Interactive exhibition marks partnership between Laing Art Gallery and The NewBridge Project

The Laing Art Gallery has teamed up with The NewBridge Project to create an interdisciplinary exhibition inspired by the legacy of abstract art. Echoes of Abstraction II and The Bottomless Pit of Outros will be on display at the gallery from Saturday 22 July - Sunday 20 August.

This project is part of the Laing Art Gallery’s contemporary commissioning programme, and has been made possible with the generous support of the Newcastle University Institute for Creative Arts Practice.

Opening on Saturday 22 July, the exhibition will bring together newly commissioned work by NewBridge artists Jamie Cook, Adam Goodwin, James Pickering and Paul Trickett, alongside highlights from the Laing Art Gallery’s modern and contemporary painting collection. The exhibition will be on display for four weeks, closing on Sunday 20 August.

Julie Milne, Chief Curator of Art Galleries said of the partnership with NewBridge Project:

“I am genuinely delighted by this new partnership, in part because of its resonance with the Laing’s founding commitment to encouraging living artists. The NewBridge Project are very close neighbours to the gallery and the ideal colleagues in bringing new perspectives to Newcastle’s important art collections. It is a joy to be able to show these contemporary artists’ innovative new work in this historic setting.”

Charlotte Gregory, Director of NewBridge Project said:

“We are excited to be working in partnership with the Laing Art Gallery this summer to provide selected NewBridge artists with an amazing opportunity to create and present new work within the galleries of the Laing. We are really looking forward to the challenge of creating a contemporary response to the Laing’s collection, working within a new context and engaging new audiences with our work.

Supporting artists to develop their artistic practice and sustainable careers through providing exhibitions opportunities and training is an important part of what we do and essential in supporting our creative talent to grow. We are thrilled to be collaborating with the Laing Art Gallery to continue to support artists in this way.”

Collection works featured in the exhibition will chart the gradual shift from representation to abstraction, arguably one of the most influential artistic developments of the twentieth century. More recent works illustrate how, to this day, abstraction is used to various degrees, from relatively minor formal alterations in otherwise realistic works, to completely abstract compositions in which the painting bears no resemblance to the real world. Highlight works include paintings by Francis Bacon, David Bomberg, Patrick Heron, Chris Ofili, Prunella Clough, Ben Nicholson, Mark Gertler and Frank Auerbach. The exhibition was inspired by a recent collection display at the gallery entitled Echoes of Abstraction, which was well-loved by visitors.

Contemporary artists Cook, Goodwin, Pickering and Trickett join forces as The Occasion Collective to experiment with notions of reality and the natural and artificial worlds, bringing together art and technology. In response to the Laing’s collection works and the theme of abstraction’s long legacy they will make a new interactive installation of sound, image, object and digital experience entitled The Bottomless Pit of Outros. This will be completed by a virtual reality rendering of the Laing’s grand Edwardian gallery suites, in which works from the collection can be reimagined in an ever-changing virtual display.

The partnership between the Laing Art Gallery and The NewBridge Project has been devised with the dual aim of supporting emerging artists from the region, as well as creating a new platform for The NewBridge Project at a time of both flux and renewed ambition as they relocate to new premises at Carliol House, New Market Street. The exhibition will be accompanied by events as part of Practice Makes Practice, an artist’s development programme initiated by The NewBridge Project and run by artists for artists.

About the Laing Collection

The Laing Art Gallery's exceptional art collection focuses on British oil paintings, watercolours, ceramics, silver and glassware. The collection has Designated status in recognition of its national and international significance. Twentieth century artists represented in the collection include Laura Knight, Ben Nicholson, David Bomberg, and Gillian Ayres, and there is a continued emphasis on contemporary collecting, recently resulting in gifts of works by Fiona Tan and Glenn Brown.

About the artists

The Occasion Collective are based in Newcastle upon Tyne. Their work generally explores multi-media collaboration and time-based practice such as interactive installations and performance. This exhibition features collective members Jamie Cook, Adam Goodwin, James Pickering and Paul Trickett whose practice span the fields of curation, music, animation, set design, sculpture, photography and video. Recent exhibitions include Waterchimes and the Bottomless Pit of Outros at Lime Street Studios, 26th May - 4th June 2017. Goodwin, Pickering and Cook are graduates of Newcastle University, and Trickett is a graduate of Northumbria University.

About the NewBridge Project

The NewBridge Project is a triple award winning artist-led community supporting the development of artists and curators through the provision of space for creative practice, curatorial opportunities and an ambitious artist-led programme of exhibitions, commissions and events. It was established in 2010 to provide exchange and support in an engaged and discursive community of artists. The shared workspace is a critical and collaborative environment that allows artists to discuss and develop new ideas and projects.

About the Newcastle University Institute for Creative Arts Practice

The Institute supports creative arts research in a world-class University. We encourage our staff and students to collaborate and create work that has global significance. We offer a supportive environment where collaborative and interdisciplinary creative projects can thrive.

www.ncl.ac.uk/creativearts/