Artist Spotlight: Wells Art Contemporary Awards 2019

The Wells Art Contemporary Awards celebrate the curious, the ambitious and above all the exceptional within the world of the visual arts. Following an international open call attracting the submission of approximately 1,800 artworks, 94 artists have been selected to exhibit at Wells Cathedral, Somerset from 20 July – 11 August 2019.

Let’s introduce ourselves to some of the exhibiting artists...

ROSIE BURNS

Rosie Burns, Marigold Man Contemplates the Spring Clean

Rosie Burns is a North Devonshire artist whose print series depicting naked men wearing Marigold Kitchen Gloves challenges the traditionally feminine nature of the domestic realm. Inspired by the many cleaning products which position themselves as heroic masculine figures – Mr. Clean, Mr. Muscle, Mr. Sheen – Rosie encourages us to reconsider our understanding of the term ‘hero’. Many of Rosie’s Marigold Men are shown striking heroic poses: they are heroes not because they have saved the world, but because they are willing to strip themselves of their pride, don the iconic fluorescent gloves, and clean the toilet.

CHRISTY BURDOCK

Christy Burdock, Who has seen the Wind?

Christy Burdock is a London-based artist who strives to offer a new and fresh perspective on what was always there, unseen and unnoticed, ‘the narrative of the everyday’. A graduate of both Central Saint Martins (BA) and the Royal College of Art (MA), Christy was the 2016 recipient of the Gordon Peter Pickard Award, a Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2017 exhibitor, and the 2018 annual resident in Quentin Blake’s public gallery at the House of Illustration. Christy works by immersing herself in microsocieties and observing individuals and the relationships between them: she then layers this observation with metaphor and imagination to create new worlds. These worlds are curious, captivating places – Alice in Wonderland bordering on the carnivalesque.

ARCHIE FRANKS

Archie Franks, Monster Munch with Moon

Archie Franks is a London-based artist whose paintings are a pastiche of motifs taken from the grander eras of art history (e.g. Baroque, Rococo) combined with iconic aspects of contemporary culture and mundane elements of his own everyday existence. On the references he makes to art history, Archie comments that ‘it’s not a point about “high art” per se, but about connecting your world with art history, making your own small dramas and life part of something larger.’ For Archie, the paint is just as important as the painting – a key element in building up an atmosphere. ‘For me, it’s important to exploit the material properties of paint; otherwise you’d begin to question “why use paint at all?” The colour for the most part, and the material, is mostly all about creating a particular atmosphere. Atmosphere is really the only aspect of the work that actually matters. All the other components should simply be in aid of creating the atmosphere you want.’

ERUM AAMIR

Erum Aamir, When Autumn meets Winter

Erum Aamir is a Manchester-based ceramicist whose former career as a physicist has inspired an endless fascination with the patterns, shapes and forms that exist on an atomic/cellular level within the natural world. Patterns sit at the heart of Erum’s work: within each piece, at least one element is consistently repeated, mimicking the process of growth by repetition in nature. Drawing her inspiration from what she sees under the microscope, Erum takes this microscopic study and adapts/extends it through imaginative interpretation, leading to a blurring of the line between reality and created reality.

The 2019 Exhibition will take place at Wells Cathedral, Somerset from 20 July – 11 August 2019. Admission is free and the majority of works are for sale.

Find out more: www.wellsartcontemporary.co.uk

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