Art in Cambridge: cambridge school of art

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Wednesday, 9 March 2016

My four favourites at the Children's Book Illustration exhibition

Alas, once again I post too late for any of you to visit this show. However, the MA Children's Book Illustration Graduation Exhibition happens every year at the Cambridge School of Art (part of Anglia Ruskin University) so put it in your diary for 2017! It is always a highlight that lifts the spirits.

Here are my favourites:

I appear to have a penchant for black-and-white magical-realism panoramas... :-) But as you can see there were plenty of other kinds of illustration in the show as well.

You might also like my blog post about the 2014 MA Children's Book Illustration show: http://artincambridge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/ma-childrens-book-illustration-degree.html

Thursday, 22 October 2015

Three October art things in Cambridge

What art to see in Cambridge this month: My quirky picks

1) Shaggy Dog Stories, by Tom Hackett. Yellow dogs in wheelbarrows. On a balcony in the Lord Ashcroft Business building at Anglia Ruskin University on East Road. More about them on the surrounding walls. You can touch them! They feel sort of slimy, like dry soap.

2) Kerstin Hacker's haunting photographs of births, babies, midwives and mothers on a Czech maternity ward. Strange, beautiful, sad, wrenching. At Changing Spaces, that little gallery next to CB2 on Norfolk Street.

More here: http://changing-spaces.org/2015/10/kerstin-hacker-maternity-ward/

Ends 1 Nov.

3) Oh, and my own talk at the Festival of Ideas on Saturday, 24 Oct, at 2 pm. :-) Come along to the Fitz and join me for Power and Resistance in Sculpture in the Aftermath of World War One.

http://www.festivalofideas.cam.ac.uk/events/power-and-resistance-sculpture-aftermath-world-war-one

Month: October 2015
Place: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire

Tuesday, 11 March 2014

MA Children's Book Illustration Degree Show 2014

Do you want to take your children somewhere to look at art? Do you want to revisit your own childhood?

Or do you simply want to see some absolutely stunning art work by the new generation of illustrators?

Then visit the Degree Show of the amazing Master of Arts in Children's Book Illustration at Cambridge.

Here's my pick:

A whimsical creature that reminds me of Dr Seuss. Gorgeously spare.

If you like any of the pictures, do click on the illustrator's name to visit their website. These artists have amazing websites!! Such fun for children to look at, too.

You can dream yourself into this magical garden. I love the little red wellies, and the big dragonfly.

A lone bear swimming through what could be a remote lake in Canada. Atmospheric and melancholy. And makes you want to know more.

Crisp, minimal drawing and composition, and such fun: mermaid being serenaded by pirate. Love the hair and the pirate's gesticulating hand. Also the scritchy-scratchy clouds.

Summertime frolicking. A great happy person in a fabulous jungley frock.

Witchy night-time magic. This takes you to another world.

Children will enjoy the moving animation of this story-in-motion. Watch the shadow play on the monitor. Reminds me of the famous German paper-cut animation film maker, Lotte Reiniger. And of Indonesian shadow puppet plays.

A quiet scene, like moments from a Wong Kar Wai film. Even the juxtaposition of (close-up) foot and figure in front of mirror is like an edit in a movie.

Hands-on fun for little (and big) children: lift the flap book of little monsters eating things.

People eating and drinking: a genteel and very, very English afternoon tea visit. Jolly lady in lace blouse entertains little tousle-haired child, and there's so much to look at - it's like an anthropology lesson in how to be English: overstuffed armchair, flowery cushions, etagéres with cup cakes and sandwich slices sans crust, arts-and-crafty wallpaper, and a lovely communion between the generations. Through the window: not the expected rural scenery but (surprise) something reminiscent of Canary Wharf in London.

The eating theme continues, this time with fanciful animals at a picnic. Hooray! (They all seem to shout.) Don't you want to be there and pour yourself some tea from that spouty thermos?

More animals. Children's illustrators love animals! These pigs intrigue me because the scene is plucked from a story. I want to know what happens next. And isn't that one of the hallmarks of a good story?

Is that what illustration is? Telling a story in images? Sometimes to accompany text?

This sassy person seems more stand-alone but I think she's a character out of a story. I want to know her name (is it Bijou?) and what she will do next. And what she keeps in that cheeky red handbag!

This is not exhaustive, by the way. I only had my mobile phone on me so not all my pictures turned out very well. You can see how much there is to look at (and small children will have fun running round the mezzanine gallery -- I remember my son throwing paper airplanes from the railings...)

MA Children's Book Illustration, degree exhibition at the Ruskin Gallery, in the Cambridge School of Art, at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge.

Ends 13 March! Don't miss it!

I end with these magnificent guinea pigs! I could look at them for hours, making up names and personalities. Some remind me of guinea pigs we once kept....

Don't you love these illustrations?

Three drawings at the Drawing Cube

Nine fun things to do with children in an art gallery

Thursday, 27 February 2014

Nine arty things to do in Cambridge in March 2014

It's the return of the 'What's on' post!

And my, is there ever a lot going on in March. Here's a foretaste.

The best thing? Every single exhibition and event is ABSOLUTELY FREE. Yay.

1. Elizabeth Eade

I've never been to this pub. I'm not really a pub person (more of a café person) but this pub has art so I really want to visit. Elizabeth Eade is yet another of the many talented graduates from the Cambridge School of Art.

Also: steampunk woman on shark. I am smitten.

Where: The Geldart (pub), Ainsworth Street (corner Sleaford St; in that area of CB1 that also includes Sturton St, York St and the Backstreet Bistro).
Ends 13 March.

2. John Craxton

John Craxton, Cart Track, 1942-3. Source: Fitzwilliam Museum

The most talked-about show in Cambridge at the moment. I went to see this on the weekend. Definitely worth having a look. I found some of the works quite kitschy, others very derivative (Picassoesque, Graham Sutherlandesque) but this one here, plus 2-3 others, were amazing.

Where: Fitzwilliam Museum.
Ends 21 April.

3. MA Children's Book Illustration

The awesome annual MA Children's Book Illustration show. Don't miss it. These hyper-talented illustrators will be tomorrow's Quentin Blakes and Judith Kerrs. Cambridge School of Art graduates already keep winning all the illustration prizes there are in the world (practically).

Where: Ruskin Gallery, in the Cambridge School of Art at Anglia Ruskin University.
Ends 13 March.

ETA: I reviewed the illustration show in a later blog post (with many wonderful pics!).

4. North by Northwest at Hot Numbers

What? Yet another amazing initiative from the ever-astonishing Hot Numbers (my favourite Cambridge coffee house-cum-art gallery)? The art gallery is Williams Art Gallery; it's joined to the coffee house via an open archway.

Cary Grant plus a foamy cappuccino. Yum.

Where: Hot Numbers coffee house, Gwydir St (corner Mill Rd, in the old brewery)
Hitchcock film screening! Mon, 3 March. 7 pm.

5. Melanie Max and Katharina Klug

Melanie Max: one of my favourite Cambridgeshire artists. I don't know Katharina Klug but am looking forward to discovering her ceramics.

I've not yet visited Burwash Art but Burwash Manor is lovely, with a sweet little tea shop. About 15 minutes' drive out from Cambridge (depending where you start from).

Where: Burwash Art at Burwash Manor, New Rd, Barton.

Ends 30 March.

6. Image / Object / Image

A weird thing happening in the English Faculty. Not quite sure what this is all about but looks intriguing. Also, a chance to peep inside the neo-modernist English Faculty building, designed by architects Allies and Morrison and finished in 2004.

Where: Judith E. Wilson Writing Studio, English Faculty of the University of Cambridge, West Road.
Ends 1 March (so hurry!!).

7. Oliver Barratt and Mark Cazelet

Oliver Barratt, sculpture. Source: Lynn Strover Gallery

To my shame, I have yet to visit Lynn Strover's gallery, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. I keep meaning to cycle out there and then it rains or I have a deadline or something... Still, I am determined! If you go, drop me a line and tell me about it.

Sat, 15 March - Sat, 15 April.
Lynn Strover Gallery, Fen Ditton.

8. Ash Summers and Roeland Verhallen

A Dutch photographer and an artist based at Wysing Arts. Could be interesting. If you go to Image / Object / Image (see above), why not pop in here? It's 1 minutes' walk away.

Where: Art at the Alison Richard Building, West Road.
Ends 28 March.

9. Art and Power in Fiji

This exhibition is still on. I haven't seen it yet but it's definitely not one to miss. I love the MAA!

Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA), Downing Street.
Ends 30 April.

Permalink: http://artincambridge.blogspot.com/2014/02/nine-arty-things-to-do-in-cambridge-in.html

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