Snow White in the Woods 2003

The painting which attracted most attention, and has been widely reproduced,
is a crude portrait of Princess Diana,
bearing the graffitied words, “Hi Paul can you come over, I'm really frightened “.
It was inspired by a letter to the former royal butler Paul Burrell,
and is reputed to have been painted in 15 minutes.

Stella Vine is a young painter based in London,
who had sold few paintings before Saatchi’s purchase.
She had attended part-time painting classes at Hampstead School of Art
and is described as having been a stripper.
She was married to Charles Thomson, one of the leaders of the Stuckists,
a group of artists led by Tracey Emin’s ex-partner, Billy Childish.
Her style and technique of painting has apparently
been greatly influenced by Thomson and Childish.
She describes her painting as deliberately bad,
"I can paint in a much more realistic, photographic style,
but I find it more interesting to make it less perfect," she said.
"I like what I call 'bad painting'" (quoted in the Daily Telegraph).

The name of the Stuckists apparently derives from Emin’s comment,
made during a row with Childish, that his painting was “stuck, stuck, stuck.”
The Stuckists believe that only strongly emotional paintings can be real art.
They despise what they consider to be both Saatchi's and Tate Gallery director
Nicholas Serota's "stranglehold" on the contemporary art market,
and think that most of the art promoted by these two is
"lost in a cul-de-sac of idiocy.”

The Storey Gallery has been loaned two of Stella Vine’s paintings
by a local collector who prefers to remain anonymous.
The paintings are: Snow White in the Forest and The Boys (William and Harry).
The collector bought them at about the same time as Saatchi,
who apparently is also interested in buying the Snow White painting.

The Boys (William and Harry)

This is the third time in the past nine months that
the Storey Gallery has paralleled Saatchi’s interests.
Last summer he was considering buying a piece in the Storey’s exhibition
by Manchester painter David Hancock.
In September the Storey held an exhibition by Simon Callery,
a London-based artist who had the distinction of having
a whole exhibition of his work bought by Saatchi before it opened,
and whose painting was included in the infamous Sensation show.

These two paintings by Stella Vine will be shown alongside
the very successful exhibition by Spacecadets
which continues until May 29.
Dogspace is a crowd of white inflatable dogs suspended in the gallery
which regularly inflate and deflate
– a cycle of birth, death and rebirth.

SOPHIE RYDER
19 June to 28 August

Sophie Ryder is an artist of international repute who lives and works in Gloucestershire.
She has exhibited widely in the UK, Canada (Vancouver, Montreal),
the USA (Chicago, New York), Eire, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Ryder makes wire and bronze sculptures, installations,
wire drawings, collages and prints.
From tiny jewel-like creatures to the monumental sculpture
for which she is best known, Sophie Ryder creates a world
in which a minotaur may dance with a flower,
and rabbits inhabit a temple. Typically, Ryder’s sculptures are
of human torsos with animal heads and, sometimes, animal limbs.
The minotaur, half-man, half-bull, and her own creation, the lady-hare,
are favourite subjects.

Ryder describes her work as “mythological, dreamlike”.
“I sculpt characters and beings - the dogs, the hares, the minotaurs -
are all characters beyond animal form.”
She has always enjoyed portraying the human body, she says,
but once you give the work a human head, it takes on a specific personality.
“I am not interested in representing animals as such - it is more about using them
to represent human emotions.” Putting an animal head on a human body, she thinks,
allows you to explore emotions without reducing themes to the individual.
“The onlooker sees what the piece is about,
rather than just what the person being portrayed is like.”

The exhibition in the Storey Gallery includes two sculptural groups,
Temple to the 200 Rabbits and Lady Hares in a Forest,
plus maquettes, drawings and prints.

This exhibition extends into Lancaster city centre
with a bronze sculpture placed next to the fountain in Market Square.
The piece, entitled Conversation, represents a life-size horse with two animal riders.

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TRICIA GILLMAN : Paintings
and
RUTH MOILLIET : Sculpture

27 September - 20 November 2004

Both these artists have been inspired by growth and botanical forms.

     

Tricia Gillman’s painting is primarily abstract, but it is clear that growth and organic forms are very important sources. Her paintings create “...an exuberant exoticism, a world ... of extraordinary encounters between mysterious half disclosed forms and lush vegetative eruptions, ... of allusive imagery in free-fall, a world where vibrant colour suggested an intensity of light, ... where peripheral flashes of tiger and zebra-like markings seemed not out of context.”
(from catalogue introduction by Keith Patrick - Jill George Gallery 1999)

Tricia Gillman has exhibited both nationally and internationally, including the Jill George Gallery, London; Arnolfini, Bristol; Gardner Centre, Brighton; John Moores, Liverpool; and British Council shows in Vienna, South Africa and the Far East. Her works are in various public and private collections. She has taught for many years at Central and St Martins Schools and the Royal College of Art.

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Ruth Moilliet makes both metal sculptures based on botanical forms, including seed heads eg dandelion and allium, and sculptural formations of flower parts pressed between multiple sheets of glass. Her work explores the strength of nature and its sustainability. She has established a reputation for sculpting in glass and metal, and using these materials to reflect the delicacy of plants and their ability to survive.

Ruth Moilliet graduated from Manchester in 2000 and has already had many exhibitions and commissions, including the Crafts Council, the Botanic Garden of Wales, Westonbirt Festival of Gardens, and the Foment de les Arts Decoratives in Barcelona. She received Best Decorative Accessory Award at the Design and Decoration Awards 2004.

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Past Exhibitions

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