North Glasgow College Exhibition13th -17th June 2011North Glasgow CollegeSpringburn

Following Exhibition 23rd June - 13th July 2011Mono Café BarGlasgow

BA (Hons) Visual Arts Degree Show

Introduction

This is the second year of running this very successful BA (Hons) Visual Arts Top up Degree at North Glasgow College which is validated by Leeds Metropolitan University.

In the first year of running this degree, 100% of the students gained honours classifications and 40% of the cohort went on to study at Masters level at Duncan of Jordanstone School of Art.

Iain AbercrombieHaving only recently been appointed to the faculty director’s role the degree show is a new concept to me, in terms of being actively involved in the consultation surrounding the organisation of this important section of the Leeds Metropolitan degree provision.I know staff and students are very focused on ensuring the quality of the exhibits and that the show fully reflects their professionalism, creativity and application.

From initial contact and discussion of the format of some of the works, I foresee a unique experience being provided for all in attendance and it is noticeable that there is a definite air of anticipation and excitement amongst the staff and students in the run up to the event.

I am sure that all guests and public attending the show will be impressed with the work and look forward to meeting you at the event.

Iain Abercrombie, Faculty Director

Ronnie KnoxI am absolutely delighted and inspired by the partnership with Leeds Metropolitan University in jointly providing a seamless articulation pathway to degree level. The programme gives such an opportunity for our students to remain on campus and progress as University Graduates.

The Qualifications are modern, meet industry needs and are recognised by other higher education institutions as an excellent pathway onto many Masters Degrees.

Ronnie Knox, Principal/Chief Executive.

Michelle FraserI was delighted to be able to attend the inaugural degree show in June of last year. I believe that the Show encapsulated perfectly the skill, dedication and professionalism both of the students and of the staff and it was a fitting end to the first year of our partnership. I wish this year’s presenting students every success both with the Show and with their future endeavours.

Michelle Fraser, Associate Dean, Leeds Metropolitan University.

BA (Hons) Visual Arts Degree Show

North Glasgow College

SPECTRUMDegree Show Exhibition 2011

The BA (Hons) Visual Arts Degree students 2011 would like to introduce you to their exhibition SPECTRUM at North Glasgow College, and their following show which will be held at Mono Cafe Bar 23rd June -13th July 2011.

You can also keep up to date with their work and future exhibitions at:www.spectrum.wordpress.com

Flora Alexander

My journey began from where I grew up; it was there that I started to that realize safety, security and comfort are essential to call somewhere home. This is the emotional aspect of home, politically and culturally these do not exist in my homeland (Iran), so I started to look for somewhere that they did.

My journeys started in Istanbul, Turkey and then India, where I was involved in studying spiritualism. However that changed when I met my husband, and since then Glasgow has become my home. All of the things that I was looking for I found here, the safety, security and comfort that was missing for most of my life.

This piece represents the aforementioned journey using black paper where the maps of the cities visited are cut out. The houses represent the inner worlds experienced.

Natalie Donald

The notions that I deal with and explore tend not to centre on simply one idea but bring together several thoughts. My practice evolved from an exploration into family connections which revealed my longing for the past. With the amalgamation of dated photographs of faded memories a heavy sense of nostalgia exists.Deeply embodied and layered with suggestions, I have been conveying dual qualities which visually transmit binary opposites through the play with fabric, paper, positioning, light and the viewer’s engagement.

I define my narrative as an exploration into how a significant family member has the ability to change and alter the entire family dynamics, and in doing so, my life.

Left: Home, cut out paper lightboxes, 14 x 14 cm. Right: Family Ties, 1993, 75 x 85 cm, xylene print on canvas.

Fatima Gallardo

I have lived in Glasgow for four years. My exhibition is based on an encounter with a community in the Sighthill area of the city. It is intended as a voice to motivate social transformation through art.

This work is a challenge for me to consider green energy and recycling. Light, colour and the basic notion of transforming mechanical energy into electrical energy are the prime movers in my proposal for this community.

I have always been interested in how art interacts with society. I believe that creativity and knowledge are for everybody, as is an individual’s expression of their culture. I am inspired by social transformation, human behaviour and socio-politics and their interaction with the environment and find installation art interesting as it can manipulate space to alter the harmony between objects and spectators.

Caroline Gormley

In my current practice I explore the role of memory and the concept of emotional and cognitive dissonance in the individuals’ experience of life. Memory is like light, we cannot see it, we only see in our minds eye the experience it illuminates, to which we may have mixed emotional and rational responses. The most precious time we have is now, this moment, the instant when the shutter of our minds eye opens/closes and the memories are formed.

Using multimedia techniques I aim to present not just an artwork, but to introduce a sense of presence, a line of energy.

www.carolinegormley.com

Top: Who Cares about Fountainwell?, Installation Plan, digital print. Bottom: Who Cares about Fountainwell?, Installation View, digital print.

Right: Slightly Mutant, Slowly Altered, multimedia installation, three sided structure, 4m (l) x 4m (w) x 2.5m (h).

Jason Henderson Lisa Jennings

My work is inspired by the ephemeral in life. I explore moments, habitats, patterns, behaviours and environments and how they change over time. Installation work is the medium in which I mostly create, encompassing drawings, printing, photography, sound, video and sculpture. In my practice I am looking within the relationships between nature and human beings. This is presently focused on certain endangered species and how they are viewed. Through researching the history, present experience and future of zoo environments I look firstly at polar bear conservation in this context. The work I present in this exhibition concerns the public perception of polar bears and their position as a vulnerable species, and centres on my own observations of two captive polar bears in Scotland. During this work I developed a strong interest in the healing relationship between animals and people, and the work marks the beginning of my dialogue between the animal kingdom and human society in artistic, environmental and holistic existence.

http://beelinetree.blogspot.com

Right: Bipolar, installation, video & sound.

Throughout my varied career I have always maintained a keen interest in a broad range of creative art forms. Employing many of the skills gained and responding to the environment, to create land art, murals, graffiti and DIY furniture.

Inspiration from artists such as Richard Long, Andy Goldsworthy, Banksy, Rolf Harris, Peter Howson and many more.

My aspirations for future development are in modernist sculpture and environmental art, highlighting political and cultural awareness with the hope of enlightening the viewers.

Left: More Than A Number, photogram.

Amanda Jane Lee

My work looks at the darker side of celebrity. I create portraits of celebrities that have had major melt-downs or substance abuse problems. I try and convey that it is not always glamorous to be famous. To achieve this I choose photographs that are unflattering and show them at a low point. The fabrics used in my work have been specifically chosen for their patterns and colours as they convey they glamorous side of celebrity life. However, as they reach the bottom of the canvas they begin to fray and tear. This represents the unravelling of the main subjects life and the expression on their faces reinforces the sadness and desperation.

Celebrity breakdowns can be very public due to media coverage. This work represents the public eye that is always watching and invading their privacy when they are at their most vulnerable.

Mark McQueen

My work is influenced by nostalgia, innocence and childhood. I start by looking at old photographs sourced from family members and friends. The photographs represent a portal into the past; they act as a visual platform for nostalgic feelings. I deliberately chose photographs which I felt were universal and do not only relate to me but too anyone else who views them. The main series of works are copper etchings. The act of etching images into the copper has strong associations with the way memories are etched into our minds. I work on a small scale to suggest that which is precious and treasured.

Top left: Kayne, thread and material, 21 x 27 cm. Top right: Angelina, thread and material, 21 x 27 cm. Bottom: GaGa, thread and material, 21 x 27 cm. Right: Playground, intaglio print, 14.8 x 10.5 cm.

Anne Rourke

My work explores the city and streets of Glasgow in muted tones. I am interested in the psychological effect of twilight and the ambience it creates in the work. The paintings are devoid of human presence which adds to the dark, sombre mood. They are created in the studio, worked up from my sketches and photographs and I am fascinated by the process of painting, the physical building up of layers and surfaces required to make a completed piece.

Katie Rowlands

My work maintains a distinct, illustrative and graphic style, which thrives on the momentum and energy of people around me. By using my own, often random and humorous thought processes, and those of others against found images and materials, I choose to celebrate the fine line of work from the subconscious. Things that you think about but never say, words and situations which are often difficult to deal with find themselves in my sketchbooks, in a collection of collided thoughts. There is a supremacy of street art drifting through my sketchbooks, attaching illustrations to found objects. In addition to creating large paintings of groups of people, mostly heads and hands, words are twisted in and moving freely on top and underneath paintings and sketchbooks. These words are mostly thoughts of my own, lyrics from some of the music that has been stuck in my mind at the time or random quotes from my friends.

Right: ‘Take the pieces, build them skywards’, 42 x 29 cm, board with acrylic, watercolour, pen and pencil).Left: Dean Gallery, Edinburgh (detail), 84 x 58 cm, acrylic and ink on paper.

Tracy Ryan

I am fascinated with the idea of being able to constantly change and alter things with the use of art materials and techniques and through a process of experimentation I began to use a range of alternative art materials and developed unconventional, mixed media approaches to my practice.

My methodology is to approach each piece or body of work with the most appropriate materials at my disposal to express my idea as the media itself helps define how the work evolves. I have been using a range of different textiles and developing my visual language in both 2D and 3D.

I often return to recurring themes of nostalgia, language, time and interconnectivity between people.My current body of work focuses on the role of a female within the family and how this has evolved over time and I have developed a series of hand-made dolls as a means of combining my interest in materials with the notion of the perfect Barbie-like woman.

Top: Disfunction, hand-made dolls, vintage fabrics & threads. Centre: I Love You, I Love You More, I Hate You, I Hate You More - detail from series of 8 x 14.8 x 10.5 cm photographs. Bottom: Alterations, hand-made dolls, vintage fabrics & threads.

Michelle Semple

Looking at outmoded old fashioned technology and creating contemporary art became my main focus when starting my BA (Hons) course. Renewing and re-energising old, broken and easily thrown away technology in my work became an important aspect.

When researching my dissertation I began to explore working through Process Art and the way the mind works evolving from one piece to the next, this is what I find exciting and drives me to continue discovering. Another important aspect is the process of creating pieces of work, in particular developing my sculptural geometric forms which were initially a challenge.

Top right: Geometric Dialogue, studio wall.Bottom right: Flat Pack, re-used cardboard and wood glue, 25 cm - 150 cm.

Kayleigh Claire Stevenson

Every Child is an artist; the problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up - Pablo Picasso

This year has been about experimentation and pushing the boundaries of my concepts and ideas. It has also been about enjoying the process of making art. I have explored and extended the recurring themes of sexuality, role reversal and juxtaposition which have been developed in previous art work. I experimented with materials and techniques which have expanded and contextualised my work and I enjoy manipulating objects and imagery to create a contradictory circumstance or object which will make people think of things in new ways by not giving them the whole story.

Left: We’re All a Little Insane, mixed media installation.

Andrew Tough

My work is mainly based upon representing reality through traditional mediums of painting and drawing. I have a strong interest in how I visually perceive the world and people around me. Much of my work has been portraiture. within which I am trying to create the most authentic representation of character and emotion. I usually use photographs as a source image for my paintings. I look at how the camera views the world and from there I can start to understand the complexity of our visual reality, and recreate it using paint. I create drawings using mechanical aids such as grids and projections (influenced by photorealism), and then go through a process of intensely analysing and working out how an image could be translated into paint. I am often attracted to certain areas of an image and my style within the one painting will range from loose mark making, to polished realism. My most recent works have root influences from film, TV, science and physics.

Right: Head Studies, acrylic and oil.

Visiting Artists & Lecturers

Throughout the academic year the students have benefited from lectures and master classes from visiting artists and lecturers. This has broadened the scope of the learning experience and contextualised contemporary art practice.

The teaching staff would like to acknowledge the contribution of the following:

Peter BevanPeter Bevan trained as a painter, graduating in 1973 from the Royal College of Art, London but has been making sculpture since 1989 and after this re-orientation has developed a more international practice.

He has exhibited sculpture in Scotland, Scandinavia, Belgium, USA, Japan, India and in September 2005 at the 2nd Beijing International Art Biennale. He first visited India in 1989 and then as Artist in Residence at the MS University of Baroda in 1996. Bevan has also made sculpture at Hospitalfield House, Arbroath, Scotland, Iwate Stone Sculpture Symposium, Japan, Jircany Ceramic Sculpture Symposium, Czech Republic and at Hunter College, New York.

Although he has worked on a large scale in a variety of media including stone and wood, the core medium of his recent sculpture is ceramic and the theme; “Virtual portraits”.

Peter Bevan taught Fine Art at Glasgow School of Art, Scotland until 2003 and both academic and experimental drawing continues

to be an essential process in his creative practice.In 2004-5 he studied Classical Asian Art at the British Museum in preparation for a second Artist Residency in India, winter 2005, and most recently in 2010, exhibiting with Indian artists in Baraoda and Mumbai.

Doug CockerDoug Cocker RSA, Scottish sculptor, work in major collections in UK and abroad including Kelvingrove, Perth, Aberdeen and Peterborough Art Galleries, Greenshields Collection, BBC and others. Over forty commissioned works including the Ben Lomond Memorial and numerous exhibitions including the first British Art Show and one person shows at Fruitmarket, Talbot Rice and Third Eye Centre.

Michael FullertonMichael Fullerton studied at Glasgow School of Art, initially in the Painting Department then subsequently on the MFA programme.

Despite his training as a painter Fullerton also works in a variety of other media, including printmaking and sculpture. He has painted the portraits of a number of eminent individuals, but his ambitions stretch far beyond the limits of traditional portraiture. In fact, his work may be seen as an investigation into some of life’s great questions, such as the nature of truth, the reliability of evidence, the power of belief, and the relations between aesthetics and persuasion, information and knowledge.

Elspeth LambElspeth Lamb RSA, RGI, SSA, is an artist who works across several art forms: printmaking, digital prints, papermaking and artists’ books.Since leaving Edinburgh College of Art in 1999 to pursue her own work and research as a freelance artist and educator , she has organized and taught printmaking and papermaking workshops at many art colleges, art centres and schools across the UK and abroad such as the Leith School of Art Edinburgh, the Hunterian Museum Glasgow University, St. Michaels Print Shop Newfoundland and the Joan y Pilar Miro Foundation, Spain.In June 2011 she will present a paper at the First International Conference of Mokuhanga Print in Kyoto Japan and she will exhibit work at the Royal Scottish Academy Galleries during the 2011 Edinburgh Festival as part of a Japan themed exhibition.

Mikey Mcleod Mikey Mcleod BA Hons Visual Arts, North Glasgow College Graduate 2010.

After a very successful year at North Glasgow College (NGC), Mikey is currently studying towards a Masters of Fine Art at Duncan of Jordanstone, Dundee. He specialises in painting and printmaking and recently has been working on some performance pieces and using light projections along with painting. He has worked along with the NGC Course Tutors to introduce the waterless litho printing process to the BA students, which will be an exciting medium for them to work with. He learnt this new skill at Dundee, and was supported well by his current tutors in delivering this

technique to NGC. Since graduating last year he has maintained good links with the tutors, both professionally and personally.

Karen ScopaDr Karen Scopa Ph.D, TQFE, PgDip, BA(Hons), is a mixed media artist with a research interest in interdisciplinary practices. She has exhibited in Scotland and London and undertaken commissions for private collections. She has also worked with public arts organisations in Scotland and America and served on the Board of Management of the National Artists Association (UK). Over the past decade, she has worked in curriculum development roles in Higher Education and Further Education in Scotland and across England, with a focus on the development and delivery of Degree courses in FE and institutional partnership progression agreements. She currently delivers BA Art and Design contextual studies modules in two Scottish FE colleges, and is also developing a new body of artwork.

Iseult TimmermansIseult Timmermans, BA (Hons) Fine Art Photography, Glasgow School of Art, 1995, has been involved in making work and establishing opportunities for others across a range of settings; establishing an Artist-run exhibition space in Glasgow’s West End (e-space@java in the 90’s) and a community space on the margins of the city - Red Road Community Studio (2010 - present). She has exhibited in formal and non-formal settings across Glasgow,

underground poster sites to GOMA/Street Level Photoworks/Tramway and has work in The National Portrait Gallery collection. She developed her collaborative approach to arts practise working for 15 years with Street Level Photoworks as their Project co-ordinator - establishing their award winning outreach programme. She explores the boundaries of collaborative arts practise and creative applications of photography.

Rebecca WestguardFigurative artist Rebecca Westguard studied at Gray’s School of Art under the influential tuition of Joyce Cairns. Awarded the John Kinross Scholarship on graduation, she has exhibited at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in London on two occasions and was a recent prizewinner at the National Open Art Competition. Rebecca remains inspired by Florentine travels and her recent summer study at Hospitalfield, Arbroath.

Adrian Wiszniewski RSAAdrian Wiszniewski RSA, was born in Glasgow in 1958. He studied architecture at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, and then attended Glasgow School of Art from 1979 to 1983. He belonged to the group of Glasgow-based artists who led a revival of figurative painting in Scottish art during the 1980s with the exhibition Vigorous Imagination at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. In Wiszniewski’s early work, the artist created densely patterned picture surfaces, covered with marks and squiggles. Later this gave

way to the use of a plainer background. However the same dreamy, awkward-looking young men still appeared in his paintings. His work lies within the poetic, romantic tradition of British art.

Wiszniewski has worked with media as varied as neon and tapestry, painting and sculpture, ceramics and printmaking. He is currently collaborating on a range of architectural projects and creating a series of rug designs for Stoddard Carpets. His work can be found in major public collections including MOMA New York, Tate London and Setegaya, Tokyo.

External ExaminerStuart MackenzieBA (Hons), Graduate of Edinburgh College of Art.Stuart has taught at Glasgow School of Art for 23 years. He is a year leader as well as life drawing co-ordinator for painting and printmaking. Stuart also teaches post graduate drawing, has sat on several validation committees and is a member of the Academic Council. He is a visiting lecturer both nationally and internationally and is a practising artist.

SpectrumDegree Show Exhibition 201113th - 17th June 2011Open: Monday to Friday - 9am - 5pm

North Glasgow College123 Flemington StreetSpringburn, Glasgow G21 4TD

www.spectrum.wordpress.com

23rd June - 13th July 2011

Mono Café Bar12 Kings CourtGlasgow, G1 5RB

BA (Hons) Visual Arts Degree ShowNorth Glasgow College Exhibition

BA (Hons) Visual Arts Degree ShowFollowing exhibition

Acknowledgements

Teaching Staff Jo Baillie, DA Post Dip. SSTCNicola Carberry, BA (Hons), PGCPSEDominic Snyder, BA (Hons), PGCPSEGordon Stewart, BA (Hons), MA (RCA), TQFEAlastair Strachan, BA (Hons), PGCPSE Iain Abercrombie, Creative Arts Faculty DirectorRose Fairley, Marketing and Communications ManagerBrian Hopkirk, Head Technician Olly Macarthur, Wood TechnicianStuart McGuinness, Metal TechnicianChristine Stevenson, Photography Lecturer

Thanks toNorth Glasgow College Janitorial staff and scaffolding crew for their support.

Murray Robertson for catalogue design.

North Glasgow College123 Flemington Street

Springburn, Glasgow G21 4TD

T: +44(0)141 630 5000F: +44(0)141 630 5001

E: infocentre@north-gla.ac.ukW: www.northglasgowcollege.ac.uk

BA (Hons) Visual Arts Degree Show

13th - 17th June 2011