Projects

Laura Leahy

Projects

An Account Of Apples

An recent project in grateful association with Aspall, producer and distributor of worldwide cyder, vinegars and apple juice.

The contemporary rural landscape is reflected through ambiguous images for the viewer to consider their own understanding of the landscape. Upon close examination anything may become diffused and unclear if different from one's own culture or what is unfamiliar. Therefore, communicating loss and distance from the familiar is considered in this project through reflections on the contemporary rural landscape.

www.anaccountofapples.co.uk

Paint Symposium 2015

18 September

Co-organised by Laurel Berry and Laura Leahy

The Immediacy of Paint: The Role of Painting in the Digital Age

www.paintsymposium.co.uk

This event is comprised of a series of talks and a panel discussion on the importance of painting as well as reflecting upon contemporary ideas surrounding painting in the digital age. Bringing together artists, academics and art students whose practices focus on is painting in the contemporary moment. Speakers include Dan Hays, Robert Priseman, Ehryn Torrell, Matthew Krishanu and Panel Chair Victoria Mitchell.

• Where does painting sit in relation to hybridised and socially engaged disciplines?

• What can the role of technology be within a painterly discourse?

• Interrogate the dialogic relationships between painting and digital representation.

• Examine the boundaries of an expanded painting practice.

• What does painting contribute to an image saturated age?

There are many internationally recognised artists living in the East of England or those with links to the region whose main practice is painting. This resource establishes a platform for bringing together networks to further the dialogue surrounding painting today.

Paint Symposium was initiated in March 2015 and co-organised by Laurel Berry and Laura Leahy, in association with University Campus Suffolk.

Immediacy of Paint

From 21 September - 21 October 2015

Curated by Laurel Berry and Laura Leahy

Waterfront Gallery

At Waterfront Gallery, University Campus Suffolk, Immediacy of Paint was the supportive exhibition for the symposium.

There are many internationally recognised artists living in the East of England, and many of those with links to the region have painting as their main practice. It has been the intention of the symposium and this accompanying exhibition to build upon this resource and establish a platform for bringing together networks in order to further the dialogue surrounding painting in the current moment.

This exhibition aimed to highlight the unique qualities of paint and consider the ever expanding boundaries of contemporary painting practice. It did this through the grouping of disparate images of regional artists included in the East Contemporary Arts Collection. Specifically Robert Priseman and Matthew Krishanu who spoke at the symposium with Dan Hays and Ehryn Torrell who also exhibited.

The paintings featured in Immediacy of Paint range from the precise and exquisite realms of realism to the gestural and enigmatic divisions of abstraction. We see one subject given to us in all its detail and another redelivered to us in broken down forms of reality.

From the heavy impasto of Stephen Newton’s, Window (2000), to the build-up of opaque layers in Brian James’, Queen Anne’s Revenge (2011); the paintings in this exhibition worked to highlight the contrasts of painterly approach and draw on the tensions of the painted surface.

In an image saturated world where the position of painting is constantly questioned, it is holding its own. Dan Hays’, Giverny (2012) gave examples to how painters are evolving to work within this digital age, pulling resources from the internet and other technological advancements whilst questioning the role of process and conceptual thought in contemporary painting practice.

Consequently, the seventeen exhibited paintings worked to reflect a glimpse of the broad and diverse possibilities of painting today.

Immediacy of Paint has been curated by Laurel Berry and Laura Leahy, organisers of The Immediacy of Paint: The Role of Painting in the Digital Age. Both Berry and Leahy graduated in October 2015 and began working on both the symposium and exhibition whilst studying for their Masters Degrees in Arts Practice at University Campus Suffolk.

It is intended that The Immediacy of Paint: The Role of Painting in the Digital Age will be the first of what will become an annual event.

To be added to our mailing list send your email address to

paint.symposium15@gmail.com

Written by Laurel Berry