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Exhibition: the open west 2015, The Wilson, Cheltenham
15/05/2015
Rating: **** By Colin Davison @IamColinDavison
“If it’s got a label, don’t touch it,” curator Lyn Cluer Coleman advises helpfully as we walk past a table of odds and ends that just might have been one of the exhibits.
“If it’s got a label, don’t touch it,” curator Lyn Cluer Coleman advises helpfully as we walk past a table of odds and ends that just might have been one of the exhibits.
With no restriction on art forms, there’s no knowing what to expect in this diverse and diverting show that brings to Cheltenham a fair representation of young international artists working in film, sculpture and conceptual forms.
There is, in fact, a surprisingly large proportion of canvasses too, including the arresting ‘5’ by Trevor Kiernander, shipped from Canada and reframed, and the decorative Tansy by Alison Dalwood of Chipping Norton.
But the two-dimensional work, although of high merit, seems modest, retiring as in several pictures where figures or shapes retreat into the depths, reticent in the presence of the boldest sculptures and installations.
Not all were complete at the time of my visit, with a splendidly purposeless Alice-in-Wonderland door to nowhere still being installed by Ben Jack Nash.
The largest pieces, which benefit from the Wilson’s greatly expanded exhibition space, are also the most exciting – Aiko Kubo’s glassy glacier of gauze that spills over a staircase, and an astonishing 14-foot high mountain of folded paper – like a giant version of one of those 3-D Christmas cards – by Tewkesbury artist Niki Hare.
The exhibition is presented superbly, creating new relationships between works and with the gallery’s own environment:
The way of the stars, with its racked divisions, by Emily Joy of Stroud, is seen against the front of the children’s library beyond the rear window.
Alex Burgess’s painting Caspian is glimpsed through the bones of Beatrix Baker’s boat; and at the front, Gillian Widden’s Crataegus lies like a hair shirt before the façade of St Matthew’s across the street.
There are links with the Wilson’s permanent collection too – a relief by Lavor Lubomirov made from William Morris wallpaper will go into its Arts and Crafts section, and there’s a welcome overflow into the Friends’ gallery.
Try wandering between the rich colour of the Gerald Wilde, Vanessa Bell and David Bomberg paintings there and the restrained monochrome of the new exhibits in the opposite corner for a refreshing view of both.
The free exhibition runs until Sunday, June 28.
Colin Davison
There is, in fact, a surprisingly large proportion of canvasses too, including the arresting ‘5’ by Trevor Kiernander, shipped from Canada and reframed, and the decorative Tansy by Alison Dalwood of Chipping Norton.
But the two-dimensional work, although of high merit, seems modest, retiring as in several pictures where figures or shapes retreat into the depths, reticent in the presence of the boldest sculptures and installations.
Not all were complete at the time of my visit, with a splendidly purposeless Alice-in-Wonderland door to nowhere still being installed by Ben Jack Nash.
The largest pieces, which benefit from the Wilson’s greatly expanded exhibition space, are also the most exciting – Aiko Kubo’s glassy glacier of gauze that spills over a staircase, and an astonishing 14-foot high mountain of folded paper – like a giant version of one of those 3-D Christmas cards – by Tewkesbury artist Niki Hare.
The exhibition is presented superbly, creating new relationships between works and with the gallery’s own environment:
The way of the stars, with its racked divisions, by Emily Joy of Stroud, is seen against the front of the children’s library beyond the rear window.
Alex Burgess’s painting Caspian is glimpsed through the bones of Beatrix Baker’s boat; and at the front, Gillian Widden’s Crataegus lies like a hair shirt before the façade of St Matthew’s across the street.
There are links with the Wilson’s permanent collection too – a relief by Lavor Lubomirov made from William Morris wallpaper will go into its Arts and Crafts section, and there’s a welcome overflow into the Friends’ gallery.
Try wandering between the rich colour of the Gerald Wilde, Vanessa Bell and David Bomberg paintings there and the restrained monochrome of the new exhibits in the opposite corner for a refreshing view of both.
The free exhibition runs until Sunday, June 28.
Colin Davison
