Black Swan Arts Exhibition Archives 2017

The Future Can
The Future Can

Black Swan Arts 30th Anniversary ‘1000 Postcards’ sale
Date: 18 – 28 June 2016

Black Swan Arts, Frome, launches its phenomenal show of 1000 ‘secret’ artworks on Saturday 18 June 2016.

Postcard-sized artworks have been donated by famous names such as actor and musician Rhys Ifans, fashion designer Pearl Lowe, Supergrass drummer Danny Goffey, Oscar-winning animator Daniel Greaves, singer-songwriter Cara Dillon, musician and DJ Huey Morgan.

Graphic Fine Art Members work in a specially-curated exhibition here in the South West.

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The Future Can

Title: SGFA at The Black Swan

Date: 4 March- 25 March 2017

This is an opportunity to see the best of the Society of Graphic Fine Art Members work in a specially-curated exhibition here in the South West.

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The Future Can

Title: ‘The Future Can’t Wait’
Date: 18 March – 15 April 2017
Preview: Friday 17 March 6pm

Black Swan Arts are pleased to collaborate with Bath Spa University for ‘The Future Can’t Wait’, an exciting showcase of exhibits from 30 MA postgraduate students across 4 disciplines – ceramics, fashion and textiles, fine art and visual communication.

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The Future Can

Title: ‘Frome Botanical Artists’
Date: 1 April- 15 April 2017

Eighteen Frome Botanical Artists will show their colourful botanical and contemporary artwork in watercolour, graphite and pen/ink drawings.  Their inspiration comes from the surrounding countryside and plants from the garden.

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The Future Can

Title: ‘Frome Art Society’
Date: 22 April – 6 May 2017
Preview: Evening Friday 21 April 6pm

Frome Art Society return to the Long Gallery for their Annual Spring Exhibition, featuring work in a range of media by society members.

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The Future Can

Title: ‘Lizbeth Spurgeon and Suzanne Woodward’
Date: 22 April – 6 May 2017

Suzanne Woodward’s paints on paper using water based mixed media. Her work is elemental, celebratory and intuitive, inspired by dreams and memories.
Lizbeth Spurgeon’s inspiration comes from colours and shapes within nature, painting from imagination and stored images from memory of places visited.

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The Future Can

Title: ‘Artists 303’
Date: 13 May- 27 May 2017
Preview: Friday 12 May 6 – 8pm

Title: ‘Artists 303’
Date: 13 May- 27 May
Preview: Friday 12 May 6 – 8pm

A group exhibition showcasing the work of members of Artists 303.

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Steve Burden

Title: ‘Steve Burden- Utopian Myths’
Date: 13 May- 10 June 2017
Preview: Evening Friday 12 May 6pm

Winner of the Black Swan Open 2016, Steve graduated from Goldsmiths College, London with First Class Honours and Bath Spa University with a Masters Degree in Fine Art (distinction). Prior to becoming a painter Steve had a successful career as a Creative Director working for various international branding agencies.

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Somerset Skills & Learning

Title: ‘Somerset Skills & Learning’
Date: 3 June- 22 June 2017

Students from Somerset Skills & Learning Arts Courses return to the Tower for their third summer showcase of work produced under the guidance of tutors and Art and Crafts courses. featuring a range of painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics and textile work, this is a vibrant exhibition with something for everyone!

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Somerset Skills & Learning

Title: ‘North Hill House- Student Summer Showcase’
Date: 26 June- 2 July 2017

Art and photography GCSE students from Priory’s North Hill House School in Frome return again to the Round Tower to proudly display their exam and course-work.

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Image by Frank Reeves

Title: ‘Old Bakery Artists- Group show’
Date: 8 July – 15 July

The Old Bakery Artists will be exhibiting paintings, sculpture, photography and ceramics in the Round Tower Gallery. They are a Radstock based group who provide an ideal platform for local artists to meet and plan exhibitions, with talks and workshops.

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Ricky Romain Black Swan Arts

Title: ‘Ricky Romain’
Date: 17 June- 15 July 2017
Artist Talk: Thursday 29th June 7pm (admission free)

In this age of ‘alternative facts’ and ‘post truth’ politics it may appear that at the moment we are groping about in the ‘starless midnight of racism and war’. So, if we find ourselves unwillingly within this unknown and dangerous darkness, there is perhaps an obligation for all of us to search for points of light that have the potential to become stars.

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Association for Contemporary Jewellery- Wessex presents Tower Jewels

Title: ‘Association for Contemporary Jewellery- Wessex presents Tower Jewels
Date: 22 July- 12 August 2017

Meet the Makers this summer as the ACJ (Association for Contemporary Jewellery)
Wessex group are delighted to announce the first ‘Tower Jewels’ contemporary
jewellery exhibition in The Round Tower.

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Title: ‘Press Gang 3’

Title: ‘Press Gang 3’
Date: 19 Aug- 3 Sept 2017

A much anticipated return to Black Swan Gallery for this collective of locally based print artists. Exhibiting acollection of works exploring a wide range of themes and subjects using etching, mono print and lino cut.
There is an opportunity to meet the artists in the Round Tower at Black Swan on Saturday 2nd September 12- 3pm.

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Artwork by Angela Morely

Title: Nick Weaver & Cameron Scott – Proportion and Perspective
Date: 21 November – 5 October
Location: Pop-up studio

Nick makes practical but quirky pieces, often with re-claimed materials, exploiting the natural beauty of wood. Nick’s boat/lounger featured in a Gold award- winning garden at Chelsea Flower Show in 2016. Cameron carves figurative relief carvings in lime wood telling stories from his life such as seeing Aurora Borealis.

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Artwork by Angela Morely
Artwork by Fiona Campbell

Title: Somerset Art Weeks – Ephemeral and Eternal
Date: 23 Sept – 7 Oct 2017
Preview: 22 Sept, 6-8pm

Fiona Campbell and Angela Morley will be transforming the Round Tower Gallery with sculptural forms rooted in the natural world; wrapped, woven and layered.  They have each been exploring the materiality of paper and other natural, found and reclaimed materials in different ways for new work based on organic forms.

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Artwork by Ellie Mawby

Title: Ellie Mawby – Kuuki
Date: 23 September – 7 October
Preview: 22 September
Location: Divas Cafe

As the climate change movement gathers pace, this exhibition by Creative Pathway Bursary artist Ellie Mawby will provide a platform for debate and awareness regarding environmental concerns. Through ink drawings and mixed-media textile pieces, the work shows a visual representation of things that we can’t see but are still very present.

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Artwork by Gladys Paulus

Title: ‘Gladys Paulus – Hinterland’
Date: 16 Sept – 14 Oct
Artists talk: Wed 27, 7pm

Following the death of her father in 2015, Frome-based textile artist Gladys Paulus presents HINTERLAND; an installation of ancestral healing costumes dealing with identity, belonging, gender relations and grief.
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Frome Art Society at the Black Swan Arts

Title: Frome Arts Society – Inspirations
Date: 21 October – 5 November

Frome Art Society’s Autumn exhibition is being held in the Round Tower Gallery, from Saturday 21 October to Sunday 5 November. The gallery is open from 10 – 4 pm Monday to Saturday, with one additional day, Sunday 5 November, to coincide with Frome’s monthly Independent Market. Working to a restricted size – 40 cm in either direction – members are being invited to explore the idea of Inspirations  in their submitted work. All works are for sale. Entry to the exhibition is free.

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Frome Open 2017

Title: Black Swan Arts Open 2017
Date: 2 – 29 November

The prestigious Black Swan Art Open is an annual competition that welcomes original works from both established practitioners and emerging artists of all professions and disciplines. Work can be submitted in any medium and in almost any size – from painting, drawing and printmaking to photography, sculpture and ceramics.
Read More about the Open…
See the 2017 prizewinners…

Artwork by Nick Andrew
Artwork by Tanya Hinton

Title: Nick Andrew & Tanya Hinton
Date: 11 November – 3 December
Preview: 10 November, 6-8pm

‘Frome’s Frome and nearby waters’: energetic and colourist paintings by Nick Andrew. ‘Earthly and aerial beasts’: unique paintings on weathered wood by Tanya Hinton.

Nick and Tanya’s studio is next to the River Wylye. Nick’s work is predominantly inspired by the immediate river landscape, along with adjacent water meadows and nearby woodland.

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Artwork by Paul Newman
Artwork by Paul Newman

Title: 12 Days
Date: 8 – 19 December, 10am-4pm

A pop-up exhibition of applied and fine art with a winter theme, curated by Paul Newman.

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Artwork by Carry Akroyd
Artwork by Richard Phethean

Title: ‘Carry Akroyd & Richard Phethean’
Date: 2 December – 30 December
Preview: 1 December 6 – 8pm
Artist talk: 2pm, Sat 2 Dec (plus free parking for Small Business Saturday)

‘Found in the Fields’ by Carry Akroyd and New ceramics by Richard Phethean

Carry Akroyd describes her first contact this the poems of John Clare as someone speaking directly to her and her experience of living in the Northamptonshire countryside  ‘His eye, mind and heart reach across time in his writing’.

Richard Phethean’s work has grown out of domestic ware and has become more sculptural in the last ten years. His new work has been partially inspired by the exploration of planes and surface seen in the cubist work of Braque and Picasso that depict the abstraction of ordinary domestic objects such as jugs and vases. He also draws on the ceramic traditions of English country slipware and ancient Minoan ceramics.  He throws and alters these sculptural forms in course textured terracotta and decorates using layers of brushed clay slip and hand cut paper stencils.

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