Two New Contemporary Art Exhibitions at The Whitaker

The Whitaker Museum and Art Gallery in Rossendale, Lancashire is delighted to announce two new exhibitions that will run from July 27th to September 24th 2023, with an opening event taking place on Thursday 27^th July at 7pm which is free and open to all.
 

The exhibitions will feature Paddy Campbell with Outside In – Inside Out, and Helen Angell, Harriet Mena Hill and Mandy Payne: Travels Through The Valley of Stone.

Paddy Campbell is Inspired by the work of Richard Long, Cornelia Parker and Andy Goldsworthy and this exhibition of constructed objects from The Whitaker Yard brings a slice of the outside in.
 

Campbell has spent several months working on developing the garden behind The Whitaker, reusing and transforming found objects into sculpture and site-specific installation. He will take these objects, mostly constructed from stone and embellished with copper and re-present them in the gallery setting.

The work will attempt to explore pattern in environmental chaos, from starling murmuration to glistening slug trails, and weather charts to woodlouse, with a combination of damp moss, oil paint, copper, cold stone and warm light.

The positioning of Gallery One is no random accident, the whole of The Whitaker building is placed on the hillside to capture the sun and shelter from the rain. This installation will give a nod to the Victorian architects that put The Whitaker here, from within our shell.

Paddy Campbell came to live in Rossendale in 2015 and spent years painting the hills of the East Pennines. He has developed his skills and attracted a lot of interest in his work and secured exhibitions at many local and national galleries.

Travels Through The Valley of Stone includes artists Mandy Payne and Harriet Mena Hill with poet Helen Angell, connected by their love of urban spaces, features new work in paint, textiles and words to capture the spirit and beauty in Rossendale.

Helen Angell will be holding a Place-writing workshop on Saturday 19th August. The workshop will take the ‘Travels Through the Valley of Stone’ exhibition as its starting point in thinking about seemingly ordinary places and their meaning for us. No prior writing experience is needed.

Using local materials such as felt, slate, quarry stone and experimental concrete, the exhibition follows the trio’s journey of discovery through the valley with an emphasis on the present as well as a recognition of the area’s rich past.

Current concerns about balancing progress with the environment as well as preserving our heritage underpin this exhibition. Their conversations and walks with enthusiasts as well as research in the archives brought the unfamiliar to life – not least of which was the discovery that Mandy Payne’s great-grandma used to live next door to The Whitaker!

Mandy Payne is a painter and printmaker based in Sheffield.  Her work is inspired by urban landscape, particularly Brutalist architecture, social housing, and issues of gentrification. Mandy works with materials that have a physical connection to the sites she depicts.

Mandy has exhibited nationally and internationally and her work is held both publicly and privately. Her work is featured in The Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth; Yale Centre For British Art; Jiangsu Art Museum China; The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, Canada; the  Ruskin Collection, Millennium Gallery, Sheffield; the University of Salford and University of Sheffield.

Harriet Mena Hill is a visual artist and educator specializing in the investigation of connection and memory, working with communities in the built environments they inhabit. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally over the past 30 years and is held in collections including The Government Collection, The Museum of London, The Fleming Wyfold Art Foundation, The Women’s Art Collection University of Cambridge, British Land Art PLC, FIAR International, St John’s College Oxford, The Ballinglen Arts Foundation and in private collections in the UK and abroad.