Grand Reunion
A couple of weekends ago, I was fortunate to go and visit The Oldknows factory to view some familiar and new work by a plethora of Nottingham based artists. The collection of artists in the group show entitled ‘Reunion’ included members from Oldknows, CAN and Egerton studios as was – plus a refreshing contingent of artists currently housed in the building.
Oldknows is the grand old uncle of the Nottingham Studio scene, and I climbed the familiar 3 flights of stairs and was met with the warm welcome of old friends both in the form of well-known faces and art works by artists I have come to recognise the work of over the last decade or more in the city. Recognisable works from Sheila Ravenkilde, Marek Tobelowski and Simon Withers met me alongside the relatively new yet impressive offereings from more recent studio members such as Tom Hackett, Yelena Popova and Thomas Wright.
In an email inviting me to the studios’ event as part of Sideshow, Chris Lewis-Jones neatly summed up the past and present of Oldknows:
What was Oldknows? An artist-run gallery, a conference centre, a collection of artists' studios, a collection of artists' groups, a publishing house, a showcase for new work, a learning resource, a teaching facility, a workshop facility and much more…
What is Oldknows? A centre for creative enterprise... across media and across boundaries
This, for me, summed up the atmosphere of the event – a group of individuals whom, although they have been around for a long time and achieved many things, have not become (in the most part) jaded and cynical. They are looking to the future to continue to create new artwork in a city which offers perhaps a more diverse outlook for contemporary art in some ways than previously, in the form of Nottingham Contemporary and added competition from younger subsequent artist led ventures. The underlying implication of the statement is a tad on the melancholy, in that it implies the Oldknows building no longer houses quite as many facets as before – but still is open to new collaborations and possibilities. As the building appears firmly to be under the management of Stone Soup – things have inevitably changed and perhaps evolved away from the directly artist led focus which the studio groups once had. Whilst Stone Soup offers education and training in creative industries, construction and core subjects – the grass roots feel of an open studios event is still very apparent in the building, and its good to see a factory built to maximise light and production is still getting good use as the home of talented creative practitioners.
Work in the exhibition which deserves particular mention included a new series of portrait drawings created using ipad technology by painter Mik Godley; large scale collage tapestries featuring famous faces in the form the apparently decapitated heads by Stephen Craighill and Irene Rogan’s shed based installation ‘For Realism’ which investigated the connotations of childhood linked to a more grown up fascination with the miniature in the form of model buildings. Two of the brightest gems were new works by Yelena Popova and Thomas Wright. The former showing a departure from her recent exhibition at Lakeside featuring reworkings of personal photographic material in that they depict a more traditional oil on wood board approach. Popova’s characteristically collage like slices of figures of people, birds and animals amalgamate with abstracted shapes and lines. A highly laquered finish makes the resulting small scale paintings on slices of wood shine like holy ikons, even though they do retain the shape and dimensions of something more like a 70’s tourist souvineer. Wright’s work is of a similarly small scale and also has the whiff of something reliquary or ecclesiastical about it – his groupings of what appear to be the eyes of a Saint with a Buckminster Fuller style Geodesic dome are all the more surreal and intriguing when displayed alongside a small scale painting of two perfect bubbles. Wright is certainly a painter to continue to watch after his recent success as winner of the Nottingham Open Exhibition.
