Finding the connection between two art forms

A new exhibition opens today exploring the relationship between two artforms. Nick Ahad found out more.

In Leeds city centre there are two very similar, yet seemingly very different, art venues.

The Henry Moore Institute stands side by side with Leeds Art Gallery. Both house galleries open to the public, both are part of the Yorkshire sculpture trail and both have become increasingly popular with audiences over the past few years.

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However, (from the outside at least) the HMI deals with sculpture and the Leeds Art Gallery with lots of different sorts of art.

What you might not be aware of is the fact that there is a walkway that connects the two. They are not so separate after all. This connection between the two seemingly different art venues is reflected in Leeds Art Gallery’s latest exhibition.

Drawing: Sculpture, a new exhibition opening at Leeds Art Gallery tonight, looks at the long history of the relationship that exists between the two artforms.

Curated by Sarah Brown from Leeds Art Gallery and Kate Macfarlane from the Drawing Room in London, the exhibition is the first in recent years curated as a group show, made up of work drawn from the gallery’s collections.

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“We’ve had big solo shows in the last few years, most recently Fiona Rae and before that Damien Hirst, Gary Hume, and in the past five years any group shows we’ve had have been displayed as part of the Northern Art Prize,” says Brown.

“So this is the first time in a long time that we’ve pulled together an exhibition from our collection and shown people what we have.”

And what they have, is impressive. There is work from last year’s Turner Prize winner Martin Boyce, Eva Rothschild, the artist who was chosen to open the Hepworth Wakefield last year and Alice Channer.

“It’s an idea that came from a new partnership between the gallery and London’s Drawing Room,” says Brown.

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“It’s important that we have these relationships that we can build on and keep adding to our collection through. I was having a conversation with Kate from the Drawing Room about the relationship between drawing and sculpture.

“There has always been a close and connected relationship between the two. In the past while they might have been considered as two different disciplines, the exhibition shows that actually, artists don’t necessarily think in that way. If you look at someone like Alice Channer you see that the works she creates are playing with that idea of work being both sculpture and drawing at the same time.”

The exhibition is also the first time that curator Brown has been able to delve into the gallery’s collections and show off some of the treasures owned by the city, because the gallery has been the home to the Northern Art Prize and concentrated on solo shows in recent years. “It’s great to show the collection off,” she says. “I think when you see we have contemporary work from the likes of last year’s Turner Prize winner, then it’s something to be proud of.”

Show connects artists and artforms across the world

Drawing: Sculpture features a wealth of artists from the Leeds Art Gallery collection working across the world.

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Artists include Anna Barriball and Alice Channer, who work out of London, Dan Shaw-Town who works in New York and Knut Henrik Henriksen, based in Berlin.

There are also artists including last year’s Turner Prize winner Martin Boyce, Alexander Calder, Lynn Chadwick, Barry Flanagan and Alison Wilding.

Drawing:Sculpture opens today and runs until Nov 11. A conference is being held about the exhibition on Oct 25, 5pm at Leeds Art Gallery.

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