Glynn Vivian Art Gallery | Looking forward…

May 3, 2013
by Laura
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Searching for Jonathan Williams

Are you Jonathan Williams? Do you know someone who is? Glynn Vivian Artist in Residence, Huw Andrews, is on the lookout for ‘Jonathan Williams’ for his current residency project at the YMCA.

“I’m searching for local people named Jonathan Williams to help with sound recordings for my latest project.

I’ve been working abroad for much of the past two years and became good friends with a fellow traveller, Jonathan Williams. I associate his name with Wales, but he’s from the USA. In Bangkok, I asked Jonathan to sound record whatever he felt like – stories, thoughts, work, daily life….

Having returned to Wales, I’m searching for a local Jonathan Williams and a few minutes of their time.

If you know of a Jonathan Williams, or are one yourself, please get in touch by the end of May 2013.”

Huw Andrews

07851 007815

huw@huwandrews.com

Join Huw for his Artist Talk on Friday 7 June, 12pm at the YMCA Swansea as he discusses his practice and his residency work. Everyone welcome.

Huw will also hold an open studio to share his practice with the community throughout his residency.

All activities are free. Everyone welcome, no booking required. Call us on 01792 516900 for more information.

May 3, 2013
by Laura
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People and Places Project: Offsite Collections

During our redevelopment, our Learning team have been working with community groups and audiences to select their favourite art works from the Gallery’s collection to display throughout the city.

The ‘People and Places’ project will provide our audiences with an opportunity to enjoy working with the Gallery collection and will involve producing images for display around the gallery site on Alexandra Road, throughout the city and in other community venues.

Samuel Austin (1796-1834) Swansea. Glynn Vivian Gallery Collection

All artworks currently on display on the hoardings have been picked by the GlynnVivian Art Gallery’s Over 55s group and the Glynn Vivian Young People on the theme of ‘Place’. The reproductions will then be displayed at various promotional sites, YMCA Swansea, community centres and locations across the city centre so that works from the collection to be enjoyed throughout the city.

Over the next 18 months, the works will be chosen by a broad range of our participants on the themes of ‘People’ and ‘Place’.

The Learning team continues to run a full programme of activities at the YMCA on the Kingsway while refurbishment works at the main gallery building are ongoing.

Call 01792 516900 to find out more. All activities are free, Everyone Welcome.

April 8, 2013
by Laura
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Artist in Residence: Anna Barratt

The Glynn Vivian Art Gallery ‘Artist in Residence’ programme at the YMCA, Swansea is an opportunity for the community to engage with an artist, offering artists time for reflection research and collaboration.

Anna Barratt talks about her residency so far.

“From my bedroom window I have got an amazing view of Orchard House. Most people say it’s a shame, “that ugly building blocks your view of the sea. ”

It dominates this part of Swansea and I find it in my drawings and paintings. Especially the pylons and aerials on the roof.

From the window of the 3rd Floor YMCA, (where the Glynn Vivian AIR studio is ), you are magnetically drawn to look below and at the almost 360 degree view of the sea, I have been looking at the aerials, receivers and transmitters of Sun Alliance House (opposite).

Trying to make and represent these objects, taking the drawings /paintings off the page into bound, taped and wheeled sculptures.

I have some sort of rules when making them (that I think I have broken):

waist height

grey, white, red or black

only cotton/linen”

In addition to the residency, the artist will also host a talk, workshop and open studio to share their practice with the community. To find out more, please contact the gallery on 01792 516900.

March 19, 2013
by Katy
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Ffilm 4 Pop-up Cinema

Starting tomorrow night for three nights only, Glynn Vivian Offsite is presenting a pop-up cinema at the YMCA, Swansea. Each night there will be a different selection of films shown, including narrative, animation, montage, video, artists using film and everything in-between.

It starts at 7pm each night, Wednesday 20, Thursday 21 and Friday 22, is free and everyone is welcome. If you are there early, you can call in for a drink and food at the DLish café in the YMCA, and catch some of the other films on monitors.

Before you ask, there will be pop corn!

For full details of the Ffilm 4 programme and all the artists participating please see http://www.glynnviviangallery.org/. We look forward to seeing you there.

Please note that some of these films are unsuitable for children under 15 – contact the Gallery for details.

February 22, 2013
by Laura
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Young People take the lead in Gallery Programme

A group of young people aged 14 – 19 years, have been working with us to set up their own activities and events for teenagers in Swansea.

The group meet on Wednesday evenings to discuss and decide new activities and events for other young people to encourage them to take part in arts activities through the Glynn Vivian’s Offsite programme at the YMCA, Swansea.

The team have been working with Gallery Learning Assistant, Tom Goddard, to select a series of cult and classic films that represent youth and being young and will be screening ’12 films to watch before you grow old’, one film each month in 2013.

For the next screening, the group have chosen the 90s indie slacker comedy, ‘Wayne’s World’, which will be shown on Wednesday 27 February at 5.30pm at the Gallery’s offsite base at the YMCA in the Kingsway.

19 year old group member, Ollie Gibb, said, “This film is Mike Myers at his best, a delightfully light hearted take on the 1980-1990′s heavy metal scene and a moral lesson about not selling out.”

During the last few months the group have been taking part in a youth creative writing workshop with writer and poet, Patrick Jones, and Literature Wales. The group devised their own piece of spoken word poetry and to listen to their work visit http://youngpeopleslaureate.org/.

The Glynn Vivian Young People’s group is one of many community groups that the Gallery is working with offsite at the YMCA, Swansea and throughout the city.

If you would like to get involved please call us on 01792 516900.

February 4, 2013
by Laura
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Artist in Residence: Hannah Downing

Our Artist in Residence for January/ February, Hannah Downing comments on her practice so far.

It’s coming up to the halfway mark of the seven week residency at the YMCA. The studio is on the
corner of the YMCA building, with windows wrap around, allowing for a panoramic view of
Swansea’s rooftop horizon. Looking at the horizon, it can be experienced simultaneously as a
perpetual horizontal line but also as a circular thing, like an orbit which surrounds us: how would
this be drawn? During the residency period I am exploring ways in which experiences of looking
can be expressed in pictures.
So far I’ve been spending time reflecting, planning and researching, this week being the week to
start “making”. Time is going quickly! Apart from doing my own work, there have been other
things to keep me busy: I have met some of the groups which come to the YMCA to participate in
the Glynn Vivian’s offsite activities, there was also Art’s Birthday and a talk last week by Megan
Broadmeadow.

For more information and to visit Hannah’s studio, contact the Gallery on 01792 516900.

January 16, 2013
by Katy
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A red shoe in a yellow box..

Yesterday evening, Joachim Pfeufer arrived in Swansea from France for our Art’s Birthday celebrations. It’s truly amazing to have this legendary artist/architect/philosopher with us. On Thursday, at the heart of our celebrations Joachim will recreate the Poïpoïdrome, in what will be its eighth international re-creation. Over many cups of tea I listened, fascinated and admittedly sometimes confused, to Joachim and our own Swansea expert Barnaby Dicker, as they spoke about the Poipodrome as a space of collaboration, art, life, post-art, a series of rooms within rooms, a shop, a library, poetry, philosophy, a red shoe in a yellow box and how to make an omelette without cracking an egg.

Joachim showed us wonderful Fluxus art catalogues and the incredible list of artists and thinkers associated with this influential radical movement of artists, writers and composers including George Maciunas, Josef Beuys, Robert Filliou, and Yoko Ono.

Above all, whatever we make of it (and we can make of it what we want) the Poïpoïdrome is as Joachim said “an act of friendship”. In this spirit of openness we invite you to come and celebrate Art’s Birthday, to think what you want, to enjoy yourselves, to be surprised, challenged, to laugh and eat cake, meet artists, watch films and play party games, but above all let’s celebrate art.

One day only! Come and celebrate.

Fairtrade Tea Party, 10am, Oxfam Bookshop, Castle Street, Swansea

Art’s Birthday Wales and Glynn Vivian Offsite, 1-7pm, YMCA, Kingsway, Swansea

Elysium Gallery from 7pm till late at the Cove Café, Castle Street, Swansea

December 19, 2012
by Karen
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The curator and the cakes

Last Friday, Katy Freer, Eva Bartussek and I headed off to the YMCA with over 120 cake designs for Art’s Birthday. Designs had been sent by fax, post and email from a huge range of people including artists, art students, primary and secondary school children, cake lovers, video makers, ceramicists, painters and computers specialists.

Designs referenced Fluxus, Filliou and Pfeufer, Buddhism, Poïpoïdromes, the Mona Lisa, Kandinsky, cup cakes and anything and everything to celebrate Art’s 1,000,050th birthday!

Art’s Birthday is not a competition but an international collaboration brought to you in Swansea by Barnaby Dicker and the Art’s Birthday Team, in collaboration with arts organisations and individuals from Swansea’s vibrant arts scene. In this spirit, Katy entered numbers corresponding to each design into a Top Hat, and Eva and I wandered about the YMCA and out into a very wet Swansea street to invite workers and visitors at the YMCA, kebab shop, hairdressers, passersby, to pick random numbers out of the hat.

These photos are a selection taken by Eva of the people we met who very kindly helped select the cakes….

The 12 cakes now selected will be made by Celebration Cakes, Uplands and will be ready to eat at the Art’s Birthday Celebrations taking place on Thursday 17 January from 1pm at the YMCA.

Don’t forget that whilst you have missed your opportunity to have your design turned into a cake you can still send in your design and we will display it on at the YMCA alongside talks, events, cake eating, films and our very special guest Joachim Pfeufer.

The birthday celebrations begin at 10am at Oxfam Bookshop, with events taking place from 1pm at the YMCA and from 7pm with Elysium Gallery at The Cove, 36 Castle Street, Swansea. Activities include pass the parcel by Mission Gallery, artists group Colony showing in secret locations and much, much more…

Art’s Birthday Swansea and World Wide on Thursday 17 January – full programme available in January 2013.

November 21, 2012
by Laura
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My Bad Volcano for one week only!

Firstly we want to say a massive thank you to all those who managed to step out in the rain last Friday night to come down to the opening of Bedwyr Williams’ new and most comprehensive exhibition to date, My Bad, at Mission Gallery, Swansea.

On Friday night, Glynn Vivian Offsite hosted comedy night, My Bad Volcano, at Volcano, 229 High Street, featuring djing by Peter Finnemore, the fabulous Johnny Sorrow, depressing comics and, of course, Bedwyr himself doing his stand up routine.

Bedwyr’s recorded stand up routine will be on show at Volcano for ONE WEEK ONLY, until Sunday 25 November, in amongst the debris of the cabaret style evening….which looks a bit blue velvet and a lot twin peaks….! Volcano is open 11am – 5pm every day this week, so make sure you get along to take a look.

You can also catch My Bad Conversation which took place on Saturday 17 November with co-curator of the exhibition, Karen MacKinnon, and Bedwyr Williams at Mission Gallery on Culture Colony.

The exhibition My Bad continues at Mission Gallery until 6 January 2013.

My Bad is a collaboration between Ikon and GlynnVivianArtGallery, in partnership with Mission Gallery. It is supported by The Henry Moore Foundation and the Arts Council of Wales.

November 21, 2012
by Katy
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Design a Cake for Art’s Birthday!

Calling all artists, designers, lovers of art and cake eaters (i.e. everyone)!

You are invited to take part in Swansea’s contribution to the international celebrations
playfully marking Art’s 1,000,050th birthday*, by sending us your idea for a birthday cake.
Using a sheet of A4 paper, draw your design for a celebration cake. 12 designs will be
randomly selected, pulled out of the proverbial hat by 12 passers by. These will then be
passed to Celebrations Cakes in the Uplands and will be served up to all Art’s Birthday
party goers on Thursday 17 January, 2013. We will also exhibit all the designs as part of
the festivities alongside a host of other birthday events – music, artists’ talks and
presentations, films, fun and party games! (Details will be announced soon!).
All designs submitted on an A4 sheet are welcome, as well as experimental and impossible
ones (although we can’t guarantee they will be made!). Please put your name and contact
details clearly on the back of your design.
Send your designs:
Post: Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Room 261T, Guildhall, Swansea SA1 4PE
Email: Scan your design (files no bigger than 2mb) & email to katy.freer@swansea.gov.uk
Fax: 01792 635814
Deadline for designs is Wednesday 12 December, 5pm. All information about Art’s
Birthday will be posted on our facebook, twitter, website, blog, but please send your name
and contact details if you would like us to keep you updated.
*Art’s Birthday was founded in 1963 by artist/poet Robert Filliou, a sometime member of the
experimental fluxus group in the sixties. This will be Swansea’s sixth year of celebrations.