National Museums Liverpool Blog - John Moores

Ah what can you say to describe the amazing PJ Harvey? Rock star. Legend. Fan of Nick Cave. Player of Gibson Firebird guitars. The most glamorous person to come from Dorset...and now a lover of bouncy castles! Let me explain. 

PJ Harvey has been recording with her long-time collaborator John Parish and the first single from their forthcoming album will be out on 13 April. The video for this single, 'Black Hearted Love', has been made by British artists Jake and Dinos Chapman who we were pleased to have on the jury for the recent John Moores 25 Contemporary Painting Prize at the Walker Art Gallery.

The video is pretty cool I think, spooky yet graceful is what I'd say. Here's what the Chapman brothers said about it: "We decided 'Black Hearted Love' deserved something haunting and enigmatic - yet brazen and colourful. Hence, a collision between an ominous forest and a garish bouncy castle seemed entirely appropriate..." (Quote from NME.com)

Have a look and see what you think...

We've been following the progress of Kensington Youth Inclusion Project on the blog, from when they first started working on ideas based on the John Moores 25 exhibition, to doing paintings of their own with artist Keiron Finnetty, right up to now, with the final display of their paintings in the gallery at the weekend. The group have even tried their hand at Haiku and rhyming couplet poems inspired by the exhibition! We recorded their readings of these poems and they'll be available to download as a podcast on the website soon.  Here is Learning Officer Lauren Gould's final words on the work of these budding artists:

Be sure to make a trip down to the Walker to see these unique takes on paintings in the John Moores 25 exhibition before the show closes on 4 January 2009; a great way to walk off those extra Christmas calories!

Artist Keiron Finnetty with artists from the Kensington Youth Inclusion Project and Learning Officer Lauren Gould.

The public have spoken! After several weeks of voting, you have chosen Julian Brain's painting, 'Special Relativity', as the worthy winner of the Visitors' Choice Award. Julian was also chosen by this year's jurors as one of four runners up in the main John Moores 25 competition and is the only self-taught artist in the entire exhibition. 

He was at the Walker Art Gallery this morning to collect his prize. Alex Richmond from Rathbone Investment Management presented him with a cheque for £2008 to celebrate the 2008 Capital of Culture year. Julian was also given a bottle of champagne - though he said it was a bit early in the day for him to open it!

Alex Richmond (right) presents Julian Brain (left) with a cheque for £2008.

As promised in an earlier post, here's an update on the work of Kensington Youth Inclusion Group who have recently been creating their own versions of paintings from the John Moores 25 exhibition. Their interpretation of 'Black Bile' is certainly a refreshing new take on the painting, using an attractive candy pink! Here's Learning Officer Lauren Gould to tell us more...

Over four after-school sessions at the Kensington Youth Inclusion Project centre, we have created some fabulous works.  Local artist Keiron Finnetty help each of the two groups to create a large work based on some of their favourite paintings from the John Moores exhibition.

They collectively worked on a re-interpretation of 'Fontana' by Peter McDonald and 'Black Bile' by Alex Gene Morrison.  I highly recommend making a visit to the Walker Art Gallery once these unique works go on show at the beginning of December!

Each young artist then created a painting of their own, based on sketching done during their visit to the John Moores 25 exhibition in October.  This coming Saturday they will make their final visit to the Walker to write poems responding to the paintings that inspired them most. 

I'm good at making spaghetti bolognese, I'm not bad on bass guitar, but I am no good at drawing! I'm envious of anyone who's good with a pencil and we've been lucky enough to have some budding artists at the Walker Art Gallery recently, from Kensington Youth Inclusion Group. Here's Learning Officer Lauren Gould to explain what the group have been up to...

Making great art together: budding artists from the Kensington Youth Inclusion Group.

You may remember that some fantastic young artists took part in completing the 'Superfiveadaybanana' that was in the Walker Art Gallery as part of 'Go Superlambananas' over the summer.  Once again, these young people are participating in a project that will bring their work into the gallery for a unique display. 

Eleven young people from Kensington Youth Inclusion Group visited the John Moores 25 exhibition during the October half term.  They explored the exhibition looking at texture, colour, pattern and light as well as discerning the difference between abstract and figurative art.  The group focused on 'Fontana' by Peter McDonald, 'Sometimes We Sense the Doubt Together' by Roland Hicks and 'Special Relativity' by Julian Brain and explored the themes of; artists at work, everyday objects and home. Each young person did a drawing that they are going to develop into their own painting with local artist Keiron Finnetty.

Watch this space for images of their work progressing on the blog and for their paintings, which will be up in the resource area in the John Moores 25 exhibition at the end of November.

Sunday 2 November will be your last chance to vote on who you think deserves the Visitors' Choice award, from the John Moores 25 Contemporary Painting Prize exhibition. You can get a voting card at the Walker Art Gallery and have your say about who should win the prize of £2008.

Take a look at my earlier post about the Visitors' Choice award, and watch a video with some of this year's judges talking about a selection of paintings from the exhibition.

Get inspired and get voting!

Wow. What a great feeling it is to give rather than to receive, yes?! Well you have the power to help decide who will get the grand sum of £2008! All you have to do is get voting in our Visitors' Choice award for the painting you like best in the John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery.

Take a good look through the exhibition and think about which painting deserves your vote. Which one jumps out at you? Which one leaves a lasting impression? Is there one that really gets under your skin?

Once you've made your decision, just cast your vote while you're in the gallery by filling in a Visitors' Choice card by Sunday 2 November 2008.

To get you thinking, here is a video with some of our judges;  Sacha Craddock, Paul Morrison and Graham Crowley, talking about some of their favourites:

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This week saw the unveiling of the mysterious 'Arbores Laetae' or 'Joyful Trees' which started spinning near the Cains Brewery in Liverpool, to herald the run up to this year's Liverpool Biennial.  It all kicks off on 20 September, with the announcement of the winner of the John Moores 25 Contemporary Painting Prize at the Walker Art Gallery.

The creation of artists Diller Scofidio + Renfro, these spinning trees are certainly a bit spooky, but also not great if a dog decides to spend a penny nearby I think. Here is a video so you can check it out for yourself:

We're getting to the business end of the John Moores competition process - judging the paintings that made it through the first round and picking a winner from them. Chair of the judges and director of art galleries, Reyahn King, has the latest.

Paintings have been arriving from depots all over the UK to our judging venue in Liverpool over the last few weeks. Jurors arrive in the city tomorrow and I am rushing to get back to Liverpool in time myself after a trip to London. Two of our jurors, Jake and Dinos Chapman, have an exhibition on at White Cube which I went to see today - painful and painstaking revisitings of Hell - and appropriately enough new paintings. Their paintings are literal comments upon old bad paintings so I fully expect them to be tough critics in front of all the competition entries tomorrow.

I’ve just recently got slightly obsessed with Tracey Emin. It started when I picked up her diary-style book, ‘Strangeland’ from my local second-hand bookshop (Amorous Cat Bookshop, really cool). It has crept up on me, to the point where I now buy the Independent every Friday to read her column and look at the accompanying artwork. And then recycle the rest of the paper. Ignoring the celebrity element, she is pretty fascinating and now I want to find out more about her actual work. Luckily my obsession has not gone un-noticed and I was given another book about her for Christmas, so I can start to read more about what she has produced. From what I already know, her work seems to be intensely personal and her sketches are appealingly messy and haphazard looking. I’ve started taking some polaroids which are mostly blurry, messy and definitely haphazard (because I’m not very good), so maybe I’ll carry on trying with that technique!

An early attempt with my polaroid camera

 I also found out that Tracey also has strong links with Liverpool, having co-judged John Moores 24 and created the ‘bird on a pole’ bronze sculpture, which was placed outside the Anglican Cathedral in 2005. She was even immortalised in Lego form in ‘Art Craziest Nation’ by The Little Artists (John Cake and Darren Neave) in an exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery! Her latest venture in Liverpool will be a neon installation, which is due to go on display in September 2008 at the Anglican Cathedral. She is now sober and has a growing interest in religion, so I can’t wait to see what that will be like…