West Midlands Open

Floor 3 | 20 May — 25 September 2022

The New Art Gallery Walsall is delighted to present, for the first time, the West Midlands Open, an exhibition of recent artworks in various media by artists from, or connected, to the region. The exhibition follows an open-call to West Midlands artists, including those currently attending an art school in the region or educated here in the past 10 years.

The Gallery received over 500 entries from across the region, spanning Greater Birmingham, The Black Country, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. From these, a panel of independent judges and Gallery staff selected 250 works for exhibition.

The West Midlands Open celebrates the quality, diversity and vibrancy of the local visual arts ecology and provides a platform and selling opportunity for artists in the region.

All works in the exhibition can be viewed below, ordered alphabetically by first name, and sorted via category;

Vincent Louis Stokes — An Immaculate Conception

Drawing

Vincent Louis Stokes — An Immaculate Conception

Drawing

Vincent Louis Stokes — An Immaculate Conception

Drawing ×
  • Artwork description:
    In An Immaculate Conception, the artist explores the iconography of western religious art and how its compositional devices and aesthetic principles may be employed to reconsider our perception of the everyday. In Stokes’ drawing his daughter stands upon a table yielding symbols of vitality and creativity. Beneath her sit her parents and pets who gaze with reverence. Her father strums an E chord, the first letter of his daughter’s name. Below the table are toys. With their benign smiles they assume the role of saints, bearing witness to the scene. Behind the child are photographs, scenes from her life as well as her lamented brother’s. These images denote transcendence. The stairwell to the left accentuates the motif of ascension. Beside the child stands a pelike, within which is a bouquet of tulips, a symbol of unconditional love. The pelike details the birth of Athena, goddess of wisdom.
  • Date:
    17/08/2021
  • Medium:
    pencil on paper
  • Category:
    Drawing
  • Website/s:
    https://www.vincentlstokes.com

Vivien Hew — All fur coat and no knickers

Mixed Media

Vivien Hew — All fur coat and no knickers

Mixed Media

Vivien Hew — All fur coat and no knickers

Mixed Media ×
  • Artwork description:
    ‘All fur coat and no knickers’ is a collage of my photos of Birmingham printed onto canvas overstitched with free machine embroidery ,then refined with acrylic paints . The gorilla has a real ‘fur coat’ but the title could also apply to humans. Our 1st impression is that the gorilla is a menacing presence .A more nuanced look shows an alternative possibility. The bemused gorilla is in Birmingham, inciting terror and panic amongst the inhabitants, most of whom have never actually met a gorilla but whose perceptions are based on the fake image of brutish gorillas running amok in films like ‘King Kong’. Ms Fossey, a naturalist, who lived with gorillas for 13 years, described them as’ altruistic’ ‘shy and gentle’ and also ‘one of the most maligned animals.’ The humans ‘go ape’ at the sight of this calm , passive ape, yet ,ironically ,it is the humans who pose more threat to the gorillas globally by encroaching onto their lands , poaching , and driving them to the edge of extinction.
  • Date:
    8th February 2022
  • Medium:
    Canvas , Print, Embroidery , Acrylic Paint
  • Category:
    Mixed Media
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