New Topographies

About

Julian Bovis. Renowned urban landscape artist Julian Bovis works predominantly in pen and ink on paper, producing large-format illustrations and limited-edition Giclee Prints. More recently he has produced hand drawn pieces on an i-pad. His work concentrates on the built environment with particular emphasis on repetition, graphical pattern and perspective. His recent collections have been shown at the Architects Gallery in London and Orleans House in Richmond.

Julian has created a bespoke, site-specific piece especially for the ‘New Topographies’ exhibition. Concentrating on the themes of history and regeneration, his panorama of Castlefield Basin captures the changing mood of the area as the city centre high rise towers slowly envelop their surroundings. The piece is incredibly topical given the recent and ongoing controversies surrounding certain development proposals in Manchester. Manchester art blogger Bees Blogs suggests the work “marks a little piece of Manchester’s history”.

Josie Jenkins. Using landscape or outdoor space as a subject matter, Josie depicts the physical evidence of human behaviour. She is interested in making work which brings about the emotion of wonder.

For ‘New Topographies’, Josie is showing six pieces from her Scrap series that capture the unexpected beauty of often maligned parts of our environment. Also in the show are two of Josie’s layered box pieces using reclaimed pitch pine, perspex, charcoal and ink. They offer the viewer a peep into mysterious landscapes.

Mackie (Andrew Mcintosh). Following some commercial success as a landscape painter Andrew found that “(when) I wasn’t painting landscapes I was sketching a different world. One that needed to be explored”. In 2010 Andrew relocated to London deciding to use his lifelong nickname ‘Mackie’ to pursue this new concept. He has since returned to his real name - “Just a phase”.

A breakthrough came in 2014 when Andrew won the National Open Art Competition and took part in the John Moores Painting Prize. He has had solo exhibitions Bo.Lee Gallery at Miami Pulse, The James Freeman Gallery, London and The Hayhill Gallery, London. Collections include Simmons & Simmons, selected by previous Turner Prize judge Stuart Evans; The Ivy in London; and the family of John Moores.

Andrew is showing three of his Bandstand series in ‘New Topographies’. These meticulously researched works combine images from LP covers that connect in some way to the real bandstands in which they sit. Do you recognise the album covers? (no prizes)

Mandy Payne. Mandy has taken as her muse the often maligned yet iconic Park Hill Estate in her hometown of Sheffield and incorporates the very materials of this Brutalist architecture into her representation of it. Mandy says, ‘I am particularly drawn to locations that are overlooked or neglected and I am also fascinated by the capacity of places to absorb memories and experience’. In ‘New Topographies’ Mandy is showing a large stone lithograph and block print, and two of her amazing lithographs printed on paper and mounted on her trademark concrete. We are also delighted to have a number of Mandy’s giclee prints in the racks.

Jen Orpin. Jen graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University in 1996 with a degree in Fine Art. She joined Rogue Artist Studios, Manchester in 1999 and has been painting from her studio there ever since.

As well as exhibiting in various galleries, her work has been accepted into several North West Open Art exhibitions, one of which awarded her second prize and another a commendation. Her paintings have also featured in the last three series of BBC1 drama, Last Tango in Halifax and Russell T. Davies’ Queer as Folk.

We are delighted that Jen is showing her six most recent paintings in ‘New Topographies’. These gloriously bold paintings of the Scottish Highlands capture the feelings and emotions evoked by this most magnificent natural landscape.

Olga Woszczyna. Olga is a graduate of Krakow Academy of Fine Arts, the University of Abertay, Dundee, the Institute of Arts, Media and Computer Games and the University of Wolverhampton School of Art & Design

Olga’s photographic work examines the material and texture of the built environment and traps them in the image. As Olga expresses it herself, ‘within that still and flat image I compress the thought ….. bringing another reality inside a space’.

In the three photographic works in ‘New Topographies’ Olga has captured a powerful beauty in the unexpected - a 1930’s built factory in China.