SPS members shortlisted for WAC Awards

October 9 – 25

The WAC Awards is an open competition for contemporary visual art that is gaining praise and respect in Britain and abroad. It was established only four years ago by a group of artists and their friends in Wells, the cathedral city in South-West England. But a notion that came to life around kitchen and dining tables has already established a strong presence in the London artworld and is drawing artists from places as diverse as Australia, Azerbaijan, India, Italy, Korea, Japan and the United States, as well as all over Britain. The most cited reasons for this rapid success are the quality of the artists who enter, the prestige of the judges and the attraction of the prizes.

Here are some SPS members who have been shortlisted:

SARAH DUNCAN

Sarah Duncan has recently completed an MA in Multidisciplinary Print Making at UWE. In 2014 she spent two weeks at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, the largest collection of telescopes in the world. Located 7000 ft elevation above Arizona’s Sonoran Desert in the Tohono O’Odham reserve, Kitt Peak houses 25 optical and 2 radio telescopes. During this residency Sarah was able to gain insight into the actual telescopes, astronomy, and collect visual references and data to inspire her practice.

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MARIA BOWERS

In my work over the last year, the chairs I have created are based on particular stories that resonate with me, each chair is a caricature of that story, or the storyteller. As a child growing up in Brighton I was often taken to Walter Potter’s Museum of Curiosities or Brighton museum which has an influence on how I view my work; my intention is that the prints themselves echo Victorian curiosities so that the viewer questions if what they are seeing and I hope they are drawn in for a closer look.

This recent work includes images of hand made models based on the idea of the fragility of human survival. Mostly inspired by stories which I have seen in the news; the chairs have a life of their own, representing a person or someone ‘missing’ from the seat. Some of the chair have a certain stoicism others a vulnerability. I am currently working on a series of images looking at the models as they disintegrate over time.

The models are roughly 12 inches tall and made by sticking, sewing and binding and then photographing each one and manipulate the images digitally before producing the final artwork for photo-etching using Puretch on copper and etched in Ferric Chloride.
www.mariabowers.com

Cecilia

(selected for the National Original Print Exhibition and Wells Art Contemporary.)

Lily

Justice

Petra Regent

This Red Oak tree grew from an acorn in Pill, near Bristol in 1935, until it was felled 79 years later in 2014. Each annual ring in a tree is literally a store of the energy from that year’s summer sunshine. By making a direct print of the annual rings I am revealing a true record of the energy from the sun for each year since the tree grew from its seed.

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This photogravure etching is based on a photograph I took in berlin 2012. The lamp hangs in the hallway of “Clärchens ballhaus”, 24/25 Augustrasse, Berlin, which first opened as a dance hall in 1913 and survived WWI, the aerial bombardment of WWII and the Berlin blockade. This terrible history has become physically enmeshed in the twisted and warped fabric of the lamp itself – which miraculously still burns in the darkness.

Gail Mason

Had 2 works selected,a monotype monochrome head called Amal and a large colourful semi- abstract monotype landscape titled, Copse. These are both part of 2 different series of works. The heads are imaginary characters with a sense of presence, inviting reflection and seeking to portray the power and vulnerability of humanity, and the landscapes are inspired by the positive impact of colour together with the idea of journeys both literal and metaphorical.