Upcoming exhibitions at Ards Arts Centre
ARDS Arts Centre in Newtownards has welcomed two new art exhibitions to its Georgian and Sunburst Galleries: Surface Matters, a group exhibition of work by the Loft Artists, and Pursuing the Third Dimension, a solo exhibition of research and development works by Michael Geddis.
The Loft Artists are a professional collective of artists based at The Mill, in Bishop Mills, Portaferry. Their exhibition will feature works by Sara Brown, Owen Crawford, Sally Houston, Kate Rebbeck, and Cecilia Stephens responding to the title of Surface Matters.
The work showcased will be an outcome from developing the artists interpretation of the local environment, history, and heritage. By use of richness in colour, forms and mark making, the artists aim to connect to the viewer, to challenge our contemporary relationship with our land and sense of place.
Visual artist Michael Geddis specialises in drawing and print-making. His intuitively-drawn cellular landscapes are derived from memory and imagination.
His drawings are characterised by distinctively microscopic features, including soft and sharp focus, crisp silhouettes and a sense of diffuse lighting that appears to be coming from underneath the pictorial plane.
In 2023/24, Michael was a recipient of the Ards and North Down Borough Council Individual Artist Grant. This enabled him to have one-to-one training and mentoring sessions with SmythCast Foundry to develop his work from two-dimensional drawings to three-dimensional bronze sculpture. The outcomes and selected artefacts from Michael’s research and development will be presented in this exhibition.
Michael will give an Artist Talk at Ards Arts Centre on Thursday, February 6, about his experiences and processes during his one-to-one training and mentoring sessions with SmythCast Foundry as part of his Individual Artist Grant.
Both exhibitions are now open and continue until Saturday, February 15. Admission to Ards Arts Centre is free.
For more information visit www.andculture.org.uk