Visit to the Manchester Contemporary - 28.09.12
Now in it’s forth year, the Manchester Contemporary art fair took place on 27-30 September. It is a gathering of commercial exhibitors from across the UK, and each of whom has a small stand to promote themselves and display selected works of their art.
I visited the fair on it’s second day. The first stand to attract my attention was the Manchester-based Paper Gallery (http://www.paper-gallery.co.uk/). Their aim is to make art collecting an accessible hobby to all, regardless of a person’s budget. As well as selling large expensive pieces by popular contemporary artists, Paper sells coaster-sized works by the same artists for around £30, making it easy for anybody to start a collection.
Another commercial exhibitor was Rokeby (http://www.rokebygallery.com/). The staff regularly travel nationally and internationally to promote their permanent space in Farringdon, London. Co-founder Beth Greenacre gave my group a talk on some of their pieces on display, notably their Michael Samuels’ sculpture – Metronome. She told us the piece was made from wooden frames secured together by clamps, and that if one of the clamps were to be removed, the whole sculpture would fall apart. Interested by Beth’s talk, I decided to research Michael Samuel’s work further, and discovered that many of his works are similar to Metronome in terms of concept and materials used (http://www.michaelsamuels.co.uk/work/index.html).
As well as the stands, the Manchester Contemporary hosted auditorium-style talks by visiting representatives from art schemes and galleries. I listened to Elizabeth Wewiora from Chinese Arts Centre (http://www.chinese-arts-centre.org/) give a presentation on the purpose of the organisation and show slides of some of their artist’s works. She explained that the Chinese Arts Centre is the UK’s leading promoter of Chinese contemporary art, organising workshops, exhibitions and events to drive their campaigns.
I thought that the fair was a great opportunity for lesser-known galleries to make a name for themselves amongst their more established peers.
For more information visit http://www.themanchestercontemporary.com/
I visited the fair on it’s second day. The first stand to attract my attention was the Manchester-based Paper Gallery (http://www.paper-gallery.co.uk/). Their aim is to make art collecting an accessible hobby to all, regardless of a person’s budget. As well as selling large expensive pieces by popular contemporary artists, Paper sells coaster-sized works by the same artists for around £30, making it easy for anybody to start a collection.
Another commercial exhibitor was Rokeby (http://www.rokebygallery.com/). The staff regularly travel nationally and internationally to promote their permanent space in Farringdon, London. Co-founder Beth Greenacre gave my group a talk on some of their pieces on display, notably their Michael Samuels’ sculpture – Metronome. She told us the piece was made from wooden frames secured together by clamps, and that if one of the clamps were to be removed, the whole sculpture would fall apart. Interested by Beth’s talk, I decided to research Michael Samuel’s work further, and discovered that many of his works are similar to Metronome in terms of concept and materials used (http://www.michaelsamuels.co.uk/work/index.html).
As well as the stands, the Manchester Contemporary hosted auditorium-style talks by visiting representatives from art schemes and galleries. I listened to Elizabeth Wewiora from Chinese Arts Centre (http://www.chinese-arts-centre.org/) give a presentation on the purpose of the organisation and show slides of some of their artist’s works. She explained that the Chinese Arts Centre is the UK’s leading promoter of Chinese contemporary art, organising workshops, exhibitions and events to drive their campaigns.
I thought that the fair was a great opportunity for lesser-known galleries to make a name for themselves amongst their more established peers.
For more information visit http://www.themanchestercontemporary.com/