Shani Rhys James, Palette Knife, 1996
Distillation: 30 Years of Painting
February 14 - May 23, 2015
With events commencing at the Library at 2:30 PM, February 14.
Hosted by the National Library
Wales’ magnificent Gregynog Gallery, the largest single exhibiting space in
Wales, curated by Martin Tinney, this is a survey of work on loan from major
museums and institutions showing paintings from the last 28 years from early
Eisteddfod Gold Medal winning works, Jerwood Painting Prize winning works, to
recent large scale interiors with overwhelming wallpaper patterned grounds.
Works have been borrowed from
Arts Council England, Birmingham Museum, Jerwood Foundation, National Museum
Wales and other major institutions holding works by Shani Rhys James. This is a
survey of one of Wales’ most distinguished artists (Shani Rhys James received
an M.B.E. in 2006 for services to Welsh Art) rather than a formal retrospective
exhibition.
The exhibition will show the
gradual development from the earliest paintings of the family in the kitchen,
painted expressively on board to more painterly works based in the studio to
the iconic images of figures in tellingly symbolic spaces with their decorative
props.
Shani Rhys James, Installation view of Cassandra's Rant.
Cassandra's Rant
January 17 - March 14, 2015
With events commencing at the Museum at 12.00pm
Hosted by the unique
Ceredigion Museum based in the old Coliseum Cinema, and curated by Alice
Briggs, this is the first opportunity to see the whole series of automata
created by Shani Rhys James in 2006. Conceived by Shani Rhys James as early as
1994, she eventually created these sculptures from found and recycled parts as
a multi-media 3D experience. The automata are based on the iconic objects,
which had inhabited her paintings such as the cot, the petticoats, the dolls
house and the pram. This contemporary collection of animated sculpture will
resonate in the midst of the toys, old furniture and stuffed animals which fill
the museum’s other spaces.
The Spider, the Plants, and the Black, Black Cot
To accompany these
exhibitions a 3 volume book will be published, designed by the award-winning
Elfen in Cardiff, in February 2015. It will include colour reproductions and,
in separate volumes, individual essays by Francesca Rhydderch, Emma Geliot,
Iwan Bala, Peter Lord, Alice Briggs and with an introduction by Dai Smith,
Chair of Arts Council of Wales. Price £19.95
"Patriarchy ……… has something
to fear from the work of Shani Rhys James. Her paintings do and show things
that could only have been fully accomplished by a female creator."
-Edward
Lucie-Smith, critic, poet, artist and writer 2013
Available February 14th here.
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