Andrew Hardwick 

Monday 4 November - Saturday 7 December 2019
Mon - Sat, 9.30am - 5.00pm (closed on Sundays)
Atkinson Gallery, Millfield
Free admission to all

Press Release

Private view: Monday 4 November, 7-9pm - All Welcome  

Andrew Hardwick is a Bristol based artist and a Royal West of England Academician. His studio is based on a farm where the River Severn turns into the sea; a landscape surrounded by industry and new housing estates. Hardwick’s paintings give us a narrative of this landscape which he recalls from childhood explorations and adult observation, communicated to the viewer through layers of board, canvas, netting, wire and various paints supported by battens, which offer a purposely warped structure to the work which is not confined by the rectangle format.

His works protrude and recess, creating an undulating surface with gouged out negative spaces and artefacts embedded in the surface. Through his paintings, Hardwick aims to give the viewer an experience of the landscape, to evoke emotion and a tangible reality in its raw form. His large-scale diptychs and triptychs will draw you away from the white space of the gallery wall and into their complex surfaces and layers.

Group 7

Monday 2 September - Saturday 12 October 2019
Mon - Sat, 9.30am - 5.00pm (closed on Sundays)
Atkinson Gallery, Millfield
Free admission to all

G7PR_F.pdf

Private view: Monday 2 September, 7-9pm - All Welcome

Group 7 is a group of South West based artists whose work covers a range of artistic disciplines including printmaking, painting and drawing. Each with distinctive styles, their work is united by the common use of bold, vibrant colours and strong mark making which feature across all the artists’ work.

A number of the works have been created specifically for this exhibition, ensuring the art on display covers a range of the most contemporary works produced by the group. Group 7 is made up of the artists Bonnie Brown, Martyn Brewster, Fran Donovan, Peter Symons, Ursula Leach, Michelle Griffiths and Brian Bishop.

Summer Show 2019

Monday 24 June - Friday 2 August 2019
Mon - Sat, 9.30am - 5.00pm (closed on Sundays)
Atkinson Gallery, Millfield
Free admission to all

SShow2019PressRelease.pdf

Private view: Monday 24 June, 7-9pm - All Welcome

The annual Summer Show offers local artists the opportunity to exhibit their works in the Atkinson Gallery. Entries are accepted from a variety of media and disciplines.

MA & Other Postgraduates 2019

Monday 25 February - Saturday 23 March 2019
Mon - Sat, 9.30am - 5.00pm (closed on Sundays)
Atkinson Gallery, Millfield
Free admission to all

MA_2019_PressRelease.pdf

Private view: Monday 25 February 7-9pm - All welcome

Each year the Atkinson Gallery requests nominations of postgraduate student work from university tutors across the UK. Each university can nominate up to five students whom they believe represent the highest quality and standards in their personal artistic practice.

With an ever-expanding number of entries year upon year the gallery is keen to continue to offer this and other opportunities to emerging artists and to celebrate its ethos of supporting emerging artistic talent. If you feel you could offer technical or artistic workshops, are an art researcher or historian then please do get in touch atkinsongallery@millfieldschool.com 

Participants this year include: 

Aberystwyth  - Ellie Hall

Aberystwyth  - Gemma Woolley

Anglia Ruskin -  Emma Jones

Anglia Ruskin - Cathy Faithfull

Bath Spa  - Ally McGinn

Bath Spa - Kelly O’Brien

Bath Spa - Nicola Turner

Bournemouth - Anna Moss

Brighton - Sakura Hochegger

Camberwell - Bee-Dwo Lin

Camberwell - Christian Soukias

Camberwell - Kay Senior

City and Guilds - Benat Olaberria

City and Guilds - Natanya Barratt

Glasgow Silvia - Pereira

Leeds - Celeste Taylor

Lincoln - Dale Wells

Middlesex - Sharron McLeod

Middlesex - Wai Wong

Newcastle - Carole McCourt

Norwich - Jo Lauren

Norwich - Lizzie Kimbley

RCA - Mu Tian

Reading Oleksandra Radchenko

Reading - Will Cunnington

Sunderland - Jessica Browne

Sunderland - Sian O’Keeffe

Sunderland - Sue Laughlin

UCA Canterbury - Madeline Jones

UCA Farnham - Ailzee Bauer

UCA Farnham - Athena Carey

UCA Farnham - Claire Maxfield

UCA Farnham - Deborah Davies (Dd)

UCA Farnham - Sara Jayne Harris

UCA Farnham - Yunhsin Hsu

Otherworldly 

Millfield Sculpture Trail
Tuesday 23 April - Saturday 29 June 2019
Free admission to all

Otherworldly_PR.pdf 

A selection of sculptures from the 'Otherworldly' exhibition are coming to Millfield School as a temporary outdoor exhibition as part of the Millfield Sculpture Trail from Tuesday 23 April to Saturday 29 June 2019.

Otherworldly explores the idea of other and elsewhere. There are elements of the sci-fi within this selection of sculptures which take us on a colourful journey creating a visual narrative for what might be. We welcome visitors to come and explore otherworldly transport, defence systems and alien landscapes.

Sculptors in this exhibition include: 

Andy Hazell - www.andyhazell.co.uk

Dallas Collins RWA, MRSS - www.dallascollins.com 

Kevin Hope - www.kevinhope.co.uk

Joanne Risley MAFA -  www.joannerisley.co.uk

Ben Rowe - www.benrowe.org 

Kirsty E Smith - www.kirstyesmith.co.uk

Leonard Green

Monday 5 November - Saturday 8 December 2018
Mon - Sat, 9.30am - 5.00pm (closed on Sundays)
Atkinson Gallery, Millfield
Free admission to all

Private view: Monday 5 November, 7-9pm - All welcome

PressReleasedoublesided_Final2.pdf

This body of work entitled ‘Coming Home’ has been produced over the last five years and reflects Green’s interests in abstract art and in music as a seminal element in making art. His paintings are energetic, colourful and dynamic and are inspired by the movements of dance and swimming.

Anthony Currell

Monday 3 September - Saturday 13 October 2018
Mon - Sat, 9.30am - 5.00pm (closed on Sundays)
Atkinson Gallery, Millfield
Free admission to all

Private view: Monday 3 September, 7-9pm - All welcome

FinalPR_AC_LG.pdf

The Atkinson Gallery is proud to be presenting a retrospective of Anthony Currell’s paintings and prints in the gallery from 3 September - 13 October 2018. This outstanding body of work dates from the 1960’s onwards and offers the viewer an insight into the processes of a phenomenal painter and printmaker.

Summer Show 2018

Monday 25 June - Friday 3 August 2018
Mon - Sat, 9.30am - 5.00pm (closed on Sundays)
Atkinson Gallery, Millfield
Free admission to all

Private view: Monday 25 June, 7-9pm - All welcome

Final4_PressRelease.pdf

Each year the Atkinson Gallery hosts its open entry Summer Show. Artists are invited to submit up to 3 works that may be selected to be exhibited in the gallery for 6 weeks from 25 June 2018. Entries closed at 5pm on Monday 23 April. By moving the exhibition forward last year we were able to welcome even more visitors into the gallery and enable pupils to fully benefit from the work.

If you wish to be added to the Summer Show mailing list please email the gallery atkinsongallery@millfieldschool.com - previous entrants will be contacted automatically.

MA & Other Postgraduates 2018

Monday 19 February - Saturday 17 March 2018
Mon - Sat, 9.30am - 5.00pm (closed on Sundays)
Atkinson Gallery, Millfield
Free admission to all

Private View: Monday 19 February, 7-9pm

Final_PressRelease_MA.pdf

Each February the Atkinson Gallery welcomes students from MA and other Postgraduate programmes across the UK to exhibit in the Atkinson Gallery. Students are nominated by their lecturers to put forward up to 4 pieces of artwork created during their Postgraduate course. Last year we welcomed entries from 25 universities, this year we hope to increase that number.

With the arts under increasing pressure across all sectors of education it is even more important for us to support those students who are emerging from art schools and provide opportunities to exhibit. The MA show continues to represent the Atkinson Gallery’s ethos of supporting aspiring artists and bringing high calibre art to the South West.

Participating Universities:

ABERYSTWYTH - Anastasia Wildig, Pill Painting 001

ABERYSTWYTH - Eleanor West, Moments in Time

ANGLIA RUSKIN - Neil Horsefield, Station Road Park, Pendlebury. (Latency)

BATH SPA - Josie Llewellyn, Marine Plastic 07/03/17

BATH SPA - Andrew Cunningham, Flaccid Plastic

BATH SPA - Steven Sales, Accumulation Vessel

BOURNEMOUTH - Sean O'Farrell, Bowed

BRIGHTON - Vivienne Lynn, I let go of you and you let go of me

BRIGHTON - Sarah Marie Taylor, Je Crane en Rouge

BRIGHTON - Shelley Morrow, Division III

CAMBERWELL - Beatrice Roggero Fossati, I am the River

CAMBERWELL - Ines fernandez de Cordova, Stasis III

CITY AND GUILDS - Abigail PhangGungFook, I Am Not Perfect, When I'm Doing The Laundry

CITY AND GUILDS - Katherine Perrins, Washing

CITY AND GUILDS - Robyn Litchfield, Flax Boat 2

DE MONTFORT - Christopher Ashlin, Utopia

UCA FARNHAM  - Natalie Patzold, Untitled from the series 'Where do I start, here do I end?'

GLASGOW - Zoe Beaudry, The Arc of the Moral Universe

GLASGOW - Zoe Beaudry, Eat

KINGSTON UNIVERSITY - Francesco Rocchi, Human Nature

KINGSTON UNIVERSITY - Gary Childs, Mirror of the Unseen 2

LINCOLN - Michelle Forrest Beckett, (de)formed

LINCOLN - Hannah McKinley, Silence is Golden

LONDON COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION - Chloe Bowman, The Avian Knot series 

LONDON COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION - Julie Derbyshire, Ruiniform

NEWCASTLE - Paul Jex, The Gaul 1974

NORTHUMBRIA - Colette Davies, We Are As Clouds That Veil The Midnight Moon

NORWICH - Virginia Bain, Vivian Maier 'Exteriority'

NORWICH - Keron Beattie, What Remains

ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART - Anya Charikov-Mickleburgh, A Hug

SUNDERLAND - Kathleen Calder, Blossom Gallion

SUNDERLAND - Angela Kennedy, Vein 3

WOLVERHAMPTON - Claire Buckerfield, Composition #4

 

Media: https://somerset.muddystilettos.co.uk/culture/art-show-in-street/

Adam Berry

Mon 30 October - Sat 9 December 2017
Mon - Sat, 9.30am - 5.00pm (closed on Sundays)
Atkinson Gallery, Millfield
Free admission to all

Private View: Monday 30 October, 7-9pm

PressRelease_Final.pdf

Berry is a Doncaster based artist who has undertaken a solo painting tour of England in order to produce this current body of large scale paintings which primarily focus on the ever-changing British landscape and to tell the story of what has remained and why. But Berry’s work goes much deeper than this; he creates his work in response to each locations distinctive atmosphere, often working ‘en plein air’ in order to truly capture the essence of a particular location. His travels are as much a part of the process as the application of paint and other materials to his canvas. 

In November 2016 Berry was a resident artist at Millfield and spent time working with pupils and running workshops for them. We are very pleased to be welcoming him back to Millfield for this exhibition and seeing some of his responses to our local landscape.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Lalibela Charity Print
To coincide with the Adam Berry exhibition in the Atkinson Gallery we have produced a series of 25 signed limited edition prints for sale. The print is available to view in the gallery until 9 December 2017. All profits from the sale of the prints will be donated to the Lalibela charity in Ethiopia. For more information contact the gallery on atkinsongallery@millfieldschool.com 

___________________________________________________________________________________

Poet Ian Enters on Adam Berry's work
At the Private View for the Adam Berry exhibition we welcomed novelist and poet, Ian Enters, to perform some of his poetry in the gallery. Enters met Berry in Doncaster where Berry is based and their meeting transpired into Enters writing poems in response to Berrys' paintings and Berry even producing artwork in response to Enters' poetry.

Stewart Geddes
'Material Evidence'

4 September - 11 October 2017
Mon - Sat, 9.30am - 5.00pm (closed on Sundays and Saturday 7 October for Open Day)
Atkinson Gallery, Millfield
Free admission to all

Pressrelease_final.pdf

The Atkinson Gallery is proud to be welcoming the President of the Royal West of England Academy, Stewart Geddes, for a lively and colourful solo exhibition in September. Geddes took up the Presidency on 1 September 2016 and within his role he hopes to develop artistic and wider links with BME communities and to progress the archive collection of works that the RWA has been holding since the 19th century. 

This exhibition explores the artistic developments Geddes has made over time, and some may suggest his current work returns to an element of his earlier artistic practice.

Summer Show 2017

26 June - 4 August 2017
Mon - Sat, 9.30am - 5.00pm (closed on Sundays)
Atkinson Gallery, Millfield
Free admission to all

Press_Release_Final.pdf

The ever-popular Summer Show is returning to the Atkinson Gallery with the Private View being held on Monday 26 June 7 - 9pm, everyone is welcome to attend. This exhibition always proves to be a well-attended and highly talked about event and we look forward to welcoming back some previous entrants as well as new ones. 

Last year we capped the sale price of entries at £500 to enable more artists’ sales and make the artwork more affordable. This year we will be keeping this upper price limit and again Millfield will purchase a number of works for the schools permanent collection.

If you would like to receive information about entering the Summer Show please email atkinsongallery@millfieldschool.com

MA & Other Postgraduates Exhibition
20 February - 18 March 2017
Mon - Sat, 9.30am - 5.00pm (closed on Sundays)
Atkinson Gallery, Millfield
Free admission to all

PressRelease.pdf

Our annual celebration of artistic talent from across the UK returns in the MA and Other Postgraduates Exhibition 2017. This exhibition gathers some of the very best talent in the field of Fine Art from the top MA and other Postgraduate programmes across the UK. As ever, the exhibition will showcase new work in a variety of media including Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture, Textiles, and Multimedia, introducing visitors to a lively and varied array of artists and their work.

Susie MacMurray 

31 October - 10 December 2016

Mon - Sat, 9.30am - 5.00pm (closed on Sundays)
Atkinson Gallery, Millfield
Free admission to all

Susie MacMurray brings a sample of her unique collection of contemporary artwork to the Atkinson Gallery including drawings, sculpture and architectural installations.

Sue from Muddy Stilettos met with Susie to discuss art, music and immersion. You can read her article here.

Royal West of England Academy (RWA) Exhibition

5 September - 15 October 2016

Mon - Sat, 9.30am - 5.00pm (closed on Sundays)
Atkinson Gallery, Millfield
Free admission to all

RWApressrelease.pdf

The gallery is excited to be welcoming a selection of artists from The Royal West of England Academy (RWA). The show will include work from 27 of its newest members from the last five years.

You can read more about the exhibition and one of the artists, Lucy Austin written by RWA Academician Fiona Robinson for the Evolver October issue.

Summer Show 2016
Monday 11 July - Friday 19 August 2016

Mon - Sat, 9.30am - 5.00pm (closed on Sundays)
Atkinson Gallery, Millfield
Free admission to all

SummerShow2016PressRelease2.pdf

The Atkinson Gallery hosts its 26th Summer Show and welcomes entries from both local and national artists. As a change to the usual conditions of entry the 2016 Summer Show aims to make art affordable by capping the work value at £500. This exhibition also provides the artist with the unique opportunity to exhibit commission free. Millfield will purchase three pieces from the exhibition to add to the School's permanent collection.

Finn Taylor

2 November – 12 December 2015
Mon - Sat, 9.30am - 5.00pm (closed on Sundays)
Atkinson Gallery, Millfield
Free admission to all

FinnTaylorpressrelease-v4.pdf

Finn Taylor was born in 1982 in Hong Kong. His early childhood was spent in Cyprus, until he moved to Dorset in 1993. Finn always had a camera close by when growing up, kicking off with a 110 picked from the Argos catalogue. He knew back then he wanted to people-watch and document these moments for a living.

Throughout school at Millfield, and later at university, Finn practised endlessly, photographing people in close proximity and producing images he felt exuded honesty, and which his subjects felt to be a fair and true representation of them. Not getting on to a photography course provided the fuel, grit and determination to keep snapping relentlessly, and to spend hours sitting on library and bookshop floors, surrounded by photography books.

Finn’s eye for documentary photography has produced some stunning images of East London Team GB athletes, India National Team cricket players, the Polish football team, British youths in chicken shops, and OAP’s hosting their own radio show in Birmingham.

As a successful commercial photographer Finn has also made portraits of Snoop Dogg, A$AP Rocky, Drake, Kesha, John Legend, Rooney, Messi, Zlatan and Lewandowski. His clients include Nike, Sony, Time Magazine and Bloomberg.

Alec Cumming  - New Painting                                                                                                  7 September – 17 October 2015

AlecCummingpressrelease20154.pdf

Cumming has had an interesting career for an artist still in his 20’s. Born in Norfolk the young artist was quickly spotted by the Norwich Gallery Art 18/21, who's stable of artists work between the UK and the East, in particular in India. It was not long before Cumming was producing his first series of works for the International Art Fair in Delhi and moving between the UK and Delhi holding major solo shows at Galleries and Institutions.

There is something very pleasing about Alec Cumming’s paintings, something alluring that draws viewers in. His paintings are always exuberant and full of a joie de virve, exactly as it should be for a young man who lives life to the full and paints with the same passion. Maybe it is this youthful energy that skips around the canvas and makes the viewer feel alive and engage for that bit longer, but do not expect to be able to immediately decipher the imagery. Amongst the Eastern palm trees, fauna, architecture, terraces and moonlit gardens are also alien like forms that wrestle with themselves and nudge and poke at the more restful areas in the painting.

Like a well-executed miniature painting every inch of the surface offers the viewer the chance to luxuriate in the moment. The exhibition offers visitors the chance to explore the latest series of works which range from large scale, almost monumental oil on canvas paintings to a playful installation of smaller oil on paper works. The paintings are an interesting mix of references to his four years painting between his studios in India and Norfolk. Most importantly this is perhaps the first series that really defines Alec Cumming as he starts to develop a style that is uniquely his. 


 

Toni Davey - Taking Control                                                                                                       6 July - 8 August 2015

After graduation with an MA in sculpture from Chelsea College of Art, Toni Davey continued to work in London as an artist and college lecturer. During this period her experience as an architectural model maker profoundly affected her approach to making sculpture in terms of scale and materials. She acknowledges the influences and insporation of Agnes Martin and Sol LeWitt.

The exhibition 'Taking Control' is a retrospective of over 40 years of drawing. The work contained in the show includes pieces made since 1972 after she completed 7 years of full time art education. This summer will be the first time such a comprehensive collection of her work will be exhibited together, showing the connections between past, present and future. Toni will also be including the recreation of studio pin boards and inclusion of inspiring collections that invariably litter the artist workplace.

MA & Other Postgraduates 2015                                                                                            23 February - 29 March 2015

MA2015-PressRelease-final.pdf

The 2015 MA & Other Post Graduates show promises to be as exciting and diverse as in previous years, with artists having been selected from 10 of the top art universities around the country. A celebration of contemporary art, this exhibition provides the public with a unique opportunity to see current work in painting, photography, design, printmaking and sculpture.

Art Schools participating; Aberystwyth University, Brighton University, Falmouth University, University of Gloucestershire, UCLAN(Lancashire), University of Leeds, University of Lincoln, University of Norwich, University of Portsmouth, and Slade School of Fine Art.  

Mark Elliott Smith

3 November – 6 December 2014

MarkElliottSmith-pressreleasev2.pdf

The painter Mark Elliott Smith, whose work ‘The Time Bomb Goes Insane’ won a prize at the Atkinson Gallery Summer Show 2013, will present his bold and vibrant work. His large abstract paintings have visual resonances with the contemporary urban scene, and reveal thoughts and ideas as playful but symbolic patterns of forms and shapes which hint at some kind of narrative beyond the conscious grasp.

When his original, often very small drawings - some of which date from his childhood - are dramatically enlarged, previously hidden information, both visual and psychological, is revealed and amplified.

Chance actions are interpreted in a meticulous, deliberate way, in a combination of spontaneity and control: chaos and order are held in balance on an epic scale.
The titles of his paintings parallel rather than describe the work and function as micro-poems analogous to the images as they emerge and are defined.

Duncan Elliott - Time's Ceilidh

1 September - 18 October 2014

Biography.pdf

A Mendip childhood filled with river clay and rocks set Duncan on the path where nature informed his art. With the encouragement of Jeremy Baines the wonderful Teacher of Art at Clifton College, Duncan headed to Art school at Bath and then Leeds with an open mind, experimenting around the disciplines. With a term to go however, feeling that he hadn't achieved his own degree goals he returned to the Mendips and began to work with the local limestone.

While the YBAs were emerging in England, Duncan was travelling around America on a motorbike, working in the scene painting industry in Los Angeles, pavement drawing images of Jesse Jackson at the Democratic Convention, settling in Marble Hill, Georgia to develop his stone carving skills. Ten years of travelling led him to the mountains of Crete where those skills came in to play, making monumental marble sculpture for the Greeks.

Those three years in Crete however re-kindled his fascination with natural limestone forms. In a landscape steeped in myth and history and strewn with stone, he was finally able to ground his wanderlust. Inspired by the ruins of the earliest European civilisation that surrounded him, a group of pieces came together that convinced him to return to the West Country to work and find an audience.

In 2008 Duncan Elliott was commissioned to create a five metre figure for Liverpool in its year as the European Capital of Culture.  This work led to another, “Wild Arab”, which embodies the resolution of a challenge that Classical Sculpture had been unable to achieve, a life-size free-standing stone horse.

In 2013, as a Guest Artist at Bristol's Festival of Stone, Duncan sited twenty seven sculptures at the city's cultural institutions.

The dynamic space of Millfield's Atkinson Gallery enables the pieces to come together on a larger scale than ever before, allowing you to move through the time-scale the work embodies and reawaken your own connection with stone.

Duncan Elliott will be Artist in Residence during Somerset Art Works. The residency will take place from 20th Sept – 5th Oct. During this period, Duncan will be working in situ Monday - Friday, between the approximate hours of 10am and 3pm.

Summer Show 2014

7 July - 9 August 2014

The Atkinson Gallery is proud to be hosting its 25th Annual Summer Show.

The exhibition was open to submissions from across the country and work has been selected to represent a broad spectrum of Fine Art. This year's Prizewinners, selected by the Director of the Atkinson Gallery, Paul Maxfield, were Anthony Hedgecock for 'Structure One', a work in forged steel, Kate Noble for her landscape 'Tripps Drove, Godney', John Anderson for the figurative 'Jacob and the Angel', Bryan Lavelle for 'Tipping Point' and Pepito for 'Puzzle'.

The Atkinson Gallery is hosting the Evolver Prize exhibition alongside the 25th Summer Show. Every year Wessex-based artists are invited to submit actual cover size 2D work in any media for selection to appear on the front cover of Evolver’s July and August issue. This year's winner was Zoë Barker for 'Chair'.

MA & Other Postgraduates 2014

24 February - 29 March 2014

Proudly maintaining its ethos of promoting the next generation of artists, the Atkinson Gallery presented the annual MA & Other Post Graduates contemporary art show.  Showcasing the work of students who express particularly fresh, innovative ideas, the exhibition reflects the talent and wide range of work being produced in art schools today.

The 2014 MA & Other Post Graduates show was as exciting and diverse as previous years, with artists having been selected from 13 of the top art universities around the country. A celebration of contemporary art, this exhibition provided the public with a unique opportunity to see current work in painting, photography, design, printmaking and sculpture.

Art Schools that participated:

Aberystwyth University, Brighton University, Camberwell City & Guilds London, Coventry University,  
University College Falmouth, University of Gloucestershire, UCLAN (Lancashire), University of Leeds,
University of Portsmouth, Slade School of Fine Art, University of Wales and the University of Wolverhampton.

Iain Andrews & Richard Kenton Webb - The Language of Paint

4 November - 7 December 2013

Kenton-Webb_Andrews_PressRelease.pdf

Language of Paint was a collaborative exhibition between two artists; Iain Andrews and Richard Kenton Webb. Iain Andrews’ sensuous and playful yet contemplative paintings blur the boundaries between abstraction and figuration to create a vital, living dialogue with the viewer. Richard Kenton Webb takes inspiration from romantic and metaphysical traditions, and using pure and often rare pigments he has embarked on an epic exploration into colour. The way in which their approach to materials contrasts was something which they explored in greater detail at the workshops held for the Art Scholars.

Albert Irvin - The Complete Prints                                                                                           

In Association with Advanced Graphics London
2 September - 19 October 2013

AlbertIrvin_PressRelease.pdf

We are thrilled to announce that Albert Irvin OBE, the prolific British artist best known for his bold brush strokes and vibrant palette will return to exhibit at the Atkinson Gallery in September 2013.

Albert Irvin OBE originally showed at the Atkinson Gallery in 1996 and now in his 92nd year his work continues to broadly reflect his life’s journey, punctuated by the names of streets, districts, people and places that he encounters. The first connection between art and Irvin’s own life occurred in the early 1940s when he attended the Northampton School of Art. Cutting short his studies to serve in the RAF during World War II, he would later return to enrol at Goldsmiths College, London. Over the decades Irvin’s unique style of literal meaning through painting has developed through experimentation with figurative and social realism towards an approach closer to metaphor and the abstract.

Albert Irvin’s screenprinting career began in 1980 with Advanced Graphics London. The collaborative approach of screenprinting allows him to display many of his characteristic traits as an artist and allows him to play with canvas size, colour, structure, shape and composition.

In June 2013 the Atkinson Gallery and Advanced Graphics London joined in congratulating Albert on being recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List and awarded an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his Services to the Visual Arts.

All images supplied by Advanced Graphics London.

Summer Show 2013

8 July - 10 August 2013

SummerShow2013_PressRelease_final2.pdf

Following on from the huge success of Millfield’s 23rd Summer Show, this year’s exhibition will again feature a diverse range of contemporary works which celebrate the passion and energy of local artists. In 2012 five artists shared the total £1500 prize pot including Will Anderson for his eye-popping painting, Sick of War and Bonnie Brown’s iridescent Illume Blue. With the added attraction of affordability of many works on display this hugely popular show is firmly established as a highlight in the exhibition calendar.

With accompanying exhibition, TETRA, featuring new works by Andrew Davey, Toni Davey, Fiona Robinson and Alexander Titley.