Join us for two studio visits in Newcastle and the opportunity to hear artists discuss their working practice and latest projects.
Graham Dolphin draws on the objects and icons of popular culture to reveal the obsessions and formulas within. In his earlier work, he used ready-made objects, including vinyl records, album sleeves, magazines and other music and fashion industry ephemera, and scratched tiny texts into their surfaces. These texts were most often transcription of lyrics by that particular recording artist – sometimes just a few songs, sometimes their entire back catalogue. More recent work has involved remaking the public shrines and tributes made by fans as memorials to dead rock stars as well as the suicide notes left by cult musicians and writers. Born in Stafford in 1972, he studied Fine Art Painting at Bath College of Higher Education and has exhibited widely since 2000, including at Turner Contemporary, Margate, 2011; Regina Gallery, Moscow, 2011; Växjö Konsthall, Sweden 2010; David Risley Gallery, Copenhagen 2010; Seventeen Gallery, London 2008; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead 2007.
For further information on Graham Dolphin, see http://www.seventeengallery.com/index.php?p=2&id=3
London-born Karl de Vroomen graduated from Newcastle University in 2009 with an MA in Fine Art (with distinction), following the completion of a BA (Hons) in Fine Art Painting at the University of Brighton in 2006. His figurative paintings are borne out of a search for the satisfactory singular motif. This pursuit, however futile it may be, provides the impetus for a painterly practice of editing, reworking and simplifying. Each painting is an investigation into what significance or meaning can be conveyed by the simple figure / ground relationship. His latest series of paintings depict animals in fragile or suspended states. Imbued with an atmosphere of disquiet and foreboding, these works articulate reveries of the natural world and yet portray a nature that is both threatening and under threat. As well as his paintings, Karl has also produced prints having been awarded the Hole Editions Postgraduate Print Award in 2009. In 2011 he was shortlisted for the Valerie Sykes Prize with New Lights and his work is being presented by Opus Art at the 2012 London Art Fair.
For more information about Karl de Vroomen, see http://www.opus-art.com/artists/KarldeVroomen
Membership
This event is part of a series of events programmed by the Contemporary Art Society in the North East. Membership costs £50 per year / £25 for students.
If you are not yet a member and would like to join, or to receive further information about the organisation and its activities, please contact Rebecca Morrill at rebecca@contemporaryartsociety.org or call 07815 830 182.