https://www.artzu.co.uk/ weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/glory-days_1511.jpg Artwork by Andrew Hunt Andrew Hunt continues to capture the public imagination with glorious paintings which reveal the innate heroism entrenched in the everyday. His captivating portraits have found him twice selected for the highly prestigious BP National Portrait Award, exhibiting at The National Portrait Gallery in London. The BBC commissioned an exciting series of paintings for the renowned 'Peaky Blinders' series and Hunt’s work is collected globally with a stellar list of famous patrons and investors. Hunt’s recent Portraits from the Market exhibition invited patrons and stall holders to participate in an impromptu studio at Sheffield Market where he created the series of portraits. The finished pieces are a celebration of northern diversity and community, whilst engendering new audiences into the artistic process. “I have lived on a terraced Sheffield street for 16 years and many of my pieces draw from Northern cultural references, I needed a space where my paintings could truly resonate with the culture and surroundings that they depict.” “truly awe-inspiring work. Hunt faithfully paints the details of people’s faces with breath-taking precision (you’re almost sure the highlights and shadows on a forehead will move as you move around the room) Every single face tells a story, every eye and blemish and expression is totally convincing.” https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/oxford-road_877.jpg Artwork by Tim Garner Tim Garner (b.1964) is a Manchester based artist who takes inspiration from his time spent between Manchester and Paris to create dynamic, avant-garde cityscapes. Working from his home studio in Stockport, Garner combines realism and gritty textures to reflect his time spent in these two exciting cities. Garner finds ways to appreciate the everyday, mundane settings and ‘anti-landmarks’ that most would take for granted day-to-day. Expanding these settings into large scale compositions, Garner uses a formula of cement, ash, metallics and iridescent paints to create texture and depth, instilling a sense of Northern identity, soul, and spirit into the surfaces he works on. This combination of tactile materials, as well as scraping and manipulating the surfaces he works on allows Garner to appropriate the dirt and grit of the city streets onto canvas, as though it would leave a residue if we were to touch it. “The very act of being creative is hopeful” Garner spent more than 20 years away from his native North West and describes rediscovering its beauty as a “constant joy”. His works certainly have an air of rekindled romance between lovers; there’s an awareness of both their blemishes and their beauty. Garner’s buildings have a ghostly, ethereal appearance which is fitting because many are probably soon to be knocked down, while others already have been. These pieces are often hazy, awoken by vivid pops of colour created through rigorous layering of cement and hand-blended paints, often building up to 30-60 layers in each piece. Each layer is embedded with metals and iridescent colours, capturing the light and creating mesmerising reflections and illusions. This process is a product of Garner's art education, which took place during a time of drastic change for art in the 20th century; focus shifted onto material and process, and artists were encouraged to explore different materials. These material contrasts in Garner's works convey the old and the new elements of the city – fostering a melancholy tone across many of his paintings. It would therefore be easy to read the images as a chronicle of urban decay, and there is certainly a hint of that, but there’s also a childlike optimism about them; one of renewal and hope. "An organised chaos" As Manchester-based art consultants, we are proud to represent Garner and his growing oeuvre which have become their own artefacts of Mancunian history. Those local to Manchester will be aware of the constant growth of the city - Garner’s paintings bring Manchester's busyness to a standstill, providing documentation of the cityscape at various moments in time. Garner's family have lived in Manchester and Salford for generations - it's no surprise that there is such an honesty within Garner’s oeuvre, comparable to the works of Lowry and Valette. Garner’s paintings are about community and identity, and provide a platform for the mundane settings that often go unseen. They are a visual commentary of Manchester's architectural changes, simultaneously embracing the old and the new. Garner works from photographs and photo collage as his structural references, whilst painting is used as a way to inject grit and emotion. Neither photography or painting alone is enough on its own for Garner - by combining the two, he has formed a harmonious and distinctive body of work. “I like the factual nature of photography, the immediacy, but it’s not enough. Paint is more emotional.” Through this unique process, Garner has established his own visual language which is an extension of the world around him, and a tool for storytelling. Garner's works are imbued with character and familiarity, particularly recognisable to Northern viewers, and enlightening to a wider audience. Any piece by Tim Garner would be an esteemed addition to any contemporary art collection, commercial space, or home. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/the-art-whisperer weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/the-art-whisperer/banner1_1430.jpg Artwork by The Art Whisperer The Art Whisperer takes us on a cultural journey into the unknown. Founder of Artzu - Nick Betney - surveys the artistic landscape and treats us to the highs and lows of the contemporary art world. Occasionally whilst riding his bike, Nick gives us an insight into the extraordinary. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/banner-1d_625.jpg Artwork by Timur D'Vatz Timur D'Vatz is a Russian artist who fuses ancient legends and symbols with modernist form and vibrant colours in his rich paintings. Born in 1968 in Moscow he studied in Republican College of Art, Tashkent in 1983-87, and between 1993-96 he attended the Post-Graduate courses at the Royal Academy Schools, London where he was awarded the Jack Goldhill and Sir James Walker Scholarships. His work continues to be highly sought after with major collections in the Middle East, Europe & the US. "I would describe my work as figurative and emblematic. The subject of the hunt is a symbolic and dynamic motif. Through the use of the elongated bodies, paintings I seek to show the exhilaration of movement within a static image. I draw my inspiration from ancient histories, early Byzantine art, medieval tapestries and mythology, because I believe that an artist will always find rejuvenation in the eternal youth of the ancients; in core ideas that do not lose meaning as time passes, but rather gain new significance with each historical transition.” He has won several awards including the Guinness prize for First Time Exhibitor at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, 1994; the A.T Kearney prize, 1996; and the B.P Portrait award at London's National Portrait Gallery, 2002. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/axel-bottenberg weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/axel-bottenberg/banner-axel_1196.jpg Artwork by Axel Bottenberg Axel Bottenberg has been working as an artist since he graduated from the Royal College of Art (RCA) in 1989, where he studied alongside such contemporary art luminaries as Tracy Emin, the Chapman brothers and Gavin Turk. He has shown in solo shows, group shows and as a curator in a variety of venues. His work references pop art of the 1960s and its re-emergence form 1990s onwards, drawing inspiration from the work of such artists as Warhol, Koons, the Chapman bothers and Banksy, along with an eclectic mix of historical art influences. Bottenberg often uses ‘low art’ iconography such as religious kitsch, tattoo and street art, purposefully selecting imagery to provoke strong responses. His works juxtapose characters such as clowns, guns and bombs against domestic wall paper fabrics, iconic golden backgrounds and other art historical references, creating kitschy or sometimes sinister undertones. Bottenberg’s use of diverse objects and materials, combined with the subject matter, creates narratives that are timeless and contemporary, whilst acknowledging long artistic traditions that use symbolism and grand themes. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/louisa-hope weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/quantum-entanglement_1591.jpg Artwork by Louisa Hope My work is a visual expression of the alchemy witnessed in nature using a range of materials that intend to be distinctive in it’s own unique creative handwriting. A process developed with the use of a range of highly textured handmade papers, foliage, sometimes bark and sand. Often the very DNA of the landscape is encapsulated in the works. Harnessing the use of oxidised metals such as copper patina and rust an element of chance is involved, hence, allowing the alchemy to present itself through the oxidisation process. My artwork is a constant unfolding of experiences, learning, spirituality and the joy found in life. I feel my life purpose is to find the beauty, highlight it, and connect others to its feeling. I believe art should nourish us and connect us to something greater, and nature provides all the inspiration. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/banner-3_1079.jpg Artwork by Stephen Farley ARBSA Stephen Farley ARBSA I had been altered visually, and so had everything that my dearly lamented stereoscopic vision had related to me. I needed help, which eventually came in the form of an art education that narrowly missed my stubborn reluctance to seek assistance. My Foundation at Bournville was an intuitive evening for some, but a lifeline for me that would herald a personal creative renaissance. With the gentle guidance of the artist Ruth Claxton and the learned encouragement of her colleagues, I consequently exploited a sensory attraction toward sculpture. My portfolio lay conspicuously empty but my sketchbook and visual diary were full of interrupted angles and views from the remote. A momentary inspiration during an embossing demonstration led to my now familiar recurring motif, aka 'spurt'. Initially a visual metaphor for an impact on the eye, this frond-like form appeared to me to be sentient. Obsessively reworking this profile to develop it's characteristics led me to intensively overlay some pieces whilst avoiding succumbing to the eschewed uniformity of repetition. The small body of work that accompanied my second year earned the attention of the trustees of Blindart - a charity set up to encourage physical exploration of tactile artworks. Three pieces were accepted for the prestigious Sense and Sensuality exhibition at London's Bankside gallery. One of those pieces is now part of the permanent collection at Moorfields Eye Hospital. More commercial work became prolific as my time at Bournville was drawing to a close. By now I had a reputation as a resin artist, but I found the term reductive because I would readily adapt any medium to hint at a liquidised perspective. The offer of a full-time place in such a historic seat of learning was a deeply considered prospect, but the most inspired enlightenment had already taken place quietly within me. More recent subjects are testimonial to my family and subsequent key influences in my formative years. Selected titles have become a travelogue of works, perhaps most notably The Reef Series inspired by travels to the Great Barrier Reef. Most recently I've exhibited more frequently at RBSA, and following numerous showings I've been elected as an associate. In summary my origins are unorthodox, implausible even, and my practise arguably more so. I believe if there's a current legacy to my timeline as described here, it's a diverse collection of distinctive reliefs and sculptures that hint at inner turmoil but insist on outer touch. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-3_1276.jpg Artwork by Karenina Fabrizzi Karenina Fabrizzi is an artist of Italian descent who now lives and works in Barcelona. Her ephemeral paintings slide into unconscious worlds where humanity and nature embody a deep sense of union. Her work is exhibited internationally with a growing reputation for organic artworks of delicate beauty. "In my work I want to bring nature closer to the observer, to connect people with their roots and memories. Organic elements are essential as they show us, like in a fairy tale, the link between the subconscious mind and the actual world. This, besides having an apparent dark side, also embodies a sense of fragility and vulnerability, which seems to be a consistent characteristic of my work. Delicate graphite lines, a subtle oil color palette, ink and rice paper all amalgamate to create layer after layer a particularly dreamy look that distinguishes my work.” Karenina Fabrizzi https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/the-happy-meal_1370.jpg Artwork by Chris Acheson Chris Acheson is a Manchester based artist who takes his main inspiration from music and cinema pop culture. He often depicts his subjects in a vivid realist style, with an exceptional ability to capture fine detail and the subtleties of light and shadow. Chris trained at Manchester Metropolitan University gaining a B.A. in Fine Art (Painting). Tackling a myriad of subjects in his work, whether that’s a cityscape, a pop culture reference, or a cinematic film still, Acheson’s paintings are vivid and exciting, often leaving us with more questions than answers. "The cinematic influence provides the visual treatment of a painting, as I seek to give the impression of a painted film still. And not just glorious Technicolor, the black and white Kitchen Sink dramas of the Sixties are particular favourites. For example, A Taste Of Honey and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, they have left a lasting impression. I suppose I am looking for A Taste Of Honey in the Greasy Spoon of life." https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/a-love-letter-to-france weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/a-love-letter-to-france/avignon-ciel-bleu-1_1612.jpg Artwork by A Love Letter to France - Tim Garner: EU Parliament, Brussels Tim Garner (b.1964) is a Manchester based artist who takes inspiration from his time spent between England and France to create dynamic, avant-garde cityscapes. Working from his home in Stockport (Greater Manchester), Garner combines realism and gritty textures to reflect his time spent in these two exiting cultures and landscapes. Garner finds ways to appreciate the everyday, mundane settings and “anti-landmarks” that most would take for granted day-to-day. He uses a formula of cement, ash, metallics and iridescent paints to create texture and depth, instilling a sense of urban identity, soul and spirit into the surfaces he works on. This combination of tactile materials, as well as scraping and manipulating the surfaces he works on, allows him to appropriate the dirt and grit of the city streets, as though it would leave a residue if we were to touch it. Given Garner’s deep and enduring connection with Paris and other parts of France, he is uniquely placed to give us his perspective on the French contemporary urban environment. But these cultural influences are not a one-way-street. You can appreciate how gritty Manchester and surrounding countryside has left their imprint on his somewhat more lyrical depiction of Paris street-life and parts further south. Garner has always photographed and painted France, alongside his work in the North West of England. He set out to study another specificity, another light, another visual identity because it is also part of his personal history. Here, each painting represents a real place, captured at an everyday moment, to observe the local to illustrate the living history of a country. Art as ever prevails, love conquers all and everyone gains from this nostalgic and personal: Love Letter to France https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/nick-coley weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/rites-of-spring_1393.jpg Artwork by Nick Coley Nick Coley (b.1956) is an artist who has developed his own unique creative toolkit, using colour and textures and sparking our senses to react. Working on glass, Perspex, and metal, Coley creates mysterious compositions, reflecting his travels to places such as Malta and Venice His work equally has clear classical influences, with figures that could easily have bestrode the shady pathways of Ancient Greece between the timeless monuments. Mythological, in their own way. His exuberant, yet judicious use of colour is especially appealing and draws you in to engage with an – often dream-like – scene and the sense of the fantastic that pervades his work. Coley draws inspiration from a close, lifelong connection to the land of the English countryside that shaped and informed him, communing with nature. “The work I’ve begun to do now is firmly rooted with a sense of place. It never struck me as important when I was younger for these associations to matter, but they do matter a great deal. I should know a lot of things about where I live, so it seems only natural as an artist I ought to make references to that knowledge. It’s like acknowledging – and paying homage – to the influence a place has upon you.” “People often say, I look like Picasso, and I take that as the highest compliment. Like Picasso I seemed to have an instinctive ability to draw, not that I would compare myself beyond that.” Nick’s technique is not easy to describe or to understand without a technical understanding of the unique and intricate processes he has created. In a way, they almost defy description and simply have to be seen. It’s hard to convey their depth and intricacy other than by seeing – and judging – for yourself. You’ll be richly rewarded for your time. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/ed-chapman weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/debbie-harry_526.jpg Artwork by Ed Chapman Ed Chapman is one of the world's leading artists working in mosaic. He has undertaken commissions for the Sony Corporation, Fender Music, Hard Rock Cafe, UNICEF, Starbucks and The Gordon Ramsey Foundation, to name just a few. His Richard Burton mosaic, commissioned by Sally Burton, was created using 500 million-year-old Welsh slate and is on permanent display at Swansea University. Ed Chapman's mosaics are now taught on the art syllabus in several schools in the UK. A book about his mosaics is due to be published with Manchester University Press raising Ed's global profile further. In 2018, his 10 mosaics portraits of the UK’s best-loved East Midlanders made using 3,000 rail tickets to emphasise the number of tickets used in a single hour – received widespread press and broadcasting coverage. In May 2016 a David Bowie mosaic in vinyl records sold for £40,000 at auction in London with a Bowie signed album and a vinyl portrait of HM The Queen Rock & Rule sold for £26,000 in September 2016. In 2011 Ed’s unique Fender plectrums portrait of Jimi Hendrix sold for £23,000 in London. In March 2016 his coins portrait of David Beckham, co-signed by the ex-England captain, sold for more than £8,000 at auction in Mayfair. He was the only contemporary artist to have work at Cancer Research’s Abbey Road auction in 2009 with a mosaic of John Lennon. In July 2016 Ed was invited to a dinner at the House of Lords for these services to charity Two of his large coin portraits Mandela and Obama went on an educational tour of the US and Canada in 2019. His mosaics have a number of high-profile collectors including foreign royalty, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Annie Lennox, Darts legend Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor, England footballers. In addition to selling mosaics worldwide, Ed has exhibited several times in London as well as in the USA and Europe. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/subwoofer weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/subwoofer_241.jpg Subwoofer by Stephen Farley ARBSA https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/ed-chapman/artwork/twiggy weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/twiggy_90.jpg Twiggy by Ed Chapman The single most iconic teenager of Swing Sixties London, Twiggy is created using vinyl records from the decade. Her androgynous, sylphlike expression has been recreated perfectly by Chapman as the moody adolescent formerly known as Lesley Hornby gazes moodily at the viewer. Made entirely from hand-cut vinyl pop records. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/archers-and-hunters weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/archers-and-hunters_1261.jpg Archers and Hunters by Timur D'Vatz A mural that looks fit for a church, this piece by Timur D'Vatz depicts 5 long-limbed figures intertwined on canvas. A Russian artist, D’Vatz’ is renowned for his large scale oil compositions which take inspiration from early Byzantine art, mythology, and medieval tapestries. Although his works look as though they're from another time, there's often modern twists within D'Vatz's works which make them totally distinctive. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/world-in-my-eyes-metalmix weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/world-in-my-eyes-metalmix_251.jpg World in My Eyes (metalmix) by Stephen Farley ARBSA https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/ed-chapman/artwork/debbie-harry weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/debbie-harry_222.jpg Debbie Harry by Ed Chapman In this beautiful mosaic of the lead singer of New Wave’s Blondie, crafted from vinyl records of the period, Chapman has created Debbie Harry in ‘Rapture’ – the portrait even includes the single of the same name – with more than a nod to another of the group’s many hits – ‘Union City Blue’. Made entirely from hand-cut vinyl pop records. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/debbie-harry_526.jpg Debbie Harry by Ed Chapman In this beautiful mosaic of the lead singer of New Wave’s Blondie, crafted from vinyl records of the period, Chapman has created Debbie Harry in ‘Rapture’ – the portrait even includes the single of the same name – with more than a nod to another of the group’s many hits – ‘Union City Blue’. Made entirely from hand-cut vinyl pop records. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/debbie-harry_522.jpg Debbie Harry by Ed Chapman In this beautiful mosaic of the lead singer of New Wave’s Blondie, crafted from vinyl records of the period, Chapman has created Debbie Harry in ‘Rapture’ – the portrait even includes the single of the same name – with more than a nod to another of the group’s many hits – ‘Union City Blue’. Made entirely from hand-cut vinyl pop records. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/great-barrier-reef-inspired-sculpture weekly https://img.youtube.com/vi/Xicxtt52jlQ/default.jpg Great Barrier Reef Inspired Sculpture by Stephen Farley Great Barrier Reef Inspired Sculpture by Stephen Farley https://www.youtube.com/embed/Xicxtt52jlQ yes https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/a-small-deviation-of-the-truth-v weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/a-small-deviation-of-the-truth-v_1464.jpg A Small Deviation of the Truth V by Karenina Fabrizzi https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/the-art-whisperer/artwork/a-personal-service-for-art-collectors-and-clients weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/the-art-whisperer/a-personal-service-for-art-collectors-and-clients_1555.jpg A Personal Service for Art Collectors and Clients by The Art Whisperer https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/the-art-whisperer/a-personal-service-for-art-collectors-and-clients_1536.jpg A Personal Service for Art Collectors and Clients by The Art Whisperer https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/the-art-whisperer/artwork/personal-art-service weekly https://img.youtube.com/vi/TDBkSMrjbiQ/default.jpg Providing a personal service for art collectors and clients Providing a personal service for art collectors and clients https://www.youtube.com/embed/TDBkSMrjbiQ yes https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/changes weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/changes_67.jpg Changes by Chris Acheson 'Changes' presents to us an intricately painted still from David Bowie's iconic 1976 film 'Man Who Fell to Earth'. In this painting, Chris Acheson has carefully portrayed Bowie's eccentric character amidst an inception of mirrors. Staring pensively at his own reflection, it is almost impossible to escape his piercing gaze. A pair of distorted eyes stare back at us, leaving us unsettled, wondering the fate of this other-wordly character... https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/nick-coley/artwork/fun-on-the-rocks weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/fun-on-the-rocks_943.jpg Fun on the Rocks! by Nick Coley Cliff diving in Malta. It's a traditional family affair! https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/tim-garner-talks-about-his-urban-landscape-paintings weekly https://img.youtube.com/vi/nn_aksH-MX8/default.jpg ARTZU - Manchester Urban Landscape artist Tim Garner talks about the Refuge painting in Manctopia ARTZU - Manchester Urban Landscape artist Tim Garner talks about the Refuge painting in Manctopia https://www.youtube.com/embed/nn_aksH-MX8 yes https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/tim-garner-talks-about-his-urban-landscape-paintings_54.jpg Tim Garner Talks About His Urban Landscape Paintings by Tim Garner https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/the-happy-meal weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/the-happy-meal_1370.jpg The Happy Meal by Chris Acheson This dystopian, cinematic composition is part of Chris Acheson's latest 'Americana' series. A tale told through a technicolour lens, 'Happy Meal' displays the human blots which are often left behind on the landscape, and the detrimental impact of major corporations on the environment. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/the-happy-meal_1366.jpg The Happy Meal by Chris Acheson This dystopian, cinematic composition is part of Chris Acheson's latest 'Americana' series. A tale told through a technicolour lens, 'Happy Meal' displays the human blots which are often left behind on the landscape, and the detrimental impact of major corporations on the environment. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/the-happy-meal_1368.jpg The Happy Meal by Chris Acheson This dystopian, cinematic composition is part of Chris Acheson's latest 'Americana' series. A tale told through a technicolour lens, 'Happy Meal' displays the human blots which are often left behind on the landscape, and the detrimental impact of major corporations on the environment. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/the-happy-meal_1367.jpg The Happy Meal by Chris Acheson This dystopian, cinematic composition is part of Chris Acheson's latest 'Americana' series. A tale told through a technicolour lens, 'Happy Meal' displays the human blots which are often left behind on the landscape, and the detrimental impact of major corporations on the environment. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/the-happy-meal_1369.jpg The Happy Meal by Chris Acheson This dystopian, cinematic composition is part of Chris Acheson's latest 'Americana' series. A tale told through a technicolour lens, 'Happy Meal' displays the human blots which are often left behind on the landscape, and the detrimental impact of major corporations on the environment. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/a-small-deviation-of-the-truth-iv weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/a-small-deviation-of-the-truth-iv_1465.jpg A Small Deviation of the Truth IV by Karenina Fabrizzi https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/ed-chapman/artwork/the-krays weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/the-krays_535.jpg The Krays by Ed Chapman David Bailey’s classic photo-portrait of London East End gangsters Reggie and Ronnie Kray – in colour! Not only that, Ed Chapman’s mosaic employs hand-cut vinyl records from the 1960s when the twins were at their terrifying height. Subtle baby pinks and blues being the order of the day, yet not lessening the impact their mutual menacing stares at any viewer. Made entirely from hand-cut vinyl pop records. Commissions are available on request. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/birds-i weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/birds-i_97.jpg Birds I by Timur D'Vatz https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/hunter-with-red-stag weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/hunter-with-red-stag_107.jpg Hunter with Red Stag by Timur D'Vatz https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/jaws weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/jaws_71.jpg Jaws by Chris Acheson This multifaceted painting by Chris Acheson gives us a glimpse into the artist’s eclectic imagination. We are presented with two mannequins in a shop window in Soho; one swept into the grip of a shark’s mouth, and the other in a fleeting whirlpool. With pop cultural references and eclectic visual juxtapositions, this painting is a real wild ride. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/the-art-whisperer/artwork/macdonaldland weekly https://img.youtube.com/vi/OYiJCU97Ahg/default.jpg MacDonaldland - A Decade of Obsession Axel Bottenberg has evolved a tongue-in-cheek love affair with the weird and wonderful Ronald! The Art Whisperer explores this punchy and humorous exhibition that certainly delivers a cultural punch. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/axel-bottenberg https://www.youtube.com/embed/OYiJCU97Ahg yes https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/the-art-whisperer/artwork/interface-installation-clerkenwell-design-week weekly https://img.youtube.com/vi/RgEqEItRBcY/default.jpg YouTube Video Interface’s installation at Clerkenwell Design Week takes you on a visual journey of the company’s history – from petroleum-intensive flooring manufacturer to global leader in climate conscious design and manufacture. https://www.youtube.com/embed/RgEqEItRBcY yes https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/the-art-whisperer/artwork/surprise-photographic-exhibition-found-in-noto-sicily weekly https://img.youtube.com/vi/Kn-60uY8x2o/default.jpg YouTube Video The Art Whisperer glances into the private photographic collection of the wealthy Landolina family. In a specially dedicated art space of the Landolina Palace Hotel, featuring work by British photographer Terence Patrick O'Neill CBE, German-Australian photographer Helmut Newton and the Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist Sebastião Salgado. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Kn-60uY8x2o yes https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/squadron-leader weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/squadron-leader_1371.jpg Squadron Leader by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/samurai-armour-1 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/samurai-armour-1_1466.jpg Samurai Armour 1 by Karenina Fabrizzi https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/the-enablers weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/the-enablers_240.jpg The Enablers by Stephen Farley ARBSA Framed, steel https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/down-the-albion weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/down-the-albion_449.jpg Down The Albion by Chris Acheson https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/tap-room weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/tap-room_1061.jpg Tap Room by Andrew Hunt A commissioned piece by Andrew Hunt, 'Tap Room' depicts three friends in a typical British pub setting. Hunt has even included their Lakeland terrier - this is a jovial piece which is full of spirit and human activity - 'Tap Room' undoubtedly has a story to tell. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/samurai-armour-2 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/samurai-armour-2_1467.jpg Samurai Armour 2 by Karenina Fabrizzi https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/other-dimensional-self-001-part-ii weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-001-part-ii_1468.jpg Other Dimensional Self 001, Part II by Karenina Fabrizzi https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/the-art-whisperer/artwork/celebrate-25-years-with-artzu- weekly https://img.youtube.com/vi/2iUn4XnicqI/default.jpg YouTube Video YouTube Video https://www.youtube.com/embed/2iUn4XnicqI yes https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/falconers-2021 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/falconers-2021_1262.jpg Falconers (2021) by Timur D'Vatz Who are these long-limbed figures? Where are they going? This decorative, intricate piece by Timur D'Vatz is painted in the artist's distinctive signature style, which nods to early Byzantine and medieval art. 'Falconers' presents to us a scene of three figures and two falcons - perhaps they are on a journey of self discovery? https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/the-art-whisperer/artwork/those-bloody-pink-shoes weekly https://img.youtube.com/vi/Rom5vlA8_6U/default.jpg YouTube Video Make sure you watch the end.....for the dramatic fall from grace! Calamitous goings on when The Art Whisperer tries to negotiate a pair of high heeled shoes. 'Walk' by artist Ellie Higgins investigate women's (in)ability to move freely in city spaces through her interactive artwork at the Manchester School of Art. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Rom5vlA8_6U yes https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/other-dimensional-self-001-part-i weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-001-part-i_1469.jpg Other Dimensional Self 001, Part I by Karenina Fabrizzi https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/mantle weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/mantle_439.jpg Mantle by Tim Garner Placed at a bird's eye view, Tim Garner presents to us a 'Mantle' of Manchester city centre beneath a daunting sky. The iconic Beetham Tower looms in the distance, as we step over an array of juxtaposing historic and new builds. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/nick-coley/artwork/the-fishermans-prayer weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/the-fishermans-prayer_59.jpg The Fisherman's Prayer by Nick Coley He puts his faith in God, and trusts in himself to return. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/game-over weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/game-over_1066.jpg Game Over by Andrew Hunt An impressively photorealistic composition, ‘Game Over’ by Sheffield-based artist Andrew Hunt gives us a painted glimpse into the everyday British Landscape. Imbued with character, Hunt’s works tell a story, and seek to show the “Innate heroism enriched in the everyday”. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/axel-bottenberg/artwork/duck-shoot weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/axel-bottenberg/duck-shoot_738.jpg Duck Shoot by Axel Bottenberg Can you hear the sound of the gunshot? An older piece within Axel Bottenberg's collection, 'Duck Shoot' is the artist's ode to Manchester, told through a total cultural mash-up with Pop Art icon Roy Lichtenstein. A recurring motif, the duck is a direct reference to tv soap Coronation Street, and to English working class culture. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/nick-coley/artwork/nile-boogie weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/nile-boogie_945.jpg Nile Boogie by Nick Coley My hieroglyph, the delta, the deities, the abundance of the past... 'Nile Boogie' portrays four playful figures in a blazing hot Egyptian setting, dancing amidst a multicoloured whirlwind. "My hieroglyph, the delta, the deities, the abundance of the past..." - Nick Coley https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/ed-chapman/artwork/jimi-in-plectrums weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/jimi-in-plectrums_533.jpg Jimi in Plectrums by Ed Chapman Mosaic of Jimi Hendrix made from more than 5,000 different coloured Fender guitar plectrums. The money raised from the sale went to Cancer Research UK. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/the-art-whisperer/artwork/when-was-the-last-time-you-felt-emotional-when-you-looked-at-a-piece-of-art-the-art-whisperer-invites-us-to-recollect-a-memory-that-triggers-a-response weekly https://img.youtube.com/vi/IWkYERDdoeE/default.jpg Emotions with Art - A Human Response Emotions with Art - A Human Response https://www.youtube.com/embed/IWkYERDdoeE yes https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/other-dimensional-self weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self_1266.jpg Other Dimensional Self 1 by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Other Dimensional Self' represents a breakthrough of self discovery - in realising our power, and the layers within us which make us human. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self_1268.jpg Other Dimensional Self 1 by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Other Dimensional Self' represents a breakthrough of self discovery - in realising our power, and the layers within us which make us human. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self_1267.jpg Other Dimensional Self 1 by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Other Dimensional Self' represents a breakthrough of self discovery - in realising our power, and the layers within us which make us human. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self_1269.jpg Other Dimensional Self 1 by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Other Dimensional Self' represents a breakthrough of self discovery - in realising our power, and the layers within us which make us human. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/manchester-skyline-an-urban-reality weekly https://img.youtube.com/vi/p9tYGt12LCY/default.jpg Manchester Skyline: Painting Reality Manchester Skyline: Painting Reality https://www.youtube.com/embed/p9tYGt12LCY yes https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/the-art-whisperer/artwork/rio-ferdinands-world-cup-wind-ups-with-david-james weekly https://img.youtube.com/vi/fwV_kQLfGu0/default.jpg Rio Ferdinand's World Cup Wind Ups (David James) Rio Ferdinand's World Cup Wind Ups (David James) https://www.youtube.com/embed/fwV_kQLfGu0 yes https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/a-small-deviation-of-the-truth-vi weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/a-small-deviation-of-the-truth-vi_1463.jpg A Small Deviation of the Truth VI by Karenina Fabrizzi https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/other-dimensional-self-2 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-2_1270.jpg Other Dimensional Self 2 by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Other Dimensional Self' represents a breakthrough of self discovery - in realising our power, and the layers within us which make us human. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-2_1274.jpg Other Dimensional Self 2 by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Other Dimensional Self' represents a breakthrough of self discovery - in realising our power, and the layers within us which make us human. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-2_1271.jpg Other Dimensional Self 2 by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Other Dimensional Self' represents a breakthrough of self discovery - in realising our power, and the layers within us which make us human. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-2_1272.jpg Other Dimensional Self 2 by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Other Dimensional Self' represents a breakthrough of self discovery - in realising our power, and the layers within us which make us human. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-2_1273.jpg Other Dimensional Self 2 by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Other Dimensional Self' represents a breakthrough of self discovery - in realising our power, and the layers within us which make us human. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/spring-beauty weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/spring-beauty_1462.jpg Spring Beauty by Karenina Fabrizzi https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/shield-of-she weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/shield-of-she_1539.jpg Shield of She by Stephen Farley ARBSA As the title infers 'Shield of She' exists in awe of female resilience. As a male artist it's an engendered strength I can never fully understand or entirely appreciate. But I can envisage what protection a mother can summon to keep her children safe. The trigger for this piece was learning of the term 'Shield Maiden' during a conversation about Nordic folklore with a female health professional. It set my imagination toward thinking what emotional barriers are needed to deflect the everyday trauma of a hospital shift. Shield of She by Stephen Farley ARBSA won 1st prize at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Summer Show. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/shield-of-she_1541.jpg Shield of She by Stephen Farley ARBSA As the title infers 'Shield of She' exists in awe of female resilience. As a male artist it's an engendered strength I can never fully understand or entirely appreciate. But I can envisage what protection a mother can summon to keep her children safe. The trigger for this piece was learning of the term 'Shield Maiden' during a conversation about Nordic folklore with a female health professional. It set my imagination toward thinking what emotional barriers are needed to deflect the everyday trauma of a hospital shift. Shield of She by Stephen Farley ARBSA won 1st prize at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Summer Show. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/shield-of-she_1538.jpg Shield of She by Stephen Farley ARBSA As the title infers 'Shield of She' exists in awe of female resilience. As a male artist it's an engendered strength I can never fully understand or entirely appreciate. But I can envisage what protection a mother can summon to keep her children safe. The trigger for this piece was learning of the term 'Shield Maiden' during a conversation about Nordic folklore with a female health professional. It set my imagination toward thinking what emotional barriers are needed to deflect the everyday trauma of a hospital shift. Shield of She by Stephen Farley ARBSA won 1st prize at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Summer Show. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/shield-of-she_1537.jpg Shield of She by Stephen Farley ARBSA As the title infers 'Shield of She' exists in awe of female resilience. As a male artist it's an engendered strength I can never fully understand or entirely appreciate. But I can envisage what protection a mother can summon to keep her children safe. The trigger for this piece was learning of the term 'Shield Maiden' during a conversation about Nordic folklore with a female health professional. It set my imagination toward thinking what emotional barriers are needed to deflect the everyday trauma of a hospital shift. Shield of She by Stephen Farley ARBSA won 1st prize at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Summer Show. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/shield-of-she_1540.jpg Shield of She by Stephen Farley ARBSA As the title infers 'Shield of She' exists in awe of female resilience. As a male artist it's an engendered strength I can never fully understand or entirely appreciate. But I can envisage what protection a mother can summon to keep her children safe. The trigger for this piece was learning of the term 'Shield Maiden' during a conversation about Nordic folklore with a female health professional. It set my imagination toward thinking what emotional barriers are needed to deflect the everyday trauma of a hospital shift. Shield of She by Stephen Farley ARBSA won 1st prize at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Summer Show. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/shield-of-she_1543.jpg Shield of She by Stephen Farley ARBSA As the title infers 'Shield of She' exists in awe of female resilience. As a male artist it's an engendered strength I can never fully understand or entirely appreciate. But I can envisage what protection a mother can summon to keep her children safe. The trigger for this piece was learning of the term 'Shield Maiden' during a conversation about Nordic folklore with a female health professional. It set my imagination toward thinking what emotional barriers are needed to deflect the everyday trauma of a hospital shift. Shield of She by Stephen Farley ARBSA won 1st prize at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Summer Show. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/other-dimensional-self-3 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-3_1278.jpg Other Dimensional Self 3 by Karenina Fabrizzi https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-3_1275.jpg Other Dimensional Self 3 by Karenina Fabrizzi https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-3_1277.jpg Other Dimensional Self 3 by Karenina Fabrizzi https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-3_1276.jpg Other Dimensional Self 3 by Karenina Fabrizzi https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/spitfire-girls weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/spitfire-girls_1071.jpg Spitfire Girls by Stephen Farley ARBSA At first glance, this artwork by Birmingham-based artist Stephen Farley appears minimal, but it is nonetheless imbued with personal and cultural meaning. Made using a combination of ceramics, resin and intaglio engraving, this piece is a commemoration to the unsung working-class people during the Second World War, who would have spent most of their lives working in factories. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/spitfire-girls_1069.jpg Spitfire Girls by Stephen Farley ARBSA At first glance, this artwork by Birmingham-based artist Stephen Farley appears minimal, but it is nonetheless imbued with personal and cultural meaning. Made using a combination of ceramics, resin and intaglio engraving, this piece is a commemoration to the unsung working-class people during the Second World War, who would have spent most of their lives working in factories. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/spitfire-girls_1067.jpg Spitfire Girls by Stephen Farley ARBSA At first glance, this artwork by Birmingham-based artist Stephen Farley appears minimal, but it is nonetheless imbued with personal and cultural meaning. Made using a combination of ceramics, resin and intaglio engraving, this piece is a commemoration to the unsung working-class people during the Second World War, who would have spent most of their lives working in factories. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/spitfire-girls_1070.jpg Spitfire Girls by Stephen Farley ARBSA At first glance, this artwork by Birmingham-based artist Stephen Farley appears minimal, but it is nonetheless imbued with personal and cultural meaning. Made using a combination of ceramics, resin and intaglio engraving, this piece is a commemoration to the unsung working-class people during the Second World War, who would have spent most of their lives working in factories. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/spitfire-girls_1072.jpg Spitfire Girls by Stephen Farley ARBSA At first glance, this artwork by Birmingham-based artist Stephen Farley appears minimal, but it is nonetheless imbued with personal and cultural meaning. Made using a combination of ceramics, resin and intaglio engraving, this piece is a commemoration to the unsung working-class people during the Second World War, who would have spent most of their lives working in factories. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/spitfire-girls_1068.jpg Spitfire Girls by Stephen Farley ARBSA At first glance, this artwork by Birmingham-based artist Stephen Farley appears minimal, but it is nonetheless imbued with personal and cultural meaning. Made using a combination of ceramics, resin and intaglio engraving, this piece is a commemoration to the unsung working-class people during the Second World War, who would have spent most of their lives working in factories. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/the-holy-man weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/the-holy-man_1347.jpg The Holy Man by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/the-holy-man_1346.jpg The Holy Man by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/the-holy-man_1345.jpg The Holy Man by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/axel-bottenberg/artwork/dr-jk weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/axel-bottenberg/dr-jk_735.jpg Dr JK by Axel Bottenberg In 'Dr JK', Jeff Koons juggles his famous basketballs, against a backdrop of the American dream. Carefully engineered with a combination of plywood and printed canvas, this multifaceted artwork by Axel Bottenberg is the perfect ode to Koons, who is one of Bottenberg's major influences. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/axel-bottenberg/dr-jk_734.jpg Dr JK by Axel Bottenberg In 'Dr JK', Jeff Koons juggles his famous basketballs, against a backdrop of the American dream. Carefully engineered with a combination of plywood and printed canvas, this multifaceted artwork by Axel Bottenberg is the perfect ode to Koons, who is one of Bottenberg's major influences. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/archer weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/archer_1474.jpg Archer by Timur D'Vatz https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/ed-chapman/artwork/marilyn-goddess weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/marilyn-goddess_213.jpg Marilyn Goddess by Ed Chapman In this alluring and arresting mosaic portrait of Marilyn Monroe, Ed Chapman has captured her in a vulnerable light, using, of all things, thousands of Euro one cents as his material of choice. The accurate placing of the miniscule coins and the effects they provide, has resulted in a sepia style, reflecting the legendary actress’s mercurial nature both on and off screen. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/marilyn-goddess_214.jpg Marilyn Goddess by Ed Chapman In this alluring and arresting mosaic portrait of Marilyn Monroe, Ed Chapman has captured her in a vulnerable light, using, of all things, thousands of Euro one cents as his material of choice. The accurate placing of the miniscule coins and the effects they provide, has resulted in a sepia style, reflecting the legendary actress’s mercurial nature both on and off screen. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/invaders-of-old weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/invaders-of-old_1518.jpg Invaders of Old by Stephen Farley ARBSA A seismic event in my early teens was going into a chip shop and leaving it having seen the future alongside my by now stone cold chips. It was the silicon chip that would now dominate every lifestyle. The Space Invaders console in the corner had every kid distracted from their post-industrial surplus to employment requirements fate. Other coin ops would follow of course but this illuminated sentinel emitting the synthetic sounds of tomorrow was the emissary of celebratory misspent youth and pocket money. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/invaders-of-old_1517.jpg Invaders of Old by Stephen Farley ARBSA A seismic event in my early teens was going into a chip shop and leaving it having seen the future alongside my by now stone cold chips. It was the silicon chip that would now dominate every lifestyle. The Space Invaders console in the corner had every kid distracted from their post-industrial surplus to employment requirements fate. Other coin ops would follow of course but this illuminated sentinel emitting the synthetic sounds of tomorrow was the emissary of celebratory misspent youth and pocket money. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/invaders-of-old_1519.jpg Invaders of Old by Stephen Farley ARBSA A seismic event in my early teens was going into a chip shop and leaving it having seen the future alongside my by now stone cold chips. It was the silicon chip that would now dominate every lifestyle. The Space Invaders console in the corner had every kid distracted from their post-industrial surplus to employment requirements fate. Other coin ops would follow of course but this illuminated sentinel emitting the synthetic sounds of tomorrow was the emissary of celebratory misspent youth and pocket money. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/other-dimensional-self-4 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-4_1279.jpg Other Dimensional Self 4 by Karenina Fabrizzi https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-4_1280.jpg Other Dimensional Self 4 by Karenina Fabrizzi https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/furnival weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/furnival_1351.jpg Furnival by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/furnival_1354.jpg Furnival by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/furnival_1352.jpg Furnival by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/furnival_1353.jpg Furnival by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/other-dimensional-self-6 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-6_1286.jpg Other Dimensional Self 6 by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Other Dimensional Self' represents a breakthrough of self discovery - in realising our power, and the layers within us which make us human. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-6_1288.jpg Other Dimensional Self 6 by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Other Dimensional Self' represents a breakthrough of self discovery - in realising our power, and the layers within us which make us human. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-6_1285.jpg Other Dimensional Self 6 by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Other Dimensional Self' represents a breakthrough of self discovery - in realising our power, and the layers within us which make us human. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-6_1287.jpg Other Dimensional Self 6 by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Other Dimensional Self' represents a breakthrough of self discovery - in realising our power, and the layers within us which make us human. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/roundel-reef weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/roundel-reef_211.jpg Roundel Reef by Stephen Farley ARBSA 'Roundel Reef' is another piece in Stephen Farley's Great Barrier Reef series. This composition stands out amongst others in the collection for its use of RAF roundel motifs, and is imbued with both cultural and personal meaning. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/roundel-reef_210.jpg Roundel Reef by Stephen Farley ARBSA 'Roundel Reef' is another piece in Stephen Farley's Great Barrier Reef series. This composition stands out amongst others in the collection for its use of RAF roundel motifs, and is imbued with both cultural and personal meaning. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/tristan-isolde weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/tristan-isolde_123.jpg Tristan & Isolde by Timur D'Vatz https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/falconers-triptych weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/falconers-triptych_1476.jpg Falconers Triptych by Timur D'Vatz https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/nothing-but-a-hand-dog weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/emnonwodog_661.jpg Nothing But A Hand Dog by Stephen Farley ARBSA In this semi-abstract composition by Birmingham-based artist Stephen Farley, the boundaries of physical and digital art have been crossed, resulting in a hectic composition which challenges the eye. Made using resin, 'Nothing But a Hand Dog' is an ode to Farley's late dog - this is a melancholy piece which is imbued with personal meaning, with a subtle nod to pop culture. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/emnonwodog_662.jpg Nothing But A Hand Dog by Stephen Farley ARBSA In this semi-abstract composition by Birmingham-based artist Stephen Farley, the boundaries of physical and digital art have been crossed, resulting in a hectic composition which challenges the eye. Made using resin, 'Nothing But a Hand Dog' is an ode to Farley's late dog - this is a melancholy piece which is imbued with personal meaning, with a subtle nod to pop culture. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/emnonwodog_660.jpg Nothing But A Hand Dog by Stephen Farley ARBSA In this semi-abstract composition by Birmingham-based artist Stephen Farley, the boundaries of physical and digital art have been crossed, resulting in a hectic composition which challenges the eye. Made using resin, 'Nothing But a Hand Dog' is an ode to Farley's late dog - this is a melancholy piece which is imbued with personal meaning, with a subtle nod to pop culture. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/other-dimensional-self-5 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-5_1283.jpg Other Dimensional Self 5 by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Other Dimensional Self' represents a breakthrough of self discovery - in realising our power, and the layers within us which make us human. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-5_1284.jpg Other Dimensional Self 5 by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Other Dimensional Self' represents a breakthrough of self discovery - in realising our power, and the layers within us which make us human. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-5_1282.jpg Other Dimensional Self 5 by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Other Dimensional Self' represents a breakthrough of self discovery - in realising our power, and the layers within us which make us human. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-5_1281.jpg Other Dimensional Self 5 by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Other Dimensional Self' represents a breakthrough of self discovery - in realising our power, and the layers within us which make us human. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/offshore-rapport weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/offshore-rapport_231.jpg Offshore Rapport by Stephen Farley ARBSA "Plunging off the back of the ship, I was now immediately immersed in a mesmeric undersea landscape. Each day three places would be chosen and this was the last dive of the last day before the monsoons closed in." This multidimensional wall sculpture by Birmingham-based artist Stephen Farley is an abstract take on the breath-taking Great Barrier Reef. Made using layers upon layers of resin, this tactile artwork appears as though it is mushrooming from its surface, and is a visual reflection of Farley’s fluid, intuitive approach to making art. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/offshore-rapport_232.jpg Offshore Rapport by Stephen Farley ARBSA "Plunging off the back of the ship, I was now immediately immersed in a mesmeric undersea landscape. Each day three places would be chosen and this was the last dive of the last day before the monsoons closed in." This multidimensional wall sculpture by Birmingham-based artist Stephen Farley is an abstract take on the breath-taking Great Barrier Reef. Made using layers upon layers of resin, this tactile artwork appears as though it is mushrooming from its surface, and is a visual reflection of Farley’s fluid, intuitive approach to making art. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/a-small-deviation-of-the-truth-2 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/a-small-deviation-of-the-truth-1_1289.jpg A Small Deviation of the Truth 2 by Karenina Fabrizzi https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/a-small-deviation-of-the-truth-1_1290.jpg A Small Deviation of the Truth 2 by Karenina Fabrizzi https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/archer-the-red-horse weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/archer-the-red-horse_1477.jpg Archer & the Red Horse by Timur D'Vatz https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/smoking-miner weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/smoking-miner_1355.jpg Smoking Miner by Andrew Hunt 'Smoking Miner' is part of a series of portraits of miners by figurative painter Andrew Hunt. These large scale, charcoal compositions pay ode to the British mining community, who played an integral part of the fabric of Sheffield, and the rest of the UK. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/water-lilies weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/water-lilies_1478.jpg Water Lilies by Timur D'Vatz https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/ladytron weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/ladytron_85.jpg Ladytron by Chris Acheson Signed, limited edition print available in an edition of 30. Chris Acheson’s ‘Mannequin’ series, ‘Ladytron’ is gives us a glimpse into a shop window in Soho. With the abstract faded reflections and vivid colour palette, this piece gives us an insight into the brilliant and eclectic mind of the artist. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/winnie-george weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/winnie-george_1359.jpg Winnie & George by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/moor-pat weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/moor-pat_1557.jpg Moor Pat by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/moor-pat_1558.jpg Moor Pat by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/moor-pat_1559.jpg Moor Pat by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/el-syd weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/el-syd_1551.jpg El Syd by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/el-syd_1549.jpg El Syd by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/el-syd_1550.jpg El Syd by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/el-syd_1548.jpg El Syd by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/el-syd_1545.jpg El Syd by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/louisa-hope/artwork/alchemy weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/alchemy_1567.jpg Alchemy by Louisa Hope https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/fina-malt-ales weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/fina-malt-ales_1356.jpg Fina Malt Ales by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/sun-in-haze weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/sun-in-haze_1607.jpg Sun In Haze by Tim Garner https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/a-small-deviation-of-the-truth-1 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/a-small-deviation-of-the-truth-2_1292.jpg A Small Deviation of the Truth 1 by Karenina Fabrizzi This 2-part series by Karenina Fabrizzi is part of her more recent works, titled 'A Small Deviation of the Truth (1&2)'. Two fragmented figures are presented face to face, deep in thought. Caught in a moment of self reflection - are they confronting each other, or perhaps themselves? https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/a-small-deviation-of-the-truth-2_1291.jpg A Small Deviation of the Truth 1 by Karenina Fabrizzi This 2-part series by Karenina Fabrizzi is part of her more recent works, titled 'A Small Deviation of the Truth (1&2)'. Two fragmented figures are presented face to face, deep in thought. Caught in a moment of self reflection - are they confronting each other, or perhaps themselves? https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/remake-remodel weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/remake-remodel_86.jpg Re-Make Re-Model by Chris Acheson Signed, limited edition print available in an edition of 30. Another work from Chris Acheson’s ‘Mannequin’ series, ‘Re-Make Re-Model’ gives us another look into a shop window in Soho. With the abstract faded reflections and vivid colour palette, this piece provides an insight into the brilliant and eclectic mind of the artist. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/red-van-northern-quarter weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/red-van-northern-quarter_1255.jpg Red Van, Northern Quarter by Tim Garner Another piece within Tim Garner's Northern Quarter series, 'Red, Van, Northern Quarter' offers us a bird's eye view into a bustling city street within Manchester's beloved Northern Quarter. As viewers, we are placed floating above the dynamic street below, observant yet detached - we can hear the cars moving around us, we can feel the rhythm of the city. A red van draws our eye to the centre - where could it be going? https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/nick-coley/artwork/path-to-a-chapel weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/path-to-a-chapel_64.jpg Path to a Chapel by Nick Coley My wife Theresa, in the windy month of May, sands of the Sahara whipped across the Mediterranean, to my nephew's wedding. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/golden-dear-chase weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/golden-dear-chase_889.jpg Golden Dear Chase by Timur D'Vatz In a warm, inviting palette of golds, reds, and rust, Timur D'Vatz' 'Golden Dear Chase' presents to us a journey, a hunt of some kind. Three slim figures stand tall, as 4 creatures run below them. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/louisa-hope/artwork/glimmer weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/glimmer_1595.jpg Glimmer by Louisa Hope https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/glimmer_1570.jpg Glimmer by Louisa Hope https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/george-ikea-commission weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/george-ikea-commission_1357.jpg George (Ikea Commission) by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/louisa-hope/artwork/breathe weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/breathe_1568.jpg Breathe by Louisa Hope https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/nick-coley/artwork/beachcomers weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/beachcomers_57.jpg Beachcomers by Nick Coley Under a brooding sky they collect what they can to survive. This moody yet electric composition by Nick Coley presents to us a brooding sky and a red-hot desert. Abstracted figures wander along this piece – who are they? Where have they come from? Imbued with red-hot urgency, the cool blue skies give us a sigh of relief. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/other-dimensional-self-8 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-7_1295.jpg Other Dimensional Self 8 by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Other Dimensional Self' represents a breakthrough of self discovery - in realising our power, and the layers within us which make us human. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-7_1294.jpg Other Dimensional Self 8 by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Other Dimensional Self' represents a breakthrough of self discovery - in realising our power, and the layers within us which make us human. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-7_1293.jpg Other Dimensional Self 8 by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Other Dimensional Self' represents a breakthrough of self discovery - in realising our power, and the layers within us which make us human. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/louisa-hope/artwork/clearer-on-reflection weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/clearer-on-reflection_1576.jpg Clearer on Reflection by Louisa Hope https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/insects-4 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/insects-4_272.jpg Insects 4 by Karenina Fabrizzi This enchanting circular composition by Karenina Fabrizzi is part of the artist's 'Insects' series, and takes its inspiration from vintage images of insects, particularly bees. Embellished with gold leaf, this mirror image merges botanical imagery and wildlife in a metallic palette, inviting us into Fabrizzi’s dream world. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/efficacious-ecstacy weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/efficacious-ecstacy_659.jpg Efficacious Ecstacy by Stephen Farley ARBSA https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/efficacious-ecstacy_658.jpg Efficacious Ecstacy by Stephen Farley ARBSA https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/urban-grace-ii weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/urban-grace-ii_1360.jpg Urban Grace II by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/other-dimensional-self-1 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-1_1319.jpg Le Voyage Fantastique (1) by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Le Voyage Fantastique' is a brand new series of contemporary paintings by Karenina Fabrizzi. The paintings explore themes of self discovery, the depth of the human condition and nature. “I really like the direction all these new pieces are taking, they’re more refined, detailed, and really elegant – I’m really pleased with the result” https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-1_1334.jpg Le Voyage Fantastique (1) by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Le Voyage Fantastique' is a brand new series of contemporary paintings by Karenina Fabrizzi. The paintings explore themes of self discovery, the depth of the human condition and nature. “I really like the direction all these new pieces are taking, they’re more refined, detailed, and really elegant – I’m really pleased with the result” https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-1_1322.jpg Le Voyage Fantastique (1) by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Le Voyage Fantastique' is a brand new series of contemporary paintings by Karenina Fabrizzi. The paintings explore themes of self discovery, the depth of the human condition and nature. “I really like the direction all these new pieces are taking, they’re more refined, detailed, and really elegant – I’m really pleased with the result” https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-1_1339.jpg Le Voyage Fantastique (1) by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Le Voyage Fantastique' is a brand new series of contemporary paintings by Karenina Fabrizzi. The paintings explore themes of self discovery, the depth of the human condition and nature. “I really like the direction all these new pieces are taking, they’re more refined, detailed, and really elegant – I’m really pleased with the result” https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-1_1323.jpg Le Voyage Fantastique (1) by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Le Voyage Fantastique' is a brand new series of contemporary paintings by Karenina Fabrizzi. The paintings explore themes of self discovery, the depth of the human condition and nature. “I really like the direction all these new pieces are taking, they’re more refined, detailed, and really elegant – I’m really pleased with the result” https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/louisa-hope/artwork/stark weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/stark_1572.jpg Stark by Louisa Hope https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/overwoven weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/overwoven_209.jpg Overwoven by Stephen Farley ARBSA https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/overwoven_208.jpg Overwoven by Stephen Farley ARBSA https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/son-of-dog weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/son-of-dog_244.jpg Son of Dog by Stephen Farley ARBSA https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/the-wire weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/the-wire_250.jpg The Wire by Stephen Farley ARBSA https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/atoll-idyll weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/atoll-idyll_238.jpg Atoll Idyll by Stephen Farley ARBSA https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/rear-window-123-a-taste-of-honey-series weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/rear-window-123-a-taste-of-honey-series_81.jpg Rear Window 1,2,3 (A Taste of Honey Series) by Chris Acheson https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/sharp-bend-in-the-road weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/sharp-bend-in-the-road_84.jpg Sharp Bend in the Road by Chris Acheson https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/sappho weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/sappho_74.jpg Sappho by Chris Acheson https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/prosser-street-a-taste-of-honey-series weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/prosser-street-a-taste-of-honey-series_80.jpg Prosser Street (A Taste of Honey Series) by Chris Acheson https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/south-pier-promenade weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/south-pier-promenade_83.jpg South Pier Promenade by Chris Acheson https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/rusholme-ruffians-a-taste-of-honey-series weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/rusholme-ruffians-a-taste-of-honey-series_948.jpg Rusholme Ruffians (A Taste of Honey Series) by Chris Acheson https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/the-captain-said-it-will-never-do-a-taste-of-honey-series weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/the-captain-said-it-will-never-do-a-taste-of-honey-series_79.jpg The Captain Said It Will Never Do (A Taste of Honey Series) by Chris Acheson https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/crucified weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/crucified_73.jpg Crucified by Chris Acheson https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/two-hunters weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/two-hunters_110.jpg Two Hunters by Timur D'Vatz https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/reflections weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/reflections_119.jpg Reflections by Timur D'Vatz https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/louisa-hope/artwork/quantum-entanglement weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/quantum-entanglement_1573.jpg Quantum Entanglement by Louisa Hope https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/quantum-entanglement_1591.jpg Quantum Entanglement by Louisa Hope https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/the-quest weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/the-quest_122.jpg The Quest by Timur D'Vatz https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/the-potion weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/the-potion_121.jpg The Potion by Timur D'Vatz https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/falconers weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/falconers_115.jpg Falconers (2018) by Timur D'Vatz https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/the-body-fluctuation-iii weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/the-body-fluctuation-iii_150.jpg The Body Fluctuation III by Karenina Fabrizzi https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/nick-coley/artwork/rogues-delight weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/rogues-delight_60.jpg Rogues Delight by Nick Coley https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/nick-coley/artwork/the-comet-ii weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/the-comet-ii_56.jpg The Comet II by Nick Coley https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/nick-coley/artwork/kingfisher weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/kingfisher_61.jpg Kingfisher by Nick Coley That moment as the tiny bird rises triumphant! https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/the-blessing weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/the-blessing_249.jpg The Blessing by Stephen Farley ARBSA https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/louisa-hope/artwork/unity-consciousness weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/unity-consciousness_1578.jpg Unity Consciousness by Louisa Hope https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/unity-consciousness_1575.jpg Unity Consciousness by Louisa Hope https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/strangelet-separation weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/strangelet-separation_246.jpg Strangelet Separation by Stephen Farley ARBSA https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/strangelet-separation_245.jpg Strangelet Separation by Stephen Farley ARBSA https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/girl-with-a-cup-of-tea-a-taste-of-honey-series weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/girl-with-a-cup-of-tea-a-taste-of-honey-series_452.jpg Girl with a Cup of Tea (A Taste of Honey Series) by Chris Acheson https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/the-physical-impossibility-of-death-in-a-shop-window-in-soho weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/the-physical-impossibility-of-death-in-a-shop-window-in-soho_70.jpg The Physical Impossibility of Death in a Shop Window in Soho by Chris Acheson This multifaceted painting by Chris Acheson gives us a glimpse into the artist’s eclectic imagination. We are presented with two mannequins in a shop window in Soho; one swept into the grip of a shark’s mouth, and the other in a fleeting whirlpool. With pop cultural references and eclectic visual juxtapositions, this painting is a real wild ride. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/apostolic-aura weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/apostolic-aura_242.jpg Apostolic Aura by Stephen Farley ARBSA https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/apostolic-aura_243.jpg Apostolic Aura by Stephen Farley ARBSA https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/oceanic-obligation weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/oceanic-obligation_1338.jpg Oceanic Obligation by Stephen Farley ARBSA https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/oceanic-obligation_1337.jpg Oceanic Obligation by Stephen Farley ARBSA https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/oceanic-obligation_1335.jpg Oceanic Obligation by Stephen Farley ARBSA https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/oceanic-obligation_1336.jpg Oceanic Obligation by Stephen Farley ARBSA https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/oceanic-obligation_14.jpg Oceanic Obligation by Stephen Farley ARBSA https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/nick-coley/artwork/peacocks-ii weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/peacocks-ii_55.jpg Peacocks II by Nick Coley https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/169-lovebutton-square weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/169-lovebutton-square_207.jpg 169 Lovebutton Square by Stephen Farley ARBSA https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/169-lovebutton-square_206.jpg 169 Lovebutton Square by Stephen Farley ARBSA https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/love-button-sq weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/love-button-sq_230.jpg Love Button Sq by Stephen Farley ARBSA Limited edition of 25 https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/louisa-hope/artwork/good-morning-paradise weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/good-morning-paradise_1602.jpg Good Morning Paradise by Louisa Hope https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/good-morning-paradise_1577.jpg Good Morning Paradise by Louisa Hope https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/good-morning-paradise_1601.jpg Good Morning Paradise by Louisa Hope https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/the-queens-head weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/the-queens-head_268.jpg The Queen's Head by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/untitled-1-ivy weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/untitled-1-ivy_1074.jpg Untitled 1 (Ivy) by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/untitled-1-ivy_266.jpg Untitled 1 (Ivy) by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/untitled-2-pei weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/untitled-2-pei_265.jpg Untitled 2 (Pei) by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/smoking-girl weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/smoking-girl_270.jpg Smoking Girl by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/eden weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/eden_257.jpg Eden by Andrew Hunt This dramatic composition by Andrew Hunt is the artist's own interpretation of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. A modern twist on an epochal tale, Hunt tells a story of his own childhood, imbued with nostalgia. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/ed-chapman/artwork/margaret-thatcher-in-euro weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/margaret-thatcher-in-euro_536.jpg Margaret Thatcher in Euro by Ed Chapman https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/stretford-end weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/stretford-end_450.jpg Stretford End by Chris Acheson https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/stockport-moment weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/stockport-moment_446.jpg Stockport Moment by Chris Acheson https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/albion weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/albion_451.jpg Albion by Chris Acheson https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/beauty-spot weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/beauty-spot_442.jpg Beauty Spot by Chris Acheson https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/past-present-future weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/past-present-future_443.jpg Past, Present, Future by Chris Acheson https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/china-buffet weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/china-buffet_444.jpg China Buffet by Chris Acheson https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/stannybrook-road weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/stannybrook-road_448.jpg Stannybrook Road by Chris Acheson https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/ed-chapman/artwork/boris-johnson-in-euro weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/boris-johnson-in-euro_544.jpg Boris Johnson in Euro by Ed Chapman https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/boris-johnson-in-euro_545.jpg Boris Johnson in Euro by Ed Chapman https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/ed-chapman/artwork/marilyn-in-coins weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/marilyn-in-coins_528.jpg Marilyn (in coins) by Ed Chapman https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/figaro weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/figaro_1580.jpg Figaro by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/meticulous-worship weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/meticulous-worship_239.jpg Meticulous Worship by Stephen Farley ARBSA Framed, steel https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/geofs-next-move-a-taste-of-honey-series weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/geofs-next-move-a-taste-of-honey-series_82.jpg Geof's Next Move (A Taste of Honey Series) by Chris Acheson https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/nick-coley/artwork/spirit-of-malta weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/spirit-of-malta_62.jpg Spirit of Malta by Nick Coley Early in the morning, a fisherman prepares his nets. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/ed-chapman/artwork/marilyn-vinyl weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/marilyn-vinyl_534.jpg Marilyn (vinyl) by Ed Chapman In this mosaic, made from vinyl records, Chapman has successfully managed to capture something of the screen goddess’s beauty and vulnerability. The hints of pastel colours are perfect for achieving a subtle portrait in mosaic that at first glance strongly appears to employ the deft touch of an oil painter. Made entirely from hand-cut vinyl pop records. Commissions are available on request. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/axel-bottenberg/artwork/la-reproduction-interdite weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/axel-bottenberg/la-reproduction-interdite_703.jpg La Reproduction Interdite by Axel Bottenberg Does this sculpture look familiar to you? You may recognise the Mannekin Pis as an iconic Belgian landmark - here Axel Bottenberg has re-contextualised the Mannekin, and shrunk him down to size to fit into a grubby pub urinal. Looking at his own reflection in the style of René Magritte’s “La Reproduction Interdite”, Bottenberg has even placed a facsimile on the dirty toilet floor of the original book featured in Magritte’s painting - Edgar Alan Poe’s “Aventures d'Arthur Gordon Pym”. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/axel-bottenberg/la-reproduction-interdite_702.jpg La Reproduction Interdite by Axel Bottenberg Does this sculpture look familiar to you? You may recognise the Mannekin Pis as an iconic Belgian landmark - here Axel Bottenberg has re-contextualised the Mannekin, and shrunk him down to size to fit into a grubby pub urinal. Looking at his own reflection in the style of René Magritte’s “La Reproduction Interdite”, Bottenberg has even placed a facsimile on the dirty toilet floor of the original book featured in Magritte’s painting - Edgar Alan Poe’s “Aventures d'Arthur Gordon Pym”. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/axel-bottenberg/la-reproduction-interdite_701.jpg La Reproduction Interdite by Axel Bottenberg Does this sculpture look familiar to you? You may recognise the Mannekin Pis as an iconic Belgian landmark - here Axel Bottenberg has re-contextualised the Mannekin, and shrunk him down to size to fit into a grubby pub urinal. Looking at his own reflection in the style of René Magritte’s “La Reproduction Interdite”, Bottenberg has even placed a facsimile on the dirty toilet floor of the original book featured in Magritte’s painting - Edgar Alan Poe’s “Aventures d'Arthur Gordon Pym”. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/axel-bottenberg/artwork/axel-bottenberg-decoding-ronald-man-video weekly https://img.youtube.com/vi/5_x1M5E-JQo/default.jpg Ronald Man Axel Bottenberg describes the inspiration, production and content of his "Ronald Man" masterpiece. https://www.youtube.com/embed/5_x1M5E-JQo yes https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/reunited-in-the-rain weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/reunited-in-the-rain_233.jpg Reunited In The Rain by Stephen Farley ARBSA Framed - mirror polished steel. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/the-mask-the-body-as-a-container weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/the-mask-the-body-as-a-container_145.jpg The Mask (The Body as a Container) by Karenina Fabrizzi Our body is a container that not only acts as a holder of our structure, composed of many different types of cells that together create tissues and subsequently organs and systems, but also contains our emotions, feelings and beliefs. It acts like a vast vase of our entire existence. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/an-inner-inkling weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/an-inner-inkling_247.jpg An Inner Inkling by Stephen Farley ARBSA Corporate Commission for TLT Solicitors, Manchester. For more details please click this link: https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/tlt-solicitors https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/an-inner-inkling_248.jpg An Inner Inkling by Stephen Farley ARBSA Corporate Commission for TLT Solicitors, Manchester. For more details please click this link: https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/tlt-solicitors https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/insects-2 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/insects-2_271.jpg Insects 2 by Karenina Fabrizzi This enchanting circular composition by Karenina Fabrizzi is part of the artist's 'Insects' series, and takes its inspiration from vintage images of insects, particularly bees. Embellished with gold leaf, this mirror image merges botanical imagery and wildlife in a metallic palette, inviting us into Fabrizzi’s dream world. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/pride-the-body-as-a-container weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/pride-the-body-as-a-container_144.jpg Pride (The Body as a Container) by Karenina Fabrizzi This work is part of Karenina Fabrizzi’s ‘The Body as a Container’ collection. A series of figurative works, we are presented with a lone female figure, combined with muted blues and dark imagery. These works refer to the body as a vessel or container for both physical elements such as organs and cells, but also our emotions and beliefs. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/world-in-my-eyes-extended-remix weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/world-in-my-eyes-extended-remix_212.jpg World In My Eyes (extended remix) by Stephen Farley ARBSA Mirror polished steel frame https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/ed-chapman/artwork/amy-winehouse weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/amy-winehouse_523.jpg Amy Winehouse by Ed Chapman The beautiful, troubled and ultimately tragic chanteuse, stunningly created using more than 3,500 tiny Euro one cent coins in this unique mosaic portrait. Ed Chapman has blended the coins’ natural tones with others coloured by hand to generate a sepia effect. Stylishly fashioning Amy in classic pose, which actually changes ‘mood’ throughout the day, fittingly as the sun’s angle changes, making this original work even more special. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/nick-coley/artwork/checkmate weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/checkmate_58.jpg Checkmate by Nick Coley ‘Checkmate’, two abstracted figures stand tall on two horses, head-to-head like knights on a checkerboard. Hazy blues and greens emerge and juxtapose with more opaque reds and blacks, creating a pleasing pull and balance between the two. Both figurative and abstract, Coley’s works have a way of challenging the eye and pulling us in, in a way that is endlessly captivating. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/video-andrew-hunts-hyperreal-portraits weekly https://img.youtube.com/vi/vQDeU3agwH8/default.jpg vQDeU3agwH8 Andrew Hunt brings his Hyper-real portraits from his acclaimed exhibition, Portraits From The Market, to ARTZU's Manchester gallery https://www.youtube.com/embed/vQDeU3agwH8 yes https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/peaky-blinders-bbc-commission weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/peaky-blinders-bbc-commission_260.jpg Peaky Blinders, BBC Commission by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/the-body-fluctuation-ii weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/the-body-fluctuation-ii_148.jpg The Body Fluctuation II by Karenina Fabrizzi Our body is a container that not only acts as a holder of our structure, composed of many different types of cells that together create tissues and subsequently organs and systems, but also contains our emotions, feelings and beliefs. It acts like a vast vase of our entire existence. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/ed-chapman/artwork/audrey-hepburn weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/audrey-hepburn_228.jpg Audrey Hepburn by Ed Chapman It can’t be easy – attempting to create the likeness of a woman who has consistently been voted the most naturally beautiful of the Twentieth Century - in of all things, 2,500 Euro one cents! Using his masterful technique, all of Chapman’s years of mosaic experience have been brought to bear in making this stunning likeness of the elfin-like actress. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/big-chicken weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/big-chicken_898.jpg Big Chicken by Andrew Hunt Another painting with a slightly disparate edge. I often start with an idea, like simply.. "A man holding a Chicken!' Then I start to sketch my idea on the canvas. This painting took me a lot longer than usual, I couldn't decide who was holding the chicken. Eventually I drew from my own experiences of working in the Caribbean, this painting asserted itself under my brush, all I knew was that I wanted the chap to be an older character with a story to tell. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/ed-chapman/artwork/dark-knight weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/dark-knight_524.jpg Dark Knight by Ed Chapman This incredible likeness of Heath Ledger in the unforgettable role of The Joker in the Batman movie has been recreated in mosaic using records. The self-styled ‘agent of chaos’ has been renditioned in a highly detailed style, to the extent the viewer could be forgiven for thinking the portrait is in fact a painting rather than a fragmented portrait employing thousands of pieces of vinyl. Made entirely from hand-cut vinyl pop records. Commissions are available on request. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/ed-chapman/artwork/sex-pistols weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/sex-pistols_529.jpg Sex Pistols by Ed Chapman Pop Art at its finest. What better way to recreate the classic, seminal punk album than using vinyl records from the decade in which the Pistols changed the direction of music? The classic three colour album by Jamie Reid has been perfectly captured by Chapman, the master mosaicist. Made entirely from hand-cut vinyl pop records. Commissions are available on request. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/ed-chapman/artwork/dali-vinyl weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/dali-vinyl_229.jpg Dali (vinyl) by Ed Chapman What better, more unusual way to construct the likeness of the crazy - possibly unhinged - Surrealist than using vinyl records? Ed Chapman has captured the genius artist both in tremendous detail and in a typically peculiar pose, absolutely befitting the Spaniard’s legendary reputation as a unique, one-off showman - and master painter. Made entirely from hand-cut vinyl pop records. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/nick-coley/artwork/rites-of-spring weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/rites-of-spring_1393.jpg Rites of Spring by Nick Coley The Rites of Spring or 'The dance to the death' as it became popularly known, inspired and with parallel to Stravinsky's 3rd and most controversial work. A visual interpretation and his most talked about ballet by Ivor Stravinsky....life's a dance to the death and each has a part in its nature. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/nick-coley/artwork/the-ark weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/the-ark_946.jpg The Ark by Nick Coley The Ark - to be set upon a course of no return, to have an uncertain future, looking for a country that is new! Presented amidst hues of electric blues, crimson reds and fiery yellows. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/irwell-river weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/irwell-river_37.jpg Irwell River by Tim Garner With undeniable visual parallels to French impressionist painter Adolphe Valette, this ghostly painting reveals a bridge over the River Irwell in Manchester. This piece shows us the modern industrial haze of Manchester and reminds us of the ever-changing structures of the cityscape, as well as those that have been lost. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/laughing-study weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/laughing-study_1554.jpg Laughing (study) by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/to-infinity-and-beyond weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/to-infinity-and-beyond_819.jpg To Infinity and Beyond by Andrew Hunt A chaotic glimpse into the typical British high street, with a kitsch nod to Pixar's Toy Story, Andrew Hunt's ‘To Infinity and Beyond’ is a painting which full of vigour. Each figure in this piece is autonomous, and has their own story to tell – reflecting Hunt’s unique ability to build a narrative through painting. A piece that could be analysed for hours on end, Hunt blends both hyperreal and abstract styles of painting to create a composition that truly comes to life. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/to-infinity-and-beyond_818.jpg To Infinity and Beyond by Andrew Hunt A chaotic glimpse into the typical British high street, with a kitsch nod to Pixar's Toy Story, Andrew Hunt's ‘To Infinity and Beyond’ is a painting which full of vigour. Each figure in this piece is autonomous, and has their own story to tell – reflecting Hunt’s unique ability to build a narrative through painting. A piece that could be analysed for hours on end, Hunt blends both hyperreal and abstract styles of painting to create a composition that truly comes to life. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/to-infinity-and-beyond_820.jpg To Infinity and Beyond by Andrew Hunt A chaotic glimpse into the typical British high street, with a kitsch nod to Pixar's Toy Story, Andrew Hunt's ‘To Infinity and Beyond’ is a painting which full of vigour. Each figure in this piece is autonomous, and has their own story to tell – reflecting Hunt’s unique ability to build a narrative through painting. A piece that could be analysed for hours on end, Hunt blends both hyperreal and abstract styles of painting to create a composition that truly comes to life. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/to-infinity-and-beyond_817.jpg To Infinity and Beyond by Andrew Hunt A chaotic glimpse into the typical British high street, with a kitsch nod to Pixar's Toy Story, Andrew Hunt's ‘To Infinity and Beyond’ is a painting which full of vigour. Each figure in this piece is autonomous, and has their own story to tell – reflecting Hunt’s unique ability to build a narrative through painting. A piece that could be analysed for hours on end, Hunt blends both hyperreal and abstract styles of painting to create a composition that truly comes to life. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/to-infinity-and-beyond_816.jpg To Infinity and Beyond by Andrew Hunt A chaotic glimpse into the typical British high street, with a kitsch nod to Pixar's Toy Story, Andrew Hunt's ‘To Infinity and Beyond’ is a painting which full of vigour. Each figure in this piece is autonomous, and has their own story to tell – reflecting Hunt’s unique ability to build a narrative through painting. A piece that could be analysed for hours on end, Hunt blends both hyperreal and abstract styles of painting to create a composition that truly comes to life. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/nick-coley/artwork/grand-lagoona-venice-series weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/grand-lagoona-venice-series_1382.jpg Grand Lagoona, Venice by Nick Coley 'A long view capturing the singularly wonderful and iconic city that is Venice!' https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/grand-lagoona-venice-series_1384.jpg Grand Lagoona, Venice by Nick Coley 'A long view capturing the singularly wonderful and iconic city that is Venice!' https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/grand-lagoona-venice-series_1385.jpg Grand Lagoona, Venice by Nick Coley 'A long view capturing the singularly wonderful and iconic city that is Venice!' https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/grand-lagoona-venice-series_1383.jpg Grand Lagoona, Venice by Nick Coley 'A long view capturing the singularly wonderful and iconic city that is Venice!' https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/louisa-hope/artwork/newborough-angelsey-1 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/newborough-angelsey-1_1598.jpg Newborough, Angelsey 1 by Louisa Hope https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/louisa-hope/artwork/newborough-angelsey-2 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/newborough-angelsey-2_1585.jpg Newborough, Angelsey 2 by Louisa Hope https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/nick-coley/artwork/artist-nick-coley-gives-us-a-tour-of-his-studio weekly https://img.youtube.com/vi/NseXH27qjzQ/default.jpg Nick Coley - Studio Visit - Artzu Nick Coley - Studio Visit - Artzu https://www.youtube.com/embed/NseXH27qjzQ yes https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/midland-hotel weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/midland-hotel_34.jpg Midland Hotel by Tim Garner This dramatic cityscape by Tim Garner depicts the Midland Hotel in all its glory, amidst a Mancunian drizzle. The Midland Hotel will be undoubtedly familiar to locals as a landmark of the cityscape - Garner has truly captured the physicality of this iconic red-brick building, placing us on ground level amidst the shadows. We are submerged within the gritty haze of the city streets - we can almost smell the wet pavement around us. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/manctopian-vi weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/manctopian-vi_1422.jpg Manctopian VI by Tim Garner Inspired by recent commissions by international law firm Fieldfisher, who in 2021 opened a practice on the 17th floor of the prestigious new building, “No.1 Spinningfields”. Capturing the Mancunian cityscape from an aerial perspective, we are presented with the heart of the city centre below us, with Garner’s signature skies dominating above. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/vision weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/vision_892.jpg Vision by Timur D'Vatz https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/fisher-king-roi-pecheur weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/fisher-king-roi-pecheur_882.jpg Fisher King (Roi Pecheur) by Timur D'Vatz https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/dream-and-a-dreamer weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/dream-and-a-dreamer_891.jpg Dream and a Dreamer by Timur D'Vatz Dream and a Dreamer' is another majestic and mythical oil painting by Russian artist Timur D'Vatz. Amidst a sea of mesmerising patterns and a rich colour palette, this captivating composition immediately draws us in. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/autumn-hunt weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/autumn-hunt_881.jpg Autumn Hunt by Timur D'Vatz https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/the-garden-of-the-golden-flower weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/the-garden-of-the-golden-flower_884.jpg The Garden of the Golden Flower by Timur D'Vatz Caught in a whirlwind of long limbed creatures and ornate patterns, 'The Garden of the Golden Flower' is imbued with narrative and mystery. Who are these characters? Where are they going? This decorative, ornate composition by Timur D'Vatz has been painted in the artist's signature distinctive style, which nods to early Byzantine and medieval art. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/fac-512 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/fac-512_436.jpg FAC 512 by Tim Garner 'FAC 512' is one of two in a series of commissions produced by Tim Garner, which pays homage to Tony Wilson and Factory Records. This piece depicts a view from the eponymous Hacienda apartments on Whitworth Street West in the heart of Manchester - site of the epoch-making Hacienda [FAC51]; a nightclub and music venue of the 1980’s and early 90’s that made Madchester the epicentre of musical hip. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/swan-street-west weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/swan-street-west_432.jpg Swan Street West by Tim Garner In 'Swan Street West', Tim Garner returns to Manchester's beloved Northern Quarter for inspiration. Swan Street is home to epochal music venue Band on the Wall, which is well loved by locals, and described by Elbow's Guy Garvey as the "cornerstone of the city’s musical heritage for over 80 years". Here this iconic street is captured beneath a Garner's signature skies, amidst a myriad of cool greys, pinks, and blues. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/louisa-hope/artwork/interwoven weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/interwoven_1590.jpg Interwoven by Louisa Hope https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/interwoven_1586.jpg Interwoven by Louisa Hope https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/nick-coley/artwork/the-last-ride-venice-series weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/the-last-ride-venice-series_1387.jpg The Last Ride, Venice by Nick Coley https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/the-last-ride-venice-series_1388.jpg The Last Ride, Venice by Nick Coley https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/the-last-ride-venice-series_1389.jpg The Last Ride, Venice by Nick Coley https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/the-last-ride-venice-series_1386.jpg The Last Ride, Venice by Nick Coley https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/nick-coley/artwork/two-gondolas-venice-series weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/two-gondolas-venice-series_1390.jpg Two Gondolas, Venice by Nick Coley https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/two-gondolas-venice-series_1392.jpg Two Gondolas, Venice by Nick Coley https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/two-gondolas-venice-series_1391.jpg Two Gondolas, Venice by Nick Coley https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/nick-coley/artwork/fisherman-at-marsaxlokk weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/nick-coley/fisherman-at-marsaxlokk_63.jpg Fisherman at Marsaxlokk by Nick Coley Every Sunday they land fish from the sea in the sheltered lagoon. Inspired by Nick Coley's travels to Malta, 'Fisherman at Marsaxlokk' depicts a harbour of the small fisherman village of Marsaxlokk, Malta. Alight with fiery reds and orange and diffused by cool blues, Coley has employed colour theory combined with tactile brush strokes, to create a dynamic composition which tells us a captivating story of this fishing village. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/metalmix-24extended weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/metalmix-24extended_1059.jpg Metalmix (24"extended) by Stephen Farley ARBSA This sculpture by Stephen Farley is the ultimate anti-album. Impossible to play, removed of all function, Farley has created a 24” LP and sleeve, made using a formula of acrylic, resin, aluminium and copper. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/metalmix-24extended_1058.jpg Metalmix (24"extended) by Stephen Farley ARBSA This sculpture by Stephen Farley is the ultimate anti-album. Impossible to play, removed of all function, Farley has created a 24” LP and sleeve, made using a formula of acrylic, resin, aluminium and copper. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/metalmix-24extended_1057.jpg Metalmix (24"extended) by Stephen Farley ARBSA This sculpture by Stephen Farley is the ultimate anti-album. Impossible to play, removed of all function, Farley has created a 24” LP and sleeve, made using a formula of acrylic, resin, aluminium and copper. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/metalmix-24extended_1056.jpg Metalmix (24"extended) by Stephen Farley ARBSA This sculpture by Stephen Farley is the ultimate anti-album. Impossible to play, removed of all function, Farley has created a 24” LP and sleeve, made using a formula of acrylic, resin, aluminium and copper. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/louisa-hope/artwork/flighty weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/flighty_1588.jpg Flighty by Louisa Hope https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/whitworth-street-crossing weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/whitworth-street-crossing_1302.jpg Whitworth Street Crossing by Tim Garner With immediate parallels to iconic French impressionist painter Adolphe Valette, also known as L.S Lowry's teacher, this composition by Tim Garner presents to us an iconic site within Manchester's cityscape. Portrayed in a haze of murky greys and pinks, Garner has placed us high above the cityscape, soaring over the bustling streets below. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/northern-quarter-rooves weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/northern-quarter-roofs_254.jpg Northern Quarter Rooves by Tim Garner Another cityscape from Tim Garner’s iconic Northern Quarter series, 'Northern Quarter Rooves' presents to us the promise of an optimistic sky looming over a city centre street. Glistening grey roofs suggest a recent drizzle, as the sun attempts to peer through the hazy clouds. In Garner's signature style, we are offered a new perspective, floating above the cityscape, whilst also looking across and upward over Manchester, where skyscrapers meet Victorian mills. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/victoria weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/victoria_38.jpg Victoria by Tim Garner Muted tones of greys and browns lie under a playful, yet subdued sky. An earlier piece by Tim Garner, we are placed above Victoria Station, one of Manchester’s mainline railway destinations on the north side of the city. Tracks sweep across the composition like rivers of steel, turning at an angle into the body of the waiting city below. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/louisa-hope/artwork/settling weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/settling_1589.jpg Settling by Louisa Hope https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/settling_1587.jpg Settling by Louisa Hope https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/the-cure-and-the-cause weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/the-cure-and-the-cause_1304.jpg The Cure and the Cause by Stephen Farley ARBSA This intriguing resin sculpture by Stephen Farley is an instant conversation starter. What is this strange form? A comet from outer space? As insightful as ever, 'The Cure and the Cause' is one of Farley's many innovative tactile compositions. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/the-cure-and-the-cause_1305.jpg The Cure and the Cause by Stephen Farley ARBSA This intriguing resin sculpture by Stephen Farley is an instant conversation starter. What is this strange form? A comet from outer space? As insightful as ever, 'The Cure and the Cause' is one of Farley's many innovative tactile compositions. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/the-cure-and-the-cause_1303.jpg The Cure and the Cause by Stephen Farley ARBSA This intriguing resin sculpture by Stephen Farley is an instant conversation starter. What is this strange form? A comet from outer space? As insightful as ever, 'The Cure and the Cause' is one of Farley's many innovative tactile compositions. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/louisa-hope/artwork/uprising weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/landscape-1_1592.jpg Uprising by Louisa Hope https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/uprising_1603.jpg Uprising by Louisa Hope https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/corner-of-dale-street weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/corner-of-dale-street_1561.jpg Corner of Dale Street by Tim Garner https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/corner-of-dale-street_1562.jpg Corner of Dale Street by Tim Garner https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/corner-of-dale-street_1566.jpg Corner of Dale Street by Tim Garner https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/corner-of-dale-street_1565.jpg Corner of Dale Street by Tim Garner https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/hands-of-love weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/hands-of-love_1260.jpg Hands of Love by Stephen Farley ARBSA In this abstract composition by Birmingham-based artist Stephen Farley, the boundaries of physical and digital art have been crossed, resulting in a hectic composition which challenges the eye. Made using resin, this piece is an ode to Farley's late dog - it is a melancholy piece which is imbued with personal meaning, with a subtle nod to pop culture. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/hands-of-love_805.jpg Hands of Love by Stephen Farley ARBSA In this abstract composition by Birmingham-based artist Stephen Farley, the boundaries of physical and digital art have been crossed, resulting in a hectic composition which challenges the eye. Made using resin, this piece is an ode to Farley's late dog - it is a melancholy piece which is imbued with personal meaning, with a subtle nod to pop culture. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/hands-of-love_1193.jpg Hands of Love by Stephen Farley ARBSA In this abstract composition by Birmingham-based artist Stephen Farley, the boundaries of physical and digital art have been crossed, resulting in a hectic composition which challenges the eye. Made using resin, this piece is an ode to Farley's late dog - it is a melancholy piece which is imbued with personal meaning, with a subtle nod to pop culture. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/hands-of-love_806.jpg Hands of Love by Stephen Farley ARBSA In this abstract composition by Birmingham-based artist Stephen Farley, the boundaries of physical and digital art have been crossed, resulting in a hectic composition which challenges the eye. Made using resin, this piece is an ode to Farley's late dog - it is a melancholy piece which is imbued with personal meaning, with a subtle nod to pop culture. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/hands-of-love_1194.jpg Hands of Love by Stephen Farley ARBSA In this abstract composition by Birmingham-based artist Stephen Farley, the boundaries of physical and digital art have been crossed, resulting in a hectic composition which challenges the eye. Made using resin, this piece is an ode to Farley's late dog - it is a melancholy piece which is imbued with personal meaning, with a subtle nod to pop culture. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/charlotte-street weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/charlotte-street_35.jpg Charlotte Street by Tim Garner A charming slice of Manchester city life, 'Charlotte Street' by Tim Garner captures a side view of the much-loved Portico Library on Mosley St. Described as “the most refined little building in Manchester,” this piece places us within the cultural hubs of the city centre, with Manchester Art Gallery in the distance. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/fac-513 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/fac-513_437.jpg FAC 513 by Tim Garner 'FAC 513' is the second of two in a series of commissions produced by Tim Garner, which pays homage to Tony Wilson and Factory Records. This piece depicts a view from the eponymous Hacienda apartments on Whitworth Street West in the heart of Manchester - site of the epoch-making Hacienda [FAC51]; a nightclub and music venue of the 1980’s and early 90’s that made Madchester the epicentre of musical hip. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/chapel-street-reclamation weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/chapel-street-reclamation_47.jpg Chapel Street Reclamation by Tim Garner 'Chapel Street Reclamation' is one of Tim Garner's many fond paintings of Salford. Garner is particularly drawn to the lesser-known areas of Manchester - he often favours painting these areas over the typical landmarks of the city centre. To Garner, these are the areas that have the most character, and there is an urgency for him to capture these echoes of the cityscape, which are disappearing over time. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/louisa-hope/artwork/source weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/source_1604.jpg Source by Louisa Hope https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/oxford-road weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/oxford-road_876.jpg Oxford Road by Tim Garner One of Tim Garner’s many gritty, visceral artworks, ‘Oxford Road’ is a painting which offers a bird’s eye view into one of the main arteries in and out of Manchester City Centre. With pops of blue and green amongst the iconic red brick, this is a painting which shows us the rich history of Manchester’s cityscape and captures a moment of stillness of a city which is constantly moving and changing. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/oxford-road_877.jpg Oxford Road by Tim Garner One of Tim Garner’s many gritty, visceral artworks, ‘Oxford Road’ is a painting which offers a bird’s eye view into one of the main arteries in and out of Manchester City Centre. With pops of blue and green amongst the iconic red brick, this is a painting which shows us the rich history of Manchester’s cityscape and captures a moment of stillness of a city which is constantly moving and changing. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/oxford-road_874.jpg Oxford Road by Tim Garner One of Tim Garner’s many gritty, visceral artworks, ‘Oxford Road’ is a painting which offers a bird’s eye view into one of the main arteries in and out of Manchester City Centre. With pops of blue and green amongst the iconic red brick, this is a painting which shows us the rich history of Manchester’s cityscape and captures a moment of stillness of a city which is constantly moving and changing. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/oxford-road_875.jpg Oxford Road by Tim Garner One of Tim Garner’s many gritty, visceral artworks, ‘Oxford Road’ is a painting which offers a bird’s eye view into one of the main arteries in and out of Manchester City Centre. With pops of blue and green amongst the iconic red brick, this is a painting which shows us the rich history of Manchester’s cityscape and captures a moment of stillness of a city which is constantly moving and changing. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/axel-bottenberg/artwork/pas-du-surralisme weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/axel-bottenberg/pas-du-surralisme_676.jpg Pas du Surréalisme by Axel Bottenberg A take on the mesmerising surrealist work of Rene Magritte, 'Pas du Surrealisme' is a painting by Axel Bottenberg which reflects his time spent in French lectures discussing 'The Treachery of Images'. The painting is very much “in the style of René Magritte”, referencing Bottenberg’s (mostly failed) attempts to teach Year-9 pupils about art history. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/axel-bottenberg/pas-du-surralisme_673.jpg Pas du Surréalisme by Axel Bottenberg A take on the mesmerising surrealist work of Rene Magritte, 'Pas du Surrealisme' is a painting by Axel Bottenberg which reflects his time spent in French lectures discussing 'The Treachery of Images'. The painting is very much “in the style of René Magritte”, referencing Bottenberg’s (mostly failed) attempts to teach Year-9 pupils about art history. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/axel-bottenberg/pas-du-surralisme_674.jpg Pas du Surréalisme by Axel Bottenberg A take on the mesmerising surrealist work of Rene Magritte, 'Pas du Surrealisme' is a painting by Axel Bottenberg which reflects his time spent in French lectures discussing 'The Treachery of Images'. The painting is very much “in the style of René Magritte”, referencing Bottenberg’s (mostly failed) attempts to teach Year-9 pupils about art history. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/axel-bottenberg/pas-du-surralisme_675.jpg Pas du Surréalisme by Axel Bottenberg A take on the mesmerising surrealist work of Rene Magritte, 'Pas du Surrealisme' is a painting by Axel Bottenberg which reflects his time spent in French lectures discussing 'The Treachery of Images'. The painting is very much “in the style of René Magritte”, referencing Bottenberg’s (mostly failed) attempts to teach Year-9 pupils about art history. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/bridgewater weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/bridgewater_1496.jpg Bridgewater by Tim Garner https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/bridgewater_1494.jpg Bridgewater by Tim Garner https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/bridgewater_1495.jpg Bridgewater by Tim Garner https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/manctopian-i weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/manctopian-i_1424.jpg Manctopian I by Tim Garner 'Manctopian I' is one of four paintings commissioned by international law firm Fieldfisher, who in 2021 opened a practice on the 17th floor of the prestigious new building, “One Spinningfields”. Capturing the Mancunian cityscape from the 17th floor, we are presented with the heart of the city centre below us, with Garner’s signature skies dominating above. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/axel-bottenberg/artwork/salvator-mundi-sale weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/axel-bottenberg/salvator-mundi-sale_781.jpg Salvator Mundi Sale by Axel Bottenberg At the time of the spectacular sale price of Leonardo da Vinci’s 'Salvator Mundi', Axel Bottenberg decided to give his two cents on the scandal. Made by up-cycling a small-scale sculpture, Bottenberg applied two identical copies of Salvator Mundi to the found statuette of a poor artist hawking his goods on the street. This piece is the ultimate tongue-in-cheek comment on the high end elitism of the art market. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/manctopian-ii weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/manctopian-ii_1425.jpg Manctopian II by Tim Garner ‘Manctopian II is one of four paintings commissioned by international law firm Fieldfisher, who in 2021 opened a practice on the 17th floor of the prestigious new building, “One Spinningfields”. Capturing the Mancunian cityscape from the 17th floor, we are presented with the heart of the city centre below us, with Garner’s signature skies dominating above. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/axel-bottenberg/artwork/the-great-wave weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/axel-bottenberg/the-great-wave_696.jpg The Great Wave by Axel Bottenberg This printed pastiche of Hokusai's iconic “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” has been re-contextualised by Axel Bottenberg to fit a contemporary cultural narrative. In Bottenberg's recreated work, we are met with three cultural symbols: a B52 bomber, mushroom cloud, and a tsunami wave. Limited edition of twenty on-demand, signed and numbered, fine art prints (any size and framing option possible up to A1). Two sold. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/across-deansgate weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/across-deansgate_1498.jpg Across Deansgate by Tim Garner https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/across-deansgate_1499.jpg Across Deansgate by Tim Garner https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/across-deansgate_1497.jpg Across Deansgate by Tim Garner https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/axel-bottenberg/artwork/your-portrait-in-the-style-of-a-famous-clown-399 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/axel-bottenberg/your-portrait-in-the-style-of-a-famous-clown-399_1097.jpg Your Portrait In The Style Of A Famous Clown £3.99 by Axel Bottenberg Is it a painting? Is it a sculpture? This multimedia composition by Axel Bottenberg challenges the boundaries of art to make a humorous pun about McDonald's, art, and life. With a tone of absurdity and a blank canvas in tow, this is an unapologetically Bottenberg piece which is full of vigour. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/axel-bottenberg/your-portrait-in-the-style-of-a-famous-clown-399_1098.jpg Your Portrait In The Style Of A Famous Clown £3.99 by Axel Bottenberg Is it a painting? Is it a sculpture? This multimedia composition by Axel Bottenberg challenges the boundaries of art to make a humorous pun about McDonald's, art, and life. With a tone of absurdity and a blank canvas in tow, this is an unapologetically Bottenberg piece which is full of vigour. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/axel-bottenberg/your-portrait-in-the-style-of-a-famous-clown-399_1096.jpg Your Portrait In The Style Of A Famous Clown £3.99 by Axel Bottenberg Is it a painting? Is it a sculpture? This multimedia composition by Axel Bottenberg challenges the boundaries of art to make a humorous pun about McDonald's, art, and life. With a tone of absurdity and a blank canvas in tow, this is an unapologetically Bottenberg piece which is full of vigour. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/ouch weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/ouch_12.jpg 'ouch' by Stephen Farley ARBSA Taking its inspiration from a workplace injury, 'Ouch' by Stephen Farley is one of the artist's earliest works, and has a prestigious history of being exhibited on the Southbank at The Bankside Gallery and The Richard Attenborough Centre. Both exhibitions were part of BlindArt, which is a charity that Farley has been heavily involved with due to the tactile nature of his works. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/axel-bottenberg/artwork/andy-warhol-with-burger weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/axel-bottenberg/andy-warhol-with-burger_743.jpg Andy Warhol with burger by Axel Bottenberg 'Andy Warhol With Burger' demonstrates Axel Bottenberg's endless fascination with both Pop Art and McDonalds. Adorning yet another one of his favourite artists with a Ronald McDonald red nose, this painting is ironically based on a still image of Andy Warhol eating a Burger King hamburger, from the iconic 1982 video shot and directed by Jørgen Leth. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/gold-delicious weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/gold-delicious_234.jpg Gold & Delicious by Stephen Farley ARBSA Framed - mirror polished steel. Arguably my most dynamic silhouette rendering to date and certainly the most lavish. A doubly embellished, light exuding profile of a determined duo primed for the next moment. Celebrating the popular programmes of another time, where the stylish would always prevail in spite of the implausible odds. Gold & Delicious hook up exclusively to thwart the designated wrongdoing of the week, with just enough running time to sign off on a freeze-framed cheesy epilogue. Fictitious or lost to memory, their exquisite composition requires no cynical reimagining. Engraved on collective nostalgia and edged in steel, their legacy forged as formidable as their debut. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/gold-delicious_235.jpg Gold & Delicious by Stephen Farley ARBSA Framed - mirror polished steel. Arguably my most dynamic silhouette rendering to date and certainly the most lavish. A doubly embellished, light exuding profile of a determined duo primed for the next moment. Celebrating the popular programmes of another time, where the stylish would always prevail in spite of the implausible odds. Gold & Delicious hook up exclusively to thwart the designated wrongdoing of the week, with just enough running time to sign off on a freeze-framed cheesy epilogue. Fictitious or lost to memory, their exquisite composition requires no cynical reimagining. Engraved on collective nostalgia and edged in steel, their legacy forged as formidable as their debut. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/axel-bottenberg/artwork/fountain-two-fountain weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/axel-bottenberg/fountain-two-fountain_737.jpg Fountain two Fountain by Axel Bottenberg A collaboration between Axel Bottenberg and Mike Chavez-Dawson, where both artists explore their shared fascination with Marcel Duchamp’s 'Fountain'. Here Bottenberg has re-purposed Chavez-Dawson's 'Fountain' replica as an actual urinal. The urinal is occupied by the iconic Manneken Pis, who represents the rebellious icons of Brussels, where Bottenberg spent his formative years. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/axel-bottenberg/fountain-two-fountain_736.jpg Fountain two Fountain by Axel Bottenberg A collaboration between Axel Bottenberg and Mike Chavez-Dawson, where both artists explore their shared fascination with Marcel Duchamp’s 'Fountain'. Here Bottenberg has re-purposed Chavez-Dawson's 'Fountain' replica as an actual urinal. The urinal is occupied by the iconic Manneken Pis, who represents the rebellious icons of Brussels, where Bottenberg spent his formative years. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/axel-bottenberg/artwork/golden-boys weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/axel-bottenberg/golden-boys_740.jpg Golden Boys by Axel Bottenberg This piece is a showcase of Axel Bottenberg's astounding printmaking abilities. A rare and recent foray into silkscreen print, here we are presented with a golden Gilbert and George, awarded with red noses. Very few versions exist printed on plywood, plain or gold paper. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/axel-bottenberg/golden-boys_741.jpg Golden Boys by Axel Bottenberg This piece is a showcase of Axel Bottenberg's astounding printmaking abilities. A rare and recent foray into silkscreen print, here we are presented with a golden Gilbert and George, awarded with red noses. Very few versions exist printed on plywood, plain or gold paper. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/axel-bottenberg/artwork/lady-with-a-bomb weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/axel-bottenberg/lady-with-a-bomb_689.jpg Lady with a Bomb by Axel Bottenberg 'Lady with a Bomb' is one of Axel Bottenberg's many found object sculptures that reflects the artist's fascination with kitsch imagery. A direct comment on war and peace, the delicate flowers on her shoulder have been replaced with a tiny bomb - how did it get there? https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/oxford-road-station weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/oxford-road-station_1609.jpg Oxford Road Station by Tim Garner In this aerial composition, Tim Garner takes us through a journey of the Mancunian cityscape from an exclusive bird’s eye perspective. Juxtaposing the old and new Manchester cityscape, this painting reminds us of the ongoing changes within the city, a story told through tactile layers of paint and cement. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/oxford-road-station_1608.jpg Oxford Road Station by Tim Garner In this aerial composition, Tim Garner takes us through a journey of the Mancunian cityscape from an exclusive bird’s eye perspective. Juxtaposing the old and new Manchester cityscape, this painting reminds us of the ongoing changes within the city, a story told through tactile layers of paint and cement. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/axel-bottenberg/artwork/untitled-1-with-red-nose weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/axel-bottenberg/untitled-1-with-red-nose_742.jpg Untitled 1 with red Nose by Axel Bottenberg This piece by Axel Bottenberg is an ode to German legendary Joseph Beuys, who has been a heavy influence on Bottenberg's oeuvre over the years: "In my childhood, Joseph Beuys reigned supreme in art. The nice cultured people, who my family circulated in, loved him and the tabloid press hated everything he did. To grow up in a German environment and not be influenced by Joseph Beuys is impossible." - Axel Bottenberg https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/a-love-letter-to-france/artwork/coin-de-la-rue weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/a-love-letter-to-france/avignon-ciel-bleu_1625.jpg Coin de la Rue, Paris by A Love Letter to France - Tim Garner: EU Parliament, Brussels https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/axel-bottenberg/artwork/david weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/axel-bottenberg/david_739.jpg David by Axel Bottenberg In Axel Bottenberg's 'David', three seemingly disparate objects meld together into a perfect artistic composition. A sculpture formed from a multitude of happy accidents - a statue of David, gifted to the artist by a friend called David, stands tall on a trophy plinth, branded by a 'House of Fraser' badge, which also reads the name David. Perhaps all things do come in threes? https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/tib-street weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/tib-street_431.jpg Tib Street by Tim Garner Amongst a haze of gritty cement, here we are presented with another painting from Tim Garner’s ‘Northern Quarter’ series. Depicting the jigsaw of narrow streets and alleyways that make up the iconic Northern Quarter, this bird’s eye view cityscape gives us a look into the much loved Tib Street. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/red-light-green-light weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/red-light-green-light_52.jpg Red Light, Green Light by Tim Garner This ethereal composition is part of Tim Garner's 'Kids' series. A lone figure stands in the foreground of this painting, at the junction of Portland Street and Princess Street, which will be a familiar spot to Manchester's locals. The pavement shines glossily, reflecting the glow of the traffic lights, suggesting a recent drizzle. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/a-love-letter-to-france/artwork/avignon-ciel-bleu weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/a-love-letter-to-france/avignon-ciel-bleu-1_1612.jpg Avignon ciel Bleu by A Love Letter to France - Tim Garner: EU Parliament, Brussels https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/other-dimensional-self-7 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-8_1299.jpg Other Dimensional Self 7 by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Other Dimensional Self' represents a breakthrough of self discovery - in realising our power, and the layers within us which make us human. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-8_1296.jpg Other Dimensional Self 7 by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Other Dimensional Self' represents a breakthrough of self discovery - in realising our power, and the layers within us which make us human. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-8_1298.jpg Other Dimensional Self 7 by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Other Dimensional Self' represents a breakthrough of self discovery - in realising our power, and the layers within us which make us human. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/other-dimensional-self-8_1297.jpg Other Dimensional Self 7 by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Other Dimensional Self' represents a breakthrough of self discovery - in realising our power, and the layers within us which make us human. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/kate-stay-safe weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/kate-stay-safe_825.jpg Kate Stay Safe by Andrew Hunt Kate was so involved in helping treat patients during this crisis I felt I had to respond as an artist. 'Kate Stay Safe' by Andrew Hunt is a poignant and moving portrait of Kate, the artist's wife, which is both a personal and collectively significant work of art. During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Hunt's wife was working on the frontlines as a nurse practitioner - face to face with global crisis, Hunt felt compelled to document this piece of history. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/kate-stay-safe_1073.jpg Kate Stay Safe by Andrew Hunt Kate was so involved in helping treat patients during this crisis I felt I had to respond as an artist. 'Kate Stay Safe' by Andrew Hunt is a poignant and moving portrait of Kate, the artist's wife, which is both a personal and collectively significant work of art. During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Hunt's wife was working on the frontlines as a nurse practitioner - face to face with global crisis, Hunt felt compelled to document this piece of history. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/ancoats-after-rain weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/ancoats-after-rain_433.jpg Ancoats After Rain by Tim Garner ‘Ancoats After Rain’ is another iconic Mancunian cityscape by Tim Garner, which tells us a story of an ever-changing city. Positioned on ground level on the popular Great Ancoats Street, its as though we've landed amidst the chaos of the city centre. A glossy puddle to the bottom left nods both to the title and the ever-prominent Mancunian rain, which will be undoubtedly familiar to locals and tourists alike. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/neepsend-clutches weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/neepsend-clutches_256.jpg Neepsend Clutches by Andrew Hunt Andrew Hunt's 'Neepsend Clutches' is a total showstopper. A contemporary painting which is like none other in his oeuvre, we are met with a majestic white horse, galloping towards us amidst a backdrop of post-industrial Northern England. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/a-love-letter-to-france/artwork/cul-de-sac weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/a-love-letter-to-france/cul-desac_1622.jpg Cul de Sac, Paris by A Love Letter to France - Tim Garner: EU Parliament, Brussels https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/manctopian-v weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/manctopian-v_1421.jpg Manctopian V by Tim Garner Inspired by recent commissions by international law firm Fieldfisher, who in 2021 opened a practice on the 17th floor of the prestigious new building, “No.1 Spinningfields”. Capturing the Mancunian cityscape from an aerial perspective, we are presented with the heart of the city centre below us, with Garner’s signature skies dominating above. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/a-love-letter-to-france/artwork/18-ene weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/a-love-letter-to-france/paris-2_1619.jpg 18 Ene by A Love Letter to France - Tim Garner: EU Parliament, Brussels https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/a-love-letter-to-france/artwork/paris-fin-dhiver weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/a-love-letter-to-france/paris-fin-dhiver_1621.jpg Paris Fin d'hiver by A Love Letter to France - Tim Garner: EU Parliament, Brussels https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/a-love-letter-to-france/artwork/mont-dore weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/a-love-letter-to-france/mont-dore_1623.jpg Mont Dore by A Love Letter to France - Tim Garner: EU Parliament, Brussels https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/a-safe-bet weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/a-safe-bet_39.jpg A Safe Bet by Tim Garner The River Irwell is a part Manchester that recurringly makes its way back into Tim Garner's works. A river that cuts through the city centre, it is a pivotal part of the city's dynamic, and has been portrayed by artists throughout history, most notably iconic French impressionist painter Adolphe Valette. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/the-ghost-of-albert-speer weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/the-ghost-of-albert-speer_40.jpg The Ghost of Albert Speer by Tim Garner In 'The Ghost of Albert Speer' by Tim Garner, we are placed on street level, amongst the shadows. Looking upwards, an optimistic beam of sunlight radiates over the epochal architecture of St Peter's Square, Manchester. You might ask - why 'Albert Speer'? - In this dynamic composition, the firm of architects and urban planners continue to bear his name. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/a-love-letter-to-france/artwork/mont-dore-auvergne weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/a-love-letter-to-france/paris-1_1620.jpg Mont Dore Auvergne by A Love Letter to France - Tim Garner: EU Parliament, Brussels https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/thomas-street weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/thomas-street_434.jpg Thomas Street by Tim Garner In this gritty composition by Tim Garner, the morning light beams across Manchester’s iconic Northern Quarter. Juxtapositions of modern cool blues with traditional rusty red brick create a perfect colour balance, inviting us to look closer and take a moment to absorb this serene snapshot of Manchester city centre. A moment of stillness in a city that never stops growing, Garner’s works are a piece of Mancunian history that are imbued with Northern grit and spirit. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/liverpool-road weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/liverpool-road_43.jpg Liverpool Road by Tim Garner 'Liverpool Road' is more of a minimal piece within Tim Garner's collection. Uncomplicated, redolent of L.S Lowry, the name nods to the world’s first railway station up the road from c.1830; the terminus of the Manchester-Liverpool line. The perpendicular lines of the gas street lamps foreshadow the iconic Beetham Tower on the horizon, which looms hazily over this glimpse into Salford life. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/a-love-letter-to-france/artwork/passage-vers-rue-damremont weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/a-love-letter-to-france/passage-vers-rue-damremont_1624.jpg Passage Vers rue Damremont by A Love Letter to France - Tim Garner: EU Parliament, Brussels https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/manctopian-vii weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/manctopian-vii_1423.jpg Manctopian VII by Tim Garner Inspired by recent commissions by international law firm Fieldfisher, who in 2021 opened a practice on the 17th floor of the prestigious new building, “No.1 Spinningfields”. Capturing the Mancunian cityscape from an aerial perspective, we are presented with the heart of the city centre below us, with Garner’s signature skies dominating above. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/corner-of-john-street weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/corner-of-john-street_255.jpg Corner of John Street by Tim Garner 'Corner of John Street' is a cityscape within Tim Garner's exciting Northern Quarter series. This canyon-like streetscape gives us a detached perspective, as though we're floating over the city ourselves. A diagonally dissected shadow dominates the left of the painting, lending an added dimension and contrasting to the optimistic light peeking over towards the right. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/a-love-letter-to-france/artwork/printemps-sur-la-rue-caulaincourt weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/a-love-letter-to-france/printemps-sur-la-rue-caulaincourt_1626.jpg Printemps Sur la rue Caulaincourt by A Love Letter to France - Tim Garner: EU Parliament, Brussels https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/hide-seek weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/hide-seek_51.jpg Hide & Seek by Tim Garner Made using a combination of ground paints and cement on board, this painting is a snapshot of Manchester City centre, where stormy skies meet mauve and red brick. Part of Tim Garner's 'Kids' series, it is familiar and undoubtedly Northern – themes which are prominent in much of Garner’s oeuvre. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/on-great-ancoats weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/on-great-ancoats_440.jpg On Great Ancoats by Tim Garner 'On Great Ancoats' by Tim Garner offers us a snapshot of the busy Manchester and Salford Inner Relief Route around the city centre. Another piece within Tim Garner's Northern Quarter series, a murky Manchester sky looms above this much-loved area where skyscrapers meet Victorian mills. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/simon-says weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/simon-says_49.jpg Simon Says by Tim Garner 'Simon Says' is a painting in Tim Garner's 'Kids' series. Here we are transported to a street in Salford, where two young children play in the wintery light, clad in woolly hats and gloves. The bare-leaved trees echo the swirling sky, and the cathedral in the background reflects the cold, morning sunlight. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/a-love-letter-to-france/artwork/rue-championnet-paris weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/a-love-letter-to-france/rue-championnet-paris_1627.jpg Rue Championnet Paris by A Love Letter to France - Tim Garner: EU Parliament, Brussels https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/corner-of-afflecks weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/corner-of-afflecks_253.jpg Corner of Afflecks by Tim Garner Yet another Northern Quarter eulogised landmark, ‘Corner of Affleck’s’ by Tim Garner gives us a bird’s eye view of the iconic Affleck’s building on Dale Street. Once the department store Affleck & Brown’s, it has now been transformed into a zany emporium of eclecticism and a totem of indie commerce. It is iconic to the Mancunian cityscape – it is no wonder Garner has made it the cornerstone of this gritty composition. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/irwell-left-bank weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/irwell-left-bank_45.jpg Irwell Left Bank by Tim Garner One of many works in Tim Garner's portfolio concerned with the River Irwell, this piece depicts an urban hallway in Spinningfields, the financial centre of Manchester, to the Left Bank of the river. Towering new builds stand perpendicular, lining the sides of this painting, as a lone figure walks through towards a light at the end of the tunnel. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/moorland-sky weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/moorland-sky_435.jpg Moorland Sky by Tim Garner Tim Garner's 'Moorland Sky' presents to us a seething sky above a murky abstraction of land and water. It's as though someone has angered the gods up on the moors above Manchester - make sure you take cover, there's a storm ahead... https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/a-love-letter-to-france/artwork/rue-de-siam weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/a-love-letter-to-france/rue-de-siam_1629.jpg Rue de Siam by A Love Letter to France - Tim Garner: EU Parliament, Brussels https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/a-love-letter-to-france/artwork/rue-duzes weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/a-love-letter-to-france/rue-duzes_1628.jpg Rue d'Uzes by A Love Letter to France - Tim Garner: EU Parliament, Brussels https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/a-love-letter-to-france/artwork/treport weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/a-love-letter-to-france/treport_1632.jpg Treport by A Love Letter to France - Tim Garner: EU Parliament, Brussels https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/old-monkey weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/old-monkey_441.jpg Old Monkey by Tim Garner An immediately recognisable interpretation, 'Old Monkey' places us, ground level, at a well-known crossroads in Manchester's city centre. In reference to the iconic Old Monkey pub on the right hand side, this piece portrays the crossover of Portland and Princess Street. An area of the city which is renowned for its chaos - Tim Garner has portrayed it through a romantic, rose-tinted lens, with pops of red and orange that imbue instant warmth within the cityscape. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/dale-street weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/dale-street_430.jpg Dale Street by Tim Garner Another painting in Tim Garner’s ‘Northern Quarter’ series, ‘Dale Street’ portrays one of the focal areas of Manchester’s much loved Northern Quarter. In this series, Garner captures both the old and new Manchester, evolving side by side. This is yet another piece by Garner which provides a narrative of an ever-changing city through a gritty formula of paint and cement. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/a-love-letter-to-france/artwork/rue-georges-lardennois-paris weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/a-love-letter-to-france/rue-georges-lardennois-paris_1630.jpg Rue Georges Lardennois, Paris by A Love Letter to France - Tim Garner: EU Parliament, Brussels https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/a-love-letter-to-france/artwork/vue-urbaine-18-eme weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/a-love-letter-to-france/vue-urbaine-18-eme_1635.jpg Vue Urbaine 18 Eme by A Love Letter to France - Tim Garner: EU Parliament, Brussels https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/st-peters-square-evening-light weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/st-peters-square-evening-light_41.jpg St Peter's Square Evening Light by Tim Garner Painted with a pastel palette reminiscent of Claude Monet’s Waterlilies, this piece by Tim Garner is a serene glimpse into an often-chaotic area of Manchester city centre. With wisps of soothing pink, blues, and grey, St. Peter’s Square stands in the glow of the evening light, framed by speckles of Garner’s signature concrete. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/a-love-letter-to-france/artwork/village-auvergnat weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/a-love-letter-to-france/village-auvergnat_1634.jpg Village Auvergnat by A Love Letter to France - Tim Garner: EU Parliament, Brussels https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/coming-up-to-hulme-street weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/coming-up-to-hulme-street_46.jpg Coming Up to Hulme Street by Tim Garner This composition is a more minimal piece within Tim Garner's oeuvre. Appealing in its Lowry-like scarcity of composition, on the left side of the composition is a historic cotton mill, and on the right are juxtaposing shiny new builds, which loom in the distance. Specks of cement are dotted throughout the composition, as though blown in by a gust of wind. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/waiting-for-the-night-to-fall weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/waiting-for-the-night-to-fall_1189.jpg Waiting for the Night to Fall by Stephen Farley ARBSA Part of Stephen Farley's iconic silhouette series, 'Waiting for the Night to Fall' is a double-sided resin wall piece. Presenting to us a golden figure glowing in the centre, the silhouette is surrounded by a vignette of blues - as the name suggests; are we waiting for the night to fall? https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/waiting-for-the-night-to-fall_1191.jpg Waiting for the Night to Fall by Stephen Farley ARBSA Part of Stephen Farley's iconic silhouette series, 'Waiting for the Night to Fall' is a double-sided resin wall piece. Presenting to us a golden figure glowing in the centre, the silhouette is surrounded by a vignette of blues - as the name suggests; are we waiting for the night to fall? https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/waiting-for-the-night-to-fall_1188.jpg Waiting for the Night to Fall by Stephen Farley ARBSA Part of Stephen Farley's iconic silhouette series, 'Waiting for the Night to Fall' is a double-sided resin wall piece. Presenting to us a golden figure glowing in the centre, the silhouette is surrounded by a vignette of blues - as the name suggests; are we waiting for the night to fall? https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/waiting-for-the-night-to-fall_1190.jpg Waiting for the Night to Fall by Stephen Farley ARBSA Part of Stephen Farley's iconic silhouette series, 'Waiting for the Night to Fall' is a double-sided resin wall piece. Presenting to us a golden figure glowing in the centre, the silhouette is surrounded by a vignette of blues - as the name suggests; are we waiting for the night to fall? https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/redevelopment weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/redevelopment_42.jpg Redevelopment by Tim Garner Here, Tim Garner returns to one of his favourite themes, the River Irwell. As it cuts through the canyon of slate grey of the city centre, the River Irwell is overlooked by both historic structures and new builds. In 'Redevelopment', modern apartments tower either side of the river, as the blue sky mirrors onto the flowing water beneath. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/a-love-letter-to-france/artwork/european-parliament-brussels weekly https://img.youtube.com/vi/HBP5gzKf8a0/default.jpg A Love Letter To France - European Parliament, Brussels A Love Letter To France - European Parliament, Brussels https://www.youtube.com/embed/HBP5gzKf8a0 yes https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/tag weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/tag_53.jpg Tag by Tim Garner Another piece in Tim Garner's ‘Kids’ series, two children are pictured by Manchester's Victoria Station, immersed in the surreal morning light. A tram passes in the distance, and towering lampposts parallel the shiny vertical tower blocks, contrasting to the horizontal flow of the railway bridge. Garner's signature skies determine the moody, sepia-like aura of this piece, with flecks of cement creating a vignette around this dynamic composition. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/ed-chapman/artwork/marilyn-vs-warhol weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/marilyn-vs-warhol_224.jpg Marilyn vs Warhol by Ed Chapman In this reimaging of an Andy Warhol classic lithograph of Marilyn Monroe, Chapman has used hand-cut records from the 1950s and 60s to create this unique mosaic portrait of the Silver Screen icon and in doing so pays homage to both the Pop artist and the subject, asking the viewer who is the portrait really of? Made entirely from hand-cut vinyl pop records. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/marilyn-vs-warhol_225.jpg Marilyn vs Warhol by Ed Chapman In this reimaging of an Andy Warhol classic lithograph of Marilyn Monroe, Chapman has used hand-cut records from the 1950s and 60s to create this unique mosaic portrait of the Silver Screen icon and in doing so pays homage to both the Pop artist and the subject, asking the viewer who is the portrait really of? Made entirely from hand-cut vinyl pop records. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/marilyn-vs-warhol_226.jpg Marilyn vs Warhol by Ed Chapman In this reimaging of an Andy Warhol classic lithograph of Marilyn Monroe, Chapman has used hand-cut records from the 1950s and 60s to create this unique mosaic portrait of the Silver Screen icon and in doing so pays homage to both the Pop artist and the subject, asking the viewer who is the portrait really of? Made entirely from hand-cut vinyl pop records. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/marilyn-vs-warhol_506.jpg Marilyn vs Warhol by Ed Chapman In this reimaging of an Andy Warhol classic lithograph of Marilyn Monroe, Chapman has used hand-cut records from the 1950s and 60s to create this unique mosaic portrait of the Silver Screen icon and in doing so pays homage to both the Pop artist and the subject, asking the viewer who is the portrait really of? Made entirely from hand-cut vinyl pop records. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/glory-days weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/glory-days_1512.jpg Glory Days by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/glory-days_1511.jpg Glory Days by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/glory-days_1513.jpg Glory Days by Andrew Hunt https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/le-voyage-fantastique-2 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/le-voyage-fantastique-2_1341.jpg Le Voyage Fantastique (2) by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Le Voyage Fantastique' is a brand new series of contemporary paintings by Karenina Fabrizzi. The paintings explore themes of self discovery, the depth of the human condition and nature. “I really like the direction all these new pieces are taking, they’re more refined, detailed, and really elegant – I’m really pleased with the result” https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/le-voyage-fantastique-2_1342.jpg Le Voyage Fantastique (2) by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Le Voyage Fantastique' is a brand new series of contemporary paintings by Karenina Fabrizzi. The paintings explore themes of self discovery, the depth of the human condition and nature. “I really like the direction all these new pieces are taking, they’re more refined, detailed, and really elegant – I’m really pleased with the result” https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/le-voyage-fantastique-2_1343.jpg Le Voyage Fantastique (2) by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Le Voyage Fantastique' is a brand new series of contemporary paintings by Karenina Fabrizzi. The paintings explore themes of self discovery, the depth of the human condition and nature. “I really like the direction all these new pieces are taking, they’re more refined, detailed, and really elegant – I’m really pleased with the result” https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/le-voyage-fantastique-2_1344.jpg Le Voyage Fantastique (2) by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Le Voyage Fantastique' is a brand new series of contemporary paintings by Karenina Fabrizzi. The paintings explore themes of self discovery, the depth of the human condition and nature. “I really like the direction all these new pieces are taking, they’re more refined, detailed, and really elegant – I’m really pleased with the result” https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/nighthawks weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/nighthawks_72.jpg Nighthawks by Chris Acheson A snapshot into Manchester’s iconic St Peter’s Square, a luminous tram meets the velvety night skies in this impressive urban painting referencing Edward Hopper's famous masterpiece. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/st-peters-square weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/st-peters-square_438.jpg St Peter's Square by Tim Garner Where some of Manchester’s most iconic buildings meet harmoniously within one vicinity, Tim Garner has captured St Peter's Square under the cool evening light, which boasts a pastel palette reminiscent of Claude Monet’s Waterlilies. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/karenina-fabrizzi/artwork/le-voyage-fantastique-3 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/le-voyage-fantastique-3_1327.jpg Le Voyage Fantastique (3) by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Le Voyage Fantastique' is a brand new series of contemporary paintings by Karenina Fabrizzi. The paintings explore themes of self discovery, the depth of the human condition and nature. “I really like the direction all these new pieces are taking, they’re more refined, detailed, and really elegant – I’m really pleased with the result” https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/le-voyage-fantastique-3_1331.jpg Le Voyage Fantastique (3) by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Le Voyage Fantastique' is a brand new series of contemporary paintings by Karenina Fabrizzi. The paintings explore themes of self discovery, the depth of the human condition and nature. “I really like the direction all these new pieces are taking, they’re more refined, detailed, and really elegant – I’m really pleased with the result” https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/le-voyage-fantastique-3_1329.jpg Le Voyage Fantastique (3) by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Le Voyage Fantastique' is a brand new series of contemporary paintings by Karenina Fabrizzi. The paintings explore themes of self discovery, the depth of the human condition and nature. “I really like the direction all these new pieces are taking, they’re more refined, detailed, and really elegant – I’m really pleased with the result” https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/le-voyage-fantastique-3_1328.jpg Le Voyage Fantastique (3) by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Le Voyage Fantastique' is a brand new series of contemporary paintings by Karenina Fabrizzi. The paintings explore themes of self discovery, the depth of the human condition and nature. “I really like the direction all these new pieces are taking, they’re more refined, detailed, and really elegant – I’m really pleased with the result” https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/karenina-fabrizzi/le-voyage-fantastique-3_1330.jpg Le Voyage Fantastique (3) by Karenina Fabrizzi 'Le Voyage Fantastique' is a brand new series of contemporary paintings by Karenina Fabrizzi. The paintings explore themes of self discovery, the depth of the human condition and nature. “I really like the direction all these new pieces are taking, they’re more refined, detailed, and really elegant – I’m really pleased with the result” https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/raining-in-my-heart weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/raining-in-my-heart_1514.jpg Raining In My Heart by Stephen Farley ARBSA https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/raining-in-my-heart_1515.jpg Raining In My Heart by Stephen Farley ARBSA https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/raining-in-my-heart_1516.jpg Raining In My Heart by Stephen Farley ARBSA https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/the-art-whisperer/artwork/artzu-is-on-the-move weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/the-art-whisperer/artzu-is-on-the-move_1556.jpg Artzu is on the move by The Art Whisperer https://img.youtube.com/vi/KCVrzxZTcpA/default.jpg YouTube Video YouTube Video https://www.youtube.com/embed/KCVrzxZTcpA yes https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/louisa-hope/artwork/unravel weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/unravel_1599.jpg Unravel by Louisa Hope Capturing that finite moment of time just as the new leaves start to unravel from the buds. The sound of the tree changes shortly there after as it whispers in the wind and the form takes on a new trajectory. The birth of a new cycle and so lovely in its array of colours. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/unravel_1581.jpg Unravel by Louisa Hope Capturing that finite moment of time just as the new leaves start to unravel from the buds. The sound of the tree changes shortly there after as it whispers in the wind and the form takes on a new trajectory. The birth of a new cycle and so lovely in its array of colours. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/unravel_1596.jpg Unravel by Louisa Hope Capturing that finite moment of time just as the new leaves start to unravel from the buds. The sound of the tree changes shortly there after as it whispers in the wind and the form takes on a new trajectory. The birth of a new cycle and so lovely in its array of colours. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/louisa-hope/unravel_1600.jpg Unravel by Louisa Hope Capturing that finite moment of time just as the new leaves start to unravel from the buds. The sound of the tree changes shortly there after as it whispers in the wind and the form takes on a new trajectory. The birth of a new cycle and so lovely in its array of colours. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/sugar-me weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/sugar-me_1076.jpg Sugar Me by Stephen Farley ARBSA “Sugar Me” is a piece which lightly comments on themes of addiction, told through a kitschy and sickly-sweet lens. Acknowledging that there's no addiction without consequence - the substances are inlaid for all time beneath temptation. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/sugar-me_1078.jpg Sugar Me by Stephen Farley ARBSA “Sugar Me” is a piece which lightly comments on themes of addiction, told through a kitschy and sickly-sweet lens. Acknowledging that there's no addiction without consequence - the substances are inlaid for all time beneath temptation. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/sugar-me_1077.jpg Sugar Me by Stephen Farley ARBSA “Sugar Me” is a piece which lightly comments on themes of addiction, told through a kitschy and sickly-sweet lens. Acknowledging that there's no addiction without consequence - the substances are inlaid for all time beneath temptation. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/stephen-farley/artwork/agincourt-reef weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/agincourt-reef_1264.jpg Agincourt Reef by Stephen Farley ARBSA This multidimensional wall sculpture by Birmingham-based artist Stephen Farley is an abstract take on the breath-taking Great Barrier Reef. Made using layers upon layers of resin, this tactile artwork appears as though it is mushrooming from its surface, and is a visual reflection of Farley’s fluid, intuitive approach to making art. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/agincourt-reef_1263.jpg Agincourt Reef by Stephen Farley ARBSA This multidimensional wall sculpture by Birmingham-based artist Stephen Farley is an abstract take on the breath-taking Great Barrier Reef. Made using layers upon layers of resin, this tactile artwork appears as though it is mushrooming from its surface, and is a visual reflection of Farley’s fluid, intuitive approach to making art. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/impromptu-iridotomy_236.jpg Agincourt Reef by Stephen Farley ARBSA This multidimensional wall sculpture by Birmingham-based artist Stephen Farley is an abstract take on the breath-taking Great Barrier Reef. Made using layers upon layers of resin, this tactile artwork appears as though it is mushrooming from its surface, and is a visual reflection of Farley’s fluid, intuitive approach to making art. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/impromptu-iridotomy_237.jpg Agincourt Reef by Stephen Farley ARBSA This multidimensional wall sculpture by Birmingham-based artist Stephen Farley is an abstract take on the breath-taking Great Barrier Reef. Made using layers upon layers of resin, this tactile artwork appears as though it is mushrooming from its surface, and is a visual reflection of Farley’s fluid, intuitive approach to making art. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/stephen-farley/agincourt-reef_1265.jpg Agincourt Reef by Stephen Farley ARBSA This multidimensional wall sculpture by Birmingham-based artist Stephen Farley is an abstract take on the breath-taking Great Barrier Reef. Made using layers upon layers of resin, this tactile artwork appears as though it is mushrooming from its surface, and is a visual reflection of Farley’s fluid, intuitive approach to making art. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/andrew-hunt/artwork/bankers-draft weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/bankers-draft_1249.jpg Banker's Draft by Andrew Hunt Andrew Hunt is renowned for his photorealistic figurative works which are imbued with narrative - 'Banker's Draft' is no exception. Here we are met with three jovial figures in a pub setting - two sit comfortably, deep in conversation and laughter, as the third carefully emerges from the left, armed with three, overflowing pints of stout. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/bankers-draft_1251.jpg Banker's Draft by Andrew Hunt Andrew Hunt is renowned for his photorealistic figurative works which are imbued with narrative - 'Banker's Draft' is no exception. Here we are met with three jovial figures in a pub setting - two sit comfortably, deep in conversation and laughter, as the third carefully emerges from the left, armed with three, overflowing pints of stout. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/bankers-draft_1250.jpg Banker's Draft by Andrew Hunt Andrew Hunt is renowned for his photorealistic figurative works which are imbued with narrative - 'Banker's Draft' is no exception. Here we are met with three jovial figures in a pub setting - two sit comfortably, deep in conversation and laughter, as the third carefully emerges from the left, armed with three, overflowing pints of stout. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/andrew-hunt/bankers-draft_1252.jpg Banker's Draft by Andrew Hunt Andrew Hunt is renowned for his photorealistic figurative works which are imbued with narrative - 'Banker's Draft' is no exception. Here we are met with three jovial figures in a pub setting - two sit comfortably, deep in conversation and laughter, as the third carefully emerges from the left, armed with three, overflowing pints of stout. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/chris-acheson/artwork/desaparesidos weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/desaparesidos_1363.jpg Desaparesidos by Chris Acheson 'Desaparesidos' is part of Acheson's latest 'Americana' series. A dramatic, cryptic image told through a technicolour lens, this cinematic composition explores the human blots often left on the landscape. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/desaparesidos_1361.jpg Desaparesidos by Chris Acheson 'Desaparesidos' is part of Acheson's latest 'Americana' series. A dramatic, cryptic image told through a technicolour lens, this cinematic composition explores the human blots often left on the landscape. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/desaparesidos_1364.jpg Desaparesidos by Chris Acheson 'Desaparesidos' is part of Acheson's latest 'Americana' series. A dramatic, cryptic image told through a technicolour lens, this cinematic composition explores the human blots often left on the landscape. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/desaparesidos_1362.jpg Desaparesidos by Chris Acheson 'Desaparesidos' is part of Acheson's latest 'Americana' series. A dramatic, cryptic image told through a technicolour lens, this cinematic composition explores the human blots often left on the landscape. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/chris-acheson/desaparesidos_1365.jpg Desaparesidos by Chris Acheson 'Desaparesidos' is part of Acheson's latest 'Americana' series. A dramatic, cryptic image told through a technicolour lens, this cinematic composition explores the human blots often left on the landscape. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/ed-chapman/artwork/david-bowie-vinyl weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/david-bowie-vinyl_525.jpg David Bowie (vinyl) by Ed Chapman The young Thin White Duke’s likeness made using hand-cut records from the 1970s, 80s and 90s, wherein Chapman has employed unusual purple and mauve tones to create a cool, subtle style and finish befitting the iconic singer as he looks to begin his stellar rise as Ziggy with his Spiders from Mars. Made entirely from hand-cut vinyl pop records. Commissions are available on request. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/david-bowie-vinyl_216.jpg David Bowie (vinyl) by Ed Chapman The young Thin White Duke’s likeness made using hand-cut records from the 1970s, 80s and 90s, wherein Chapman has employed unusual purple and mauve tones to create a cool, subtle style and finish befitting the iconic singer as he looks to begin his stellar rise as Ziggy with his Spiders from Mars. Made entirely from hand-cut vinyl pop records. Commissions are available on request. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/david-bowie-vinyl_532.jpg David Bowie (vinyl) by Ed Chapman The young Thin White Duke’s likeness made using hand-cut records from the 1970s, 80s and 90s, wherein Chapman has employed unusual purple and mauve tones to create a cool, subtle style and finish befitting the iconic singer as he looks to begin his stellar rise as Ziggy with his Spiders from Mars. Made entirely from hand-cut vinyl pop records. Commissions are available on request. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/ed-chapman/artwork/johnny-rotten-vinyl weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/johnny-rotten-vinyl_527.jpg Johnny Rotten (vinyl) by Ed Chapman The iconic, vitriolic frontman for the Sex Pistols has been created in blue tones with a background using the famous colours of the band’s classic Never Mind The Bollocks album. Rotten's legendary stare follows the viewer in this classic rendition of a Punk Rock legend. Made entirely from hand-cut vinyl pop records. Commissions are available on request. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/johnny-rotten-vinyl_220.jpg Johnny Rotten (vinyl) by Ed Chapman The iconic, vitriolic frontman for the Sex Pistols has been created in blue tones with a background using the famous colours of the band’s classic Never Mind The Bollocks album. Rotten's legendary stare follows the viewer in this classic rendition of a Punk Rock legend. Made entirely from hand-cut vinyl pop records. Commissions are available on request. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/johnny-rotten-vinyl_219.jpg Johnny Rotten (vinyl) by Ed Chapman The iconic, vitriolic frontman for the Sex Pistols has been created in blue tones with a background using the famous colours of the band’s classic Never Mind The Bollocks album. Rotten's legendary stare follows the viewer in this classic rendition of a Punk Rock legend. Made entirely from hand-cut vinyl pop records. Commissions are available on request. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/ed-chapman/artwork/biggie-vinyl weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/biggie-vinyl_530.jpg Biggie (vinyl) by Ed Chapman One of the pre-eminent pioneers of East Coast R n B, the late, great Biggie Smalls is here made entirely from hand-cut vinyl records and the result is a unique creation of the man formerly known as Christopher Wallace, captured by Ed Chapman in beautiful and unusual tones, with yellows and even blues beautifully employed in his strong facial features. Commissions are available on request. https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/ed-chapman/biggie-vinyl_531.jpg Biggie (vinyl) by Ed Chapman One of the pre-eminent pioneers of East Coast R n B, the late, great Biggie Smalls is here made entirely from hand-cut vinyl records and the result is a unique creation of the man formerly known as Christopher Wallace, captured by Ed Chapman in beautiful and unusual tones, with yellows and even blues beautifully employed in his strong facial features. Commissions are available on request. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/white-stag-legend weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/white-stag-legend_1534.jpg White Stag Legend by Timur D'Vatz https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/birth-of-a-legend weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/birth-of-a-legend_1531.jpg Birth of a Legend by Timur D'Vatz https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/arcadian-dream weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/arcadian-dream_1530.jpg Arcadian Dream by Timur D'Vatz https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/fountain weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/fountain_1532.jpg Fountain by Timur D'Vatz Painted on five panels https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/the-hunt weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/the-hunt_1533.jpg The Hunt by Timur D'Vatz https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/angels-flamingos-and-blue-winged-stag weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/angels-flamingos-and-blue-winged-stag_1529.jpg Angels, Flamingos and Blue Winged Stag by Timur D'Vatz https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/ancient-greek-myth-perseus-and-andromeda weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/ancient-greek-myth-perseus-and-andromeda_1528.jpg Ancient Greek Myth. Perseus and Andromeda by Timur D'Vatz https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/the-art-whisperer/artwork/a-different-perspective-yorkshire-sculpture-park weekly https://img.youtube.com/vi/b_a3iLLNvY0/default.jpg YouTube Video The Art Whisperer takes us on a bucolic trip to Yorkshire Sculpture Park where we enjoy the grandeur of Sean Henry's Seated Figure who is a master of all he purveys. This oversize, cast aluminium lifelike sculpture is one of many reasons to visit YSP in Yorkshire. https://www.youtube.com/embed/b_a3iLLNvY0 yes https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/ancoats-investment-opportunity weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/ancoats-investment-opportunity_44.jpg Ancoats Investment Opportunity by Tim Garner 'Ancoats Investment Opportunity' by Tim Garner presents to us the sombre Great Ancoats Street under an apocalyptic Mancunian sky, which mirrors the murky pavement below. Here, Garner has placed us on ground level amongst hazy grey hues, immersed within the juxtaposing architectures of the old and new Manchester. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/chapel-street-police-station weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/chapel-street-police-station_48.jpg Chapel Street Police Station by Tim Garner Sprung upon us like a page from a pop-up book, Tim Garner once again makes a return to Salford in 'Chapel Street Police Station'. A painting which captures the old Salford whilst it remains, this composition captures a street which is undergoing rapid change, following in the footsteps of the ever-growing cityscape of Manchester's city centre. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/walking-in-the-18th-paris-collection weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/walking-in-the-18th-paris-collection_1258.jpg Walking In the 18th (Paris Collection) by Tim Garner A painterly glimpse into one of the world’s most iconic cities, ‘Walking the 18th’ by Tim Garner is part of the artist’s Paris Collection. This collection reflects the artist’s time divided between Paris and Manchester and portrays Garner’s impressive ability to capture a snapshot in time through painting. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/tim-garner/artwork/rue-caulaincourt-paris-collection weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/tim-garner/rue-caulaincourt-paris-collection_1256.jpg Rue Caulaincourt (Paris Collection) by Tim Garner Another serene piece from Tim Garner’s Paris Collection of works, ‘Rue Caulaincourt’ immediately transports us to a sunny street in Montmartre. Garner spent over 20 years living in Paris – works such as this fondly reflect his time there. https://www.artzu.co.uk/artist/timur-dvatz/artwork/blue-falcon weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/timur-dvatz/blue-falcon_895.jpg Blue Falcon by Timur D'Vatz In Timur D'Vatz' 'Blue Falcon', a lone figure is submerged in a sea of greens and blues. A bird emerges from the right, guiding us toward the figure on the left - what could this mean? Perhaps this figure is on their own journey of self discovery? https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/dostyk-plaza-kazakhstan weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/dostyk-plaza-kazakhstan/lighting-installation-proposal-1_363.jpg Dostyk Plaza, Kazakhstan ARTZU Projects were awarded an art consultancy contract to supply sculpture for a spectacular, luxury brand shopping mall in Almaty - former capital of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Central Asia. To complement the theme of “Dostyk” sculptor Anna Gillespie develop the concept of two joined figures, one male, one female formed in leaves. This naturalistic sculpture, cast in bronze, was spectacular whilst also offering the elegant charm the brief required. https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/the-christie-manchester weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/the-christie-manchester/harry-goodwin-charity-photography-exhibition-at-artzu-2_426.jpg The Christie, Manchester World renowned Christie's Hospital, a world leader in the treatment on cancer, invited Artzu to present an art strategy to board members. We were asked to make recommendations on how we can transform the hospital environment, engaging with staff members and others working externally in the healthcare sector. We concluded artwork would significantly enhance the health and welfare of patients, workers and visitors alike. There was a subsequent fund raising exhibition host by BBC's Terry Christian featuring the auctioned photography of Harry Goodwin. https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/addleshaw-goddard weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/addleshaw-goddard/bringing-colour-energy-into-the-working-environment_616.jpg Addleshaw Goddard International business law firm Addleshaw Goddard recently moved into Manchester’s prestigious One St Peter’s Square and chose Artzu as their art consultants to bring the wow factor to their impressive new office. "We chose to work with Artzu not only because they are the leading art consultants in Manchester but also because of their expertise and experience. Artwork has always been an important element of our company ethos. Great artwork makes a powerful statement and is an inspiration for the working environment, enriching lives and expressing company values. We developed a fantastic rapport with gallery owner and art consultant Nick Betney and he rose to the challenge magnificently. Artzu’s impressive art gallery helped us to visualise what was possible and with Nick’s help made our journey a memorable one.” Nancy McGuire, Partner https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/the-address-dubai weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/the-address-dubai/different-perspectives-create-subtle-changes_404.jpg The Address, Dubai " 'The Address' in Downtown Dubai is one of our clients most iconic skyscrapers. We wanted a contemporary sculpture to reflect the prestigious nature of this development. We contacted art consultants worldwide who would be capable of taking on such a large specialised project. Through this process we found that ARTZU Projects had the most comprehensive image library of different sculpture from artists all over the world. This helped us select a few images to convey our ideas of the type of sculpture that we anticipated for the forecourt for our 63 storey five star hotel. We awarded the commission to ARTZU Projects as they had the clearest understanding of our brief and presented the most exciting ideas. ARTZU Projects expertly led us through the commissioning process from their initial presentation to the final installation. The work was created by the British artist Berlino and ARTZU was involved in all aspects of the project in both the UK and Dubai. The Concha sculpture is a very successful interpretation of our requirements and has made a significant contribution to the imposing nature of the building." Shaun Killa, Ex-Director, Atkins, Head of Architecture organic, flowing masterpiece was one of the first major contemporary sculptures to be commissioned in Dubai and established ARTZU Projects as the leading art consultancy in the Gulf region. 'The Address' is one of Emaar's most iconic skyscrapers and they wanted a contemporary sculpture to reflect the prestigious nature of this development. Made of cast aluminium, some 5m tall, the sculpture reveals its highly textured, natural form by encouraging the viewer to make a circular journey. https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/ey-ernst-young weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/ey-ernst-young/ey-office-two-st-peters-square-manchester_350.jpg EY (Ernst & Young) When EY (formerly Ernst & Young) moved into Manchester’s prestigious Two St. Peter’s Square they chose Artzu as their art consultants to bring the wow factor to their impressive, sleek new office space. "The move to Two St Peter’s Square is an important one for us all at EY. It’s a fabulous new building in a superb location which the team is really excited about. It’s much more than just having a new physical space in which to work – It’s about enabling a different way of working and the inspiring artwork has been an integral part of that vision.” Bob Ward, North West senior partner https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/commissioning-public-sculpture weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/commissioning-public-sculpture/concha-by-berlino-dubai_418.jpg Commissioning Public Sculpture 'The Address' is one of Emaar's most iconic skyscrapers and they wanted a contemporary sculpture to reflect the prestigious nature of this development. Made of cast aluminium, some 5m tall, the sculpture reveals its highly textured, natural form by encouraging the viewer to make a circular journey. Concha Sculpture, Dubai Example: Time Schedule and Costing HEIGHT: 500 cm MATERIAL: Aluminium TIME SCHEDULE: 78 weeks https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/cheshire-home weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/cheshire-home/song-by-anna-gillespie-contemporary-sculpture-at-its-finest_375.jpg Cheshire Home "We chose to work with ARTZU as we knew their ethos very much mirrored and complemented our style and approach to property development. The selection of artwork and sculpture they provided clearly enhanced the internal and external spaces and brought the house to life, demonstrating their clear understanding of the brief and professionalism. I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending them to our clients and look forward to collaborating with them on future projects." Mark Oakes, ABODA Living https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/tlt-solicitors weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/tlt-solicitors/a-contemplative-and-memorable-reception-area_386.jpg TLT Solicitors ART SPARKS CREATIVITY IN THE WORKPLACE Art sends a powerful message to your clients about your innovative brand and corporate ethos that distinguishes you from your competitors. TLT Solicitors are an exciting example of how contemporary art can revitalise a conventional work space into something inspirational. ARTZU worked alongside key partners at TLT to transform their Manchester office into an extraordinary workplace through an exceptional collection of contemporary art. This original and avant-garde approach requires careful consideration: the right collection of artwork can define your business and its brand ethos, creating a space which takes it to another level of sophistication. Key to the selection process is an understanding of the culture and values of your business; the artwork must reflect the 'spirit' of your company through a strong visual message. Only by working closely alongside you and your colleagues to define these fundamental ideals can they be extended into the design concept through artwork. In the final stages of a project the most suitable artworks are presented to you through visual renderings of the interiors. This process allows you to fully understand the impact and placement of artworks before you make a final decision on suitable pieces to buy and commission. https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/concept-drawings-for-dostyk-sculpture weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/dostyk-plaza-kazakhstan/concept-drawings-for-dostyk-sculpture_360.jpg Concept drawings for Dostyk sculpture for Dostyk Plaza, Kazakhstan https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/dostyk-detail-1 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/dostyk-plaza-kazakhstan/dostyk-detail-1_365.jpg Dostyk - detail 1 for Dostyk Plaza, Kazakhstan https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/textured-detail-of-ferdinanda weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/cheshire-home/textured-detail-of-ferdinanda_377.jpg Textured detail of Ferdinanda for Cheshire Home https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/stage-2 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/commissioning-public-sculpture/stage-2_410.jpg Stage 2 for Commissioning Public Sculpture Weeks 11 - 14: Site visit with design team. Orientation of sculpture / lighting etc. https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/dostyk-detail-2 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/dostyk-plaza-kazakhstan/dostyk-detail-2_359.jpg Dostyk - detail 2 for Dostyk Plaza, Kazakhstan https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/lighting-installation-proposal-2 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/dostyk-plaza-kazakhstan/lighting-installation-proposal-2_382.jpg Lighting installation proposal 2 for Dostyk Plaza, Kazakhstan https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/acrobatics weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/addleshaw-goddard/acrobatics_347.jpg Acrobatics for Addleshaw Goddard https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/stage-4 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/commissioning-public-sculpture/stage-4_412.jpg Stage 4 for Commissioning Public Sculpture Weeks 27 - 65: A full scale clay model is created from the maquette which is divied into 120 pieces, each individually cast into aluminium. https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/glorie-of-grace-by-alisa-lim-a-po weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/addleshaw-goddard/glorie-of-grace-by-alisa-lim-a-po_349.jpg Glorie of Grace by Alisa Lim A Po for Addleshaw Goddard https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/utilising-the-long-connecting-corridor weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/addleshaw-goddard/utilising-the-long-connecting-corridor_344.jpg Utilising the long connecting corridor for Addleshaw Goddard https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/love-me-sculpture-located-at-key-location weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/dostyk-plaza-kazakhstan/love-me-sculpture-located-at-key-location_362.jpg Love Me sculpture located at key location for Dostyk Plaza, Kazakhstan https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/painting-by-andrew-hunt weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/cheshire-home/painting-by-andrew-hunt_371.jpg Painting by Andrew Hunt for Cheshire Home https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/glass-sculpture-proposal-for-outdoor-roundabout weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/the-christie-manchester/glass-sculpture-proposal-for-outdoor-roundabout_423.jpg Glass sculpture proposal for outdoor roundabout for The Christie, Manchester https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/lighting-installation-proposal-1 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/dostyk-plaza-kazakhstan/lighting-installation-proposal-1_363.jpg Lighting installation proposal 1 for Dostyk Plaza, Kazakhstan https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/harry-goodwin-charity-photography-exhibition-at-artzu weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/the-christie-manchester/harry-goodwin-charity-photography-exhibition-at-artzu_425.jpg Harry Goodwin charity photography exhibition at Artzu for The Christie, Manchester https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/always-on-the-move weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/addleshaw-goddard/always-on-the-move_343.jpg Always on the move... for Addleshaw Goddard https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/cheshire-home weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/cheshire-home/cheshire-home_380.jpg Cheshire home for Cheshire Home https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/stage-5 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/commissioning-public-sculpture/stage-5_413.jpg Stage 5 for Commissioning Public Sculpture Weeks 66 - 75: Each of the 120 individually cast aluminium pieces are welded together. https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/stage-7 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/commissioning-public-sculpture/stage-7_415.jpg Stage 7 for Commissioning Public Sculpture Weeks 76 - 78: The sculpture is cut into 4 pieces for shipping and reassembled on site. https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/stage-6 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/commissioning-public-sculpture/stage-6_414.jpg Stage 6 for Commissioning Public Sculpture Weeks 66 - 75: Before the sculpture is installed the the groundwork must be completed. https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/dostyk-by-anna-gillespie weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/dostyk-plaza-kazakhstan/dostyk-by-anna-gillespie_357.jpg Dostyk by Anna Gillespie for Dostyk Plaza, Kazakhstan https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/abstract-bronze-sculpture weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/cheshire-home/abstract-bronze-sculpture_381.jpg Abstract, bronze sculpture for Cheshire Home https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/song-by-anna-gillespie-contemporary-sculpture-at-its-finest weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/cheshire-home/song-by-anna-gillespie-contemporary-sculpture-at-its-finest_375.jpg Song by Anna Gillespie - Contemporary sculpture at its finest for Cheshire Home https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/eys-boardroom-manchester weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/ey-ernst-young/eys-boardroom-manchester_356.jpg EY's boardroom, Manchester for EY (Ernst & Young) https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/seamlessly-connecting-the-kitchen-and-living-area weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/cheshire-home/seamlessly-connecting-the-kitchen-and-living-area_373.jpg Seamlessly connecting the kitchen and living area for Cheshire Home https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/example-of-effective-artwork-in-the-central-atrium weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/the-christie-manchester/example-of-effective-artwork-in-the-central-atrium_422.jpg Example of effective artwork in the central atrium for The Christie, Manchester https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/concha-by-night-with-dubai-mall-in-the-background weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/the-address-dubai/concha-by-night-with-dubai-mall-in-the-background_408.jpg Concha by night with Dubai Mall in the background for The Address, Dubai https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/playful-artwork-suspended-in-the-central-atrium weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/the-christie-manchester/playful-artwork-suspended-in-the-central-atrium_428.jpg Playful artwork suspended in the central atrium for The Christie, Manchester https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/proposed-vinyl-artwork-to-energise-the-corridors weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/the-christie-manchester/proposed-vinyl-artwork-to-energise-the-corridors_421.jpg Proposed vinyl artwork to 'energise' the corridors for The Christie, Manchester https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/stage-8 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/commissioning-public-sculpture/stage-8_416.jpg Stage 8 for Commissioning Public Sculpture Week 78: Installed successfully! https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/concha-by-berlino-dubai weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/commissioning-public-sculpture/concha-by-berlino-dubai_418.jpg Concha by Berlino, Dubai for Commissioning Public Sculpture https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/stage-1 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/commissioning-public-sculpture/stage-1_409.jpg Stage 1 for Commissioning Public Sculpture Weeks 1 - 10: Initial Design signed off. 50cm plaster model created to be approved by client. https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/water-feature-complimenting-the-aquatic-concept weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/the-address-dubai/water-feature-complimenting-the-aquatic-concept_400.jpg Water feature complimenting the aquatic concept for The Address, Dubai https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/concept-drawings-for-central-plaza weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/dostyk-plaza-kazakhstan/concept-drawings-for-central-plaza_383.jpg Concept drawings for central plaza for Dostyk Plaza, Kazakhstan https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/the-christie weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/the-christie-manchester/the-christie_429.jpg The Christie for The Christie, Manchester https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/detail-of-aluminium-casting weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/the-address-dubai/detail-of-aluminium-casting_401.jpg Detail of aluminium casting for The Address, Dubai https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/a-fluid-sculptural-form weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/the-address-dubai/a-fluid-sculptural-form_403.jpg A fluid sculptural form for The Address, Dubai https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/harry-goodwin-charity-photography-exhibition-at-artzu-2 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/the-christie-manchester/harry-goodwin-charity-photography-exhibition-at-artzu-2_426.jpg Harry Goodwin charity photography exhibition at Artzu for The Christie, Manchester https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/detail-of-sculpture-made-from-oak weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/tlt-solicitors/detail-of-sculpture-made-from-oak_388.jpg Detail of sculpture made from oak for TLT Solicitors https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/a-perfect-setting-amongst-palm-trees weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/the-address-dubai/a-perfect-setting-amongst-palm-trees_405.jpg A perfect setting amongst palm trees for The Address, Dubai https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/the-manchester-commute weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/ey-ernst-young/the-manchester-commute_398.jpg The Manchester commute for EY (Ernst & Young) https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/figurative-painting-by-carl-melegari weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/cheshire-home/figurative-painting-by-carl-melegari_376.jpg Figurative painting by Carl Melegari for Cheshire Home https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/waiting-area weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/addleshaw-goddard/waiting-area_345.jpg Waiting area for Addleshaw Goddard https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/bringing-colour-energy-into-the-working-environment weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/addleshaw-goddard/bringing-colour-energy-into-the-working-environment_616.jpg Bringing colour & energy into the working environment for Addleshaw Goddard https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/kimon-by-carl-melegari weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/cheshire-home/kimon-by-carl-melegari_374.jpg Kimon by Carl Melegari for Cheshire Home https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/apostolic-aura-by-stephen-farley weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/cheshire-home/apostolic-aura-by-stephen-farley_372.jpg Apostolic Aura by Stephen Farley for Cheshire Home https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/keep-up- weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/addleshaw-goddard/keep-up-_341.jpg Keep Up ! for Addleshaw Goddard https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/acrobatics-detail weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/addleshaw-goddard/acrobatics-detail_346.jpg Acrobatics - detail for Addleshaw Goddard https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/tactile-specially-commissioned-wall-mounted-sculpture-by-stephen-farley weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/tlt-solicitors/tactile-specially-commissioned-wall-mounted-sculpture-by-stephen-farley_391.jpg Tactile, specially commissioned, wall mounted sculpture by Stephen Farley for TLT Solicitors https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/stunning-organic-sculpture-by-anna-gillespie weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/tlt-solicitors/stunning-organic-sculpture-by-anna-gillespie_397.jpg Stunning organic sculpture by Anna Gillespie for TLT Solicitors https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/transforming-homes weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/cheshire-home/transforming-homes_379.jpg Transforming homes for Cheshire Home https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/contemplative-figurative-paintings-by-karenina-fabrizzi weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/cheshire-home/contemplative-figurative-paintings-by-karenina-fabrizzi_369.jpg Contemplative figurative paintings by Karenina Fabrizzi for Cheshire Home https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/head-by-colin-park weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/cheshire-home/head-by-colin-park_370.jpg Head by Colin Park for Cheshire Home https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/sculpture-and-painting-in-harmony weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/cheshire-home/sculpture-and-painting-in-harmony_378.jpg Sculpture and painting in harmony for Cheshire Home https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/detail-of-the-reef-sculpture weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/tlt-solicitors/detail-of-the-reef-sculpture_393.jpg Detail of 'The Reef' sculpture for TLT Solicitors https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/reception-area-featuring-original-commission weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/ey-ernst-young/reception-area-featuring-original-commission_354.jpg Reception area featuring original commission for EY (Ernst & Young) https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/the-gift-by-anna-gillespie weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/tlt-solicitors/the-gift-by-anna-gillespie_396.jpg The Gift by Anna Gillespie for TLT Solicitors https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/detail-of-room-for-bloomin weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/ey-ernst-young/detail-of-room-for-bloomin_353.jpg Detail of Room for Bloomin for EY (Ernst & Young) https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/bronze-detail weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/tlt-solicitors/bronze-detail_390.jpg Bronze detail for TLT Solicitors https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/reception-area weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/ey-ernst-young/reception-area_399.jpg Reception area for EY (Ernst & Young) https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/orientation-and-placement-of-love-me weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/dostyk-plaza-kazakhstan/orientation-and-placement-of-love-me_361.jpg Orientation and placement of Love Me for Dostyk Plaza, Kazakhstan https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/stage-3 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/commissioning-public-sculpture/stage-3_411.jpg Stage 3 for Commissioning Public Sculpture Weeks 15 - 26: From the plaster model a scaled aluminium version is created. This is the final small scall or maquette which is signed off. https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/a-contemplative-and-memorable-reception-area weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/tlt-solicitors/a-contemplative-and-memorable-reception-area_386.jpg A contemplative and memorable reception area for TLT Solicitors https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/the-first-impression-when-you-approach-the-hotel weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/the-address-dubai/the-first-impression-when-you-approach-the-hotel_406.jpg The first impression when you approach the hotel for The Address, Dubai https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/first-impression-as-you-walk-through-the-entrance weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/tlt-solicitors/first-impression-as-you-walk-through-the-entrance_385.jpg First impression as you walk through the entrance for TLT Solicitors https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/continuing-the-biophilic-concept-and-referencing-organic-forms weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/tlt-solicitors/continuing-the-biophilic-concept-and-referencing-organic-forms_392.jpg Continuing the biophilic concept and referencing organic forms for TLT Solicitors https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/more-energetic-artwork-for-the-meeting-rooms weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/tlt-solicitors/more-energetic-artwork-for-the-meeting-rooms_394.jpg More energetic artwork for the meeting rooms for TLT Solicitors https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/observing-the-hustle-and-bustle-of-our-fast-paced-lives weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/addleshaw-goddard/observing-the-hustle-and-bustle-of-our-fast-paced-lives_339.jpg Observing the hustle and bustle of our fast paced lives for Addleshaw Goddard https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/continuous-line-drawings weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/ey-ernst-young/continuous-line-drawings_351.jpg Continuous line drawings for EY (Ernst & Young) https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/ey-office-two-st-peters-square-manchester weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/ey-ernst-young/ey-office-two-st-peters-square-manchester_350.jpg EY Office - Two St. Peter's Square, Manchester for EY (Ernst & Young) https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/addleshaw-goddard-office-one-st-peters-square-manchester weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/addleshaw-goddard/addleshaw-goddard-office-one-st-peters-square-manchester_348.jpg Addleshaw Goddard Office - One St. Peter's Square, Manchester for Addleshaw Goddard https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/different-perspectives-create-subtle-changes weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/the-address-dubai/different-perspectives-create-subtle-changes_404.jpg Different perspectives create subtle changes for The Address, Dubai https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/highlighted-polished-surfaces-add-texture weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/project-item/the-address-dubai/highlighted-polished-surfaces-add-texture_402.jpg Highlighted polished surfaces add texture for The Address, Dubai https://www.artzu.co.uk/projects/item/waiting-clients-can-appreciate-and-enjoy-cutting-edge-contemporary-art weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/projects/addleshaw-goddard/waiting-clients-can-appreciate-and-enjoy-cutting-edge-contemporary-art_815.jpg Waiting clients can appreciate and enjoy cutting edge contemporary art for Addleshaw Goddard https://www.artzu.co.uk/post/redirect-to-artzu-gallery weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/archives/post/social-icons-projects weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/post/artzu-projects weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/archives/post/steel-yourself-for-a-conversation-with-andrew-hunt-part-2 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/post/steel-yourself-for-a-conversation-with-andrew-hunt-part-2_1075.jpg Steel yourself for a conversation with artist Andrew Hunt (Part 2) Vignettes of working-life are often an echo of a childhood where ‘Coronation Street’ was regularly on in Andrew Hunt's family home in Mold, North Wales. These influences graphically manifest themselves in ‘Kitchen Sink Drama’ where a couple sit either side of a shared, cramped kitchen table - separated by the ubiquitous HP brown sauce bottle – yet totally disconnected from one another in a very Hopperseque, although quintessentially British, way. “Kitchen Sink Drama” The Mysterious Underworld In his arresting portraits Hunt narrates the ebb and flow of the faces he encounters around him, no better illustrated in the ambitious - “hyper-real” and uber life-size - Sheffield Market series, when he invited characters to be painted and the public to watch him paint them. Yet he is equally adept in his treatment of more intimate portraits such as the sensitively treated smoking girls in ‘Urban Grace’ and the eponymous ‘Smoking Girl’. Remarkable and highly collectable though they are, it’s perhaps the portraits of coal miners in which he takes most pride. They have a profound resonance with him, as they stare out at us having emerged from the blackness of the mysterious underworld…a passage from darkness back into the light. Captured between sharply contrasting worlds. Hunt is self-evidently an animal lover, as recurrent themes in his oeuvre, appearing regularly in various guises. As a dog owner, he’ll frequently include a dog or two in animated poses; the same with startled pigeons and a fat chicken (in ‘Big Chicken’) and the rather elegant pale grey horse. It’s the same horse, slightly reworked, in his iconic Peaky Blinders painting alongside Cillian Murphy, as we see set in the abandoned urban landscape of ‘Neepsend Cluthes’ and with the bearded old timer in another piece. Other four-legged creatures make their presence felt, such the fox across the shoulders of a gamekeeper. He clearly has a deep affinity with animals, something which will become even more evident in the landscapes he has in his mind’s-eye for future, large-scale paintings. Although Hunt didn’t grow-up in Sheffield – “I went there for the weekend 25 years ago while living in London, liked it, and stayed” – the city, its people and the surrounding Peak District have deeply seared into his psyche as an artist and individual. Available and affordable workspaces spawned a steady northward migration of creative spirits out of London. Hunt was well ahead of the pack in that particular race, a trend-setter for sure! “Urban Grace” “Untitled 1 (Ivy)” “Charcoal Miner” COVID Frontline Over a quarter of a century Hunt has witnessed and experienced the economic and social transformation of the city. The main sources of employment these days revolve around the rapidly expanding universities and major teaching hospitals, including the massive Northern General where Hunt’s wife - Kate, works in A&E on the Covid frontline - paid tribute by him in ‘Kate Stay Safe’…becoming one of those iconic images of “our NHS'' through the pandemic. “The daily fear of it all was visceral,” he recalled, “but we’re getting through it.” With two school-aged daughters it must have been a real struggle in every sense - as an artist and a husband and a dad - but equally he feels it gave him the opportunity to reflect on his art and look forward to the future…with renewed optimism. Hunt's painting, "Kate Stay Safe”, featured on the cover of Emergency Nurse magazine. Part two of "Steel yourself for a conversation with Andrew Hunt" written by Carlos Zagreb. Read Part One here. Discover more of Andrew Hunt’s paintings to collect. Background image: Sharon's Cafe in Castle Market, Sheffield, Photo by Andy Wright. Licensed for reuse under (CC BY-SA 2.0) artzuFocus | Issue 003b https://www.artzu.co.uk/archives/post/surprise-photographic-exhibition-found-in-noto-sicily weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/post/surprise-photographic-exhibition-found-in-noto-sicily_1220.jpg https://www.artzu.co.uk/archives/post/sinking-house-sculpture-COP26 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/post/the-trouble-with-sculpture-duplicate_1222.jpg Sinking House - Time to Address Climate Change? This striking art installation is a message of warning and hope, to communities across the world – including leaders gathering at COP26* - to reach for lifelines and to act now against the intensifying threat of climate change. "Sinking House" is a collaborative floating artwork where artist Anna Gillespie has joined forces with architectural practice Stride Treglown, Format Engineers and Fifield Moss Carpentry to produce a compelling visualisation of the plight of humanity in our changing world. As sea levels rise and rivers overflow, the rooftop is a metaphor of our last sanctuary. “Sinking House” by Anna Gillespie “The crew installing from a canoe” “Sinking House” installation crew Located on Pulteney Weir in Bath, a figure sits on the chimney, clinging to a lifeline that reads “COP26”. This perilous situation represents the dangerous position we have put ourselves in and the need for immediate action to mitigate the more extreme consequences. Considerable public interest Images of the installation have been shared around the world and featured in as unlikely places as the China Daily. It has certainly captured our imagination with people referencing a Monopoly hotel and its symbolism of corporate greed. Greta Thunberg's House on Fire speech was never more prescient. The human-like figure, sculpted by Gillespie is made from a metal armature and originally sculpted from masking tape. Gillespie has exhibited internationally and exhibited at Glastonbury and Chelsea Flower Show. Her exquisite work has created considerable public interest with recent prestigious public commissions at Half Moon Bay in Morecambe Bay, titled “Ship” and the “Maid of the Bridge” in Bath. As Gillespie’s representative, Artzu is pleased to support this ecological artwork that binds the ideals of community and environmental well-being through haunting depictions of our relationship with nature. Discover more of Gillespie’s moving sculpture here. Background image: "COP26" Logo *COP26: 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference/26th Conference of the Parties artzuBulletin | Issue 001 https://www.artzu.co.uk/post/we-provide-a-highly-personal-service-for-art-collectors weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/archives/post/oceanic-obligation-by-stephen-farley-video weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/oceanic-obligation-by-stephen-farley-video/oceanic-obligation-by-stephen-farley-video_653.jpg https://www.artzu.co.uk/archives/post/hive-by-wolfgang-buttress-video weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/hive-by-wolfgang-buttress-video/hive-by-wolfgang-buttress-video_655.jpg https://www.artzu.co.uk/archives/post/Dr-Jordan-B-Peterson-says-Buy-a-damn-piece-of-art weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/post/Dr-Jordan-B-Peterson-says-Buy-a-damn-piece-of-art!_809.jpg https://www.artzu.co.uk/archives/post/maggie-rogers-puts-stars-in-your-eyes-thanks-to-van-gogh-the-starry-night weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/post/maggie-rogers-puts-stars-in-your-eyes-thanks-to-van-gogh_872.jpg https://www.artzu.co.uk/archives/post/jarvis-cocker-dusts-off-monets-gare-saint-lazare weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/post/maggie-rogers-puts-stars-in-your-eyes-thanks-to-van-gogh-the-starry-night-duplicate_880.jpg https://www.artzu.co.uk/archives/post/timur-dvatz-exploring-the-subject-of-celtic-mythology-and-the-arthurian-legends weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/post/timur-dvatz-exploring-the-subject-of-celtic-mythology-and-the-arthurian-legends_888.jpg Celtic mythology and the Arthurian legends In 1991 Timur D'Vatz brought his talent to the West. A scholarship to the Royal Academy and the prize for best newcomer that year. His painting is closely linked with the iconic tradition of medieval painting in its depiction of myths and legends found in so many cultures. Yet it is infused with an elusive connection to the modern world, full of strong colour but with a stillness and a timelessness that has resonated with so many collectors over the years. Dream and Dreamer “I see myself as a young man, on a February morning in 1993, turning from a crowded Piccadilly into the sheltered courtyard of the Royal Academy of Arts, stopping in the middle to look up at the daunting facade of the building where I had a meeting with Keeper of the Royal Academy. Beyond tall double doors, the lofty studio space merged with clouds sweeping across a vast skylight. It was a classical spacious atelier with canvases on easels and around the walls. There was a table with open books and sketches. I showed the Keeper my work and explained that I had recently arrived from Moscow and was interested in continuing my art studies in London” D’Vatz became the first Russian student to be accepted into the academy and he started exploring the subject of Celtic mythology and the theme of Arthurian legends. He sees mythology as the starting point for an inner journey through outer experience. D’Vatz regards myth as a poetic interpretation of human knowledge. Some ancient legends carry the metaphor of the hunt where the hunt is the quest, the journey and the search for ourselves. Myths and Legends Medieval tapestries may lose their original colours but always preserve their arabesque story. They take you on a journey – a quest through floral patterns, woodlands inhabited by running deer, flying falcons, a cavalcade of knights and ladies approaching the invisible castle in the distance. The stories are still familiar: the never-ending search for the Grail and eternal battle between good and evil. “I am still inspired by their vivacity – The Green Knight, The Lady of the Lake and The Fisher King. The painting becomes an exaggerated kaleidoscope of events gathered into a precise instance of time. The collage of figures, animals and patterns takes you on a journey away and into yourself. View more of Timur's art » https://www.artzu.co.uk/archives/post/artzu-artists-home-page weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/post/artzu-posts-archive weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/post/artzu-archived-posts_908.jpg Archives https://www.artzu.co.uk/archives/post/steel-yourself-for-a-conversation-with-andrew-hunt weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/post/steel-yourself-for-a-conversation-with-andrew-hunt_1063.jpg Steel yourself for a conversation with artist Andrew Hunt Seldom has a city become so singularly shaped, defined - and scarred - by a particular industry as Sheffield. Synonymous the world over with the molten inferno that produced the very DNA upon which the industrial and post-industrial worlds have been built…steel. The volcanic blast furnaces from where it sprung have now succumbed to the ranks of ‘heritage visitor attractions’. Just as huge swathes of the Northern Powerhouse have experienced systematic de-industrialisation, Sheffield was similarly forced to…reinvent or die. While little is left of the industries that catapulted Britain to its former glory, what has become of those depleting few who are still around, who sweated the steel, dug the coal, smeared by factory toil; have they completely vanished too, like LS Lowry’s Salford of old? Thankfully, not quite, the last vestiges of that generation have been kept alive, captured in the paintings of Andrew Hunt. They can still be seen enjoying a well-earned pint – or two – having a joke, reminiscing, in the local pubs of Hunt’s magpie-like imagination. You could almost term them his ‘folk-scapes’ (das volkschaft). “Terry & June” The 'left-behinds' Pub life is one of Hunt’s favourite recurrent themes in his much sought-after and collected artwork, because it’s where that sense of community is kept alive in the face of insidious gentrification. It represents the heart of the old communities, a place where – after a hard day’s grimy grind in the midst of the hades-like furnaces – steel workers could quench their thirst, unwind, have a laugh, share some gossip. The steel mills were physically demanding in the extreme, the relentless heat, deafening cacophony and ever-present danger, a galaxy away from our desk-bound ‘working-from-home’, cushy Zoom lives. There was no escaping it; except in the pub later that evening. “Steel yourself,” is such an apt and powerful expression. Many of Hunt’s figures are clearly in distressed, diminished circumstances, the ‘left-behinds’, remnants of that industrial working-class past. But he treats them with great affection, there’s no sense of pitying; their saving grace is the inherent humour and pathos that he conjures out of them. We can’t help but like them too, as we’re taken into the minutia of their worlds. In fact, he gives them a new dignity. You feel his sense of kinship with these characters. A subject, unusually for the contemporary art scene, he keeps returning to is…old folk (typically having fun). He finds them particularly appealing and characterful to paint and, again, it’s the sense of romance and humour that he infuses them with that carries the day. This is immediately evident across so much of his oeuvre: in ‘Terry & June’ and ‘The Bathers’ to name but a few. They might be exuberantly enjoying a drink in the snug, frolicking by the seaside or simply part of a crowd under a cloud of colourful massed balloons in ‘To Infinity and Beyond’. He does a brilliant balloon, it has to be said, those metallic party-time balloons really pop-out at you. “The Bathers” “Tap Room” “To Infinity and Beyond” Part one of "Steel yourself for a conversation with Andrew Hunt" written by Carlos Zagreb. Part two coming soon. Discover more of Andrew Hunt’s paintings to collect. Background image: "Dereliction on the Sheffield Canal", Dave Pickersgill. Licensed for reuse under (CC BY-SA 2.0) artzuFocus | Issue 003a https://www.artzu.co.uk/post/artzu-gallery-for-art-collectors weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/archives/post/a-city-seen weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/post/a-city-seen_1301.jpg A City Seen “Cities […] are as alive, as feeling, as fickle and uncertain as people.” - Roman Payne What is in the city? How does one find a city? This is to ask, how might an artist document their urban environment? Rochdale Canal (1908). With the advent of post-industrial growth in the United Kingdom came the great industrial Metropolis, and with it, all the new, modern technologies. Suddenly, the quickly changing world offered a new avenue to see it: through a viewfinder, through a lens. The camera allowed for truthful retellings of the city, offering to history an authentic guide through a city’s streets. This trend of urban photographic documentary continues on and is most prevalent today whereby everyone with a smartphone is a photographer. With this democratised medium to record the world, we are all encouraged to utilise our individual perspectives to document our environments. Yet, can this objective process speak truly of our own attitudes and values? How and why might we inform our own approaches to documenting our environments? “I like the factual nature of photography, the immediacy, but it’s not enough. Paint is more emotional.” - Tim Garner There is more to the process of seeing the city than simply observing it. Finding the tonal qualities of an urban space requires an emotional connection with it, whether this relationship is sustaining or straining, because the city possesses its own character that cannot justly be captured onto celluloid. A city is a place of sensorial bombardment, that must be searched through and interrogated to comprehend. To understand the emotional qualities of a space, one must go further still and employ an empathic analysis. For an urbanist to find the character of the urban space is also to confront their own identity. Trying to understand a place is a process of self-recognition, of one’s attitudes towards the space, to discover what one might already know about their environment. In an autographic approach, we accrue personal significance from artistic works: in looking to see and know a place is to imbue a piece of work with meaningful identifiers of the self. There are many ways an urbanist painter might employ in their works these identifiers, whether through a careful selection of colour, by creating a dramatic tone through their stylisation, or even through the textures and materials utilised across the canvas. Colour A pioneer of the urban landscapes who understood this line of inquiry into finding 'the cityscape' was the Manchester-residing French painter, Pierre Adolphe Valette (1876-1942). With his impressionist style, Valette finds in his works a fogged looking-glass into the smoking skies of the emerging Edwardian city, capturing tender moments of the ethereal streets to produce studies of the industrial sunrise. Valette’s uniquely delicate reception of the city scene is transposed into this delicately stylised depiction. The scene is established in "Rooftops, Manchester" in employing a quiet, soft palette, with cool muted blue rooftops and washed out pastel skies, to tell of Valette’s gentler relationship to the city. There is warmth in these pale ochre undertones that sees through a misty skyline, drawing attention to the hearth of home to which the muddled mix of commuters are returning. Tone As a student of Valette, L. S. Lowry (1887-1976) furthers the study of the city with his playful approach. He talked of his “ambition […] to put the industrial scene on the map” by focusing on those typically less compelling features of twentieth century industrial progress. “The mill was turning out hundreds of little, pinched figures, heads bent down… I watched this scene — which I’d looked at many times without seeing — with rapture.” - L. S. Lowry With his iconic ‘matchstick men’, Lowry creates a vibrant moment in Going to Work wherein dozens of workers are dragged along, pulled into the mouths of the factories’ gates like moths to a flame. Throughout the frame there is bustle, and everyone is in motion, and this celebratory stylisation of the crowd, the 'practitioners of the city', provides this great sense of dynamism and movement. In this depiction, Lowry uses his mass of 'pinched figures' to recognise and appreciate the individual worker. This playful approach to his subject is most compelling when set against the drear of an urban scene, a reality that was so often deemed by critics too ugly to be worthy of recreating: a flat landscape of billowing smoke towers, shadowing brick and mortar towers and vignetted, burning skies. In Lowry's development upon this notion of the urban landscape's perceived ugliness, by contrasting the grimly muted skyline with a lively set of figures, finds a distinctly beautiful study of the urban scene. Lowry's transcendentally authentic vision of urbanised life is thus achieved in his adoption of that old Shakespeare line, "What is the city but the people?" Texture Tim Garner seems to offer something pertinent in his study of the cityscape. As a contemporary urban painter, Garner provides the visceral essence of the city in his haptic engagement. By use of alternative materials and practices, Garner layers the canvas to produce a harsh, jutting surface texture. In Ancoats Investment Opportunity, we are positioned on the ground, closer to the road and fumes, looking up at the imposing line of buildings that are lit up by a tear in the sky. The scene is dark as we are engrossed in a haze of smog under those blanketing clouds. There is a suffocating dirtiness which is achieved in Garner's vignette of bubbled and scratched paint, acid burns and smeared cement, achieved through a long process of layering protective coatings upon one another. There is a violent feeling in these besmirching features, speaking the violence of an industrial upheaval, with spillover from the street’s cement mixer who rushes through the streets to develop the land. The canvas appears to itself be an object from the scene of industrial development, tattered and dishevelled by industrial progress that is captures. A postmodern, perceptually generative dialectic of transformation in a culture of uncertainty is captured in this scene. Garner sets out to portray the city streets truthfully, with the implication of grime with his careful process of textural layering, creating what can be read as a powerful and dramatic moment in a eulogy of the city: one of equal parts affection and lamentation. These artists tell of three wildly different stories of Manchester. In their respective perceptions of the city, we are learned of three unique relationships to the streets. It is in this way that the urban landscape transgresses the factual simplicity of photography and photorealism. To document a city, to see it and represent it faithfully, is to know how it strikes you personally. To find the city scene, one must first see themselves within it. See more Tim Garner works here https://www.artzu.co.uk/archives/post/imagined-futures-cities-in-development weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/post/imagined-futures-cities-in-development_1306.jpg Imagined Futures: Cities in Development The contemporary urban landscape is subject to an ongoing existential discourse: are instantaneous modes of communication and other rapidly developing forms of technology making cities redundant? Conversely, with the innovations of globalised, knowledge-led economies, there is a growing emphasis on the development of new ‘smart-cities’, as seen in places such as Dubai and Singapore. Oxford Road by Tim Garner So, how do cityscape artists respond to the great extent of change posited by new urbanism in the 21st century? With cynicism for an obsolete socio-economic structure? With fear of a new age? Or in celebration of the blossoming skyline and its evolutionary innovations? When looking at the artworks of the early 20th century, one will quickly discover how artists were implementing their individual perspectives into their work; communicating their thoughts, hopes and fears of the burgeoning development of cities across the globe in this intercultural dialectic. Following industrialisation, early Modernists were seeing the macroscopic acceleration of scientific and technological progress in a new cultural era of urban expansionism. George Grosz and Fernand Léger, two comparable European, Modernist landscape artists each offered polarised views of this new age in their respective stylisations and methodologies. Modernity in Progress The 'de-Germanised' 'Georg Groß' was prominently disinclined to accept the movements of socio-political change within Germany. His works consistently look to capture the "horror, mutilation and annihilation" of war perpetuated by the militarist regime in Germany, and this is most aptly understood in his paintings of the modern urban scene, as seen in his Cubist nightmare, 'Metropolis'. George Grosz, Metropolis (1917), Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid. Grosz envisions in this artwork a cruel, disorienting municipal society, shaken by the brutality of World War, frenzied by the imposing culture of acceleration. The employed Cubist techniques heighten this sense of chaotic sensorial bombardment, with the jagged shaped citizens cutting into and across one another and into the landscape. These dagger sharp lines of slanted individuals provoke a brutal momentum about the space: the crowd towards the future, and thereby, death. Death appears throughout the painting, from myriad gaunt, skull-like faces to a figure appearing to shroud another with his broadsheet. Furthermore, the employed palette of deep blood reds and midnight blues permeate the sense that the city is a large, failing organism, inhabited by a carcinogenic populace. This appraisal of the violence of the city, in a sensorial capacity as well as in its allusions to the context of war, tells of Grosz's more fearful understanding of the Modern urban scene and its larger implications for humanity and cultural development. But, must we fear the future when we might yet embrace change? This sentiment is posited by Fernand Léger in his own study of the city in 'The City'. Fernand Léger, The City (1919). Having trained in architecture in Lower Normandy, Léger transposes an architect's perspective and enthusiasm for architecture into his cityscapes, trying to capture "the most astonishing spectacle in the world" in a city's "mixture of elegance and toughness". Employing a practice of embellished post-Cubist study of the city, in what he pioneered as 'Tubism', Léger simplifies city landscape into bevelling cylindrical shapes, bold lines and blocks of flat colour providing a great depth and creating a complex and disjointed, yet celebratory, vision of urban structures. The scene is diverse and all encompassing, from stair sets to pillars to scaffolds which tower over the street with authority and vibrance. In this way, one can see how Léger embraces urbanisation, engaging with the city as a site of prospect. A Post-Modern World As the world economy developed, so did the world's cities, and thus there were new grounds to capture the city scene with contemporary methodologies. With the advent of modern technologies becoming more accessible emerged the innovations of artists such as David Hockney, who looked to borrow conventions established by the early Modernists while utilising the further developed medium of photography. This would culminate into a series of photographic collages: his 'Joiners'. Using composite Polaroids, Hockey experimented with presenting spaces in a new capacity with his three-dimensional, patently Cubist editing style. David Hockney, Place Furstenberg, Paris, August 7, 8, 9 (1985). In his 'joiner' piece of 'Place Furstenburg, Paris [...]', Hockney takes photos sequentially and stitches them together to offer a 'Synthetic Cubism', providing a distorted yet simultaneously revealing more of the environment. Its subject matter reminds one of a simple photograph taken by some Paris tourist, with its parodical stylisation mimicking some idea that this is a composition that has been captured dozens of times before, and so we are invited to experience the same place from multiple perspectives in some unilateral, time-dilated observation of space. With this method of expressing depth, Hockney explores the old city as reinvented by new technologies. In revising linear modes of documentary photography, 'Place Furstenburg, Paris [...]' invites readings of a new time of world tourism and the constant rediscovery of the city by strangers. Then, at our present moment in civic histories, we are asked again what do we see in our cities? How does this century of cityscape scepticism and celebration culminate? With focus on the clashing aesthetical modes of our past, present and future? Or binding congregation? Tim Garner looks closer at the reality of the city scene, and finds an approach to understanding the state of Manchester in an exploration of community, identity, textural tactility and light. Oxford Road Station by Tim Garner In 'Oxford Road Station', we are offered a disembodied view over one of the main arteries of Manchester's city centre. With its juxtaposed alignment of glowing red brick warehouses and soaring tower buildings which hold up the sky, we are granted a moment of stillness in a city that is ever moving. With no crowd or even solitary pedestrian to be seen, this snapshot of everyday life captures a moment in architectural history, bringing the ever-changing nature of Manchester's cityscape to a halt. Garner's open observation of this everyday setting allows us a chance of reflection, to see our surroundings for their richness of history and the simultaneous invigorating beacons of the future, and to enjoy the vibrancy of the consequent colour palette. We may take our time as viewers to linger in this moment of Mancunian history, finding solace in the honesty of Garner's work. By utilising the accuracy and immediacy of photography and photo collage as primary references, Garner is able to imbue emotive layers of meaning through the application of paint, cement and adhesive varnishes to establish a scene that is bright yet hazy, and "optimistic yet decaying in parts - much like Manchester itself" (Vicky Smith*). By allowing the scene to comfortably bask in its afternoon light, Tim Garner's work encourages an appreciation of the present moment, paying ample recognition to the city's history and continual development while not fixating on either aspect with anxious appraisal. As we are further thrust into an age of information, with its smart-phones, smart-homes, smart-cities, we might once and again take the time to slow down, notice and remember, evaluating our world for what is tangible. Tim Garner's work offers a return to this tactual relationship with the city, where the reader is invited to go on a journey in a moment of stillness, searching for and finding greater truths that are laced through the fabric of our cities: the pervading sense of our collective civic identity. You can see more of Tim Garner's collectable artwork here. Background image: ChrisClarke88 *Quote: Vicky Smith, Manchester Confidentials https://www.artzu.co.uk/archives/post/good-artists-copy-great-artists-steal-artzufocus-issue-004 weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/axel-bottenberg/the-great-wave_696.jpg Good artists copy, great artists steal Life is said to imitate art, yet more so one might find art is built upon the imitation of other artworks. With every burgeoning generation of artists embodying their respective zeitgeist comes the offer of reinterpretation and revival for the proceeding generations. New aesthetic concepts are all so often borrowed from established artistic ideologies. If we understand the history of art as a museum of cultural moments, we might also begin to find how the artistic tradition provides a springboard for the propagation of new art. “[A museum is] not a place of artifacts; it’s a place of ideas.” Jeanie Kahnke To fuel the momentum of culture, to innovate artistically and create something anew, is often to look to the past, to follow that aged pastiche manifesto: "good artists copy, great artists steal" (as quoted by Pablo Picasso, the infamous master appropriator). Enter, then, into the world of Axel Bottenberg: a uniquely colourful world of emblematic pop art functions imbued with a careful attention to art histories, which holds up the mirror, not to reality, but to the art world itself. Join us in conversation with Axel Bottenberg, as we descend into his colourful world of referential neo-expressionism. Ronald Man by Axel Bottenberg Axel Bottenberg, a mixed media artist based at Bankley Studios in Levenshulme, Manchester and self-described 'contentious figure' in the contemporary art scene, looks to recompose and 'interfere' with values of artistic tradition with a signature macabre humour. Finding guidance in the Pop Art movements of the 1960s and its later revival in the 1990s, Bottenberg's work "bounces off popular culture" as he seeks to marry the disparate functions of 'High art', with its grand aesthetical contemplations, against the more functional, mainstream iconographies found in 'Low art'. At once a devout investigator and scrutinising critic of art history and High art culture, Bottenberg's researched approach gives scope for sardonic appraisals and 'cheap commentaries' within a varied and eccentric body of work. Artzu: "How important is art history to you and your practice?" Axel Bottenberg: "Art history really influences my work, it gives me something to make art about. And then, it gives me something to take the piss out of" Fountain two Fountain by Axel Bottenberg and Mike Chavez-Dawson Teaching art in schools broadened Bottenberg's perspective upon how art is actually regarded by a majority of marginal, uninvolved spectators, enabling him "to see how outsiders see art." With this newfound realisation, Bottenberg began to implement a more comprehensive understanding of 'art', not only as a cultural function but also as an institution, into his works. As such, Bottenberg's jibing oeuvre is often compiled of blatant, coarse social commentary, which is justified as an employment of 'the jester's privilege': "It's the court jester who was the only person in the court who could tell the king what actually happened, and he'd be the only one who wouldn't be executed." By assuming the role of the art world's clown, Bottenberg may call attention to the absurdities of art culture, calling attention to 'the Emperor's new clothes', so to speak. Andy Warhol with burger by Axel Bottenberg Calling upon familiar subjects, oftentimes corporatised figures, and the juxtaposing 'Low art' imagery set against kitsch patterns and colour schemes, the work provides ironic and unsettling notions about an unsavoury world of the mainstream commercialised ideogram. For instance, Bottenberg is discernibly smitten with clowns. Artzu: Ronald McDonald, in particular, appears a lot throughout your work. I'm curious as to why that is? As to why you have a certain fascination with him as a cultural figure? Axel Bottenberg: "I'm absolutely fascinated with McDonalds. McDonalds is such a dubious cultural phenomenon. It's got a really bad rep, hasn't it? I kind of like it because of that. For me, with the McDonalds thing, I turn other people into McDonalds characters, and that's my, kind of, punishment for them. Being made into a clown is a sign of humiliation and a sign of disrespect." This facetious ethos does oftentimes actualise in a self-deprecating way as Bottenberg positions himself at the centre of his parodical efforts, as if to aptly recognise his own practice as some clownish marriage of High culture and Low art, fulfilling a oxymoronic, futile gesture as a 21st Century historian-artist. Jules by Axel Bottenberg Jean-Antoine Watteau, Pierrot, dit autrefois Gilles (1718-19) Bottenberg noted that all his pieces were built upon the premise of "stealing and then combining" others' works. In Jules (2017), Bottenberg looks to place himself as the commedia dell'arte clowning figure from Jean-Antoine Watteau's baroque masterpiece, Pierrot, dit autrefois Gilles (1718-19). It is in a case of mistaken identity that the featured figure, Pierrot, was initially mistaken for another character from commedia, Gilles. In his way of "rubbing it in", Bottenberg adds to this dubiety by creating an homage to the piece, playing the role himself in all its awkward proportions. Whereas Pierrot, however, may seem reservedly sheepish in his central, spotlight position, Bottenberg's 'Jules' is quite blatantly miserable that he has become 'shamed' in his 'Ronald clown' makeup. In this practice of finding source material in the Western canon, deconstructing its features and reconstructing its tone with the addition of Low art motifs, Bottenberg is able to achieve an emboldened reminiscence in Jules, allowing for the comedically referential exploration of our collective relationship with antiquated cultural and social constructs. Where one might saunter in silence past Watteau's work in Le Musée du Louvre, Bottenberg encourages us to point and laugh as he does. Yet, there is also a violent presence throughout Bottenberg's work, with continual appearances of bombs and firearms which can set a contrastingly sombre tone. It would seem that Bottenberg's eye for a contentious reimagining of history is not only contained to exploring Western esoteric cultural moments but also in the realm of post-modern globalisation and politics, as we might discuss in his politically charged print, The Great Wave. The Great Wave by Axel Bottenberg In a revisiting of Katsushika Hokusai’s prominent Great Wave off Kanagawa, Bottenburg’s adapts the material to imbue the piece with a new political significance. Originally created in the context of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, ‘The Great Wave’ reworks our understanding of Hokusai’s historical piece with the addition of a B-52 bomber and imposing mushroom cloud, drawing allusions to the devastations of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In this upstaging of the active subject, Bottenburg contends with the design of the original print to present a new association to conflict. Whereas Hokusai’s wave represented the threat of nature, Bottenburg adapts to modernise and find a greater threat in mankind, and thereby this digital manipulation of subject serves to manipulate meaning within the context of the sourced material. Axel-Elvis-Warhol by Axel Bottenberg It is in our capacities to redirect our understanding of cultural history to identify our current artistic moment. Axel Bottenberg's work continues to embellish and adjoin from modern Western art tradition, providing the space to reflect upon, criticise, and laugh at the structures of the art world and the popular cultural status quo. Often interacting directly with the defining artistic works of the last century, Bottenberg’s meta dialectic between popular, Low art, the long standing preexisting art tradition and the contemporary, global artistic landscape challenges the passivity of our relationships with art history, bringing a perceptibly polarising commentary to current notions of the commodification of art. Born in 1961 in Darmstadt, Germany, Bottenberg studied at the Ecole des Recherches Graphiques in Brussels before moving to the UK in 1984 to study Fine Art and Printmaking at the Canterbury College of Fine Art, before going onto further his study of Printmaking at the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London in 1987. Click here to see more of Bottenberg's works. "Pierrot" image: Jean-Antoine Watteau, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons artzuFocus | Issue 004 https://www.artzu.co.uk/archives/post/art-whisperer-006-interfaces-installation-at-clerkenwell-design-week weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/post/art-whisperer-006-interfaces-installation-at-clerkenwell-design-week_1315.jpg https://www.artzu.co.uk/archives/post/lets-talk-about-art weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/post/creative-placemaking weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/archives/post/follow-us weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/post/artzu-projects-logo-contact weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/archives/post/the-trouble-with-sculpture weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/post/the-trouble-with-sculpture_1081.jpg The trouble with sculpture is… Which sage once said, not wanting to state the bl**ding obvious…”the trouble with sculpture is that it’s…well…almost invariably rather static.” Oh, it was…me! But that’s self-evidently what it is, ‘statuesque’ by its very nature and takes a real magician of that noble and ancient art to convince you otherwise. Sophie Dickens is one of this rare breed who can apparently transform the inanimate into the animate. How does she perform the seemingly impossible? Not by the smoke and mirrors deception of the conjuror, rather through long and astute observation of form transposed into motion. This is the result of decades of studying the drawings and paintings of the High Renaissance and developing a unique technique for producing sculpture. Dickens’ drawing clearly reflects this classicism. You can see the strong influence that has to this day been rooted in a precise anatomical dissection that reaches back to da Vinci. Happily ensconced in her new studio overlooking the verdant valleys in the Ligurian hills of north-west Italy, sees a return to Dickens’ rural roots, having grown-up in the countryside of south Hampshire. As a child she was always foraging and making things from found objects and the bits of wood that were the cut-offs from Bob’s woodwork in her mother’s furniture making business. At boarding school Dickens was clearly arty and would organise her House art competitions, though she declined a place she was offered at Farnham Art School. Undaunted, she went on to study at the Courtauld Institute in a Robert Adam London townhouse in Portman Square in the days before it relocated to the grandeur of Somerset House in 1989. Here she immersed herself in painting murals on the walls of the Common Room, a meticulous study of anatomy and life-drawing classes with models from the Slade School of Fine Art. All of which was to serve her very well as the grounding for her figurative – human and animal – three-dimensional work to follow. Artists shouldn’t worry about tomorrow Dickens readily admits she never really had any plans after that, in fact she believes artists shouldn’t worry about tomorrow, rather live in the moment. Nonetheless she hawked her CV round some of the Bond Street galleries where, the second time of asking, she came across one that offered her a job, seemingly on the strength of being asked what star sign she was. “Leo” came back the answer, and she was in! She lasted there six months – the only job she’s ever professed to have – working behind the scenes as a researcher. This led Dickens to enrol on “a brilliant sculpture course” at the John Cass Art School in Whitechapel. The 3-year, part-time course gave her a solid grounding in welding and the technical side, all with a touch of whimsy, producing models pretending to be chickens. During this time Dickens was researching and writing for the Medici Society, as an art historian in residence, to earn a few bob. This is a very Japanese thing It soon became clear that sculpture was to be her chosen path - or maybe it chose her – and she channelled her fascination with ‘movement’ into that sphere, evident in her revolving sculpture in Minnesota. She thinks public sculpture “quickly becomes invisible” as you get too familiar with it simply being there, which is why she likes to produce multiples of a subject – like ‘The Pack of Wolves’ and the wild boar in their various poses. The spaces in between change the dynamics of the whole. This is a very Japanese thing – ‘ma’ - the concept of ‘negative space’ as a gap or pause between objects, often holding as much importance as the rest of the artwork. It has been described as “an emptiness full of possibilities, like a promise waiting to be fulfilled,” which all amounts to quintessential Zen to my mind. Sophie relishes the idea of the animal kingdom reclaiming their rightful place in a human-dominated world - something we’ve been experiencing during Covid - in our towns and cities. Like her howling wolf pack returning to stalk the narrow streets of Pieve di Teco, her picturesque medieval village up in the hills. Or the lithe, menacing ‘Gilded Wolf’ on the prowl relentlessly tracking its prey. She’s on a one woman rewilding crusade and has yet more sculptural surprises in store for the tight, winding passageways of the village to redress the balance of nature in our midst. “Wolf Pack (maquette)” “Wolf I (gilded)” “Wild Boar B” Winner of the inaugural Founder’s Award for figurative sculpture in 2007 for ‘The Turning Man’, a gravity defying sculpture exhibited at the V&A in London. It was loosely inspired by Michelangelo's Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel. There are consistent classical references throughout her work- as in ‘Hercules & Antaeus’ (of Greek mythological fame) - where her classicism informs her modernism with its Braque-like muscular planes, abstracted yet utterly recognisable. At the same time she likes her sculptures to be recognisable, not so complicated as to need to be agonisingly intellectualised over by the viewer. Titles are kept simple, honest and unpretentious. Circles are optimistic She professes to have a very good dictionary in her brain of how she wants things to look. A great deal of her work can be described as “gravity defying” as with ‘Judo’ which is what makes them so compelling. These are recurrent themes, classism and movement, muscularity and circularly. “Circles are optimistic,” she expresses. Is this a conscious, or possibly subconscious, desire to find resolution in a seemingly chaotic world through a symbol as timeless as time itself? ‘Judo’ was commissioned for the London Olympics together with an assemblage of other sporting sculptures, including a huddle of racing cyclists. The whole collection was exhibited in diverse places, including Heathrow Terminal 5, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the Victoria Gallery, before, during and after the 2012 Games. This captivating, judo piece perfectly demonstrates her abiding preoccupation with the themes of ‘movement’ and ‘circularity’ captured in the throw. It certainly gained the approval of the British Judo Association and Team GB went on to win a haul of 18 judo medals at the Games. In ‘Peloton’ you can feel the woosh of the cyclists as they rush past, straining every muscle, fighting for breath to gain position to reach their ultimate goal of Olympic gold. “Judo” “Peloton” What the dickens...? She welcomes having a lot of client input into her work and likes to develop that relationship, as with Similarly the ‘Variable Landscape’ in four or five segments for the renowned architect, Sir Michael Hopkins, designer of the stunning Velodrome for 2012 Olympics. Similarly Heston Blumenthal’s ‘Bull’. A rather classical head, four legs firmly planted on the ground, an exposed rib-cage, a chirpy cockerel perched on its rear end with an old-fashioned, car starting handle for a tail. It’s a very remarkable, if curious, feat of engineering aside from anything else. What the dickens is going on here, Heston…is it a case of gastronomy-meats-art within the baron of beef of Merry England? For Sophie it’s very important for an artist ‘’to have a few good, solid collectors to support them.’’ In this she’s proven successful over the years to have built that patronage with some of these highly significant clients. When you look over her hugely impressive body of work you can see how – and why – this has happened. Not by accident or twist of fate. “Cock & Bull” Heston Blumenthal's ultimate spit roast machine,“Cock & Bull”, at Castell Coch She has developed a unique technique for producing her sculptures, resulting in a highly distinctive style, through integrating geometric shapes of carved wood and fixing them to a welded iron frame for casting. Art and craft harmoniously coming together as one. This process owes its origins to Bob, the furniture maker in her mother’s workshop back in Hampshire all those years ago. Sophie proudly declares herself to be the owner of three band saws and is especially pleased with the textured effect of bronze grains achieved from using shaped local rotten chestnut wood for the wolves. For the monumental ‘Hercules and The Lion’ she used recycled, larch floorboards to achieve the sheer bestial muscularity of beast-on-man. On other occasions she’ll use old, oak wine barrels from nearby wineries. Local beeswax also finds its way into the process to fill the gaps between the gaps in the cut wood in preparation for bronze casting, as the Ligurian landscape oozes into her ever-evolving oeuvre. Simply The Best Prompted by seeing a friend’s post on Instagram, she embarked on preparing for an exhibition in Turin in September, 2021 featuring Tina Turner and her three, female backing vocalists and dancers, the Ikettes, to be titled…’Simply The Best’…what else could it be called? The extravaganza is being curated with good friend - Gio Gatto - a celebrated designer of luxury packaging with a highly eccentric art gallery in Turin. He loves doing all the graphics and wants music, posters, a lot of flash typesetting, stencils, Tina Turner lookalikes, flashing disco lights and so forth. It’ll be taking over an appropriately sumptuous glass, art deco shopping mall - called Galleria Umberto in Turin - a northern Italian city of great distinction with wonderful architecture, culture and brilliant gastronomy. Perhaps better known for being the home of FIAT and Juventus, often referred to as ‘the Manchester of Italy’ on account of its industrial heritage and textile industry. "Galleria Umberto I" in Turin ‘’I’m planning drawings, paintings and smallish sculptures based on Tina Turner and the IKettes in the 60’s and 70’s. Incredible performers, totally joyous and unparalleled performances. Again it was the movement – and those legs – that drew her in. It will certainly be intriguing to see how she captures the overtly sensual energy of the 1960’s and 70’s. Since Tina lives in Switzerland organisers are planning she’ll pop over the border to open it and, at the same time, celebrate her birthday in Turneresque fashion. Like every true artist, of whatever media, Sophie’s never afraid to take a risk…so prepare to be astonished when the incomparable Tina Turner meets the incomparable Sophie Dickens. Sparks will fly on a night to ignite the senses! Written by Carlos Zagreb. Discover more of Sophie Dickens’s sculpture available for collectors here. Background image: "Wolf Studies" drawings by Sophie Dickens "Galleria Umberto I", Image by Guilhem Vellut. Licensed for reuse under (CC BY-SA 2.0) artzuFocus | Issue 004 https://www.artzu.co.uk/archives/post/a-brush-with-greatness-artzu-tribute-to-lord-richard-rogers-by-carlos-zagreb weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/post/a-brush-with-greatness-artzu-tribute-to-lord-richard-rogers-by-carlos-zagreb_1254.jpg A Brush with Greatness Artzu’s tribute to Lord Richard Rogers: by Carlos Zagreb At the turn of the year our thoughts go out to those whom we have lost over the last 12 months, both personally and the irreplaceable luminaries across many fields of creative endeavour. Artzu is saddened to learn of the passing of Richard (Lord) Rogers in recent days. The Italian-born architect had a remarkable career spanning six decades that literally changed the face of the built environment, of London especially. He challenged us to rethink how we conceive ‘a building’ to be. Through his pioneering and daring designs, he is truly one the great creative visionaries of our time. Architecture turned inside out While many in the creative industries all too easily come to be described as “ground-breaking” and “iconic” Richard Rogers surpassed both these accolades by some distance Best known for his modernist, functionalist designs, he literally turned architecture inside out. This is so well illustrated by the Pompidou Centre in a historic part of Paris near the former fresh food market of Les Halles (Paris’s Covent Garden). The design competition won by Richard Rogers, Renzo Piano (of The Shard fame, amongst many others) and Gianfranco Franchini in 1971 resulted in an extremely daring architectural concept; something the French are apt to do with such panache, it has to be said. It rethought how a building functions and how that translates to its form, lead on to many similarly daring projects as: Lloyd’s building, the Millennium Dome, the Senedd in Cardiff with its uplifting use of wood externally and within. When you reflect that the Pompidou Centre opened nearly 45 years ago – in 1977 – it was an exceptionally brave move on the part of the planning authorities of Paris, injecting a fresh, contemporary vitality to a city with no shortage of competing, architectural icons. Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris It remains shockingly moderne to those who have never experienced it first-hand, a building like no other you have probably seen. A fitting tribute to Georges Pompidou who, as President of France in the late 1960’s to early 70’s (and PM prior to that), had a strong modernising influence on the cityscape of the French capital. He spearheaded the construction of a landmark, modern art museum - the Centre Beaubourg (renamed Centre Pompidou after his death) - on the edge of Le Marais. As much now a part of the essence of Paris as the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe, seminal to the stellar careers of Richard Rogers, Renzo Piano and collaborators. His collaboration with Greater Manchester’s – from Reddish, Stockport – Norman Foster began after they first met at Yale in the 1960’s, a close friendship that lasted 60 years. Lord Foster described Richard Rogers as “an influential protagonist for the best of city life” and his buildings as “a social mirror.” He bequeaths for all an inspirational legacy that has inexorably shifted the dial of our built landscape, in the hope and anticipation that others will be equal to the task to take over the baton with his passion and pioneering spirit. Will those who follow, or attempt to, be as radical as he…or be allowed to? Time may tell…but one somehow fears not. There has certainly been scant evidence of it during my lifetime here in Manchester. While browsing in the bijou Taschen art bookstore opposite the Saatchi Gallery on Duke of York Square off The King’s Rd, Chelsea a few years ago, As Artzu’s very own art reviewer and commentator, I had an unexpected and fortuitous meeting with Richard Rogers. He was on his own, I immediately recognised him and, as there weren’t many others in the narrow store at the time, and not one to miss an opportunity, I manoeuvred myself into position to strike-up a conversation with the great man. The tight, narrow interior of the store enabled me to do so without seeming to be too blatant about it…so I thought. TASCHEN collectible books, 12 Duke of York Square, London At the risk of making a nuisance of myself, I timed my interaction whilst moving between the stacks of glossy publications. While I can’t remember exactly what my opening gambit was...I soon switched to regale him with the wondrous joys of Artzu Projects and how we could provide him with sculpture, paintings and other brilliant architectural features, as so required. Just as I had foisted a couple of the Artzu Projects flyers and business cards onto him when inviting him to visit Artzu Gallery when next in Manchester…before my South African lunch date suddenly appeared in the store (where we had agreed to rendezvous). I somewhat reluctantly felt obliged to leave with her and curtail the burgeoning conversation with Lord Rogers. Much to his relief, I would imagine! And had to explain just who that was to her as we made our way into the Saatchi Gallery’s Mess restaurant directly opposite Taschen’s entrance that sunny afternoon. Those of you who are art collectors and aficionados of the culinary arts (a marriage made in heaven, I’m sure you’d agree!), will be aware that Richard Rogers’ American-born wife -Ruth Rogers - was co-founder of an equally “ground-breaking” restaurant, designed by her husband: The River Café on Thames Wharf, London. A perfect recipe for success, dare I say…which it certainly was, opening its doors with the other co-founder, Rose Gray (who died in 2010) in 1987. It spawned the illustrious cheffing careers of Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall to name but a few. Our heartfelt condolences go to Lady Rogers, family, friends and collaborators alike on the loss of an inspirational national treasure. Photography Credits: Richard Rogers, sticker & portrait: 準建築人手札網站 Forgemind ArchiMedia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Centre Georges-Pompidou: pixabairis Taschen: Duke of York Square artzuBulletin | Issue 002 https://www.artzu.co.uk/post/tim-garner-manctopian-visions weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/post/tim-garner-manctopian-visions_1427.jpg Manctopian Skyline: An Urban Reality In recent years, the Mancunian populous has borne witness to the rapid development of Manchester's skyline, as towering orthogonal box skyscrapers sprout like bamboo shoots. Manchester is a quickly evolving city whereby, more so than ever before, contemporary, functional architecture competes with the traditional aesthetic stylings of industrial revolutionary expansionism. In this moment of great structural change comes socio-political implications for the future of Manchester, calling to question the contingency of Manchester's historically significant class-conscious identity. Yet, as we become engrossed in the dynamism of urban life, we might overlook this competition between these 'anti-landmarks' of our city with which we have become so very familiar. Manctopian I by Tim Garner Tim Garner (b. 1964) offers in his paintings the reappraisal of Manchester's urban landscape and with that the space to engage in a collective appreciation of a city under massive architectural subversion. As a visual documentarian, creating paintings of the urban scene as authentically pertinent as the works of Adolphe Valette, Garner strives to capture in his artwork an unmitigated dose of the reality of Manchester's burgeoning skyline. It is this truthfulness that allows us the capacity to review, re-evaluate, and understand the city at this momentous turning point in the history of its development. In his most recent series of four paintings commissioned by distinguished Manchester-based law firm Fieldfisher, Tim Garner takes us on a panoramic lap of the No.1 Spinningfield office's seventeenth floor, providing an enchanting perspective: one where we may "float above the city", detached and peripheral, yet also one which speaks to our everyday experiences of the city's streets. In conversation with Artzu, Tim Garner evaluates his own practice, his most recent, exclusive cityscape series, and on the unique artistic processes applied throughout his body of work which look to unveil a new vision of Manchester's urban reality. Manctopian II by Tim Garner Manctopian III by Tim Garner There is a unique visual language in Garner's works; a language which has slowly evolved over time, accruing its structure from myriad mediums and sources. For instance, Garner initially found artistic merits in photography and its capacity to capture the "absoluteness" of the subject, yet he then identified how photographic work fails to consolidate sentimentality: "We assume photography is a kind of truth: we can all appreciate the 'realness' of what it's telling us. [...] But photography's not good at conveying emotion." From this point of recognition that photography was not by itself "enough", Garner began to incorporate photography as part of a greater artistic process. Taking from his experiences at art school in the 1980s wherein attitudes regarding the physicality of the material were radically developing, Garner began experimentation with the manipulation of the surface of the image: "I want it as accidental and brutal as it can be [...] it became about taking bits away: cutting, scraping; allowing the accidents; the dark room stains; flash spots; sun spots." Tib Street by Tim Garner Northern Quarter Rooves by Tim Garner Corner of Afflecks by Tim Garner From here comes the introduction of paints, and the construction atop the print's surface. Much like the building projects he observes in his paintings, Garner's paintings are patiently, ardently constructed over a long period of time. At times introducing hundreds of layers of different materials, from watery, thin transparent paints and acrylics, to more atypical materials such as powdered metallic pigments, finding the gleaming iridescence of the cityscape. It is a slow process of applying materials, fixing layers with aerosol adhesive and repeating dozens of times. After thirty to sixty layers, Garner's airy, light surfaces build up a considerable thickness with a potent subsequent visual effect: "It allows the light to get in between the layers, and your picture's surface will shift over time." The tonal qualities of a city change from morning to noon to night; in response to this quantifiable tonal shift, Garner's pieces' colours and hues appropriately interact with different lighting states. Oxford Road Station by Tim Garner We can find the culmination of Garner's meticulous process as well as a layered urban realism depicted as we look to Manctopian I. In a scene of juxtaposed architectural styles, we are positioned high above the tangle of traditional scarlet red terraced homes, yet the view is partially obscured by the contemporary residential towers which, like pillars, "hold up the sky". We are caught between these structural styles, amidst a moment of a literal uprising for a new Manchester. As we are affronted with this contrast, we are reminded to value the city's past, to ground us, to "help us to negotiate and live in the now" as we enter into a new age in civic history. Furthermore, a recurring character within Garner's cityscapes is the powerful presence of the sky, with its dramatically consequential effect on the city scene's lighting. Acting as a malleable membrane for the artwork, the sky contains the observer's eye, which may become overwhelmed by the loud cacophony of the maze-like streets below. Guiding the eye to flow down through the grey Mancunian mist, the sky provides an aptly relieving counter-balance to the densely captured industrial upheaval. Equally, the attentive design of the sky directs the tone of the streets: the diffusion of light delivers a pragmatic dullness, yet the flourishes of both warm and cool tones that peek through the drizzling overcast sky diffract across rooftops and off glistening window panes. The terraces are offered a sparing dispense of light, with the shadows punctuating the rugged appearance of the complex network of Victorian streets. Then, we might understand the painting's textured surface and its information of the tonal qualities of this scene. The clustered cement and metal pigment that envelopes the courtyards of the red-brick terraces harkens back to industrial portraits of Manchester, fetching a sense of harsh, metallic, spore-like smog clouds which dance heavily above the streets. By contrast, the brushed, scratched surface of the skyline and its skyscrapers grants a quick wind-sweeping sensation, imparting a lateral movement to the piece. Woven together, these elements of crafted compositional contrasts, the delicate attention to the skies, and the extension of brittle tactility in the work, Garner finds a visceral legitimacy in an honest depiction of Manchester: "I like to try and deal with what's there, in front of me, as an actual working city." FAC 513 by Tim Garner To enter the visual arena of a Tim Garner artwork is to be met with the contention of "organised chaos", whereby an entire city is constructed and then deconstructed, and the grand scope of information provided from aerial views of the city is played with incessantly. But amidst this chaos, from the intense process and uniquely developed visual languages, is a search for meaning: "I'm trying to discover something, and help myself understand something that can expand the possibilities of a painting." Perhaps, for Garner this exploration of materials and avant-garde deconstructionism is the search for a moment to understand this vibrant, ceaseless city. What is achieved, after all, in Garner's paintings is a specific experience of a city: an opportunity for discovery. The observer is provided the space to breathe, explore, to recount collective and personal histories of Manchester. Whether one is lost within the bustle of contemporary urban life or far from the madding Mancunian crowd, it is in Tim Garner's works where they may rediscover the imperfect yet forever invigorating 'Manctopia'. To further rediscover the urban realities of Manchester through the avant-garde lens of Tim Garner: Click here to see more of Garners' paintings artzuFocus | Issue 006 https://www.artzu.co.uk/post/what-we-do weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/post/why-artzu-projects weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/post/get-in-touch weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/archives/post/welcome-to-artzu weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/artwork/welcome-to-artzu/welcome-to-artzu_619.jpg https://www.artzu.co.uk/post/the-power-of-vulnerability weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/post/the-power-of-vulnerability_1381.jpg The Power of Vulnerability When one interacts with any mode of personal self-expression, whether it be in the stories you tell of yourself, how one chooses to dress, or in the artworks the artist creates, there lies the temptation to mythologise oneself. It cannot be understated how important it is for artists to allow themselves to find truthfulness through personal vulnerability. For one to show their vulnerabilities is not an admittance of weakness. Rather, achieving a state of vulnerability, especially in the process of producing artworks, displays an inner acceptance and compassion, allowing the establishment of connection, and reconnection. Le Voyage Fantastique 2 by Karenina Fabrizzi Le Voyage Fantastique 3 by Karenina Fabrizzi This compassion enables a greater understanding of ourselves, of each other and of the worlds we inhabit: our 'inner worlds' and the natural world, from which we often disconnect. Whether one is creating work which exposes one's fear and shame or bringing their vulnerabilities as an observer to a piece of work, by allowing yourself to be emotionally open in your relationship with art gives way to greater identifications of meaning. “Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.” - Brené Brown Karenina Fabrizzi, an Italian figurative artist based in Barcelona, employs this mode of thought unreservedly throughout her work. Fabrizzi's figures are open vessels, upon which the viewer may imbue their own personal significance. Furthermore, these subjects provoke exploration of less tangible emotive concepts, interacting with otherworldly constructs, legends and lore, nature and humane benevolence. Calling upon expressionist principles and the classical techniques of the Old Masters across her body of work, Fabrizzi analyses temporality and the relationship between the body, the self and nature. In her deftly vulnerable approach, Fabrizzi's mystical statement pieces find a delicate yet unsettling aesthetic which provokes poignant conversations upon journeys of self-exploration. “I think people are afraid to show the world who they really are, how they feel, what they want.” - Karenina Fabrizzi In a recent conversation with Artzu, Fabrizzi spoke about her meditative relationship with her work, her influences from contemporary and historic artists, and her upcoming collection of works which are to join a series exclusive to the Artzu Gallery. Other Dimensional Self 1 by Karenina Fabrizzi Other Dimensional Self 2 by Karenina Fabrizzi Displayed in her ongoing painting series is a quiet presence of power in each subject: a woman sitting and contending with ambiguous, unset contemplations, interacting with the external, natural world and their respective 'inner worlds'. Fabrizzi's subjects enjoy garments evocative of fairy tale illustration, with their lavish, bodice-bound dresses of the 16th and 17th centuries imbued with magical features. Seen in the hazed gradients and adjoined hues that embellish the floral emblems, Fabrizzi's employed magic realism is reminiscent of studied, traditional portraiture while also finding joyful liberty in dream-like explorations of colour and form. This interconnectivity between the tangible, found in visual allusions to nature and historical tradition, and the intangible moves to complicate the subject. With this imbued mystique and ambiguity, the observer is allowed the space to sit with the subject and infer their fairy tale narrative. This fusion of time and space is further punctuated in the materials and techniques applied. Drawing inspiration both from the modernist influences of Chagall, Schiele and Kahlo as well as the foundational figurative efforts of Early Renaissance artists such as Botticelli, Fabrizzi constructs in her works some strange familiarities. Working with a vast array of tools, from the Masters' egg tempura, oils and inks, rice papers and marble dust, to the more contemporary, conventional equipment such as spray paint, the 'Other Dimensional Self' and 'Le Voyage Fantastique' series achieve both intimate study of form and playful abstractionism. The multi-layered works of "delicate graphite lines" and subtle oil colour schemes evoke a profound beauty: one which allows for the balanced deliverance of the sombre facets of the human psyche against the hopeful, lighter strands of escapism and fantasy. Le Voyage Fantastique 1 by Karenina Fabrizzi If we look at one of Fabrizzi's newest works, 'Le Voyage Fantastique', we find a subject looking to the left, perhaps nostalgic, indulged in thought, as an ode to memory. Or, we might also consider the subject's interaction with nature as she delicately reaches out to a resting leaf, sitting in dilated time as some anthropomorphised flower. This silent interplay speaks to a simple profundity in the life of a plant: peacefully unquestioning of their existence, basking in the light. One may find inspiration in this other 'frequency', of pure presence. "Nature, for me, is our teacher.” - Karenina Fabrizzi There is a duplicity to her pose: in recognition of the immaterial and the human instinct to fixate in remembrance, while also bound to the present, as flowers are, unconcerned with anything beyond the acceptance of the self and the acknowledgement of the beauty of the world. Fabrizzi allows for multiple readings but is stalwart in her call for better attention towards the beauty of the world. Looking closer to the dress, we can find a number of developed thematic concepts at play. The worn textured surface, achieved through an experimental mixture of acrylic and oils, implies a ceramic quality. The otherworldly finish of the dress implies an overlap of intangible elements, as if the subconscious melded with physical reality, to show how inner thoughts and emotions bleed onto the body as an extension of the recesses of the mind. Furthering the notion of the ceramic surface texture is the lacing of golden cracks, drawing influence from the Japanese Kintsugi creative process. Posing as an exploration of transformation, the fractures of the bodily vessel suggest the beauty of repair and reform. These shards of the body, once broken and scattered, now make up the reconstructed subject, providing further stimulus for emotive inference. Other Dimensional Self II by Karenina Fabrizzi Other Dimensional Self I by Karenina Fabrizzi Fabrizzi's oeuvre has until now worked upon recurring themes of masks and masquerade, as symbols of our inherently human response of hiding ourselves, our truest emotions and thoughts, behind a wall of constructed identities. With this latest series, the masks are removed. As such, Fabrizzi's newest works achieve a new level of sophistication. They are layered and complex, yet provide an openness, with room for a subjective projection of meaning. The work is layered because we, as observers, are too multi-faceted and as such may find myriad stories of ourselves within the artworks. Above all, we are reminded in this connection that is asked of us as observers to allow ourselves the reprieve of vulnerability. In 'removing the mask', to open oneself up to an artwork, is to access the exploration of ourselves, our needs and desires, and to vie for the self-acceptance Fabrizzi so dearly idealises in her works. This latest series, with its progression of style and tone, makes for Fabrizzi's most exciting works yet. As an Artzu exclusive, any piece from this emotionally formative series would make for an excellent addition to any contemporary art collection. Click here to see more of Fabrizzi's paintings artzuFocus | Issue 005 https://www.artzu.co.uk/post/americana-by-chris-acheson weekly https://www.artzu.co.uk/asset/medium/post/chris-acheson_1472.jpg Americana: A Vivid Realism The cultural phenomenon of 'Americana' and its amalgam of artefacts, narratives and iconographies is an aesthetic of international profundity. Although specific to North American cultures, these nostalgic histories of the perceived 'American national identity' carry across the Atlantic and beyond. It is an aesthetic exported en masse through the proliferation of popular media, such as Hollywood's cinematic factory which finds its affectation worldwide in a broad variety of artistic mediums. Happy Meal (2022) by Chris Acheson One will find such influence throughout the work of Manchester-based artist Chris Acheson who finds aesthetical guidance in the works of 20th-century American artists, such as Cindy Sherman and Norman Rockwell, yet an arguable driving artistic direction comes from Acheson's particular love of American cinema. Beginning by painting scenes of Manchester "as if it were in a Hollywood movie", Acheson developed a powerful style in his relationship with vibrant, evocative colours. His practice of "over-reading colour" in his compositions seeks to imbue homage to cinematic Technicolor and the bright visual presentation in the films of Hitchcock and David Lynch, carrying throughout his oeuvre a specific interest in Lynch's 1986 masterwork, Blue Velvet. Desaparesidos (2022) by Chis Acheson With Acheson's utilisation of the 'Americana' aesthetic comes inherent socio-political commentary, upon the United States' cultural legacy and the 'Americanisation' of global cultures. Told from a British, outsider's perspective, Acheson is able to access a unique voice from the mouthpiece of 'Americana'. Artzu recently spoke with Acheson about his latest series of works, literally entitled 'Americana'. In a departure from previous compositional settings, Acheson seeks to directly interact with the conceptual invitations of the 'Americana' aesthetic in his construction of enigmatic, fictitious natural landscapes reminiscent of 20th Century American cinema. Desaparesidos (detail) by Chis Acheson Beginning work on this newest series in the first lockdown, Acheson was (as we all were) unable to access outdoor spaces in the same way as he had been able to when sourcing subject material for new works. Experimenting with Google Street View, Acheson was given the means to digitally explore new and exciting scenes quickly. He then began importing and fusing these imported digital 'photo spheres' and other such photographic assets in Photoshop, thereby inventing vaguely American landscapes within which he could construct visual narratives. In his paintings, we might find conversation in Acheson's astounding ability to entirely construct a natural scene with its own (absent) human narrative. Desaparesidos (detail) by Chis Acheson In 'Desaparesidos', we are offered only questions. We see a long road, confined by an enclosing copse, and on it, a car. Abandoned, with the engine running, exhaust fumes spilling. Someone left the car quickly. The car rests on the remnant tire marks of a dramatic swerve, and next to a trail of crimson: spilled blood. And then, there is the title. 'Desaparesido', a word with particular political significance in South America, translates to 'a person who has disappeared, presumably killed by government figures.' Instantly, we are as observers prompted to read further into the piece and begin to construct our own narrative solutions. Who was this absent, anonymous protagonist? Where were they going? Why were they so violently removed? And by whom? It is a scene that appears quiet and oddly serene, yet the myriad dubious evocations laced throughout the composition present a bold, loud series of narrative questions. Beyond Acheson's prolific establishment of tone, we might appreciate how his compositions invite us to enjoy explicit references to cinema. For instance, the winding road draws our eye upwards to the icy mountains, a direct nod to the logo of the universally acclaimed production studio Paramount Pictures; the towering trees are emblematic of the Pacific North-Western setting of David Lynch's iconic mystery serial drama series, Twin Peaks (1990-1991); and the keenly attuned historians of American visual arts may find subtle reference to Cindy Sherman's 'Untitled Film Still' series. “Cinema is a massive influence on me and my work.” Happy Meal (detail) by Chris Acheson Another overtly ominous scene is found in 'Happy Meal'. When we first look at 'Happy Meal', we might initially enjoy the resonance of the scene's energetic colour scheme. The soft gradient hues of the sky flurry across cliff faces and upon a serene 'chocolate-box' lake. But, we are immediately struck by the inescapable, poisonous epicentre of this piece in the towering Ronald McDonald, positioned as some crude approximation of the Statue of Liberty. From here, we might further analyse the densely composed snapshot to uncover a morose, perhaps even apocalyptic, vision of America's natural environments. “Our human imprint is all over these pieces, but there’s no actual visible people or humans in them… although our detritus is obviously visible.” Happy Meal (detail) by Chris Acheson A dead tree draws our eye to the water surface, on which plastic packaging drifts recklessly, even into the mouth of a Mother bear and cub. All of which the obelisk of Ronald oversees with a sinister smile (with a conversely dismaying glare reflected in the lake, as a reference to Hitchcock's 1960 psychological horror classic, Psycho). As such, 'Happy Meal' brightly lit yet nightmarish snapshot of a natural environment to evoke a deftly sinister message of our 'human blots' left behind, and the dark realities of large-scale ecological detriment caused by major conglomerates. Rusholme Ruffians (A Taste of Honey Series) by Chris Acheson An artist's ability to achieve a specific pre-existing aesthetic within their own work is impressive, yet the ability to re-contextualise an aesthetic, to imbue new themes and moral dialogues, displays a great level of sophistication in the approach to one's work. Acheson's capacity to renovate the 'Americana' aesthetic in his paintings allows for a renewed commentary on the way we perceive our global cultures. Whether we find Acheson's 'Americana' in imagined landscapes as in his latest series, or in unconventional settings such as Manchester as seen in his previous works, Acheson delivers an extraordinary use of colour work and dynamic, enthralling compositions, with a vivid imagination and skilful eye for inspiring dramatic narrative action. Any painting from Acheson's collection of works would make a worthwhile investment, whilst providing a window into a contemporary cultural dialogue. Click here to see more of Acheson's paintings artzuFocus | Issue 06