Naked Truths Preview

Naked Truths is about how we view things, as well as what we see. We are challenged to look inside our minds and consider what we find hard to reveal and why we keep things hidden away. The show's artists explore a variety of subjects where we may find exposure difficult to address – nudity, sexuality, death, and fear. Our response may be shock, laughter, sorrow or reflection, but there is little room for indifference.

The art work also reveals some amazing creativity, technique and beauty. Each piece stands alone with aesthetic quality as well as a deeper sense of meaning.

The context of the subjects is significant. We may see nudity in a gallery as art, whereas the same image in a sex shop is pornography. Similarly, a death theme may provoke a fear of horrific memories for some people or innocent comedy to others. When we view these images, we are often looking at a reflection of ourselves.

There are seven artists featuring in Naked Truths, each with a different combination of media, style and message:

• After longer inspection, the apparent chaos of the angular shapes and striking colours in Thomas Dowdeswell’s painting starts to generate familiar figurative forms and strange stories.
• Peter Bullen is influenced by the artist/model relationship and contrasts the confident contortionist with the vulnerable first-timer in his nude portraits.
• There is a wonderful innocence and charm to David Thompson’s male figurative paintings, with an undercurrent of commentary on our attitude to sexuality.
• In ‘The Sex Shop’ series, Simon Ledson plays with our minds as we explore apparently innocent forms in imprints and wallpaper.
• Russell Oliver's large and dramatic paintings explore the attitudes to life and death through the eyes of different subjects, including a self portrait.
• Tim Perks challenges the traditional figurative sculpture, as the unusual poses and compositions of the female form involve imaginary cross breeding of species.
• In Becky Kidson's 'Young Hearts' installation three friends take it in turns to jump into a bowl of mirrors.

Naked Truths presents some beautiful art with provocative themes and offers us a mirror to reveal our hidden thoughts. The show runs from July 29th to September 12th.

Urban View 2

We're half way through the Urban View exhibition and we're refreshing it with a whole new collection of art, much of it created at this years UPFEST.

The festival this year was the biggest and best yet. The expanded area around the Tobacco Factory was packed with new and returning artists and the attendance was huge. If you haven't yet seen any photos of the festival then take a look here and you'll get a flavour of the weekend. The Urban View and UPFEST launch event was held at the gallery and this was also an exciting event. Around 300 people attended and were enjoying the live painting outside on the gallery wall and by the entrance door. Thankfully, the weather held up and we are grateful to Brothers who sponsored the event with some very tasty (and strong) pear cider. The outdoor activity was complimented by some wonderful art by UK and international artists inside the gallery. Take a look at these photos of the evening and in particular the progression of the art being created.

Urban View 2 opens on July 1st and runs through to July 18th. Some great names in the urban art world will be exhibiting, such as Fake, Agent Provocateur, T.wat, and ZeeZee. Many more new works will be part of a changing show that will look and feel different. Prices will start from just £100 for original art and there will be a more busy look to the show, with a large selection of work and artists.

It is also worth reminding ourselves of the support that UPFEST give to the NACOA charity, in terms of funding and awareness.

Enjoy the show.

Urban View

For the second year running, we're joining with UPFEST to put on a show of the best urban art being 'sprayed' this year. 'Urban View' 2010 is being extended to accommodate two shows. The first will focus on the latest creations from seven of the top spray painters around. The second will open up to a larger number of artists and feature the best of the work created in the live weekend festival of spray painting.

The festival kicks off on the Friday with the opening night at View and the live painting starts from there. We have some exciting ideas for where and when the spraying starts but as ever, these things are flexible due to the spontaneous nature of the people concerned and the challenges they set themselves; some of the objects targeted for spraying this year are pretty inventive!

There's always a buzz around Bristol for this festival and this year is no exception. As the big names get confirmed, the PR builds momentum and the energy (and stress levels) rise, we know UPFEST will be bigger and better than ever. Urban View goes international with spray stars from France and Germany exhibiting alongside some of the best of Britain.

We are also confident that the quality of art improves year on year. Urban Art is no longer just about graffiti in the back streets of Bristol. For better or worse, the cross over between fine art becomes more and more blurred. At View we consider this a positive trend as it allows us to provide broader access to this exciting genre of art and give everyone the opportunity to take home a bit of art history.

For a reminder of what happened at View last year, take a look at these photos. And to get a taste of one of the main featured artists have a look at this short video. Finally, to see the full UPFEST 10 press release click here.

Enjoy the show.

UPFEST 10 Press Release

Europe’s Biggest Urban Art Festival Just Got Bigger!

Upfest’10 - The Urban Paint Festival Releases Full Line-up

More than just Europe’s biggest urban and street art festival, Upfest has announced the broad range of events taking part at the two-day festival in Bristol.

As in previous years, the festival will be centred on live painting at the Tobacco Factory on 5th and 6^th of June. Over 200 urban artists and illustrators will be painting live over the weekend, with 50 artists having come from around the world to be a part of the event. The artists will be mixing it up with this year’s MashUP theme, with some very special collaborations due to take place.

Upfest’10 will kick off with a preview of the Urban View group show at View Art Gallery (159-161 Hotwell Road, BS8 4RY). The show features work from seven urban and contemporary artists and will run through 17th July.

Saturday, the festival will be in full swing at the Tobacco Factory (North Street, BS3 1TF). From 11am, over 200 urban artists and illustrators will be painting live. Visitors to the free event are also invited to take part in the painting, with a children’s painting area and the Kiss101 Give It a Go painting boards.

The Tobacco Factory will also host a Very Affordable Art Sale and dedicated print room, where original artwork and prints by the artists painting at the festival will be available for sale at bargain prices. There will also be badge making, clothing, and art material stalls around the venue.

Throughout the weekend, DJs, beatboxers, hip hop groups and MCs will take to two stages at the Tobacco Factory (full schedule attached). Along with music, the world renowned Kompany Malakhi will host dance workshops on Saturday.

During the day (11 am to 6 pm) on Saturday, a live illustration event will take place indoors in the Tobacco Factory Theatre Foyer. In the evening (6 pm), six artists will battle it out in a Secret Wars live art competition. The public will vote to decide whether Upfest or Monorex will be named champions of the 90-minute battle at the Tobacco Factory Cafe Bar.

The evening will wrap up (10 pm to 4am) with the Upfest’10 Mid-Festival Party at Basement 45 (8 Frogmore St., BS1 5NA), presented in association with Kiss101, featuring The Loose Cannons, Ninebar Sound System, Chris Read (Music of Substance), Dave Cridge (Ninja Tune) and Kiss101 DJs. Tickets available at Bristol Tickets Shop (£4.50) or on the door (£5 before 11, £6 after).

Upfest’10 continues on Sunday at the Tobacco Factory from 10 am with additional live painting, music, and art sales. Upfest has raised over £10,000 for Nacoa (National Association for Children of Alcoholics) since the festival began and as in previous years, Upfest’10 will raise awareness of and fundraise for the charity..

Life in Stillness Preview

In many inanimate objects we see and feel life. Life in Stillness is an exhibition where five artists bring consciousness to their subjects through different sources of inspiration and use of media.

In the windows we'll see the usual high impact art and once again we'll be featuring sculpture. Dawny Tootes uses recycled aluminium from discarded household objects to create fluidity in her tree sculptures that have an apparent organic quality. These large pieces interchange between tree and female human form when seen from different viewpoints. In the rear gallery a 13ft high sculpture will dominate the space, needing to be rebuilt in the gallery for the show. Dawny's wall mounted pieces are figure landscapes where the female form is used to reflect the curves of nature.

Evocative figures appear from the depth of Fran Williams' oil paintings. Vivid colour and texture almost mask the face and body of her subjects. The strength of colour and free use of the brush are in contrast to the vulnerability of the portraiture. These are images that you can see through and discover a strong emotional connection with a person who has mystique and a story to be told.

Continuing the theme of female figurative work we have Ann Goodfellow's sculptures. Using only the sense of touch, unusual markings emerge on the self modelled ceramic bodies. A heightened awareness of her body creates exaggerated scale of the relationship between head and torso. There is energy and sensitivity in the cold, hard material that brings the figures to life and demand attention.

In the second half of the gallery we dedicate the space to photography, as part of the Bristol Festival of Photography. Two artists bring life into their images using different subjects and styles.

Frank Drake captures the music of his subjects in the drama of live performance. Limited edition large prints of images from his book 'Sounds of Music' feature photos of musicians from various album covers, commissions and WOMAD festivals around the world. Frank has had the unique opportunity to access the unguarded emotions of the performers. Signed books will also be available at the gallery.

In the front of the second gallery we feature the photography of Chris Parks. An ethereal world is created through his dynamic fluid paintings which capture light, movement and depth in a totally unique way. Using mixed media within a liquid medium, Chris creates continually changing images that develop over time and are frozen at a particular moment through photography. The paintings are naturally occurring events without digital manipulation. They only exist for a moment before they evolve and are lost for ever. In the basement installation room we are showing a stunningly beautiful film by Chris with movement of colour and shape that is quite mesmerising.

Click here to see images from a small selection of work from the show.

Life in Stillness runs from April 15 to May 30, 2010.

Exhibitions and Festivals

The festival season is coming soon and the Bristol art scene is no exception. View is taking part in the Bristol Festival of Photography in May with two very different photographers exhibiting in the 'Life in Stillness' show. In June we are pleased to be one of the venues in UPFEST, Bristols urban painting festival, for the second year running. Our 'Urban View' show will include many of the major artists from the festival.

More information on the festivals can be found on their websites from the links above. The shows at View are introduced below with more details to come nearer the time.

Life in Stillness

In many inanimate objects we see and feel life. In the next exhibition at View Art Gallery, five artists bring consciousness to their subjects through different sources of inspiration and use of media.

Dawny Tootes uses recycled aluminium from discarded household objects to create fluidity in her tree sculptures that have an apparent organic quality. Evocative figures appear from the deep forest of colour in Fran Williams' vivid oil paintings. Using only the sense of touch, unusual markings emerge on the self modelled ceramic bodies of Ann Goodfellow's sculptures.

As part of the Bristol Festival of Photography, View introduces two photographers who portray life in imagery in both reality and abstract forms. Frank Drake captures the music of his subjects in the drama of live performance. Chris Parks creates and ethereal world through his dynamic fluid paintings, which capture a movement of light in organic materials that can never be seen again.

Life in Stillness runs from April 15 to May 30.

Urban View

Following the hugely popular urban art show last year, View Art Gallery once again teams up with the UPFEST movement and showcases the best artists from this year's urban art festival. Examples of last year's 'spray fest' can still be seen on the exterior walls and entrance floor of the gallery. 2010 promises to be bigger and better than ever, with live painting, original art on canvas, limited edition prints and the antics of more of those uniquely styled artists.

Urban View runs from June 3 to July 11.

New Video Channel

In response to many visitors of our website who cannot make it to the gallery for every show, we've decided to launch a video channel. We will be showing videos of each exhibition, artist interviews, special events, and some of our favourite videos from the art world.

We're using the YouTube facilities (why reinvent the wheel) and have set up a View Art Gallery channel. You can access this from the YouTube logo on our home page or click here. There are only a few videos to start with but we'll be adding many more as we exhibit new work and artists, so be sure to subscribe to our channel so you don't miss out on anything new.

A huge thanks to Becky Kidson who has filmed and edited some fantastic 1 minute interviews with artists featuring in our Comfortably Strange show. These can be accessed via the channel home page or individually from our artist profile pages on the View website. Just click every time you see the blue video icon (shown at the top of this blog). and you'll link to the relevant video.

We hope you like this new feature and it inspires you to visit the gallery to see the real thing.