‘For over a century artists have used found objects, everyday items not normally considered as art, to inspire new transitions in their work. In this exhibition Jane Fairhurst exploits the availability of mass-produced children’s toys to explore themes of current affairs, global politics and the environment.

Placing a new twist on the traditional children’s toy box, the artist uses brightly coloured toys to create mixed media sculptures and as subject matter for paintings. Darkly entertaining, the artworks play on different emotions creating an exhibition that is both humorous and sinister.

As well as the transition of items from real life to art, the exhibition title also refers to the development of Fairhurst’s recent collaboration with fellow artist, Tim Fielding.

Fairhurst_Fielding won the West Lancashire Art Prize in 2009 with their mixed media city sculpture, ‘Zing Hong’.

24th July – 5th September

Gallery Oldham
Cultural Quarter
Greaves Street
Oldham
OL1 1AL

0161 770 4653

www.galleryoldham.org.uk

Open: Monday – Saturday 10am-5pm, Sunday 10am-4pm

Objects, Space & Place will feature work from established and emerging artists, Fiona Donald, Jane Draper and Sam Kirk. A variety of work will be on display including painting, photography and photograms. Interpreting natural elements of the world in which we live inspires the artwork from all three artists.

Fiona Donald is exhibiting drawings and photograms, which demonstrates the process of making, of revealing, it is the result of a struggle to find the ‘essence’. She seeks to explore the subtle forms of communication beyond the use of language, the moments in our lives when words are redundant. The look, the touch, the thought, the spaces between, the pause, time passing, in Japanese the ‘ma’.

Drawing allows Fiona to visualise what she is thinking. It is a process of discovery, of searching out and becoming. The ‘Points of Departure’ drawings are derived from familiar motifs: trees from the Rushford Park Conservation area opposite Fiona’s studio in Manchester and the smell of her children’s hair.

The ‘Conversation’ photograms capture a specific moment in time, freezing and suspending the beauty to take note of the ordinary. The blackness has ambivalence alluding to the space between.

Tuesday 6th July – Sunday 11th July 2010.

Tank

The Ladywell Tavern

80 Ladywell Rd

SE13 7HS

www.tanklondon.blogspot.com

Runs until 24th October at New York’s Museum of Art and Design.

www.joscorah.co.uk

Suite Open Studios 2009

Friday 4th December 5-8pm

Saturday 5th December 12-4pm

Sunday 6th December 12-4pm

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