2023 Leeds Summer Group Show

I’m pleased to announce that Sound of the Kenwood Chef and Giant Cauliflower Harvest have been selected by curators Courtney Spencer and Helen Dryden for the 2023 Leeds Summer Group Show.

The mixed-media exhibition takes place at The Leeds Playhouse, Leeds, West Yorkshire, 22 July – 7 Sept 2023.

Sound of the Kenwood Chef
Sound of the Kenwood Chef

We received over 500 submissions from 150 artists and 77 works by 54 artists have been selected by the panel.

Courtney Spencer
Giant Cauliflower Harvest
Giant Cauliflower Harvest
2023 Leeds Summer Group Show
2023 Leeds Summer Group Show

The 2023 Leeds Summer Group Show is an eclectic exhibition showcasing talent from across the UK. This annual exhibition was started in 2015 by Courtney Spencer, and this year she will be co-curating the show with Helen Dryden, an artist and curator based in Leeds. They were joined on the selection panel by Nigel Walsh, the Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art for Leeds Museums & Galleries, based at Leeds Art Gallery.

The show’s selection panel

Nigel Walsh is the Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art for Leeds Museums & Galleries, based at Leeds Art Gallery. He joined the team in 1986 as its first dedicated Exhibitions Curator, after training with the Scottish Art Council in Glasgow following a degree in English Studies and Fine Art (History of Art) from a Scottish University. Until very recently he was Chair of Trustees of the Ilkley Literature Festival where he’d been a member of the Board for 20 years.

Helen Dryden is a Leeds based visual artist who works primarily in painting and is the curator of Compact Contemporary Gallery which is housed in her studio at Sunny Bank Mills. She has an MA in Curation Practices from Leeds Arts University and a BA(Hons) in Graphic Arts and Design from Leeds Beckett University. 

Courtney Spencer is an Australian artist, curator and collaborator. She was the director of an arts charity for five years, began the Leeds Summer Group Show in 2015 and is the founder of The Art Court which works to support artists and collectors in the North of England. She has worked with organisations including National Trust; The Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate; S1 Artspace, Sheffield; Leeds Playhouse; and The Old Parcels Office, Scarborough. She also writes a monthly column called Snooping Through Studios for The State Of The Arts. 

Update:

Exhibition images courtesy of curator Helen Dryden.

Vivienne Beaumont – Meet the Artist

A little textile inspiration from my YouTube Collection. Today it features the beautiful machine and hand embroidery by Vivienne Beaumont.

Join Vivienne as she shares the art in her ‘Seeds, Flowers and Flowing Hair’ exhibition and explains the processes and stories behind the work. 

https://youtu.be/9WZeg9zjIog

Vivienne Beaumont:   https://www.viviennebeaumont.net/ 

Hand & Machine embroidered artwork by Vivienne Beaumont
Hand & Machine embroidered artwork by Vivienne Beaumont

Ripe with seeds, pomegranates and scenes of harvest, Vivienne’s work is shaped by stories and symbols. She takes inspiration from myths and nature, from female archetypes and the process of transformation.  The work has a soulful quality and often a sense of otherworldliness – her frequent use of gold threads reflects something of the Rumpelstiltskin, the fairy tale.    Her figurative scenes look to the ephemerality and cyclical nature of life, representing both life force and loss. 

Hand & Machine embroidered artwork
Hand & Machine embroidered artwork

“Fields are often aglow in the late summer, through the harvest and its aftermath. I try to capture something of this in my work, as well as something of the folk tale or fairy tale: the jeopardy of the miller’s daughter, the alchemy of weaving straw into gold. That these tales have endured the ages, suggests they hold a deeper meaning for us.  

The Red Riding Hood story, for example, is at heart the tale of a maiden’s rite of passage. The young girl is growing up, the mother is letting her daughter go on her own into the woods. The story alludes to virginity and the spilling of blood. The wolf traditionally plays the role of the sexual predator, but I portray the wolf as the protector, the threat instead from the darkness and the unknown.  

Mothers and daughters, love and rites of passage – the repeated cycles from one generation to the next – these loom large in my textile story.”   

Vivienne Beaumont. 
Exhibition artwork
Exhibition artwork

Filmed at the Knitting & Stitching Show 2022

Away from the Chaos

My latest piece – a mini artwork called Away from the Chaos – has been chosen by curator Ivonne Fernandez for the ”Miniatur-Ausstellung zum Thema Autismus – Autism” Doll House exhibition at Villa Mosaïk, Steubenstraße 79, Aschaffenburg, Germany.

The artwork

“Children on the autism spectrum often play in an inflexible, rule bound way. The features associated with autism, including cognitive rigidity, pervasive anxiety, and resistance to change.”

For people on the spectrum routine, repetition, and ritual bring order to an otherwise chaotic world.

The colour blue’s association to autism originated with the autism advocacy association known as Autism Speaks. Their “Light it Up Blue” campaign calls for people to wear blue to promote autism awareness. Blue is also the organisation’s primary colour and is associated with a calm feeling and acceptance in an otherwise loud and busy world for people on the spectrum.

Size 11.5 x 11.5cm, perle & embroidery thread, hand embroidered onto vintage cotton cloth.

Away from the Chaos hand embroidered art
Away from the Chaos
Away from the Chaos - detail
Away from the Chaos – detail

This is the third Doll House exhibition I’ve taken part in in Germany and the UK.

Artists taking part in the exhibition
Artists taking part in the exhibition