Acclaimed artist Liam Spencer announces exhibition at the Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery

From Saturday 21 April until Sunday 17 June 2018, the Whitaker Museum and Art Gallery will play host to an exhibition by acclaimed artist, Liam Spencer.  

There will be a ‘Meet The Artist’ opportunity on Saturday 21 April at 2pm, where visitors can enjoy a complimentary glass of wine and join Liam as he introduces his exhibition.

In ‘Home and Away’, Liam explores his home patch of Rossendale in Lancashire through a series of paintings, ink drawings and digital art, alongside work from overseas including New York, Nepal and Australia.

Featured is a piece entitled “A Rossendale Compendium”, a large compilation of small ink drawings cataloguing the flora, fauna and landmarks that the artist has ‘collected’ on his travels throughout the borough. It is intended to complement the Whitaker’s typically Victorian collection of natural history. Other drawings have been made as direct responses to the museum’s cabinets of curiosities.

Also included are a number of ‘word maps’ which take their shape from the map of the borough of Rossendale. Some explore the poetry of local place names which say much about the physical appearance of the Rossendale Valley - its weather, its history, its wildlife and its industry past and present. Others are an extension of the compendium, a list in both English and Latin of some of the diversity of creatures to be found in the borough.

Liam Spencer was born in Burnley in 1964 and studied Fine Art at Manchester Polytechnic, graduating in 1986.  Known for his vivid portrayals of urban landscapes, particularly of Manchester, he came to prominence with a solo exhibition at the newly opened Lowry Arts Centre in 2000.  Since then he has exhibited widely, most notably a retrospective at Manchester Art Gallery in 2006, and his paintings have been collected avidly.  In 2005 he was the subject of a 30-minute documentary on the BBC.

In 2008 Liam was asked to produce the artwork for the UEFA cup final at the City of Manchester stadium.  The paintings and drawings were used to produce the cup final identity and were used on the programme, tickets, city centre banners and stadium dressing.

He exhibits regularly in the North West and beyond, and his work can be seen in several public collections, including Manchester City Art Galleries, Salford Museum and Art Gallery, Touchstones Rochdale and Towneley Hall Museum and Art Gallery in Burnley.  Further information can be found at www.liamspencer.co.uk.

*******************************

‘Home and Away’, an exhibition by artist Liam Spencer, will be on display at the Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery, Haslingden Road, Rawtenstall, Rossendale, BB4 6RE from Saturday 21 April until Sunday 17 June 2018.  The Whitaker is open from Wednesday to Sunday, 9.30am until 5pm. Entry to the Whitaker is free, and the building is fully accessible with free parking on site. For more information, please visit www.thewhitaker.org or telephone the Whitaker on 01706 260785.