30 – 9.00. All welcome.

S1 Artspace and Site Gallery are delighted to present Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2011. Opening on 23 September, and featuring the work of 40 artists across a range of mediums, this exhibition provides a unique opportunity to see new work from across the country.

Established in 1949, New Contemporaries is an important and highly regarded annual initiative that gives art students and recent graduates essential support and recognition at a crucial stage in their development through a high-profile exhibition. While in its history New Contemporaries has travelled the length and breadth of the country, it hasn’t been in Sheffield since 1993.

One of only two open exhibitions in the UK, participants are selected by a panel comprising influential art figures including curators, writers and artists often who have themselves previously been a part of New Contemporaries. The selectors for 2011 are Pablo Bronstein, Sarah Jones and Michael Raedecker.

More information here

Participating artists: Alicja Dobrucka, Alison Stolwood, Anna Ilsley, Anne Kathrin Schuhmann, Cornelia Baltes, Dagmar Schurrer, David Ben White, David Buckley, George Petrou, Georgina McNamara, Hyewon Kwon, Hyun Woo Lee, Ian Marshall, Jessica Sarah Rinland, Jonathan Trayte,Joshua Bilton, Kate Groobey, Katie Goodwin, Kim Kielhofner, Leah Capaldi, Lisa Wilkens, Marco Palmieri, Marie Angeletti, Minae Kim, Nick Nowicki, Noel Hensey, Peles Empire, Poppy Whatmore, Rafal Zawistowski, Rasmus Nilausen, Samuel Williams,Sarah Brown, Savinder Bual, Se-jin Kim, Selma Parlour, Sophie Neury, Sui Kim, Tomas Downes, Ute Klein, Yelena Popova.

Saturday tours – Sat 24 Sept, 8 Oct, 5 Nov. 2-3pm. Free, no need to book.
Tours of the exhibition will begin at Site gallery, led by artists based in Sheffield.

Image: Ute Klein Resonanzgeflechte – leibhafter Raum (Resonant Entanglements – Bodily Space)

Brighton University MA Photography Graduation Show 2011

alisonstolwood — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 19:41:08 +0000

alisonstolwood — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 18:22:51 +0000

PHOTOMEDIA 2011
8th – 30th July 2011

CHARLIE DUTTON GALLERY
www.charlieduttongallery.com

alisonstolwood — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:19:56 +0000

I am very pleased to have been awarded a project assistance grant by the University of Brighton Springboard Grants Programme.

alisonstolwood — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 22:27:12 +0000

Exhibition: 4^th – 26^th February 2011

Matt Roberts Arts – Salon Photo Prize

About the prize

The Salon Photo Prize 2011 is the inaugural photography exhibition produced by Matt Roberts Arts. The exhibition will take place from 4 February – 26 February at our gallery space in East London.

This year’s selection panel consisted of:
Simon Baker, Curator of Photography, Tate
Stefanie Braun, Curator, The Photographers’ Gallery
Tim Clark, Editor-in-chief, 1000 Words Photography Magazine
Charlotte Cotton, Creative Director, National Media Museum

39 photographers will be exhibited and one exhibitor will win the selectors’ prize supported by 1000 Words Magazine which will consist of £1000 and a solo exhibition in 2012.

The selected photograpers are: Manuela Barczewski, Sara Bjarland, Richard Burton, Emma Crichton, Alex Currie, Julia Curtin, Marysa Dowling, Lisa Elmaleh, Valentina Ferrandes, Iulia Filipovscaia, Joanna Louise Gane, Marguerite Garth, Ben Gold, Isabelle Graeff, Julie Hill, Elinor Hudson-Davies, Tess Hurrell, Mandy Lee Jandrell, Jordanna Kalmann, Özant Kamaci, Naima Karlsson, Yaron Lapid, EJ Major, Zoe Maxwell, Georgina McNamara, Kate Nolan, Ethna O’Regan, Vesna Pavlovic, Sever Petrovici-Popescu, Luca Sage, Carolyn Scott, Louise Short, Jayne Smith, Alison Stolwood, Jan Stradtmann, Carole Suety, Chiara Tocci, Philip Tottenham, Rachel Wilberforce

For further information email salonphotoprize@mattroberts.org.uk

http://www.salonartprize.com/spp_about.html

http://www.1000wordsmag.com/