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Saturday 10 December 2011

Six hours later and the show is up!



The communal areas of the incubator has been transformed into an art fair for under £50 shopping from local artists and craftspeople, opening on Monday 11.30 to 2.30pm but will be on until after Christmas with work once bought and paid for, can be taken away and hidden away for Christmas morning.

Facebook photos of exhibition

By the way, this is our 18th exhibition in the incubator and our second under £50 Christmas exhibition. Plenty ideas for future exhibitions in 2012 with some of people we are considering for group, joint or solo shows represented in our fair - consider it a preview.




Friday 9 December 2011

Artists who are exhibiting with us in the 12 Days show



Freida McKitrick- print
Liverpool based fine artist and printmaker Freida McKitrick’s work reflects the time-honoured practice of taking common, ordinary images and objects and placing them in an artistic context, but with a little twist: She selects images or things that are or were at home in ordinary human life but have some extra significance.  Freida’s art is based on observations of life using a variety of subjects to record events, situations and ideas that have inspired her, or given cause for amusement.  Freida works from a studio in a renovated mill in the heart of Liverpool city centre, she draws her inspiration from the eclectic mix of architecture, people, and culture that radiates from Liverpool and other cities that she has been fortunate to have visited.

Nathan Pendlebury - painting
Nathan Pendlebury studied Fine Art at Warrington Collegiate Institute and also at Liverpool John Moores University. He grew up in the North-West of England in Chester, Salford, Manchester, and Warrington. Nathan lives and currently works full-time for National Museums Liverpool, he also has his a studio space in Liverpool City Centre.

Gill Curry- print
(new to art @ the incubator)
Gill studied Art and Contemporary Dance pursuing a career teaching Art and Design.  During the past 20 years she has specialised in a variety of print methods (screenprint, linocut, woodcut and etching) exhibiting locally and nationally. In 2006 she read for an MA in Fine Art (Print) at Chester University and took part, in 2007, in an exhibition at the Bluecoat Display Centre commemorating 200 years of slavery.Gill completed a series of etchings recording the crossing of the Atlantic on a container ship (May 2009) from Liverpool to New York.  Her recent print projects have been exploring the life and work of Merce Cunningham, contemporary dancer and choreographer and capturing the landscapes of Hilbre Island and Les Alpilles, Provence. 

Michael William Burn- photography
Mike is a painter and decorator by trade. He discovered photography enhancement quite by accident, when in 2007 he started playing around with a computer programme which changed the colours and appearance of photographs. He really liked the eye catching effect and started manipulating my favourite images.  His work is mainly inspired by a love of iconic buildings and the ever changing Liverpool waterfront.

Linda Mary Evans- painting
Linda is a Wirral based contemporary artist whose work explores personal imagery derived from the slate mining area of Snowdonia North Wales.

Siân Bailey- illustration
(new to art @ the incubator)
Siân Bailey studied Illustration at Newport and Brighton Colleges of Art. She has been illustrating books for children for forty years and has worked for many publishers and with well known authors. She has a special interest in the illustration of Fairytales, Myths and Legends and Poetry. Most of her paintings are miniature in scale, usually still lives, landscapes or imaginative subjects, sometimes inspired by poetry.

Lisa Waldman - silver jewellery
(new to art @ the incubator)
Lisa Waldman is a jewellery designer and silversmith based in the Wirral. Lisa has been designing and making her collection for over 10 years. She has a new selection of ‘ready to wear' contemporary pieces in silver anything from simple flower earrings and silver gem stone rings to gorgeous vintage pearl necklaces and the stunning butterfly range.

Theresia Cadwallader- beaded jewellery
Theresia Cadwallader was born and brought up in Java studying civil engineering at Leeds University. She worked on building a university campus, bringing infrastructure to the jungles of Sulawesi and designing irrigation system for Lombok and Sumbawa. After taking a master degree in Irrigation Engineering at Southampton, she practised as an engineer in Jakarta and Sumatra. She then settled in Oxton. She continued working as a water engineer in the North West for a few years. She then studied fine art and jewellery design at the Wirral Met. Theresia’s work combines a strong feeling for earth and stones, often geometric with rigorous design skills, and influenced by her early years among the colours and sounds of Indonesia.

Mary Bryning - framed embroideries and cards
(new to art @ the incubator)
Patterns on the land and the structure of towns and roads have always fascinated Mary, from her early days of studying geography. She is interested in them not only for their visual impact, but also in the effects that human occupation, development and activities have on the landscape. She has been collecting antique maps for years and recently have also been influenced by the aerial photographs.She began formal art training in her late forties with an A level in Art Textiles followed by City and Guilds Creative textiles. Her work usually includes techniques of appliqué, print, hand-dyed fabrics and machine embroidery, resulting in a combination of line, colour and texture to interpret my ideas.

Rachael Howard- textiles to be worn and for the home
(new to art @ the incubator)
Rachael Howard was one of the Royal College of Art’s first six embroidery postgraduates in 1992.   Since then she has practiced as a textile artist and designer exhibiting nationally and internationally and she has undertaken a wide variety of commissions and projects including being shortlisted for the prestigious Jerwood Prize for Applied Arts (1997).  Howard has a fascination with everyday life; she likes to sketch people – their postures, expressions and movements.  These spontaneous sketches, notes and scribbles are then translated into screen-printed, appliquéd and embroidered narrative images.  They embellish her large wall-hangings, small framed works and range of fashion and interior accessories.

Christine Toh- Textile/print/jewellery
Christine grew up in the north of France and discovered printmaking when she moved to England in 1992. In 2008 she graduated from John Moores University, Liverpool with a BA (Hons. 1st Class) in Fashion and Textile Design.

Judith Brown- jewellery
(new to art @ the incubator)
Judith Brown hand stitches with fine wires to create feminine jewellery with an intricate and delicate feel, her techniques have developed from her degree in Embroidery at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Monday 5 December 2011

12 days til Christmas Monday 12th of December



Roger Sinek's photographs
Mike's wooden bowls
From last year's show
It is getting exciting as we are taking delivery of the art and craftwork for the Christmas exhibition at MerseyBio. All the work is under £50 making the pruchasing of art affordable for many. We will have photographs by Roger Sinek, wood from Mike Rule  who exhibited with us in the Landscape show earlier this year,  jewellery from Lisa Waldman of LW Silver and also from Theresia Cadwallader who showed her beadwork in the 2010 Christmas show, topographical embroideries from Mary Bryning, new prints from Freida McKitrick with her scenes of Liverpool that were so popular last year and were the Christmas card for 2Bio in 2009....and so much more...

Tuesday 22 November 2011

12 days til Christmas - an art @ the incubator exhibition



Monday the 12th of  December at 11:30 am- 2:30pm in MerseyBIO in the BioSciences building, next to the new Apex Building.

Under £50 sale of artists who have exhibited at the incubator and other local artists, available for sale and removal there and then to be given for Christmas to your nearest and dearest. Mince pies and hot drinks.
By invitation only email alison.roberts@2bio.co.uk or by University swipe card.

Wednesday 7 September 2011

Julie Dodd returns to the incubator

I have put up a small exhibition of Julie Dodd's recent work, she had a solo show with us last year called Life in Paper.


"My art practice is based in print, installation work and bookmaking. I usually work with paper, making books from it, printing on it, constructing with it, and recycling old paper to make new.

My work is generally based upon repetition and I focus my ideas on patterns and shapes found within the human body. I'm interested in human life, who we are, physically and emotionally, from how the body is structured to our characteristics and qualities. My obsessive nature compels me to work in multiples and I use it to illustrate how the body repeats functions in order to repair renew and survive, often mimicking life, growth and regeneration. My work is about the processes involved along the way rather than the finished product."

Julie Dodd 2010
www.juliedodd.co.uk



Thursday 7 July 2011

Having a break

We will be having a break while building work continues at MerseyBIO. But I am hoping this will increase the amount of space we have available to add artwork to adorn the walls.

In the mean time to satisfy any artistic needs feel free to join myself for "de-junk, re-junk"in Birkenhead Park for a project I have been working on with Wirral Council. The artwork has been created from junk, including my old kitchen that I have donated to local artists including Linda Mary Evans who showed in the recent Landscape show to recreate using their skills into something of value.

The exhibition will be in the visitors centre in Birkenhead Park from 18th to 31st of July.

Sunday 15 May 2011

Landscape - a private tour

I would like to invite you to a special private tour of our current exhibition at MerseyBio with 3 of the artists on Monday the 23rd of May at 10am. We will meet at the nearby Victoria Gallery and Museum on the University campus and progress to MerseyBIO at 10.30 (after a coffee in the lovely cafe of the Victoria Gallery). Our show ends on the 25th of May and is normally closed to the public so this is a rare opportunity to see the space and the artwork on display. It would be possible for late-comers to join us directly at MerseyBIO at 10.30am also.

MerseyBIO

Crown Street, Liverpool, United Kingdom L69 7ZB

T +44 (0) 151 795 4100 F +44 (0) 151 795 4101
E
info@2bio.co.uk

Currently, we have on display a beautiful range of work from 4 local artists representing the landscape in painting, drawing and woodturning in MerseyBIO. With the corridors adorned with images of North Wales, Cheshire and Liverpool and turned bowls made from wood from local parks and gardens in three cabinets, it feels fresh and colourful in the grey walls of the building. Mike Rule, Phil Dowling and Linda Evans will be in attendance to discuss their work. Sadly, Rowena Fergusson is unable to join us to represent her work for this visit.

Please RSVP to alison.roberts@2bio.co.uk or register via Eventbrite.

Sunday 8 May 2011

"Landscape" opened on the 13th of April


Here are the images from the opening shared on facebook, click here (link)

Thursday 14 April 2011

Please support Liverpool for Japan

Ian and Minako Jackson have been great supporters of our art @ the incubator project so in return, I would like to support their efforts for helping the people of Japan after the earthquakes. Hope you are able to support them too.

I have taken this from their website:-

Lpoolforjpn-430


Soon after the 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated NE Japan we started to hear of several fund-raising and other events to support the people affected by the tragedy. We decided to setup a website (www.liverpoolforjapan.com) very quickly to help publicise the events happening in Liverpool.

There have already been several events which raised thousands of pounds and there will be many more over the coming months. If you are organising or involved in any Japan fund-raising projects please contact us via the liverpoolforjapan website so we can post the details.

Here are a few of the upcoming events

‘Babie Sato: A Girl Who Smiles At Confidence Crisis’ exhibition at LJMU ADA – 15 April 2011

Performance in Aid of JAPAN TSUNAMI APPEAL at The Pilgrim – 19 April 2011

The Print Aid Project – Liverpool Photographers raise money for Japan earthquake victims

ART AID AUCTION Liverpool for Japan – at Studio 2, 12 May 2011

We are also (along with Japanese residents, Threshold and CUC) organising a ‘Smiles For Japan‘ daytime family-friendly event followed by evening music event at CUC in Mid May so please keep checking the website for full details.

Please also ‘like’ the facebook page and follow on twitter.

You can also send messages, thoughts and positive words to Japan via the Messages To Japan website

Wednesday 13 April 2011

"Landscape" opened on the 13th of April


A beautiful range of work from 4 local artists representing the landscape in painting and drawing and woodturning is currently on display in the incubator building until the 25th of May. With the corridors adorned with images of North Wales, Cheshire and Liverpool and turned bowls made from wood from local parks and gardens in three cabinets, it feels fresh and colourful in the grey walls of the building.

Wednesday 6 April 2011

"Landscape" opens on the 13th of April: Feature Rowena Ferguson





Rowena Fergusson is an artist with a studio in Chester but I first encountered her detailled work in last year's Liverpool Independents, in a temporary exhibition space set up in the Georgian surroundings of Hamilton Square in Birkenhead. The gallery space was set up for 3 months and called "The Six Rooms Gallery" and housed 35 artists over three exhibitions.

"My current body of work aims to simplify the colour and stylise the textures and forms in the landscape. Each work, has within it areas of intense detail, which I take particular pleasure in observing and representing.

I have always painted the landscape and love observing nature as it continually changes with the seasons."



"Landscape" opens on the 13th of April: Feature Linda Evans






Wirral based artist, Linda Evans uses her work to explore personal imagery derived from the slate mining area of Snowdonia (Eryri) North Wales.

"My emotional response to this landscape is essential to my creative process. With this series of contemporary works, I am striving to provide a new perspective on the intriguing abstract shapes within the landscape of the moors which surround the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog. I often start with sketches done on sight and then develop them later in my studio. I paint with acrylics, a medium I find very versatile, adding strong black lines to create structure. To add movement and define the abstract shapes I draw with pastels over the finished work."

"Landscape" opens on the 13th of April: Feature Mike Rule


I was first acquainted with Mike Rule's bowls and platters during an exhibition at Alex Corina's venue in Garston. I feel Chumki Banerjee who reviewed the same exhibition at the time, perfectly describes his work:-

"Having been struck dumb by the beautiful portrait, I was then rendered completely speechless by the extraordinary beauty of Mike Rules, wood "sculptures", I don't know what else to call them, though many are functional, bowls, vessels, vases and such like, those words do not begin to describe Mike's unbelievably stunning pieces, spanning twelve years of honing his craft and individual style.


Moving from working commercially sourced wood to unseasoned and sometimes diseased or decaying wood, "scavenged" from tree surgeons, Mike reveals nature's art, even amidst the death throes of these fallen soldiers.


In his hands imperfections and decay are burnished and polished in celebration of nature's soul which glows in all her creations, however broken or fallen and glows again in Mike's work.


I cannot begin to imagine the patient hours and skill required to shape such forms of organic beauty from a single piece of wood. In particular, the narrow necked vases are astonishing in their construction but all are unique, decorated by nature's own hand, glorious patinations revealed by Mike's sympathy for his materials.


My favourites are the spatted or burr wood pieces, formed from felled wood invaded by fungus or the "abnormal wart like growths on the side of a main trunk", fragile beauty captured and preserved a moment before crumbling and a return to the earth that gave them birth, ashes caught mid flight.

However, every piece is exceptional in capturing the colorations and striations of natural wood, from beech to ash, yew, wild olive and a plethora of other woods, the individuality of each highlighted with such sympathy it is almost possible to not imagine the landscape of their lives."

"Landscape" opens on the 13th of April: Feature Phil Dowling



Liverpool artist, Phil Dowling has been painting portraits and landscapes for nearly 30years. His main interest in painting landscapes is to capture natures abstract qualities, its light, colour, mood,but above all its energy in a harmonious way. 
Phil says his feelings about painting are best summed up in the words of french painter Pierre Bonnard.


"It's not a matter of painting life; its a matter of giving life to a painting”

Wednesday 30 March 2011

"Landscape"


By invitation only, please contact alison.roberts@2bio.co.uk for more details or click on the posting above "Landscape".

Friday 25 February 2011

Private Tour of Complementary Colours




Private tour of Complementary Colours at MerseyBIO

Tuesday the 1st of March at 10am:

Rendezvous at the Victoria Gallery and Museum prior to moving on to MerseyBIO
Click on post heading and it will take you to a link to the Victoria Gallery and Museum

Our current exhibition at MerseyBIO which opened on the 9th of February, features microscopic images by Dr Patrick Druggan and screen printed textiles and jewellery from Liverpool based artist, Christine Toh has been very well received by the staff of the companies in the incubator and the visitors at the private view but as MerseyBIO is a secure building on the University Campus, I have been unable to open this show to public view.

I have, by special arrangement, agreed to take a party of 20 around the exhibition on the morning of the 1st of March. I would like you to be part of our group visit, with an opportunity to talk with both exhibitors. As MerseyBIO is very difficult to find, I will meet everyone at 10am in the cafe of the Victoria Gallery and Museum opposite the back of the Catholic Cathedral and walk from there to MerseyBIO which is less than 5 minutes walk away. The VG&M is situated at the top of Brownlow Hill in the Victoria Building, with its distinctive red-brick and clock tower. It is a short walk from the city centre.

I have been art liaison officer for 2Bio Ltd since 2008 with the role of co-ordinating the exhibitions within the incubator but this is the first exhibition where an exhibitor has come from one of the companies housed within the building. The United Nations has declared that the next 12 months will be the Year of Chemistry, so it is appropriate that this show combines Patrick’s highly coloured microscopic images with Christine’s layered textile work in an exploration of colour and dyes. Christine is a former bio-chemist and takes great pleasure in all the technical processes she uses to achieve her colours and patterns. Her use of circles are echoed in Patrick's half tone images where he has manipulated his images of different dyes digitally to produce very minimal, colourful works on canvas.

RSVP essential to alison.roberts@2bio.co.uk or go direct to our Eventbrite ticket
Register for Complimentary Colours - Private Tour 1.3.11 10.00am on Eventbrite

Monday 14 February 2011

Stephanie de Leng

An interesting side shoot that came out of our exhibition "People In Liverpool" with Stephanie de Leng. Hydrapolymers, one of the companies that are housed in MerseyBIO. approached her directly after her exhibition and commissioned her to do shots of all the staff and these are the resulting images...presenting quite a different corporate image. Click on the title above to take you to Stephanie's blog to view the photographs.

Also her image of Sir Drummond Bone, former vice-chancellor of the University of Liverpool and one-time president of Universities UK was recently used in the Times Higher Educational Supplement. This the same image as we used for our invitation to her exhibition. For a link to the article go to her blog and click on NEWS.

Friday 11 February 2011

Opening Night at Complementary Colours





From Complementary Colours


Click above to go to more images from the opening

Thursday 10 February 2011

Successful opening at MerseyBIO

2Bio Hosts 'Complementary Colours' Art Exhibition in MerseyBIO Incuabtor, Liverpool

Click on title of posting for whole article


Last night hosted their first art exhibition opening event of 2011 entitled ‘Complementary Colours’ with work from Dr Patrick Druggan and Christine Toh on display in the MerseyBIO Incubator in Liverpool.

The exhibition is part of an ongoing programme called ‘art@ the incubator’ which showcases the work of local artists, students and school children from within and around the Liverpool region.

Dr Patrick Druggan is Director of R&D for Provexis Plc based in MerseyBIO, who specialise in the discovery, development and licensing of functional food, medical food and dietary supplement technologies.

The images in the exhibition were captured twenty years ago when Patrick first worked in diagnostic microbiology and was investigating impurities in crystal violet.

Christine Toh trained in France as a biochemist and became captivated by colours when she started printing in 1992 and has not stopped playing with colours ever since on paper and fabric. She obtained a First class honours degree in 2008 in Fashion and Textile Design from John Moores University in Liverpool.

Christine is establishing her practice as an innovative textile artist working from her studio at The Bluecoat in central Liverpool. Her work takes inspiration from nature, landscapes and the urban environment and has its roots in the idea of memories.

art @ the incubator is co-ordinated by Alison Roberts, Art Liaison Officer of 2Bio Ltd, who has many years’ experience in the creative industries arena and curating shows locally, nationally and internationally.

Commenting on the programme so far, Alison said “Since October 2008 I have had the pleasure of being art liaison officer for 2Bio Ltd, with the role of co-ordinating the exhibitions within the Incubator. This is the first exhibition where an exhibitor has come from one of the companies housed within the building.

“UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) has declared that the next 12 months will be the Year of Chemistry, so I am delighted that our inaugural exhibition for 2011 will combine Patrick’s microscope images with Christine’s layered textile work in exploration of colour and dyes.”

To arrange to view the exhibition by appointment, or to register your interest in exhibiting at or attending future events, contact Alison Roberts at alison.roberts@2bio.co.uk.

‘Complementary Colours’ will run until 23rd March 2011

Monday 7 February 2011

Sunday 23 January 2011

Complementary Colours

Since October 2008, I have had the pleasure of co-ordinating the exhibitions within the incubator, MerseyBIO. I hope to continue to bring you an interesting and varied calendar of exhibitions throughout the next few months. This is the first exhibition where we have had a particpant from one of the companies housed within the building. I am pleased to combine Patrick’s microscopic images with Christine’s layered textile work in this, our inaugural exhibition for 2011.





Dr Patrick Druggan is Director of R&D for Provexis PLC based in MerseyBIO, who specialize in the discovery, development and licensing of functional food, medical food and dietary supplement technologies.

These images were captured twenty years ago when Patrick first worked in diagnostic microbiology and was investigating impurities in crystal violet.






“The United Nations have declared 2011 to be the Year of Chemistry. The origins of the modern world can be traced back to William Perkin’s accidental synthesis of Mauvine in 1856. This first commercially available synthetic dye caused a technological and social revolution. It spawned the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Within fifteen years of Perkin’s pioneering work in chemical synthesis and commercial exploitation of the products he made, the artistic movement Impressionism had been born. Its radical use of light and colour was made possible by synthetic chemistry. Painters like Monet, Pissaro, Cezanne, van Gogh and Gauguin exploited the brilliance of the new light stable synthetic paints, and modern art was born. You can still buy the same paint they used to this day.”
Patrick Druggan 2011

More later about Christine's work

Thursday 20 January 2011

COMPLEMENTARY COLOURS




Today is the last day of the "Twelve Working Days til Christmas" exhibition at MerseyBIO which was received very well and resulted in quite a number of sales for many of the artists involved.

Thank you very much to all our past exhibitors and extras who contributed to the show. We plan to do the same again next year and make it an annual event.

Our next show in the incubator for starting in February will be a joint exhibition exploring colour from two different but related perspectives. The show is entitled "Complementary Colours".

The modern world around us, is a highly coloured one, with a palette of bright colours made with synthetic dyes. Synthesised dyes in themselves are very beautiful, yet we never see them for what they are. This exhibition exposes these dyes in all their glory from a microscopic perspective from Dr Patrick Druggan of Provexis and the artistic results when used on fabrics from Liverpool artist, Christine Toh.

Saturday 8 January 2011