Liverpool Art & Design Academy (ADA)

Archive for the ‘Drawing’ Category

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.

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

Graphic Arts Lecturer, Mike O’Shaughnessy (who has always had an eye for a good looking bird) has been instrumental in organising an exhibition in support of Birdlife International’s ‘Preventing Extinction Programme’.

The Project, ‘Ghosts of Gone Birds’, involves up to 60 contemporary artists, sculptors, writers and musicians to use their creative talents to bring extinct birds back to life.  Read the rest of this entry »

The Dartmoor Arts Project Summer School takes place in the village of Drewsteignton, outside of Exeter. For one week every July.  The courses embrace a range of disciplines taught by leading practitioners, presenting a rich and varied programme of talks, music, performance and screenings. During the week, artists come together to discuss ideas and share experiences. The majority of the courses are aimed at Fine Art students and young artists but they also run an innovative ‘Spatial Structures’ course with architect Piers Taylor for young architects as well as an in-depth Art & Philosophy course.

A number of bursaries of up to 40% of the course fees are available for 2011. Bursaries are open to emerging artists, photographers, printmakers, designers and architects.  The Bursary application deadline is the 18th April 2011. Places are limited so please apply early here and click on ‘bursaries’.

On Tuesday, the ADA held a session of the highly successful informal research group, chaired by reader and research co-ordinator, Allison Rowley.  This session witnessed presentations from Graphic Arts lecturer and leading illustrator,  Mike O’Shaughnessy and Graphic Arts course leader Ian Mitchell.

Mike has been working on an innovative project, “The sound of Drawing”, in collaboration with top illustrators James Jarvis and Will Sweeney  in collaboration with LIPA lecturer and sound engineer, Pete Phillipson. The project is concerned with the sounds made by the act of drawing and making marks. Mike previewed some of the sound recordings captured in the project to the group and spoke about his plans to create a small sound publication to encapsulate the project findings.

Ian, who engages in a number of typographical commercial design projects showed the group some of his recent projects. He discussed how type has become a “frozen” form and his interest in developing a “living” typography that allows for variation. The group thoroughly enjoyed the presentations which were followed by a rich discussion and allowed for some valuable exchanges of ideas for further development.

The next meeting for staff will be held on Tuesday 1^st March in The Anne Walker Seminar room. From 5-6pm. Please feel free to come along!

Graphic Arts graduate Emma Symmons has created a series of illustrations for leading Liverpool branding agency Uniform. The beautifully detailed illustrations were used to promote this year’s Christmas play ‘No Wise Men’ at Liverpool’s Everyman Playhouse Theatre was performed by the touring comedy theatre company Peepolykus. There are more illustrations on the way to feature on posters and other media.

“Draw the Line” is a growing creative Liverpool art social event aimed at the everyman and artist alike to unite under one roof and enjoy a casual scribble together, part networking, part art therapy and all about a love of doodles. Drop in and leave your mark!

This Thursday, 18th November sees the guys from Draw the Line join the ADA for Liverpool’s Long Night celebrations. The evening will host an open doodle event as well as an exhibition of previous works from the past 4 years. Witness some of the amazing artwork created with a pen in one hand and a pint in the other!

Exhibition of Drawing: By Definition, Concept and Practice
Participating in the Long Night, Liverpool Independents Biennial at the Cornerstone Gallery, Liverpool Hope University.

Private View, Thursday 18 November.
Featuring 26 Artists participants include Bryan Biggs, Anne Desmet, Rolf Harris, Emma Gregory, Lin Holland and Pete Clarke.

Raiders of the Lost Ark meets Popeye in a Sunday Cartoon paper Homage by Chuck Forsman.
Fullsize here.

The London Design Museum is currently setting up it’s new exhibition showcasing 30 years of fashion design drawings.

Drawing Fashion celebrates a unique collection of some of the most remarkable fashion illustrations from the twentieth and twenty first centuries. These original works define the fine art of illustrating fashion, from the collections of Chanel, Dior, Comme des Garçons and Poiret as well as Viktor & Rolf, Lacroix and McQueen