Programme | conversations

CONVERSATIONS IN PAINTING : Fiesta MK 2

Conversations in Painting: Fiesta MK2 is a multi-venue celebration of painting that connects artists from Tees Valley with a broader UK and international network, whilst celebrating why painting still continues to be fascinating and engaging in a historical and contemporary context.

PROGRAMME

Christian Mieves - No In-between

Crown Street Art Gallery, Crown Street, Darlington, DL1 1ND
22 - 30 October 2019

The everyday processes by which surfaces are worn down, thinned or marked, puts a particular focus on visual materiality. Material in its different conditions and formations has here a particular unstable character, defined as on-going process, shifting, disappearing and distancing.

The exhibition explores the idea of erosion, collapse, constant change imposed on everyday objects and environments. The paintings in this exhibition deal with a slippery setting, endless ambiguities and its productive potential. In this instability, bodies seem to dissolve and images to disintegrate, leaving the viewer with a sense of ‘no pauses, no in-between’. Spaces and objects are bound to collapse, yet simultaneously something new emerges. The work contests assumptions of agency, control, and in more general terms, visibility. This underlines the nature of painting practice of being in and between processes, of testing and reflecting, and shaping states of change.

Christian Mieves is painter based in the North East of England. His paintings have been shown at exhibitions in Germany, Mexico, Spain and the United Kingdom. He has published articles in academic journals on issues of exoticism, heterotopias and the beach.

In Conversation Event

Christian Mieves & Matthew Hearn

Thursday 24 October 6.30 - 8pm

Crown Street Art Gallery, Crown Street, Darlington, DL1 1ND

LEGACY - 50 years of Painting in the Tees Valley

The Auxiliary, 31 Station Street, Middlesbrough TS1 1SR

16 Nov - 12 Dec 2019

Preview 15 Nov 6 – 8pm

Basil Beattie / Bobby Benjamin / Emma Bennett / Raymond Bentley Hannah Campion / Tony Charles / Rachael Clewlow / Joe Cole / Sarah Cooney / Deb Covell / Gordon Dalton / Jeremy Diggle / Richard Forster

Phil Gatenby / Jonny Green / Aly Helyer / Peter Hicks / Kelly Jayne / Brendan Lancaster / Laura Lancaster / Rachel Lancaster / Wendy Okey / John James Perangie / Ben Platt / Theresa Poulton / Narbi Price / Gerda Roper / Martin Smith / William Tillyer / Tom Wall

Conversations in Painting are delighted to present LEGACY - 50 years of Painting in the Tees Valley. The exhibition brings together the work of 30 artists and will tell a story of painting in Tees Valley spanning 50 years, tracing a lineage of painters who have influenced and supported each other in various ways. Established and emerging practices will sit side by side to acknowledge the impact and importance of painters who have taught, mentored and championed each other marking a continuum of knowledge sharing, generosity and trust across generations.

MIMA

Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Collection Gallery space, Centre Square
Middlesbrough TS1 2AZ

Thursday 5 December 5.30 to 7pm

Are you an artist, current or former art teacher, art student or arts professional connected with painting in the Tees Valley? Join us for an evening of conversation to map the history of painting in the area. We invite you to share your stories and experiences to help us trace the lineage of individuals and groups who have shaped painting in our region.

The evening is an informal gathering, with group conversations around prompt questions. It’s an opportunity to meet a range of creative people and to contribute to an art history of the Tees Valley. All are welcome.

Please bring along leaflets, articles, posters, postcards and letters and anything that helps to tell this story. We’re particularly keen to see material related to Tees Valley painters represented in the Middlesbrough Collection held at MIMA. With your permission, we’ll photograph any materials that you bring.

Please sign up via Eventbrite link below:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mapping-a-history-of-painting-tickets-79199583085

Mountain Size: Contemporary British Painting

Pineapple Black, Hillstreet Centre, Middlesbrough TS1 1SU

1 - 30 November 2019

Preview 1 Nov 5 - 10pm

Karl Bielik / Paula MacArthur / Stephen Snoddy / Amanda Ansell / Judith Tucker / Alison Pilkington / D J Manley / Simon Carter / Narbi Price / Pen Dalton / Matthew Krishanu / Cara Nahaul / Sam Douglas Joe Packer / Mandy Payne / Julian Brown / Sean Williams / Freya Purdue / Greg Rook / Jeff Dellow / Gordon Dalton / Andrew Crane / Barbara Pierson / Natalie Dowse / Paul Newman

Mountain Size features artists from the Contemporary British Painting membership, selected by CBP board member, Gordon Dalton. The exhibition features UK artists whose work has a relationship to landscape, from coast to country, or as a more abstract inspiration. The landscape is a starting point, a subject matter, before the spontaneity, contradiction and decision making begins and the delicate matter of pushing ‘coloured mud around with a hairy stick.’

All the painters involved relate directly to the history, legacy and traditions of painting itself. This does not mean they are divorced from the wider realities around us or a fruitful critical dialogue with other art forms, but that painting itself is important. Large paintings, small paintings, paintings of ‘things’, for these artists, painting itself is mountain sized, a large, seemingly immovable force yet one that is changeable with time, history and the world around us.

Contemporary British Painting is an artist led organisation which explores and promotes current trends in British painting through group exhibitions, talks, publications and the donation of paintings to art museums.

Mountain Size features artists curated from the Contemporary British Painting membership, selected by CBP board member, Gordon Dalton. Mountain Size features artists whose work has a relationship to landscape, as well as to the history, legacy and traditions of painting itself. This does not mean it is divorced from the wider realities around it or a fruitful critical dialogue with other artforms, but that painting itself is mountain sized, a large, seemingly immovable force yet one that is changeable with time.

Paint Hard - A conversation about painting

Northern School of Art, Green Lane, Middlesbrough, TS5 TRJ

Saturday 16 November 2019, 12 - 5pm

Short presentations about painting and its ongoing legacy, wider appeal and the rise of supportive physical and online networks across the UK, often outside of the gallery system. Contributors include Paula MacArthur, Paint Lounge, Sarah Cooney, Conversations in Painting; Liam O'Connor, LLE; Gordon Dalton, Creative Factory; Phil King, Turps Banana; Judith Tucker, Paint North; Narbi Price, Contemporary British Painting, Chris Shaw, Three Works

Paint Lounge: Supernature

The Auxiliary (Side Gallery), 31 Station Street, Middlesbrough TS1 1SR

16 Nov - 7 Dec 2019

Discussion event - Friday 15 November 3 - 5pm

Susan Absolon / Rachel Lancaster / Paula MacArthur / Joe Packer / Paul Smith

Supernature takes its title from the 1977 disco track by Cerrone; a somewhat camp approach to a discussion of some seriously pressing issues. The lyrics could be straight out of science fiction, but even back in 1977 (and much earlier) there was awareness of a developing environmental crisis...

'Maybe nature has a plan to control the ways of man’

Supernature brings together painters who explore the personal and political aspects of the impact of man on nature and conversely the impact of the natural environment on us as individuals and on humanity. Once fantastical ideas offered by science fiction have quickly become scientific fact and often seem unimaginative compared to current scientific research and predictions. As painters what is our relationship to all of this and how do we respond?

‘Will there be a happy end, now that all depends on you’

PaintLounge travels around aiming to bring together painters to discuss contemporary painting in a relaxed ‘lounge’ setting with sofas and refreshments. Each exhibitor shows their work and joins the others on the PaintLounge sofa to take part in a conversation relating to current issues and developments in contemporary painting. Anyone with an interest in contemporary painting and the environmental issues raised in this exhibition is very welcome to be part of the audience and join in the conversation at this free event. We look forward to seeing you there!