ARTIST RESEARCH

FROM THE GALLERY

VISITS

Exploring the work of other’s that interested me, and discovering more knowledge on their work

Artist Nick Veasy ‘Puffa Jacket’

After finding this piece by Nick Veasy ‘Puffa Jacket’ in the gallery I explored

his techniques and why he created work in this particular style. In a world

obsessed with superficial image it is a refreshing contrast to look beyond

the surface and appreciate the stuff that surrounds us for what it is made of,

not just what it looks like on the outside. English artist Nick Veasy uses x-

ray technology to peel back the layers and peer inside all manner of

subjects; people, objects, natural forms and animals. The work has an

ethereal, other worldly quality, yet the things he uses to create the pictures

are familiar. Nick’s work has won awards in every relevant photographic

competition and shown in galleries around the world.

For Nick Veasy, artistic inspiration came from an unlikely source. While

working as a photographer/designer for morning television in England, he

was assigned the monotonous task of X-raying soda cans to determine

which ones contained a winning code for a contest sponsored by Pepsi.

After three days without a winner, he X-rayed his sneaker for kicks. Veasy

recalls, "It was a great image and I thought 'there's something to this.' It

was one of those life-changing experiences. I just left behind everything

else I was doing."Veasey spent the next three months working with

scientists to refine his technique. He learned to gauge object density and

structure by experimenting with a variety of materials including plastic,

flowers, metals and people, taking the utmost care with his living subjects.

Armed with his new knowledge, Veasey easily transformed it into

commercial success.

Artist Edward Hartwig ‘Broken Glass’

Edward Hartwig was a Polish photographer active

over 50 years as a practitioner and champion of

the medium. ‘Broken Glass’ was taken in Warsaw

and is typical of Hartwig’s more experimental

photographs. He sometimes used devices such as

the glass in this image to frame shots. The texture

of the sharply broken glass – the criss-crossing

cracks in the pane and the precariously-attached

pieces – are the initial focus of attention. Upon

closer inspection, part of a skyline takes shape and

the viewer is drawn into the picture plane.

This is one of Hartwig’s more aggressive, jarring

images. It is also one of few politically-charged

images produced by the artist. The glass is

symbolic of the fractured state of Polish politics

during the 1980s, a time of civil unrest and martial

law. This piece below known as ‘Broken Glass’

made in 1980’s is a black and white photograph of

a cityscape seen through broken glass.

Edgar Lissel: Angel of the Annucation

I was really inspired by this piece, in reminded my of my previous stencil work I did in Art and Design, under the inspiration of artist Banksy.

This photograph was made in the V&A using a giant pinhole camera, or camera obscura, built around a display case that contains a 15th-century carved oak angel.Photographic paper was attached to the back of the case and a unique negative image was formed by ambient light filtering onto the paper through a pinhole. The exposure lasted twenty-four hours. The elgant silhouette of the sculpture inhabits the inverted image of the gallery, which is transformed into a celestial realm where points of light appear like black stars.The V&A commissioned Edgar Lissel to create this photograph during a two-week residency to coincide with the Exhibition 'Seeing Things: Photographing Objects 1850-2001'.

Photograph depicts the silhouette of a Northern French 15th-century (1414-50) carved oak angel surrounded by the lamps in the gallery that appear on the exposure like black stars.

In the room of ‘photography’ this piece along with the other artists I have researched in this presentation stood out to my as a Graphic Designer.

Artist Rebbeca Earley: Pins and Gloves Textile designer Rebecca Earley has been widely recognised as one of the most

innovative print designers of her generation. She devotes her textile label Be Earley

to fashion accessories and interiors. Her unique designs have won awards from

various bodies, including the London Arts Board, the Prince’s Youth Business Trust

and the Crafts Council. Earley is also half of fashion partnership Earley Palmiero

which produces beautifully printed womenswear, currently stocked in Liberty and

Koh Samui in London and stores in Japan. Earley’s highly original prints are worn by

Bjork, Kylie Minogue, Simple Red, Cher and Demi Moore.

Richard Galpin

Richard Galpin’s complex art works are derived from the artist's own photographs of chaotic cityscapes. Using only a scalpel Galpin intricately scores and peels away the emulsion from the surface of the photograph to produce a radical revision of the urban form. The artist allows himself no collaging, or additions of any kind - each delicate work is a unique piece made entirely by the erasure of photographic information.

The works enact a reimagining of the city, but their futuristic vision is predicated on the city as it is now, with the intricate details bearing traces of contemporary urban experience. Playing between abstraction and representation, the works draw their visual language from a variety of early 20th century movements such as Constructivism, and Vorticism.

Since graduating from the Goldsmiths MA in 2001, Richard Galpin has had solo exhibitions at Franklin Art Works (Minneapolis), BrancoliniGrimaldi Arte Contemporanea (Rome), GaleriaLeme (Sao Paulo), Roebling Hall (New York), and Hales Gallery (London). Group exhibitions includeUnder Erasure at Temple Bar Gallery (Dublin), When it's a Photograph at The BolskyGallery (Los Angeles), Prints and Drawings: Recent Acquisitions at the British Museum (London), The Photograph in Question, Von Lintel Gallery (New York), Attack:Attraction, Marcel Sitcoske Gallery (San Francisco), and Looking With/Out at the Courtauld Institute of Art (London). Collections include the British Government Art Collection, the British Museum and Deutsche Bank

Artist ;John Baldessari

JOHN BALDESSARI BIOGRAPHYJohn Baldessari was born in 1931 in National City, California. He received a BA and MA from San Diego State University and completed postgraduate work at both Otis Art Institute and Chouinard Art Institute.

For more than five decades, Baldessari has created thousands of works that demonstrate—and, in many cases, combine—the narrative potential of images and the associative power of language within the boundaries of the work of art. He has continually explored these themes in painting, photography, film, video, site-specific installations, artist’s books, sculpture, drawings, prints, and multiples.

Since 1957, Baldessari’s work has been featured in more than 950 solo and group exhibitions in the United States and Europe. He has been the subject of numerous retrospective exhibitions, including those organized by the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, in 1981; the InstitutoValenciano de Arte Moderno, Valencia, Spain, in 1989; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, in 1990; Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK, in 1995; and the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna, and KunsthausGraz, in 2005. A major retrospective exhibition, organized by Tate Modern and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, will open at the Tate in fall 2009.

As a teacher from 1970 to 1988 at the California Institute of the Arts, and from 1996 to 2007 at the University of California, Los Angeles, Baldessari instructed and influenced generations of artists.

He lives and works in Southern California. For an extensive biography of the artist, please visit www.baldessari.org.

This artist struck me whilst walking around the gallery, and

found myself inspired by this idea, I thought was quite

unique, and I could use this in my work. It is something I

hadn't seen before, and I had discovered. I think the contrast

of the black and white and the colour silhouettes work very

well, and I think I might use this idea in my work.