News
Press Release
Alone Together at Oriel Môn
A new exhibition opens at Oriel Môn on the 23rd of September. Alone Together is an exhibition by three female artists Jess Bugler RCA, Leonie Bradley and Prerna Chandiramani which explores the nature of aloneness from isolation to solitude.
Leonie, Jess and Prerna are known as the artist collective SPIKED. They started working together in lockdown and through their shared anxiety began to consider aloneness as a spectrum with isolation at one end and solitude at the other. Solitude is a positive state of aloneness that many choose to seek out.
Leonie Bradley stated “When we came together as a group, we analysed the words associated with aloneness and agreed on a set of seven that became the foundation of our bodies of work: isolation, loneliness, alienation, disconnection, remoteness, seclusion and solitude.”
Each artist responds differently to the emotions along the spectrum. Their responses are interwoven but individual: Bugler using the theme of wooded enclosures; Bradley, the symbolism of keys; and Chandiramani, language and folding. The installation itself forms a curved line with the artworks creating an enclosure that can be entered and viewed from inside. The ‘solitude end’ of the spectrum is wide and inviting, the ‘isolation end’ tightly wound and claustrophobic.
Chandiramani states “The artworks are printed onto translucent material, evoking the fragility of individual experience, whilst allowing the viewer to see through the multiple layers reminding the viewer of the commonality we share.”
The exhibition will also provide visitors with an opportunity for reflection on our shared yet unique experiences of being alone during lockdown, by participating in the creation of a new artwork which will be displayed at a future venue.
Bugler said, “It is the ambivalence of aloneness, central to our human condition, which I have found absorbing and challenging as this project has progressed.”
SPIKED is an artists’ collective creating installations to explore communication and memory. The artists have each been awarded the Peter Reddick Bursary for Innovation in Relief Printmaking at Spike Print Studio, Bristol.
Leoni Bradley is a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. Jess Bugler was recently elected to the Royal Cambrian Academy and Prerna Chandiramani is a member of Printmakers’ Council.
Alone Together will be shown at Oriel Môn until the 5th of November.
Press Release
David Nash: Seeing Trees at Oriel Mon
“Trees show their time-story through their form. At all stages trees and wood reveal their place and progress in this great cycle of coming and going, soaked in weather and time.”
David Nash
For the very first time, Oriel Mon is thrilled to be hosting an exhibition of works on paper by world renowned artists and sculptor David Nash. The exhibition Seeing Trees opens its doors in Oriel Kyffin Williams at Oriel Mon on the 9th of September.
The main body of this exhibition was shown at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2022 as part of a celebration of David Nash’s long-standing relationship with the park and recognition of his 2D work. As many of the drawings are connected to north Wales, where Nash has his home and studio in Blaenau Ffestiniog, Oriel Môn was the obvious choice to host this special exhibition, which is further extended with a feature on Ash Dome, Nash’s celebrated planting work.
David Nash has dedicated his artistic life to an evolving study of trees and wood, absorbing knowledge through hands-on planting projects and making sculptural works, but throughout his career drawing has remained a cornerstone of his practice. This exhibition at the Kyffin Williams Gallery at Oriel Môn celebrates David Nash’s drawings of trees, which for five decades have generously provided subject, material and inspiration.
Seeing Trees captures this close relationship in drawings ranging from the observational and documentary, through to intensely coloured, abstract works that capture the very essence of their vegetation and life force.
Ian Jones, Collections Manager, Oriel Môn stated, “Many will be aware and amazed by David’s work with wood and environmental art, but this exhibition aims to highlights his skills as a draughtsman. Drawing is an integral part of his sculptural work and reveals his thought processes. As you will see in this exhibition, they make a powerful statement and stand-alone quite magnificently withing Oriel Kyffin Williams”.
David Nash says, “My father was born in North Wales. His work was in London but his heart remained where he grew up. Every holiday, Easter, Summer, Autumn half term and Christmas he drove us up to stay in Llan Ffestiniog with his parents. All my nature and seasonal experience was gained among trees in the Ffestiniog valley, and it is where I feel most at home. Drawing was a constant occupation as a child which led me to art school and finding a life as an artist in north Wales”.
Spanning five decades, the broad range of drawings shown reflect different processes and types of mark making, from fine graphite to thick, smoky charcoal, and bold swathes of colour achieved by applying pure pigment with cloth. The dynamic Big Beech Going at Space (1978) an early work made at Llan Ffestiniog, coveys the pure energy of growth through minimal yet highly expressive lines. This directness comes from drawing immediately and rapidly from life in the landscape and is driven by the particular qualities of trees and their environments. Other works reflect a greater distance, made in the studio and concentrating on embodying the sensation of a principal characteristic such as colour, as so vibrantly demonstrated in Red Tree (2012) or in May (2020) and July (2020) which capture and distil the colours in nature around us. Place is also often reflected directly in the process with the artists using materials such bracken char in Cae’n-y-Coed (1980) and earth from the surrounding ground for Ash Dome (2007). Autumn Leaves in a River, November, Llan Ffestiniog (1983), was made by drawing single leaves with ink as they flowed past and then repeatedly dipping the paper in the river water to build up layers of different densities and reflect the durational nature of making.
Sarah Coulson, Senior Curator at Yorkshire Sculpture Park says of the work “the exhibition reflects the great energy and passion of a uniquely skilled draughtsman”.
Seeing Trees will be shown in Oriel Kyffin Williams until the 10th of March, 2024.
A fantastic turn out on Friday evening for the opening of David Nash exhibition – Seeing Trees
with many people enjoying a Cocktail and Tapas evening at Caffi Bach y Bocs.
Sampler of South Stack Island made by Jane Griffiths in 1837. Given by the family of Nancy Sykes.
Here we have Chris, one of our volunteers, working on one Oriel Môn’s recent new acquisition – the Ieuan Williams collection of drawings and paintings. This exciting collection, kindly donated by the artist, includes some 144 drawings and paintings, all Anglesey based and date from the 1960s onwards.
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