THREE NEW EXHIBITIONS FOR SPRING AT GRACEFIELD ART CENTRE DUMFRIES

Just in time for Spring Fling open studios weekend, the Dumfries and Galloway Council run Gracefield Arts Centre is bringing three major new exhibitions to gallery spaces in Dumfries, all opening Sat 23 May.
The first, Craft Generation is touring across Scotland by curators Fife Contemporary Art and Craft. Craft Generation celebrates the achievements of contemporary Scottish craft and the renewal of skills. Six craft artists who are long established in their field have been invited both to exhibit their own work and to select an artist from the following generation whose work they admire. Some of the pairs show the strong bonds between former teacher and student while other choices have been made purely on an appreciation of someone’s work, sometimes out with the selector’s own media.

Teacher/student relationships include jewellers Professor Dorothy Hogg MBE and Andrew Lamb, ceramicists Archie McCall (from Dumfries and Galloway) and Dawn Youll and tapestry artists Maureen Hodge and Anna Ray. Alison Kinnaird MBE selected fellow glass artist and architect Karlyn Sutherland whose work she encountered when they both attended a masterclass. Silversmith John Creed selected visual artist Thomas Jacobi who has repaid the compliment by making new work for the exhibition based on Creed’s workshop. Jacki Parry’s work with paper as a printmaker and sculptor gives her a natural affinity with the work of visual artist Claire Barclay.
While there is a craft focus the exhibition therefore also includes work more usually categorised as visual art and continues the dialogue between disciplines. The artists have generously provided extensive information about their careers and approaches to their practice for the exhibition interpretation. As well as illustrating the breadth of training and work this also touches on future developments.
Our second show is a memorial exhibition to Malcolm Davies, a local painter and printmaker who very sadly died after a short illness in May 2014. The show offers a chance to see a wider selection of his work in an artistic practise that spanned over 40 years. Born in Barmouth, Wales in 1944, Malcolm Davies studied printmaking and illustration at Liverpool College of Art in the 1960s. He moved to Dumfries and Galloway with his wife Suzanne Stuart Davies in 1998 following a career in museum and gallery education in Lancashire. The two artists set up their home and the Steading Gallery at Borgue near Gatehouse of Fleet until 2004 when they moved to Kirkcudbright, setting up Custom House Gallery. Subsequently concentrating on and best known for his nature-based printmaking and painting,
Malcolm showed his work widely across the UK and locally, contributing to ‘Catchment’ – a major 5 person exhibition at Gracefield in December 2013. Other work focussed on visits to the coast – of the Solway and of the Scottish islands which he loved. At the Great Northern Art Show, held in Ripon Cathedral in September 2013, Malcolm received special mention for his outstanding body of new work.
Finally, in Gallery 2, Amy Winstanley presents her first major solo show in Dumfries and Galloway with a body of new work entitled Interconnection. Amy’s work explores man’s interaction to nature in abstract painting and sound. She says of her art;
“My work is based on my experience of place. I use a blend of intuitive gestures and conscious forms from what I have observed, documented or remembered to create paintings and mixed media drawings.”
Based in her studio near Castle Douglas, Amy originally studied sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art graduating in 2005. She moved into painting and has had successful exhibition in group and solo shows across the country. She is very involved with Spring Fling and is currently on their management committee.
Amy will also be running a practical workshop here at Gracefield on 4 July exploring different means of mark marking through the use of sound, memory and observation – there are still some places left, please give the gallery a call.
The weekend of 23 May will be a busy weekend all round as Gracefield is also hosting four artists’ studios in Gallery 2 as part of the Spring Fling event: Kirstin Pilling, Eric Pye, Andrew Adair and Natalie McIroy will all be presenting their diverse work.
For full details visit www.spring-fling.co.uk. The studios will be open from Friday night, 5-8pm for the Spring Fling preview, then Saturday and Sunday 10am- 8pm, and Monday 10am-5pm.
Chair of Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Community and Customer Services, Councillor Tom McAughtrie, commented;
It’s a fabulous selection of exhibition with something for everyone – and if you don’t get over at Spring Fling, then there’s plenty time to catch the new shows.”
For more details about the exhibitions, classes for adults and kids, events, craft shop and café Hubbub, please give Gracefield a ring on 01387 262084, visit the website, or see us on Facebook.
Admission to Gracefield is free and there is ample free parking,.
Gallery 1 exhibitions run until 18 July and Amy Winstanley’s exhibition continues until 11 July, both building are open Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm, and open 10am to 5pm on Spring Fling Weekend, Sunday 24 and Monday 25 May.

Images attached: Craft Generation: Archie McCall, Malcolm Davies, Amy Winstanley