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You know that summer is well and truly upon us
when EASTinternational unveils its new show.
This year's exhibition includes the work of 30
artists, selected from 1,600 entries from 38 countries.
Jakub Dolejs |
The exhibition is growing in stature - so much
so that among the artists nominated for this year's Turner Prize,
is former EAST exhibitor, Jeremy Dellar.
Sixteen artists from Britain, 10 from Germany and
four from North America hasve been chosen to show their work this
year. The exhibition is organised as a series of one person shows,
including video, photography, abstract and figurative painting.
The selectors chose paintings that they felt could
not have been made at any other time.
They looked for work that was made from observed experience almost
unmediated by photography or film.
They responded to work that was concerned with
personal experience, human values plus the skills of draughtsmanship
and composition.
The paintings and photographs represent the mother
and child, families and old age.
Mikael Eriksson |
Most of all, the selectors talked about the way
that images depict emotions and feelings.
It is not just the subject matter that has meaning
but also what it feels like to be alive.
The exhibition opens to the public on Monday 5 July and runs until
mid-August. Admission is free.
EASTaward
The selectors of EASTinternational 2004,
Neo Rauch and Gerd Harry Lybke, gave the 2004 EASTaward on
Saturday 3 July to Justin Mortimer, a 33 year old artist based in
London who studied at the Slade School of Art.
Describing MortimerÂ’s paintings as containing
‘a strange perfume’, Rauch said the reason for giving
the award to Mortimer was due to the beauty of his handling of paint
and the tremendous potential for his maturity as an artist.
Hillwalker by Justin Mortimer |
Rauch suggested arranging for Mortimer to take
a guest studio in Liepzig, to provide an international context for
Mortimer.
Mortimer earns a living as a portrait painter – he has previously
won the BP National Portrait Award in 1991 and been commissioned
to paint Harold Pinter, the oarsman Steve Redgrave, David Bowie
and HM The Queen – while navigating his personal studio practice
as an artist in his own right.
It is interesting the way that Mortimer uses this ‘official’
and ‘private’ forms of painting, and the selectors responded
to this.
Mortimer comes from a professional naval family.
One of his earliest memories is of being photographed by doctors
because he was born with a deformed leg and this experience marked
his sense of difference.
Through a recent period of depression, Mortimer began the series
of works of landscapes with figures from medical textbooks.
This sense of identification with source material for figurative
painting is not used in the metaphorical sense – for example
as Bacon has used it, which is sometimes interpreted as exploitative
– but in one more attuned to empathy with the human form.
The £5000 award was presented by Marjorie
Allthorpe-Guyton, Director of Visual Arts at Arts Council England,
who praised the important role of EAST in artistsÂ’ development
in the regions over the last fourteen years and an international
forum outside of the metropolis.
EASTwork
Public art commission ‘Domestic Bliss’, a life
size bronze sculpture by Christopher Landoni, (EAST 2003) will be
unveiled on Saturday 3 July at 1pm in the Keep of Norwich Castle
Museum.
The sculpture is inspired by the pose of Botticelli’s ‘Birth of
Venus’ and Holbein’s ‘Dance of Death’.
The Norman Keep at Norwich Castle is the ideal setting for Landoni’s
modern medievalism.
EASTwords
EASTwords is a writing project involving Year 10 students from the
Blyth Jex School, Earlham High School and Notre Dame High School.
The writing workshop in response to the EASTinternational
exhibition, led by Andrea Holland.
There are no restrictions on the type of writing
and it can also be illustrated. However, it must be on a single
side of A4.
Entries will be judged by the well-known author Stephen Foster,
based in Norwich. The winning text will be announced Friday 16 July.
The prize is £50 of Jarrolds Gift Vouchers
to spend on art materials or books. We will be able to display the
texts within the exhibition and visitors will be invited to comment
on their favourite text.
The results of a week-long photography project
with Wayland Community High School will also be on display in the
exhibition from 23 July.
Thirty year 10 students will spend the week at
Norwich School of Art and Design and make a series of photographs
inspired by the 'typical' family photographs of EAST artist Trish
Morrissey, to tell their own stories about family life.
Win the EAST 2004 full colour catalogue, and
EAST T-shirt, designed by Jo Mitchell, one of this year's exhibiting
artists. Click
here to enter.
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An
event of indisputable international renown … always
intriguing and highly professionally curated.
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