Turner Contemporary Margate

“Turner Contemporary is one of the UK’s leading art galleries. Situated on Margate seafront, on the same site where Turner stayed when visiting the town, Turner Contemporary presents a rolling programme of temporary exhibitions, events and learning opportunities which make intriguing links between historic and contemporary art. The gallery offers a space for everyone to discover different ways of seeing, thinking and learning. The organisation was founded in 2001 to contextualise, celebrate, and build on the artist JMW Turner’s association with Margate, Kent. In 2011, Turner Contemporary gallery, designed by Sir David Chipperfield, opened, and has fast become a visitor attraction of national and international importance. Turner Contemporary is a catalyst for the regeneration of Margate and East Kent, already welcoming over 1.5 million visits. The vision of the organisation is Art Inspiring Change, using collaboration, learning, ambition and transformation to give everyone to access to world-class art.” Text Turner Contemporary: https://www.turnercontemporary.org/

PROGRAMME:
The Studio Group Commission Kashif Nadim Chaudry to 24th Sept 2017:
https://www.turnercontemporary.org/exhibitions/turner-contemporary-s-studio-group-commission
Every Day is a New Day Michael Armitage to 24th Sept 2017:
https://www.turnercontemporary.org/exhibitions/peace-coma
Dutch Light (for Agneta Block) 12th August – 5th Nov 2017:
https://www.turnercontemporary.org/exhibitions/dutch-light-for-agneta-block

Art Snippet: (Joseph Mallord William) “Turner (1775 – 1851) is perhaps the best-loved English Romantic artist. He became known as ‘the painter of light’, because of his increasing interest in brilliant colours as the main constituent in his landscapes and seascapes. His works include water colours, oils and engravings.” https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner. Turner’s great rival was John Constable (1776 – 1837) born only a year apart Constable was born to relatively affluent parents while Turner was the son of a barber; Turner first exhibited at the Royal Academy when he was only fifteen while Constable did not exhibit there until he was forty. They remained great rivals throughout their lives and while both had distinctive styles, they had in common a method of painting their subjects with greater emphasis on formal qualities rather than the slavish representation of nature; both wanted to impart less tangible and more spiritual qualities.

The Turner Contemporary poised on the Kentish caost...

Kashif Nadim Chaudry, The Three Graces, 2016. © Stephen White "Kashif Nadim Chaudry (born 1976, Nottingham) uses elaborate textiles techniques to create sculptures and installations that explore themes of identity, religion and cultural heritage."

Jyll Bradley's Dutch/Light (for Agneta Block), currently on display at Chatham Historic Dockyard. Photo credit: Thierry Bal. "“I call the work Dutch/Light (for Agneta Block) because the first person to ripen a pineapple in Europe was Agneta Block, a Dutch horticulturalist and art collector. Pineapple growing using the 'Dutch Light' and southerly wall system was the focus of early Anglo-Dutch horticultural exchange. I feel the story of the Dutch raid is very male; a fascinating by-product of it is a woman growing a pineapple - and our love of glasshouses today.” Jyll Bradley"

Micheal Armitage's canvases in the North gallery for Every Day is a New Day. Photo credit: Manu Palomeque "The exhibition includes a significant number of new works, for example, a series based on Kenyan music star Diamond Platnumz, and Strange Fruit (2016), which depicts the lynching of an older woman who was accused by relatives of being a witch, in order to acquire her valuable land."

Kashif Nadim Chaudry, The Three Graces, 2016. © Stephen White "The Studio Group first came together in 2012 to help produce Turner Contemporary's first Sunley Gallery commission, Maria Nepomuceno's Breathing Time (2012). They are working with Turner Contemporary to lead on the commission of a new artwork by Chaudry, working closely with the artist to creatively develop and make the work."

Jyll Bradley's Dutch/Light (for Agneta Block) Photo credit: Thierry Bal "The ‘Dutch lights’ are made of intensely coloured Plexiglas: green (for Kent and the UK) and orange (for the Netherlands)."

Michael Armitage Nasema Nawe, 2016 Oil on Lubugo bark cloth © Michael Armitage. Photo © White Cube (Ben Westoby) "Michael Armitage: Peace Coma is part of Turner Contemporary's summer season ‘Every Day is a New Day’ asks that we start from scratch and look at the world differently. A celebration of the capacity of arts to pioneer change, challenge perceptions and embolden society"

Kashif Nadim Chaudry, The Three Graces, 2016. © Stephen White "The Three Graces is a large-scale installation of three richly decorative monumental figures inspired by triptychs in eastern and western culture."

Michael Armitage Baikoko at the mouth of the Mwachema River, 2016. Oil on Lubugo bark cloth © Michael Armitage. Photo © White Cube (Ben Westoby) "Often dealing with inequalities and prejudices in Kenyan society, his works are also full of East African cultural references, lush vegetation and animal life, painted in a fluid and expressive style. Armitage describes his work “as playing with the perception of a place”, exploring Kenya as his home country and as an ‘exoticised’ place seen from the outside."

Jyll Bradley's Dutch/Light (for Agneta Block) "In the work, five tall ‘Dutch Lights’ are turned on their side and leant against south-facing walls to create an open structure that is activated by the sun, and under which audiences can walk and sit while bathed in geometric colour."