PORFFOR Exhibition Profile

Saturday 21st August - Friday 3rd September 2010

Artists: Group Show- The Vision Hermosa Gallery

Susana Johnston is a Newport based Art Agent. Susana is currently showcasing the work of local Artists, Photographers and Craftmakers from the Vision Hermosa Gallery (Market Arcade) in 'Porffor' as part of the Empty Shops Project. This exhibition will be rotating.

OREN Exhibition Profile

Saturday 21st August - Friday 3rd September 2010

Private View: Thursday 2nd September 2010, 4:00pm - 7:00pm

Artists: Tina Testagrossa and Diba Mehrab

Diba recycles material and proves not everything has to end up in the bin. Tina just likes to have fun after work with paint. She does not use brushes, just hands and anything in a household.

CO-OP Bank Exhibition Profile
Monday 23rd August - Saturday 28th August
Opening Times: 11:00am - 6:00pm

Title: The Z Factor

Artist Group: Zig Zag Zoo

Created in 2008, the Zig Zag Zoo is an evolving world of ambitious, egotistical celebrity animals, harnessed and caged by a troubled duo of bearded ladies.

In March 2010 Zoo managers Bella and Helga staged the first Z Factor talent show in Bristol. The close runner-up was Dungcan the Dung Beetle. He had never performed onstage before but had made a brilliant costume. He said being concealed in the costume gave him the confidence to sing at the top of his lungs. How can you beat a singing dung beetle? Only if you’re Z Factor winners the Backflap Boys- a troupe of four penguins with a breakdance routine.

Now they need more acts, and this August they’re crossing the bridge to Newport…

The Z Factor is different every time we do it- because it relies on the characters that audition. The Z Factor is a comedy show, not a real talent show. Even the most skilled performers will have to dress as some kind of animal. Everyone will be in disguise- it’s a great leveller.

The Z Factor is for anyone who likes to express themselves and show people what they can do. Now we’d be honoured if the people of Newport- from children to grandparents, professional to beginner- would help us make this Z Factor the best one ever. So send in your auditions or come and record one with our help…. And you might be taking part in the Z Factor Finale Cabaret at The Riverfront with the Zig Zag Zoo animals!!!

For more information, head this way!

GWYRDD Exhibition Profile
Saturday 21st August - Friday 3rd September 2010
Private Viewing: Tuesday 31st August 6:30pm - 8:00pm

Artists: Phil Nash and Neil George 

The principle behind getting involved in The Empty Shops Project was for us to exhibit our paintings and photographs to the public for the first time.

Our objective is primarily to gain feedback and comments on our work. To date this has been very positive.

The experiment has also proved useful in terms of meeting other creative people and learning how and where they display their work.

GLAS Exhibition Profile

Saturday 21st August - Friday 3rd September 2010

Title: Balls

Artist Group: The Fairways Of Newport

This is the third exhibition by the Serialist Art Collective

A new project by the serialist Art Collective, inspired by the Ryder Cup 2010 golf tournament to be held at the Celtic Manor resort, Newport. The theme is about golf and how the Ryder Cup coming to Newport has changed the city, good, bad, the artists views put down in paint.

... Remembered is the crucial element of the project which was to envisage the golf world encroaching more and more into Newport, swallowing up it's suburbs into a mega golf course...what happens to the ordinary folks then, estranged from their highrise in Ringland for example? How does the Ryder Cupites compare with Newportians we know and love? This discussed in an array of colour, form and texture by the artists in their own intrinsic style.

Artists: Ariel Seratonine Jones, Andrew Podmore, Austin J. Curtis, Steven Jones, Louise Horton, Stephanine Roberts, Meurigg Watkins, Caroline Smith and Dan Romer.

GLAS Exhibition Profile

Saturday 7th August - Friday 20th August 2010

Title: Pictures 

Artist: Josephine Atkin

Josephine has lived in Newport and the Newport area for 43years. Originally a journalist, she taught English at Caerleon Comprehensive School for 20 years prior to retirement. Always interested in art, she began painting seriously in the early 1990s, joining the Newport Art Society which met at that time every Tuesday evening at the Dolman Theatre.

Early pictures were often of the canal paths around Newport and local scenes, but later she and her husband walked the South West coastal path and were inspired by the pretty villages in Devon and Cornwall, and seascapes.

In 2002 they decided to walk the Camino de Santiago in Northen Spain, beginning in St Jean Pied de Porte in the Pyrenees and ending in Galicia, a distance of 500 miles. It took 32 days, and most day they found time to produce water-colour sketch of their travels. These sketches were often used to form the basis of larger oil paintings on returning home.

The whole experience proved so inspiring that they have done something similar every year since: in 2009, for instance, they walked from Seville to Santiago, over 600miles. A typical day would involve an early start, a 15mile walk, a search for accommendation, and then time spent sketching. Apart from the spiritual element of the pilgrimage which undoubtedly affects everyone who undertakes the walks they have benefited by improving their sketching ability, and providing considerable entertainment for the other pilgrims, local people and tourists.

 GREEN & BLACKS Exhibition Profile

Saturday 7th August - Friday 20th August 2010

Title: An exhibition by Joan G. Evans

Artist: Joan G. Evans

" In 1996, I decided to join an evening class at Blackwood Comprehensive Community College. I tried craft at first, but it was really art that I was interested in. I then moved onto art class in 1997 where I was taught by Mrs Sylvia Pitman. She was also a French Teacher. I tried French too, without success! Sylivia was impressed with a lot of my work and I did a lot of homework.

By the year 2000, I started having exhibitions of my own in Libraries and Churches. I have sold quite a number locally and so my pictures are enjoyed in many homes around the South Wales Valleys.

I was inspired by David Attenborough and enjoy drawing and painting animals. I am very versatile and work in pastels, watercolour, pen and ink and charcoal."

MELYN Exhibition Profile

Saturday 7th August - Friday 27th August

Title: Orange Car

Artist: Anna Bush Crews

You are invited to see 68 photographs of a very particular car, a 1978 orange Volvo. The Volvo’s driver and photographer pose with the car in some photographs. The photographs are shot on medium format and colour negative film. Along with the car are trees/flowers, cathedrals, famous buildings, ancient sites, haystacks, houses and other rural and urban manmade landscapes. The photographs are in Southern England with a couple in Wales, Lincolnshire and Norfolk.

The car is relative to its surroundings: the colour, light, season, cultural significance, legal constraints and controls, car hierarchies. The car is also considered as status symbol, as fashion accessory, as gendered, and as a means of transport. Levels of impermanence are contrasted, the car itself as a reminder in the lack of respect it increasingly commands with age, that this happens to people as well as cars. The car’s journey is a one-way street and it ends in the scrapyard. Received and observed wisdom is questioned through coincidence.

Car photographs were exhibited at the Watershed in Bristol and the Bath Fringe Festival at Sydney Place in Bath in the late 1980s (both shows in black & white). More recent exhibitions at Howard Gardens Gallery in Cardiff, the Hot Bath Gallery in Bath, the Watershed in Bristol, and …trashed…, recently shown with the empty shops project, Upper Dock Street, have not included the car.

OREN Exhibition Profile

Saturday 7th August - Friday 20th August

Title: Eye Create

Artist Group: Newport Youth Service

Following on from the huge success of the 'Eye See' SuperDragon Project, Newport Youth Service has put together an exhibition, aptly named 'Eye Create', to celebrate the wealth of artwork created by young people of Newport.

This mixed media exhibition has come from different projects within Newport Youth Service, namely Youth Work in Schools, A.L.F. (Alternative Learning Forum), The Information Shop, and Youth Clubs across Newport.

These young people are inspired by their environment, and use art as a mean for creative expression. One of the young people involved via The Information Shop who took part in the project, said her art had helped give her an outlet for her frustrations she felt within her life.

The young people involved in the project are excited to have their work on display and feel it a great honour and achievement to have their work exhibited in the public arena.

The exhibition will be open between 11am and 3pm. Some of the young people who were involved in the project will also be available on site to answer to answer any questions about their artwork.