Katie Trick
3 Hydref // October – 28 Tachwedd // November 2020
Katie Trick is a painter currently based in South Wales she graduated in 2014 with a BA (hons) Fine Art Painting in Wimbledon college of art, University of the arts London.
“My paintings nod to home and the familiar, but also look at the strange familiarity of somewhere never visited. There’s always an impression of my immediate environment but rarely are they faithful depictions. These seem to be the themes that constantly sit alongside my work – although each painting is driven by the act of painting itself. Embracing what’s found, and lost – and what always seems to be left, in the end, is a view.”
Image: Window, acrylic and oil pastel on wooden board 2020
Oriel Blodau Bach are delighted to be a venue for the extended 2020 BEEP Painting Biennial programme of exhibitions and events.
Peter Coviello
26 Mawrth // March – 1 Hydref // October 2020
Peter Coviello (1930 – 2006)
Peter began his artistic career at Guildford School of Art with a traditional art school training for the times, and his own work was in the same mould throughout his early career. In the 1950s, exposure to the American Abstract Expressionists via Mark Rothko changed his perspective on painting overnight and his work began to explore the themes and ideas he was being exposed to. He was recognised fairly quickly, and his work was bought for collections such as the Tate, The Arts Council Collection and the Peter Stuvesant Collection of Modern Art. In 1960, Peter was part of the ground breaking exhibition Situation, which took place at the RBA (Royal Society of British Artists) Galleries, London.
Mid-career, he spent some time working as a potter in Canada and, with his usual exemplary skill, he established himself to great accomplishment in that area for 10 years. When he came back to the UK, after a time in London, he came to live in west Wales having returned to painting as his main medium. The next couple of decades saw him moving between London and Wales before he came to Rhos in Ceredigion where he stayed until his death in 2006.
Peter Coviello, Untitled 2000
Ellie Young
14 December // Rhagfyr 2019 – 1 March // Mawrth 2020
Daphne Don’t Care 2019
Primarily a painter, Ellie captures fleeting expressions and changing emotions, particularly the movements of the face that communicate these feelings. Her influences come from films, internet image searches, and real-life encounters. She is interested in narrative and the interplay between the subject and the surface of a painting. Currently her work has a particular emphasis on moments of metamorphosis and animation.
The piece made especially for Oriel Blodau Bach, Daphne Don’t Care, is based on the myth of Daphne (who was changed into a laurel tree by her father to save her from Apollo’s advances) the transformation is depicted here as something ecstatic.
Ellie studied BA Fine Art at Cardiff School of Art and Design (2011). Solo exhibitions include Changing Faces, Oriel Mwldan, Cardigan (2018), Frontiers, Arcade Cardiff, Cardiff (2016) and One Hour Portrait Studio Residency at Degree Art Execution Room, London (2013). Group shows include Periclo @Spansih City, 2019, UNIT(e) g39 2018, Nightswimming, Mission Gallery 2018, Oriel Davies Open 2016.
Graham Jones
19 October // Hydref – 7 December // Rhagfyr
“IDENTIKIT” 2019
Cardiff based painter Graham Jones produces works that aspire to being objects in the real world rather than being a carrier of narratives outside of the process of painting. Using material from “high” and commercial art – oil paint on hand cut foamboard, the works shuttle between the bespoke and the ubiquitous, playing with the idea of being a thing, whilst implicitly celebrating its own contrivance and artificiality.
Recent work has focussed on how a particular aesthetic arises from a functional manufacturing process: abstract, often geometric patterns ostensibly contrived to serve a practical purpose, often overlooked on an aesthetic level, being so bound to their practical role – the tread on the sole of a shoe, holes in a ventilation grill, the rounded corners of a credit card, grouting between tiles, the rubber grip of a hammer…
The ubiquitous Welsh blanket design owes its appearance, in part, to its manufacturing process but has transcended its purely aesthetic design, whereby a collection of abstract geometric units no longer work just as a relational pattern but produce a narrative symbol that can be recognised and “read” in an instant,
Whilst still adhering to the conventions of nonrepresentational painting, “IDENTIKIT” re-presents the individual components of the Welsh blanket in the form of a DIY model kit, where, even though we are bound by pre-existing designs, we are imaginatively free to reappropriate and recompose.
Instagram @grahamp.jones
Jacob Whittaker
24 August // Awst – 12 October // Hydref 2019
The Christmas Variations
This new work for Oriel Blodau Bach is a collection of ‘Pregeth Christmas Evans’ vinyl record covers. Born near Llandysul at Christmas in 1766, Christmas Evans grew up in Bwlchog, in the parish of Llanfihangel-ar-Arth and went on to become one of the most well known and influential preachers in Wales.
“Christmas Evans (1766-1838) was described by D. M. Lloyd-Jones as ‘the greatest preacher that the Baptists have ever had in Great Britain’. This remarkable one-eyed Welshman came from humble beginnings to exercise powerful preaching ministries throughout Wales..”(1)
The collection of sleeves with their different designs attest to his status and continued popularity as a preacher, receiving several re-issues on the Qualiton label. The sermon itself was first delivered on July 1st 1835 in Bangor and the recording is of Rev. Jubilee Young some 118 years after Christmas Evans’ death.
As well as the covers in Oriel Blodau Bach there will be a short series of audio and video works published online during the exhibition period here
(1) ‘Christmas Evans – No Ordinary Preacher’
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The Christmas Variations
Mae’r gwaith newydd hwn i Oriel Blodau Bach yn cynnwys casgliad o gloriau record finyl ‘Pregeth Christmas Evans’. Ganed Christmas Evans ger Llandysul dros y Nadolig ym 1766, magwyd Christmas Evans yn Bwlchog, ym mhlwyf Llanfihangel-ar-Arth ac aeth ymlaen i fod yn un o’r pregethwyr mwyaf adnabyddus a dylanwadol yng Nghymru.
“Christmas Evans (1766-1838) was described by D. M. Lloyd-Jones as ‘the greatest preacher that the Baptists have ever had in Great Britain’. This remarkable one-eyed Welshman came from humble beginnings to exercise powerful preaching ministries throughout Wales..”(1)
Mae’r casgliad o gloriau gyda’u gwahanol ddyluniadau yn tystio i’w statws a’i boblogrwydd parhaus fel pregethwr, gan dderbyn sawl ailgyhoeddiad ar label Qualiton. Traddodwyd y bregeth ei hun gyntaf ar Orffennaf 1af 1835 ym Mangor. Yn y recordiad yma mae’r Parchedig Jubilee Young yn darllen y sermon rhyw 118 mlynedd ar ôl marwolaeth ‘Christmas Evans’.
Yn ogystal â’r cloriau yn Oriel Blodau Bach bydd cyfres fer o weithiau sain a fideo yn cael eu cyhoeddi ar-lein yn ystod y cyfnod arddangos yma
(1) ‘Christmas Evans – No Ordinary Preacher’
Kathryn Campbell Dodd
21 June // Mehefin – 17 August // Awst 2019
Midsummer Clootie (for Clare): Write me one beautiful sentence…
In Scots a ‘clootie’ is a strip of cloth or rag and a ‘clootie well’ is a holy well or spring, usually with a tree growing beside it, where strips of cloth, rag or pieces of clothing are tied in the branches of the tree in a votive gesture of healing.
“‘Midsummer Clootie (for Clare): Write me one beautiful sentence…’ was made in remembrance of my friend and sometime colleague, artist Clare Thornton, who died in April 2019.”
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Jacqueline Jones
6 May // Mai – 14 June // Mehefin 2019
Jacqueline Jones is originally from Ceredigion and now based in the welsh valleys. Her work is figurative and concerned with deepening the mystery. She explores the concept of what was, and what is. How our interpratation of place and time becomes an abstract concept. Places imagined to be there, that perhaps never where, or places that existed but only abstractions remain in memory. She is fascinated by how our perception of our environment is digested in the contemporaneous now.
Selected shows:
Tate Oil Tanks Tweet Me Up 2012 RCA By Invitation curated by Shani Rhys James 2015 Mostyn group show 2019 MOMA Welsh Group 2019 Bath Open Exhibition 2019.
We are showing two paintings from Jacqueline in an exhibition of two parts.
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Laura Edmunds
I grow your bones
25 March // Mawrth – 3 May // Mai 2019
Laura Edmunds is an artist currently based at studio b in Cardiff, after having lived in England and Western Australia. Edmunds’ work focuses on the body in relation to death, loss, disappearance and things without edges. Opposing (and seemingly conflicting) points of concern are the conversations between material/immaterial and visible/invisible – manifesting itself as sound, print, drawing, painting and textiles.
Recent projects include Mouth at Oriel Mwldan (Cardigan), A Soft Introduction at Paper Mountain (Australia, 2018) and Ocean Studios (Plymouth, 2017), Lung Volumes at Cool Change Contemporary (Australia).
Materials: Earthenware, silk, canvas, oil paint, board, waxed teabag paper, air dry clay.
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Hannah M Morris
Wela’i di, Bis bald
11 February // Chwefror – 22 March // Mawrth 2019
Hannah M Morris is an artist from Cardiff who has recently relocated to Germany.
‘Wela’i di, Bis bald’ is a print of a found image, marking this significant change in her life.
She works with paper – print and collage – to express an anxious inner monologue. The images represent a personal vocabulary, a half-articulated communication.
Hannah participated in g39’s 2018 residency programme UNIT(e), producing film, collage and site-specific vinyls.
Other recent shows include Nightswimming at Mission Gallery and Cut & Stick with Anna Rogers at Ollie Quinn.
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Philippa Brown
31 December // Rhagfyr 2018 – 8 February // Chwefror 2019
Philippa Brown is an interdisciplinary artist based in Cardiff and is currently studying for an MFA at Cardiff School of Art and Design.
Her current work explores the use of symbolism and different methods of documenting behaviour and actions to explore how women are represented and in the sculptural possibilities and relationships between objects, body and space.
As Above, So Below. Photographic print and tape 88cm x 70cm, 2018
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Emily Laurens
19 November // Tachwedd – 28 December // Rhagfyr 2018
RemembranceDay for Lost Species, November 30th, is a chance each year to explore the stories of species, cultures and habitats driven extinct by unjust power structures and exploitation, past and ongoing.
It emphasises that this Sixth Mass Extinction is rooted in violent, racist and discriminatory economic and political practices. It provides an opportunity for people to renew commitments to all that remains, and supports the development of creative and practical tools of resistance.
2018 is the 250 year anniversary of the extinction of Steller’s sea cow.
Steller’s sea cow was first seen by Europeans in 1741 in the Bering Sea between Alaska and Russia. It was massive reaching lengths of up to 9m dwarfing its closest living relative – the dugong. It fed on kelp and communicated with sighs and snorts. Evidence suggests it was monogamous and sociable living in small family groups. Within 27 years of its discovery by Europeans, the slow-moving and easily caught mammal was hunted into extinction.
Emily Laurens, co-director of Feral Theatre and co-founder of Remembrance Day for Lost Species, is a multi-disciplinary artist based in West Wales.
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Absent but not Forgotten
8 October // Hydref – 16 November // Tachwedd 2018
Something Strange in The Neighbourhood
Absent But Not Forgotten is an ongoing, experimental art project formed in 2010 by west Wales artists, Kathryn Campbell Dodd and Jacob Whittaker.
“Our work explores and alludes to ideas of the paranormal, ghost hunting and the propensity to search for supernatural explanations to unexpected and unexplained phenomena. We are also interested in the associations, clichés and influences of TV and films on these issues.
As we head into the Halloween season, this new work for Oriel Blodau Bach proposes a series of seemingly simple questions to viewers to provoke thoughts about concepts of death, the afterlife and the nature of ghosts and our belief (or not) in them.
Through a series of posters the viewer is asked to consider the idea of ‘ghosts’, and how they exist in their personal belief systems.”
You are invited to tweet your responses and tag @ABNF13
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penny d. jones
27 August // Awst – 5 October // Hydref 2018
Darkness // Y Tywyllwch
Artist, penny d, jones is based in Pembrokeshire and Cardiff she uses a variety of media and processes to make her work including painting, collage, video and conceptual practices.
“This piece came to me after what has been happening to me this year, making work for the blind – a textured black quilt and suffering a deep depression myself which has passed with a helping hand.”
“Daeth y gwaith ar ôl i fi weithio gyda deillion ac wedi bod fy hunan yn yr iselder ysbryd eleni. Gwnes i glytwaith mawr o wahanol wead ac yn ddu i ddeillion. Dwi’n teimlo yn iawn nawr ar ôl i fi wedi cael y llaw yn helpu fi.”
Penny’s exhibition Teimlo Llais (Feeeling Voice) can be seen at Oriel Mwldan in Cardigan from 8 September – 7 October 2018
Teimlo Llais is an interactive installation comprising a fabric quilt, a ceramic quilt and the voices of women speaking in Welsh. The exhibition is a culmination of the research and development project Llais Menywod in 2016 which highlighted the need for the women’s voice to be heard. The focus on touch and sound makes the exhibition suitable for blind and partially sighted people.
There will be a performance from a local Welsh women’s choir to launch the exhibition through a collaboration with penny d jones at the opening on 7 September at 6:20pm
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Jonathan Powell
16 July // Gorffennaf – 24 August // Awst 2018
Jonathan Powell is a Swansea based artist who works primarily in painting and drawing. He is also a director and curator of elysium gallery, Swansea that oversees local and international exhibitions which promote emerging and established artists. elysium gallery also provides studios for 100+ artists over three venues in Swansea City Centre. Jonathan is also the founder and continues to run the Beep Painting Prize Biennial.
“Building and destruction, both the subject matter and the painting process is a major part of my painting practice.
Imagined spaces and place; painted from a starting point of not knowing where the painting is heading. Forms and mythograms that float in my imagination and present the viewer with topography of mind. The character of this topography is pervaded by a sense of dereliction. In the paintings, bitumen is used to corrupt the oil paint; the eternal purity of colour encounters the corrosive chemistry of decay. While colour in its self does not die, it nonetheless vanishes and re-appears like a spirit.
Landing 2 & 3 are paint sketches towards an untitled science fiction film in painting. These are 2 of a large number of panels that depict the landing, the corruption and destruction of an alien landscape.“
www.jonathanpowellartist.com
www.elysiumgallery.com
www.beeppainting.com
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Jessica Dent
4 June // Mehefin – 13 July // Gorffennaf 2018
Has anybody got a pen?
Jessica Dent graduated from Cardiff School of Art and Design in 2017and is currently based in Cardiff.
Experience; empiricism, cause behind memory, ignited and recalled through interaction with form and recognition. Objecthood, artefacts as portals to memory, connections to places and relations.
Selective, through choice of retaining so to recall such experiences, coming together, a new creation, a still life.
Creating an archaeology of identity, economically inexpensive now everlasting, in porcelain. Irony, always present, drawing attention to items in your surroundings.
The material is deliberately appropriated, an externalisation in 3D of values and familiarities, an extension of what you know.
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Kathryn Campbell Dodd
20 May // Mai – 1 June // Mehefin 2018
After JF: Frippery for the Soul
This short exhibition introduces new work from the series After JF: Frippery for the Soul, an ongoing project of works on cardboard and fabrics which pay homage to the designer Josef Frank.
Josef Frank was born in Vienna in 1885 and emigrated to Sweden in 1933 to avoid Nazi persecution, later adopting Swedish citizenship. Originally trained and practicing as an architect in Vienna, Frank became the leading designer for the Stockholm design company Svenskt Tenn. He is probably best know for his bold, naturalistic and colourful textiles and furnishings.
Frank was deeply disquieted by the prevalent ideas of radical Modernism. He felt that the Modernist project had been hijacked by extremists who wanted to limit and define the movement by their own narrow terms of simplicity, purity and objectivity. In his essay Frippery for the Soul and Frippery as a Problem he argued that these utopian tenets of stern functionality simply did not respond to most people’s psychological needs.
He felt passionately that design should be driven by comfort, and that his designs might provide a sense of joyousness and exuberance against the stresses of everyday life. Although influenced by the designs of William Morris and the British Arts and Crafts movement, he also understood the inherent problems of that project as well as critiquing the homogenising tendencies of the machine-made, he said: “One can use everything that can be used” meaning that one should take from whatever is available both historically and technologically (a presciently Postmodern idea). Frank’s exuberant designs and ideas were later influential to Ingvar Kamprad who founded IKEA in 1965.
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dinahvagina
18 December // Rhagfyr 2017 – 26 January // Ionawr 2018
My Father’s Hankie (colour) 2017
Artist dinahvagina lives and works in Carmarthenshire and graduated in 2015 from Carmarthen School of Art with a degree in Ceramics.
“One of the things I took when our father died was a stack of his hankies, he always had one in his pocket. All worn thin. I am slowly working through the pile, reflecting on him, his life, his part in the family. Here squares from his test sheets of water colours and inks are appliqued together with my own colours and some of the stranger brushes in his collection. It speaks of his love of colour, of testing things out and his eclectic collections born of a creative combination of frugality and curiosity.”
Michelle Dawson
30 October // Hydref – 15 December // Rhagfyr 2017
Trondheim Oppslagstavle 2017 // Trondheim Noticeboard 2017
British artist Michelle Dawson is currently living in Trondheim, Norway. For her exhibition in the little gallery, Michelle has transported a noticeboard she has assembled in Trondheim to Oriel Blodau Bach, sending the contents of the exhibition by post to the UK.
“Before Oriel Blodau Bach was established, the space functioned as a notice board and after a time of disuse was repurposed into the gallery space. This work re-visits the original function of the space but connects to a different place. The posters and cards detail some of the cultural and social events taking place in Trondheim, a small city in Norway. The posters and cards are written in Bokmål, the common written form of norsk, interspersed with some english too.”
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Roger Lougher
16 September // Medi – 27 October // Hydref 2017
Roger Lougher has been collaborating with artist Anne-Mie Melis and is here looking back over a recent project at g39 gallery in Cardiff.
Both Melis and Lougher are curious about how we live within our environment and the possibility of this being done in a sustainable way. We are interested in the ecological impact of contemporary society on the natural environment and how that natural environment is framed philosophically and represented in art.
As part of our practice we frequently present workshops, across all ages. We see these workshops as opportunities to research our practice and to enter into dialogue with people who are not familiar with contemporary art. Recently we have been collaborating as Creative Practitioners, finding art based solutions to delivering the school curriculum.
We saw growing chicory in a gallery as an opportunity to explore our collaboration further. The gallery became a nursery in which to germinate the seeds of our joint imaginations, and a hothouse in which to force this organic growth through further interaction with other artists.
We made trials of growing plants inside the gallery, in the unnatural surroundings of the space. Our aim was to build a working prototype of an incubator and to grow edible plants. We wanted to research and share this process, make visible and encourage conversation about issues related to our contemporary nature, the food we eat, our changing climate and our responsibilities as citizens of our planet. In doing this we began to see the chicory as a third collaborator, a teacher and a fellow artist. In investigating this we were struck at references to non-human collaboration in anthropology.
The work you will see through Oriel Blodau Bach is a representation and analysis of this project and further musings on the project. It will be using Oriel Blodau Bach as one would use a blog on the internet. Please contact me if you wish to discuss anything posted at: Melin Glonc, Drefelin, Llandysul, SA44 5XB. Thank you.
Mae Roger Lougher wedi bod yn cyd-weithio gyda artist Anne-Mie Melis ac yma mae’n bwrw golwg dros brosiect diweddar yn oriel g39 yng Nghaerdydd.
Rhanna Melis a Lougher ddiddordeb yn y modd yr ydym yn byw o fewn ein hamgylchedd a’r posibilrwydd o allu gwneud hyn mewn ffordd gynaliadwy. Mae ganddynt ddiddordeb yn yr effaith ecolegol sydd gan y gymdeithas gyfoes ar yr amgylchedd naturiol, a sut y mae’r amgylchedd hwnnw yn cael ei fframio’n athronyddol a’i gynrychioli mewn celf.
Fel rhan o’u hymarfer maent yn aml yn cyflwyno gweithdai i bobl o bob oedran. Gwelant y gweithdai hyn fel cyfle i ymchwilio eu hymarfer a chychwyn deialog gyda phobl nad ydynt yn gyfarwydd â chelf gyfoes. Yn ddiweddar buont yn cyd-weithio gydag Ymarferwyr Creadigol, i ddarganfod ffyrdd i gyflwyno cwricwlwm yr ysgol trwy weithgareddau celf.
Gwelwyd cyfle i ymchwilio eu partneriaeth ymhellach trwy dyfu sicori mewn oriel gelf. Yn y modd hwn daeth yr oriel yn feithrinfa lle y gellid egino hadau dychymyg y ddau ohonynt, ac yn dŷ gwydr lle y gellid ymwthio’r tyfiant organig trwy ymwneud gydag artistiaid eraill.
Arbrofwyd gyda thyfu planhigion tu fewn i’r oriel, yn amgylchedd annaturiol y gofod. Y nod oedd adeiladu prototeip gweithredol o ddeorydd a thyfu planhigion bwytadwy. Roeddynt yn awyddus i ymchwilio a rhannu’r broses; amlygu ac annog trafodaeth am bwyntiau yn ymwneud a bywyd naturiol cyfoes, bwyd, newid hinsawdd a’n cyfrifoldeb fel dinasyddion i’r blaned. Trwy hyn, gwelwyd sicori fel y trydydd cydweithiwr, athro a chyd-artist. Yn yr ymchwiliad, daethant yn fwy ymwybodol o gyfeiriadau at gyd-weithredu annynol mewn anthropoleg.
Mae’r gwaith a welwch yn Oriel Blodau Bach yn gynrychiolaeth a dadansoddiad o’r prosiect ynghyd a sylwadau pellach am y prosiect. Bydd yn defnyddio Oriel Blodau Bach yn yr un modd a a blog ar y rhyngrwyd. Croeso ichi gysylltu â Roger Lougher os hoffech drafod unrhywbeth a osodir yma : Melin Glonc, Drefelin, Llandysul, SA44 5XB. Diolch.
Zara Kuchi
29 August // Awst – 13 September // Medi 2017
Starlings
Zara Kuchi was born in Cornwall and studied art at Carmarthenshire College of Arts and Technology going on to graduate from Falmouth College of Arts with First Class Honours in 2000. Kuchi is primarily an oil painter but also works in printmaking and watercolour.
Having travelled in South America and Europe and now raising two children in West Wales she draws together her experiences of life and visual culture in an on-going body of work. She is a long term member of the King Street Gallery artist’s co-operative in Carmarthen.
Starlings is part of a series of folk bird paintings originating in a homage to the ‘Love Birds’ of East European textiles and growing into a wider celebration of the symbolism of birds within art. Kuchi is currently working on a series of birds entitled ‘Peace in our Time’ echoing the use of the dove and the pigeon during the birth of the International Peace Conferences of post-War Europe.
Jacob Whittaker
10 July // Gorffennaf – 25 August // Awst 2017
Bragu Blodeuwedd
A film about transformation
Gorse ~~ Meadowsweet ~~ Oak ~~ Broom
Bragu Blodeuwedd is a short experimental film which uses the flowers from the story of Blodeuwedd and follows their transformations through fermentation processes, evoking the spirit of Blodeuwedd through chemistry, colour and sound. For the duration of the exhibition, the film was available exclusively to Oriel Blodau Bach.
The work looks at brewing as a creative act, the recipe and process become a ritual, a conjouring.
Gorse, Oak and Meadowsweet wines blended in equal parts, add 3 drops of Broom infused spirit and place in a jar with a barn owl pellet.
The final infusion continues to change as the wines oxidise and the pellet breaks down.
Perhaps she is alive.
Ac yna y kymeryssant wy blodeu y deri, a blodeu y banadyl, a blodeu yr erwein, ac o’r rei hynny, asswynaw yr un uorwyn deccaf a thelediwaf a welas dyn eiroet. Acybedydyaw o’r bedyd a wneynt yna, a dodi Blodeued arnei.
Williams, Ivor, ed., Pedeir Keinc y Mabinogi, (Cardiff, University of Wales, 1951)
Bragu Blodeuwedd : Cerddoriaeth//music:
The soundtrack in the Bragu Blodeuwedd video was composed and performed by Deuair (Elsa Davies and Ceri Owen-Jones):
Description of Blodeuwedd from Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch (c.1350, Parcrhydderch, Llangeitho) was entwined with chosen contemporaneous melodies (c.1320-80, Tyddewi diocese) whose words venerate female love and show honour with flower symbolism.
These words and tunes were included in an antiphonal made during the same period as the compiling of Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch, intended for specific use in the Welsh liturgical calendar.
An arrangement of choral voices was transferred to Crwth, Telyn Wrachod, and Telyn Efydd, traditional instruments of poetic art in Wales with pre-Christian lineage.
The score was composed from these influences by playing with the shifting rhythms and tones of Jacob’s sound recordings of the brewing process and to his film images.
‘[…] blodeu y deri, a blodeu y banadyl a blodeu yr erwein.’
Flowers of Broom and Gorse. Mae telyn efydd yn canu ‘Sicut Lilium Inter Spinas’.
‘[…] nit oed gyueir arnei hi ny bei yn llawn oe garyat ef.’
Meadowsweet. Mae crwth yn canu ‘O Certe Precipuus Marie Magdalene Amor’.
‘Keisswn nineu ui a thi oc an hut an lledrith hudaw gwreic idaw ynteu or blodeu.’
Oak, strength and fuel. Mae telyn wrachod yn canu ‘Kaniad Yr Efail’, alaw o’r crynhoad cerddoriaeth canoloesol Cymreig.
Forged with magic and illusion, ‘Blodeuwedd’ appears while crwth enchants ‘Felix Maria Familiam Custodi’, ‘[…] hitheu a gymerth diruawr lywenyd yndi.’
Elsa Davies and Ceri Owen-Jones
Bragu Blodeuwedd was originally commissioned for Aberystwyth Storytelling Festival 2017.
Julie Ann Sheridan
15 May // Mai – 3 July // Gorffennaf 2017
Symbiosis : Lichens, small but critical
Symbiosis – A relationship between two types of animal or plant in which each provides for the other the conditions necessary for its continued existence.
Symbiosis in lichens is the mutually helpful symbiotic relationship of algae living among filaments of a fungus. Lichen is a combination of fungus and algae and as an entity has a very different form than the parts growing by themselves.
By cohabiting with the fungus, the algae can live in many different environments and extend its range significantly. The symbiotic nature and pattern of lichen illustrating these relationships serving as a metaphor for how we should live our lives by working together.
“This painting depicts Cladonia cristatella, commonly known as the British soldiers lichen, is a fruticose lichen belonging to the family Cladoniaceae. It’s a favourite of mine and served as the inspiration for my current body of work.”
These pieces are the beginning of a larger body of work currently being created by Julie Ann Sheridan in The Last Gallery Studio, Llangadog.
Lonely Signpost
3 April // Ebrill – 12 May // Mai 2017
The Elephant in the Room
Oriel Blodau Bach are delighted to host a new piece of work by artist /activist project, Lonely Signpost.
“The elephant silhouette and its counterpart – the cut out shape which has been placed 30 metres north of the gallery on an empty signpost on the A485 – explores the notion that empty signposts ARE the ‘elephant in the room’, they are there in full plain sight, but ignored….no-one wants to talk about them….they are there, but not there…”
Lonely Signpost is an Art Intervention project devised to draw attention to empty and abandoned signposts in the UK.
Victoria Malcolm
20 February // Chwefror – 31 March // Mawrth 2017
The Sun Will Rise Again
“When I was invited to make piece for the old New Inn village noticboard I realised I could have fun with some offcuts of reflective signboard plastic from the County Council road sign dept; something cheerful to catch the light as we pass from winter to spring. I had a limited range of colours so the subject suggested itself.
Taking inspiration from Emil Nolde’s north German coastline work made during his Nazi imposed exile, when he had to use the only paint available to him: children’s poster colours; he created richly coloured streaky paintings of the sunsets and sunrises. I was also inspired by Klimt’s pupil Hundertwasser’s jewel-like images, and the striped watercolours made by Paul Klee. I used map pins to honour the tradition of noticeboards and the ephemeral nature of the information; the collage technique refers to the school that once existed in New Inn.
The title comes from Barack Obama’s last address as President of the USA before handing over to Donald Trump.
I’ve lived in Llanfihangel ar arth for over 30 years, having trained in fine art painting, initially in London in the 70s and then in Carmarthen School of Art in Job’s Well more recently.
Thankyou to Kathryn Campbell Dodd and Kirsten Hinks Knight for the opportunity.”
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Hywel Edwards
9 January // Ionawr – 17 February // Chwefror 2017
Hywel Edwards recently graduated with an MA from Trinity St Davids in Carmarthen where he is based.
Talking about the opportunity to exhibit at the gallery Hywel says:
“I was mindful that it was January and I felt that we need a different response after the dismal year just gone; a new optimism as people make their new year resolutions.
As source material I relied on an old book of proverbs and selected ‘Eang yw’r byd i bawb’, primarily as in the Welsh version it is egalitarian in tone. With that egalitarian tone comes individual hope. Last year held numerous negative headlines and I hope this, in its way, counters them. I settled on the proverb immediately knowing it would be seen by walkers, cyclists and passing passengers when there’s a desire for change in the air.
Issues like migration and boundaries were dealt with many times last year. Hopefully this year will be far more peaceful, though the year is still in its infancy.
Recently I’ve been re-investigating lettering after studying Graphic Design and being interested in Art for many years.
Artists I’m influenced by; Ed Ruscha, Barbara Kruger, Mari Lloyd Jones and Iwan Bala.”
Hywel recently exhibited in an online exhibition, 404error.gallery, curated by Matthew Britton and Brett O’Connor.
Louise Bird
21 November // Tachwedd 2016 – 6 January // Ionawr 2017
Fluoroptimism
Fluoroptimism` is a site and light specific mixed textile piece .
“The ambient light that illuminates the side of Blossom Cottage and shines into The Oriel Blodau Bach Gallery can change greatly throughout an ordinary winters day. I wanted to use that light as one of the materials in a piece made especially for that wall at this time of year.
The fluorescent chemical dye colours used in the assorted textiles in `Fluoroptimism`, absorb light and then reflect it out in a longer wavelength. The spectrum of colour that we see in these reflections depends on the time of day, becoming most luminous at dawn or in the twilight, when light wave lengths are longest. Something to light up a dull evening.
`Day glo` colours were also omnipresent in the mid 1990`s `Free Party` culture which was active in the local Welsh countryside. I feel that what we need now, as in those days of social turmoil and political uncertainty is a bit of optimism, and to allow ourselves time to frivolously enjoy our lives. I hope that on a grey day cars that drive past Oriel Blodau Bach Gallery will catch a flash of glowing optimistic colour.”
Louise Bird
November 2016
Kathryn Campbell Dodd
3 October // Hydref – 18 November // Tachwedd 2016
Shelf // Silff
For her second exhibition at Oriel Blodau Bach, Kathryn Campbell Dodd is making an ongoing artwork that will change and develop over a six week period.
Currently working on a research and development project with Carmarthenshire County Museum in Abergwili, Kathryn has selected items from the museum collection that were originally sourced from the Pencader area of Carmarthenshire.
Using museum documentation, images and found material she will present her responses to the objects and the museum records and processes.
Shelf // Silff is funded by the Arts Council of Wales
Christopher M. Hight
22 August // Awst – 30 September // Medi 2016
The latest exhibition at Oriel Blodau Bach is by Carmarthenshire photographer, Christopher M. Hight.
He says of his work: “I am based in West Wales and my inspiration comes from the local landscape, its nature, history, mythology and culture, with which I feel such a deep connection that I feel I could live nowhere else, though I have tried. It is an ever changing and evolving landscape, sculptured for better or worse by us the people who inhabit it make our living from it and gain our pleasure within it.
For me Black and white enables me to capture not only the vista before me but also the emotion and sense of a place not just at the moment of pressing the shutter, and will enable you to share that emotion and sense of place long after you have enjoyed the photograph.”
Responding to the original function of the gallery as a noticeboard, Hight has produced a series of postcard size images from his ‘The Ruin’ series of works. The images focus upon the ruined St Michael’s church at Llanfihangel Abercywyn, Carmarthenshire.Medieval in origin, the church has six gravestones, refered to locally as ‘Pilgrims’ Graves’ in the churchyard, to the south side of the church.
The Ruin
Wondrous is this masonry; shattered by fate
broken is the city; labors of giants crumble.
Fallen roofs, ruined towers,
rime-frosted mortar,
the mutilated roof collapsed,
undermined by old age. Earth’s embrace has
the deceased master builders,
the harsh grip of the ground, until a hundred generations
of people departed.
The Ruin from the Exeter Book 10th Century
Nazma Botanica
11 July // Gorffennaf – 19 August 2016
The latest exhibition at Oriel Blodau Bach is by Swansea based artist, Nazma Botanica.
We’re delighted to be showing two works from Nazma’s recent series of collages from a project called Eco Warriors. The portraits are created using found images alongside the artist’s photographs on canvas.
Nazma says of the work: “I started creating this body of work two years ago after falling ill suffering from panic attacks, anxiety and depression, with fear acting as a dominant force. Using collage to create anthropomorphic beings – half animal half human – I brought out the monsters of my childhood, the process has been a cathartic and empowering. Some of these monsters started to grow into warriors, with positive feelings of renewal and hope.
Eco Warriors is about caring for nature, for each other and believing in oneself. Being creative everyday is essential to our well-being and discussion supports a brighter future.”
The project asks questions of the viewer: What is an Eco Warrior? Do you know any Eco Warriors? Are you an Eco Warrior? How do you treat your environment every day? How do you treat the people around you? Do you treat animals the same way? What do you want to protect?
George Manson
30 May // Mai – 8 July // Gorffennaf 2016
The latest exhibition at Oriel Blodau Bach is by George Manson – The Leisure Book . The Greatest Hits . Oriel Blodau Bach Edition 2016.
“I’m excited to be showing my art at Oriel Blodau Bach. Here I am holdin it.”
Sam Vicary
18 April // Ebrill – 27 May // Mai 2016
Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night and spring after winter.
Rachel Larson, Silent Spring
“A walk in the aftermath of a storm at the beginning of this year confirmed that the lanes and bridal ways around Oriel Blodau Bach are wild and un-kept. They already showed signs of Spring even in the wettest, coldest weather and the promise of renewal.
For me making new work is about showing the ‘struggle’. I leave behind the physical process of drawing, continually over-painting and rejecting marks and colours for the sake of the form. Painting is about finding the correct balance, enjoying the subtlety of the relationship between form and surface. Revealing just enough of the intended.
Framing the smallest patches of land and sky, I realised my expectations of regeneration were replaced with a sense of loss and detachment. I noticed changes in the landscape and a much quieter dawn chorus. Flooding and high winds had felled great trees and paths had been washed away. Instead I saw hedges and trees cleared to make way for fresh tarmac and last year’s patches of flowers had gone. Those spaces reflecting the times and people I have lost in just one year.”
Sam Vicary lives and works in Cardigan, west Wales.
Read more about the exhibition here
Jonathan Anderson
7 March // Mawrth – 16 April // Ebrill 2016
Artist Jonathan Anderson has made a new piece of work in his ‘Coal Dust Mandala’ series for Oriel Blodau Bach.
Using found materials and coal dust, these deceptively simple objects comment on environmental themes and thoughts about our current use of fossil fuels whilst simultaneously contemplating archetypal ideas about our spiritual condition.
“Mandalas and coal might equally be seen as power generators: one in the realm of the spirit and psyche, the other in the realm of human industry and technology. In our secular age a coal dust mandala might mediate a human desire for wholeness and reintegration in the continuum of the universe.”
Joy Sleeman
Senior lecturer in History and Theory of Art at the Slade School of Fine Art
‘Coal Dust Mandala’ catalogue, Oriel Myrddin Gallery 2012
Read more about the exhibition here
Seren Stacey
25 January // Ionawr – 5 March // Mawrth 2016
Seren Stacey is a Llandysul artist who uses her observations of the natural world to create subtle interventions and site responsive works.
For Oriel Blodau Bach Stacey has created a colour chart of New Inn Village. Using walks around the village and a love of paint charts as her inspiration, the piece celebrates the small details of a place and the shifting moments of colour and beauty which you could drive past everyday and never notice. Each of the colours collected around the village has been given a name to create a comprehensive compendium of all of the colours of New Inn.
Read more about the exhibition here
Maya Mitten
15 December // Rhagfyr 2015 – 22 January // Ionawr 2016
Maya Mitten is an artist based in Newcastle Emlyn, Carmarthenshire. Working predominantly in collage, old books and magazines are her palette and the characters and places around her are the inspiration for the surreal landscapes for which she’s become noted. Maya is also known for her ‘portals’ such as The Magic Wardrobe, an installation piece which toured the UK and was voted one of the highlights of Green Man Festival by the BBC in 2013.
Maya is also well known for facilitating collage workshops in both the local community as well as in notable galleries such as the Saatchi Gallery in London.
Read more about the exhibition here
Jacob Whittaker
5 November // Tachwedd – 12 December // Rhagfyr 2015
Sound and video artist, Jacob Whittaker is based in Cardigan, west Wales and has undertaken many projects which utilise his vast collection of vinyl records. As a founding member of the Gwrando sonic art collective he created the Capeli project with sound artist, Lou Laurens over a six year period. The project visited chapels throughout west Wales performing and recording sound and visual explorations and encounters.
The piece he has made for Oriel Blodau Bach makes reference to minister and musician Ieuan Gwyllt who set up the periodic music journal ‘Blodau Cerdd (Flowers of Music)’ in 1852 with three friends which gave instruction on hymns and hymn tunes.
About Ieuan Gwyllt
Read more about the exhibition here
Kathryn Campbell Dodd
19 September // Medi – 5 November // Tachwedd 2015
West Wales based artist Kathryn Campbell Dodd has created a new installation piece for Oriel Blodau Bach’s first ever exhibition. Still Life with Flowers is a site responsive art work exploring the ‘blodau’ or ‘flowers’ of the gallery’s name. The piece references the tradition of still life painting which still looms large in European cultural history.
Read more about the show here
Oriel Blodau Bach 