Liverpool Art & Design Academy (ADA)

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LJMU and Shanghai University are pleased to announce the launch of the John Moores Critics Award in the UK, which recognises emerging new talent in critical writing about contemporary art.

The Awards in Shanghai and Liverpool will provide an international platform for budding critics in both countries to connect with their audiences and arts communities.

The UK John Moores Critics Award runs parallel to the John Moores Painting Prize as part of this year’s Liverpool Biennial at the Walker Art Gallery (National Museums Liverpool). Judging has already started on the Award in China as the panel is set the task of whittling down the entries of critical writing, focusing on the John Moores Painting Prize China held earlier this year in Shanghai.

In the UK, entrants will have to focus their critical eye on this year’s John Moores Painting Prize shortlist.

The UK Award closes on 28 October and winners will be announced publicly at the Walker Art Gallery (Liverpool) on Friday 16 November 2012.
Professor Juan Cruz, artist and Director of the LJMU School of Art and Design commented: “Critical writing about art, and art itself – like all forms of independent thinking – are constantly under threat from the pressure to conform exerted by social, political and consumer forces, whether in China or the UK. This new award is an important way to bring those pressures to mind and to resist
them, as well as to share experience between two significant art schools in the two countries.”

Professor Wang Dawei, Dean of the College of Fine Arts at Shanghai University said: “Our responsibility as scholarly and socially engaged organisations is to develop critical thinking about art and the importance of international cultural exchanges. This is particularly important as Liverpool and Shanghai are twinned cities and have a breadth of shared history and contemporary alliances.”

Two winners, one from the UK and one from China, will be selected by an esteemed panel of judges.

• Marjorie Allthorpe-Guyton, UK President of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA)
• David Batchelor, artist and writer
• Sam Thorne, Associate Editor, Frieze Magazine.

Each will receive £2,000, plus the opportunity to complete a three week exchange visit to either the UK or Shanghai, as guests of either LJMU or Shanghai University. The winner from this year’s Award in China will be visiting Liverpool during the Biennial.

Four further awards of £1,000 will be presented to two highly commended entrants to the competition in each country.

Winning entries will also be published on a new dual language John Moores Critics Award website and published in a bilingual publication, alongside the winners of the John Moores Painting Prize. This will be jointly edited by LJMU’s School of Art and Design and the University of Shanghai.

How to enter

Critics of all ages and abilities are welcome to enter. Although the Painting Prize exhibition is open till 6 January, the Critics Award is open until Sunday 28 October. Entries received after this date will not be considered so please bear this in mind if you would like to enter.

Once you have visited the show at the Walker Art Gallery, consider what you have seen and think about how it has inspired you or otherwise. We encourage you to read the details in the official Painting Prize catalogue and online, then write your response piece, aiming for between 750-1000 words or equivalent in Chinese characters. Each piece will be judged anonymously and the winners’ names will only be revealed to the judging panel once a unanimous decision is arrived at.

All works should be electronic rather than paper-based, and emailed to: jmca@ljmu.ac.uk before the closing date.

Following last year’s successful artist residency as part of the John Moores Painting Prize China, four of the five finalists from this year’s competition have flown into Liverpool to exhibit their work and produce new works inspired by the city.

The painting prize is an extension of the long-running Liverpool-based competition which is due to open at the Walker Gallery as part of Liverpool Biennial 2012 on 15 September.

The artists have come over to Liverpool for a month and will be spending their time at Liverpool John Moores University’s Art and Design Academy, home to the Liverpool School of Art and Design and METAL at Edge Hill Station.

The finalists were whittled down from nearly 3,000 entrants by the panel of esteemed judges; Michael Craig-Martin, Tony Bevan, Yu Hong, Ding Yi and Liverpool Biennial’s former Chief Executive, Lewis Biggs.

The finalists are:

• Winner of the prize, Nie Zhengjie was selected for his oil on canvas work, ‘Being’, a study of migrant workers in China
• Hu Wenlong was shortlisted for his stunning oil on canvas, ‘Aphasia’ which took 18 months to paint using fine detail to create a photograph-like finish
• Zheng Jiang’s oil on canvas, ‘Waiting’, uses varnishing techniques to stunning effect
• Pu Yingwei’s oil on canvas, ‘Desire’ explores the different states of body in contemporary Chinese society
• Zhang Aicun’s piece, ‘Makeup NO.2′ is a bright acrylic on canvas, exploring through makeup packaging how women of different classes distinguish themselves depending on the makeup they buy and wear.

from left to right: Ling Min, Nie Zhengjie, Pu Yingwei, Zheng Jiang, Hu Wenlong and Juan Cruz

Ling Min, Head of International Development at the Fine Arts Academy of Shanghai University said:

“We are very pleased to be in Liverpool again with the finest talent from China’s fine arts community.

“This year’s John Moores Painting Prize China has been a phenomenal success and we received many more entries than the previous year, from all over China. We hope people from around Liverpool are able to come and see our exhibition, to meet the artists and see how exciting contemporary Chinese art can be.”

The collaboration extends further in September when, alongside the John Moores Painting Prize at the Walker Art Gallery, the first John Moores Critics Award is launched, inviting the public to submit critical writing around the exhibition.

Some of the artists’ work inspired by local surroundings while in Liverpool

The Critics Award will run in parallel to the painting prizes in Liverpool and Shanghai and will offer two winners, one from China and one from the UK, the opportunity to travel to the UK and China respectively for residencies hosted by Shanghai University and LJMU as part of the cultural exchange programme. There will also be cash prizes for runners-up.

Professor Juan Cruz, Director of the Liverpool School of Art and Design said:”This collaboration marks an exciting time for LJMU and the city of Liverpool. Our new artists in residence have an exceptional talent and have done very well to get here. We are pleased to welcome them and we hope that their stay in Liverpool is as culturally enriching as it is inspiring for their art.”

The John Moores Painting Prize China show is on in the public gallery on the ground floor of the Art and Design Academy, Duckinfield Street, L3 5RD (beside the Metropolitan Cathedral).The exhibition is open until 7 September from 12noon to 5pm.

This activity was supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Staff and students from the LJMU Master of Architecture (M.Arch) programme recently visited Lisbon and Porto as part of their urban design studies. See photos of the trip on Flicker – http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmu-march-2011-yr5/sets/72157627910006486/show/

On Monday 26th and Tuesday 27th September, LJMU Fashion and Communications Undergraduates commenced the start of term with a WOW LIVE project for SEEN magazine.

This involved producing an outfit for The Death by Glitter Vogue Ball.

The selected outfit was then revealed on the cat walk at the Saturday night ball ,1st October 2011 and worn by local model Amy Faith.

The students designed and crafted 3 outfits altogether –working in groups (8-10 students per group) – producing the costume and accessories entirely out of back-copies of the magazine.

SEEN Magazine and LJMU Brokerage co-ordinated the project over the Summer with LJMU Fashion.

The students created three stunning pieces of bespoke couture and transformed the ADA Fashion Workshop into a Catwalk complete with mock audience and booming bass.

Representatives from SEEN Magazine, Director Tony Burns, and Editor Rebecca Keegan were on hand with LJMU staff, Lesley Peacock, Anne Liddell, Elaine Mcneill (ADA) and John Maguire ( Brokerage) to view the outfits.

A comprehensive explanation of the choices made and the evolution of the idea for each dress was given by one of the team members.

Rebecca Keegan from SEEN magazine stated,

We were totally overwhelmed by the sheer talent that we have come across at LJMU. The students have surpassed our very high expectation with the work creating the dresses. We can’t wait for the Vogue Ball and also the Seen Awards where all three dresses will be presented on stage for a packed audience to see.

Thank you so much to all the tutors and LJMU Brokerage who have been so supportive in this project.

The LJMU fashion students have shown us just how gifted they are – we at Seen Magazine look forward to working with them again in the near future.

An exhibition exploring the future of Liverpool’s built environment

Twitter updates from Prof. Juan Cruz, Acting Director of Liverpool School of Art and Design
@director_lsad

The Art Lids Live Art Studio Outdoor event

Saturday 24th September 2011-Part of THE BOLD STREET FESTIVAL

Ropewalks Square, off Bold Street, Liverpool 12pm-4pm

Contact: Antonia Jones, Tel: 077155 96819, Email: a.jones3@2009.ljmu.ac.uk

‘The Art Lids’ are a group of emerging artists from the Liverpool Universities. Our mission is to develop our art practices through actively engaging with our City, its vibrant arts community and beyond!

Join us for a spectacular Art overload where you will get to see the cities emerging Artists practicing their everyday Art studies – bringing their work right to you! ‘The Art Lids’ Live Art Studio is run in partnership with the Bold Street Festival on Saturday 24th September.

Why not have a go yourself at some of the techniques they can show you! Check out how real art is produced! See artists show off their mad skills in the heart of Liverpool. Find out what this rather peculiar gaggle of students are doing with the community in Liverpool and how they are getting involved with your city.

Come along on Saturday to see a real wild artist trapped in a playpen while piecing together a strange sort of Jigsaw! Get involved in some fantastic printing methods and make your own! See how beautiful Origami flowers are made. Watch artists working on real commissions for local bands. Join three artists who are painting a mural based on the event, and maybe get your self painted onto it! But watch out for the sneaky artist who will be leaving surprises all over the place!

We are lifting the lids of Art. We are opening your lids to Art. We are ‘The Art Lids’!

As Artists, our own working styles are enhanced by the involvement we have with Liverpool’s’ Community, and through generating exciting ideas, events and partnerships. We are student friends with a lot of artistic talent, sharing common goals.

This is one event you should not miss…check out our event on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=245982802110392

A warm welcome to all new and returning students at the Art & Design Academy. We hope you enjoy your next year here. This is the ADA Blog where we’ll post news about the ADA, LJMU, Liverpool and the Art and Design world in general. Please visit to see what’s happening and feel free to comment or request your own post.

MA ARTIST TEACHER DEGREE SHOW

Gemma Warner * David Graham * Kate Roberts * Marie Sinnott
Ruth Thompson * Peter Ward * Emma Hodgson * Paul White

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FRIDAY 26 – SUNDAY 28 AUGUST
PLEASE JOIN US FOR THE PRIVATE VIEW ON THURSDAY 25 AUGUST 5PM – 7PM
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LIVERPOOL SCHOOL OF ART & DESIGN, DUCKINFIELD STREET, OFF BROWNLOW HILL, LIVERPOOL L3 5RD

We (the POD) are working on a construction project for the Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival (starting in July) and have had to source some second hand bits and bobs.
Along the way we (re)discovered the treasure trove that is IBS office furniture reclaim. There’s no website but to be honest you have to go there and have a delve yourself to believe it. It has 4-5 floors of a warehouse stocked with furniture, bric-a-brac and general oddities that could play a part in many a project or just act as inspiration.
We highly recommend a visit -72 Waterloo Rd L3 7BE.

Photos’ taken via the iPhone Hipstamatic App.

A Festival of Art, Music, Words and Birds.
Liverpool School of Art & Design
Duckinfield Street L3 5RD

Thursday 19th May

10.00 Exhibition starts

18.00 PRIVATE VIEW

18.45 – 19.15 Official Opening Talks in the auditorium hosted by:

Ceri Levy introducing various people and explaining Ghosts as a concept.

Mike O’Shaugnessy to explain the School’s participation.

Paul Robertson – Regional Director of the RSPB

Jim Lawrence – BirdLife International

Friday 20th MAY

10.00 exhibition

16.00 Talks Start – Johnson Auditorium

16.00 – 16.20 Henry Irving
16.20 – 16.50 Nicola Boulton
16.50 – 17.10 John Barlow
17.10 – 17.20 Chris Gooddie
17.20 – 17.40 Paul Donald
17.40 – 18.00 Clem Fisher
18.00 – 18.20 Jim Wardill
18.20 – 18.40 Rob Lambert
18.40 – 19.00 Ceri Levy
19.00 – Jimi Goodwin / DOVES !! World Premier Perfomance !!

British Fast Food chain Little Chef has had a re-brand makeover by london based venturethree.

Venturethree has, it says, tried to reposition the chain as a ‘modern British brand’ with new menus, interiors and the introduction of a take away service.

Creative Review has the full story and images.

Isabela da Silva will be moving into level 2 HAMS in September but has been accepted as intern at the Ceri Hand Gallery.
The Gallery Manager, Lucy Johnston, is a previous HAMS graduate and walked straight into that job following graduation.

Liverpool Art & Design Academy
3rd Year Exhibition
26 / May / 2011

Whether falling asleep, waking up or riding on the bus, good ideas are born when we least expect them; a toilet break saw the birth of the name Graft for the title of our degree show. Looking beyond the obvious connotations that Graft holds with regards to graphics, the word sums up the attitude of the third year students quite accurately.

We pride ourselves on total design transparency.
Pay our blog a visit and see the birth of the idea from the original proposal, to the path it took on becoming a fully formed ideology.

Graft Show Invite from Milos Simpraga on Vimeo.

Hand made special invite for selected industry figures, to the G R A F T show at Liverpool’s art and design academy. 2011.

Music: eskmo, on ninja tune label

As part of this friday’s Light Night event at the ADA…

#zbrush, #C4D, #AfterEffects

Friday 13th May see’s Sparkle’s second light night with a feature presentation of two hours of in depth Zbrush training. Glen Southern takes the stage again for two one hour sessions taking a concept character sketch through to full Zbrush** game character. Following the training Glen will take further in depth Q&A session.

After the session is over we’ll be giving away some some software licenses.

To accompany the training session this time around we’re doing a digital surgery covering varying aspects of pre/post production to help out with any post/pre production/motion graphics problems you maybe facing. Several members of Sparkle* staff will be on hand for short one on one sessions covering:** After Effects, Maya, Realflow, C4D & Tracking. We can’t promise to answer all your problems but we’ll certainly put you on the right track.

We’ll have hardware and software available on the evening but feel free to bring along your specific digital problems.

The entire event is free but time is limited so arrive early.
Zbrush starts at 7pm at Art and Design Academy – LJMU 2 Duckinfield Street, L3 5RD

*
Staff will be available on to help answer any problem you maybe facing in the digital world but due to time restraints and volume we may have to keep it brief.

**
DIGITAL SURGERY – 7pm – 9pm
Zbrush – 2 Hour in depth Training with Glen Southern, from concept to production model
After Effects – Animation, Composting, Tracking
Maya – Modeling, Fire, Water
Realflow – Fluid Simulations
C4D – Modeling, Rigging, Animation, Rendering
Tracking – PFtrack, shooting for tracking

Glenn Maguire // Creative Director // sparkleVFX.com
T : +44 151 345 0313
twitter.com/sparklemedia // twitter.com/sparklevfx

Two of the Royal College of Art’s most important collections have been made available to the general public through a new digitisation project which is accessible through the Visual Arts Data Service (VADS).

View the collections online at:

Royal College of Art Record of Student Work

Royal College of Art Collection

The Record of Student Work is a rare collection, containing over 30,000 slides of student work, which dates back to the 1960s and includes early work by notable College alumni including David Hockney, Tracey Emin, Ridley Scott and Thomas Heatherwick. A comprehensive and unique resource, it provides insight into the early creative processes of some of Britain’s best-known artists and designers, usually captured as they complete their postgraduate studies with installation shots from students’ degree shows.

The nature of the collection – comprised mainly of 35mm slides and usually locked in filing cabinets in the RCA library – has meant that many of these images have never been published. Now however, a three-year scanning project has resulted in over 5,000 of the most notable images from the collection being made publicly available for the first time.

The earliest slides (1960-1978) represent ad hoc attempts by individual departments to record their students’ work. Fashion and Textiles are especially well represented with images of the work of Ossie Clark and Zandra Rhodes among many others. However, from 1979, at the instigation of Christopher Frayling, then Professor of General Studies, Jan Murton, slide curator, and photographer Barry Marsden, the Royal College of Art degree show was comprehensively photographed and catalogued across all departments for the first time. The approach continues to this day, although slides were replaced with digital photography in 2003.

Notable alumni whose work is represented in this selection include: David Hockney, Zandra Rhodes, Chris Ofili, Tracey Emin, Julien Macdonald, Philip Treacy, Orla Kiely, Harold Offeh and Thomas Heatherwick. These images are a representative sample of the entire collection 1960-2002 and all have been scanned from the original 35mm slides. Senior tutors from each department worked with the Special Collections Manager to identify key students’ work. Once a student was selected, every available slide of their work was digitised to provide a comprehensive picture of their work.

In addition to the Record of Student Work, over a thousand works from the Royal College of Art Collection of Paintings have been digitised and are also being made available through VADS. The Royal College of Art Collection is an invaluable resource of works that represent significant developments in British painting from the middle years of the 20th century to the present. The collection is made up of works donated by Painting graduates and staff. Examples include works by: Edward Bawden, Eric Ravilious, Paul Nash, John Piper, Frank Auerbach, John Minton, Peter Blake, David Hockney, Chris Ofili, Tracey Emin, Dinos Chapman and Sophie von Hellermann.

Dr Paul Thompson, Rector of the Royal College of Art said:

“These are indeed remarkable resources. Those selected from the Record of Student Work have been chosen not only for their subsequent eminence and reputation, but also for embodying particular trends, or producing especially idiosyncratic or revealing work. In both collections, the works have considerable research value and represent over half a century of work here at the RCA”

Neil Parkinson, Special Collections Manager added:

“The College believes in making the images available as widely as possible on a non-commercial basis for the purposes of learning, teaching and research. The Visual Arts Data Service (VADS), which collates images from the HE sector for educational use, shares this aim, which makes them a natural partner for delivery of our image collections to the widest possible audience.”

Light Night
Friday 13 May 2011
5pm – Late
Venues across Liverpool city centre

Light Night is Liverpool’s one-night festival of arts and culture, when venues across the city throw open their doors and stage over 90 special events. From 5pm visitors of all ages can follow their own vibrant trail of exhibitions, performance, talks, walks, dance and much more. It’s the perfect chance to meet friends and family to enjoy the relaxed after-hours atmosphere and rediscover Liverpool city centre – it’s a Friday night out with a difference.

Visit www.lightnightliverpool.co.uk and request your free programme or download it here.

This year the ADA has a wealth of activities including…

Shangpool Blossom – Blossom Time is the latest event within the ongoing shang-pool project. www.shang-pool.com. Canoes meet on the lakes of our virtual Stanley Park paddled by friends in Shanghai and Liverpool. Blossom is dropped from bridges and the park becomes a sound-scape of poems, music and meeting celebrating spring in Shanghai and Liverpool.

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Draw the Line – Following the success of their Long Night evening, Draw the Line return to provide visitors with paper and pens allowing any inspriation to be sketched out across the tables, creating an open public live draw mural as the evening progresses. Drop in an leave your mark.

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Look11 Photography Exhibition – The ADA Gallery hosts a photography exhibition curated by Stephen Snoddy. Conflicting Accounts – Paul Seawright’s document of the ‘troubles’ of Northern Ireland and Inside Out – Jill Jennings documentation of the Maze prison.

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Sparkle VFX – Liverpool’s SparkleVFX are showcasing their software skills in 3D Sculpting (ZBrush) and post production techniques. Come along and learn tips and tricks or pick their brains on a particular issue.

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VJ & Poetry Event – New poetry performances, with sound and image, from students and staff at Liverpool Screen School

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Candle-Lit Labyrinth Walk – Take a walk under the stars on LJMU’s candle-lit spiral labyrinth path, supported by musicians. Installed by staff and students, this labyrinth; an ancient symbol of creativity, is testament to the creative nature of Liverpool and its community.

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Violet City – Liverpool Screen School invites all to find out more about ‘Violet City’ a twisted mash-up movie of Victorian, post-modern and comic book weird.

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Follow Light Night via these social media links:

Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/LightNightLiverpool
Facebook Event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=196020347094934 (accessible if logged in)
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LightNightLpool

The East Side Gallery is one of Berlin’s most popular tourist attractions, a 1.3km-long brightly painted stretch of the wall which divided east and west for almost 30 years.

But now the outdoor exhibition space is embroiled in an expensive copyright controversy after Berlin council destroyed some artworks painted on the wall and reproduced others without the permission of the original artists.

The city of Berlin, which owns the wall and the land around it, is being sued by 21 artists over the way the council handled recent renovation of the gallery.

Full story from the Guardian.

Gypsy Modular is interesting ‘tool-less’ self assembly furniture…

Gypsy is a furniture line made of interchangeable modular components. Joints that use pressure and friction to stay together make assembly fast and easy, with no tools and no hardware to lose.

The project is new and is aimed at being funded via the Kickstarter website.