Between: waterloo festival

Showing posts with label waterloo festival. Show all posts

Monday, 30 June 2025

Artlyst: The Art Diary July 2025

My July Art Diary for Artlyst has been published today. The July Art Diary begins with exhibitions in and reflection on ecclesiastical buildings, through the Liverpool Biennial and the Waterloo Festival. Moments from the wide-ranging engagement between religion and art are featured in exhibitions at the Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Waddesdon Manor, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others. Reflection on the place of myth in the human story can be found in exhibitions at the Parsonage Gallery and the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. At the same time, ‘Worldbuilding and Wonder’ explores the experience of people with autism about the concept at Firstsite Gallery:

'The late Terry Fyffe was also an artist who dedicated himself to the pursuit of creative expression and spiritual exploration. A new website dedicated to his life, art and legacy has recently been launched. Designed as a resource for artists, curators, collectors, students, and art enthusiasts, this site offers a comprehensive insight into his prolific career and extraordinary body of work.

Fyffe built a remarkable career over four decades, predominantly based in London. He described his style as “figurative, expressionist painting, about the struggle for self-realisation.” Daniel Farson wrote that: “Ffyffe is a true painter in the classical tradition. A fluent draughtsman, he understands the challenge of paint and twists it to his advantage.” ...

I was fortunate to exhibit at St Stephen Walbrook an exhibition that brought together the last works that Fyffe was working on before this profound change combined with his new work depicting the beauty of the hidden world of nature and the inner world of the mind. It was his last major exhibition and one that was particularly satisfying for him.'

For more on Terry Ffyffe see here, here, here, here, and here. For more on Pablo Bronstein see here. For more on Paul Thek see here and here. For more on Paula Rego see here and here.

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -

Monthly diary articles -

Articles/Reviews -

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David Ackles - I've Been Loved.

Friday, 30 April 2021

Thought for the Week: Respair

I’ve written the Thought for the Week at St Martin-in-the-Fields this week:

Our HeartEdge friends at St John’s Waterloo have their annual Arts Festival in May and June before closing for a major restoration, their first since 1951. The Waterloo Festival celebrates the 70th anniversary of the Festival of Britain, a “return of hope”, for which St John’s, badly damaged by a war-time bomb, was restored and made the official Festival Church. Now, as then, out of a period of crisis and loss comes a fresh determination to make the world a better place.

The Festival is called Respair, the return of hope after a period of despair, a word that fell out of use many centuries ago but one they are reviving as we celebrate the brighter future that vaccines will bring and the rebirth of real-life creativity and shared experience.

Among the stories of hope being shared is that of Jewish émigré artists who used Christian iconography, worked for the Church and contributed to cultural life in post-war Britain. Hans Feibusch, for one, arrived in the UK in the 1930’s and received church commissions which enabled him to survive and thrive. He painted two magnificent murals at St John’s and came to be responsible for more murals in Church of England churches than any other artist in its entire history.

This is a story of effective interfaith dialogue and enjoyment of others' creativity. It is a story where the Church is at the heart of welcome and hospitality combined with awareness of the immense contribution that refugees make to the culture and economy of the countries to which they travel. If it becomes a story we can reinhabit as a nation, then we will know respair.

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Leonard Cohen - It Seemed The Better Way.

Sunday, 9 June 2019

ArtWay & Artlyst: Chaiya Art Awards & Waterloo Festival

My latest art articles highlight two excellent, but very different, art and faith initiatives.

The Chaiya Art Awards 2018 proved hugely popular, with over 450 entries and more than 2,700 exhibition visitors. Awards founder Katrina Moss says, in an interview published by ArtWay, ‘I set up the project to uncover and promote gifted artists looking to explore spirituality, faith and social change through their creativity. It was a delight to see that fulfilled in the artwork we received in 2018.’

The Chaiya Art Awards is open to any artist and covers all mediums including painting, drawing sculpture, ceramics, glass, textiles, mixed media, photography and video. Entrants are invited to be authentic and daring as they respond to the theme ‘God is …’. There are other cash prizes as well as the main £10,000 award, including £1,000 for the Public’s Choice from the gallery exhibition. A new category for Community Groups, who can submit a collaborative piece, has also been introduced.

The culmination will be an exhibition over Easter 2020 at London’s prestigious gallery@oxo. Consisting of all shortlisted entrants it will run from 10 to 19 April 2020.

The Waterloo Festival was launched by St. John’s Waterloo as a means of celebrating and reaching out to the local community and the broader audience of London through a focus on arts and heritage. This year’s theme, ‘Transforming Being’, continues a five-year journey of transformation, diving deep into the synergies between well-being and creativity. It’s all about connecting people and ideas, creating bridges between the artistic life of the area and of those who live, work and study in it.

My latest article for Artlyst focuses on the three exhibitions The London Group have organised for The Waterloo Festival 2019. The London Group was set up in 1913 by thirty-two artists including Walter Sickert, Jacob Epstein, Wyndham Lewis, David Bomberg, and Henri Gaudier Brzeska. Their three exhibitions showcase the diversity of members’ practices by focusing on sculpture, photography and moving images.

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Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir - Bridge Over Troubled Water.

Wednesday, 5 June 2019

Waterloo Festival & The London Group

The Waterloo Festival is an annual celebration in June of arts, community and heritage in the artistic heart of London. It aims to bring together local communities, the wider audience of London and world-class professionals to create new work, discover new connections and to be a source of hope and transformation. It builds on and draws inspiration from Waterloo’s rich history and its unique position on the Southbank fringe. The programme varies from orchestral concerts to contemporary music, from poetry to singing, from walks and green activities to outdoor sculpture exhibitions and discussions on social issues.

This year’s theme, ‘Transforming Being’, continues the Festival's five-year journey of transformation, diving deep into the synergies between well-being and creativity. It’s all about connecting people and ideas.

The London Group have organised three exhibitions for the Waterloo Festival: COMING GOOD, sculpture; METAMORPHOSIS, photography and SELF-SERVICE, artists’ moving image. These three shows offer the opportunity to showcase the diversity of members’ practices.

COMING GOOD: Come Hell or High Water
Sculpture

Date: 06 – 23 June 2019 / open daily
Preview: 05 June 2019 / 6 – 9 pm
Location: St. John’s Churchyard, 73 Waterloo Rd, South Bank, London SE1 8TY

Artists’ Talk: 17 June, throughout the afternoon from 2 pm
FREE

As we navigate a changing world with constantly shifting boundaries, we need to take on board new possibilities on all levels: physical, psychological and spiritual.

The London Group and Friends present an outdoor exhibition of art works from around 20 international artists. The show explores the process of transformation; be that of matter, ideas or self-perception. Questions of how we interact with nature and our environment, with each other and with our egos will come alive with this feast of art in the spacious gardens of St John’s Waterloo. Artists are responding to the challenge of dousing hell with high water and having fun along the way. You might walk past a milk teeth ‘Scream’ by Paul Tecklenberg or get entangled in Jane Eyton’s jellyfish; you may look into Clive Burton’s eternity hole in the ground or be puzzled by Vanya Balogh’s interactive performances. David Redfern recycles the cross and some mysterious old resin cups have made their way from a Polish forest.

Curated by London Group members Almuth Tebbenhoff and Cadi Froehlich

Exhibiting artists include: James Roseveare, Jane Eyton, Vanya Balogh LG, Keith Ball, Natalia-Zagorska-Thomas, William Watson, Elzbieta Smolenska, Angela Wright, Paul Tecklenberg LG, Clare Burnett, Clive Burton LG, Alex Harley LG, Aude Hérail Jäger LG, David Redfern LG, Sumi Perera LG, Carol Wyss LG, Rebecca Feiner, Heather Burrells, Tommy Seaward LG, Graham Tunnardine, Almuth Tebbenhoff LG, Cadi Froehlich LG …

METAMORPHOSIS
Photography

Date: 08 – 20 June / daily 2pm- 6pm
Location: The Cello Factory, 33-34 Cornwall Rd, London SE1 8TJ
FREE
Preview: Mon 10 June, 6-9pm
Artists’ talk: Mon 17 June, 7pm.
Q&A with Farah Mohammoud & Catherine Dormor: Thurs 20 June, 7pm.

Metamorphosis can mean the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly or in Kafka’s case from man into an insect. This show features diptychs by 17 international photographers. Pairs of images are hung side by side or one above the other, each depicts a process of binary change and transformation such as absent/present, before/after, motion/static, positive/negative, light/dark and so on. The juxtaposition between one image and the other can be subtle or radical, either way provoking the viewer to create a narrative between the two.

Curated by London Group members Paul Tecklenberg and Darren Nisbett

Exhibiting artists include: Carol Wyss LG, Carl Wilson, David Theobald LG, Paul Tecklenberg LG, Simon Reed LG, Darren Nisbett LG, Charlotte C Mortensson LG, Genetic Moo LG, Sam Jarman LG, Vaughan Grylls LG, Jane Humphrey LG, Susan Haire LG, Eric Fong LG, Angela Eames LG, Andrew Cooper, Stephen Carley LG and Vanya Balogh LG.

SELF-SERVICE
Artists’ Moving Image

Date: 10 – 16 June 2019 / daily Mon-Sat 1-6pm, Sun 12-4pm
Location: Old Crypt, St. John’s Church, 73 Waterloo Rd, South Bank, London SE1 8TY
FREE
Preview: Wed 12 June, 6-9pm

“The age of automation will be the age of do it yourself”, Marshall McLuhan

More and more we are being asked to do things ourselves. From shopping to car insurance, services that traditionally required a human representative have been redesigned so that customers complete their business interacting only with machines. Some might argue this gives us more flexibility and choice and while others see us all becoming unpaid employees, required to do the work in order to access what we need. Taking its lead from the check-out counters of supermarkets and petrol station forecourts, this exhibition brings together moving image works that respond to this idea of ‘self-service’. Works were contributed by members of the London Group, invited artists and artists chosen from an open call in response to the title.

Curated by London Group members David Theobald and Genetic Moo

Exhibiting artists: Katerina Athanasopoulou, Stephen Carley LG, Sandra Crisp LG, Vardit Goldner, Geeske Janßen, Helena Klakocar, Daniel McKee, Micheál O’Connell/MOCKSIM LG, Genetic Moo LG, Charlotte C Mortensson LG, Svetlana Ochkovskaya, Piotr Piasta, Duncan Poulton, Sue Ridge, James Rosamond, Eric Schockmel, Alcaeus Spyrou, David Theobald LG.

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Southbank Sinfonia - Beethoven's Symphony No.5.

Saturday, 2 June 2018

Artlyst: The London Group and the Waterloo Festival

My latest piece for Artlyst previews the Waterloo Festival which includes three exhibitions by The London Group:

'St John’s Waterloo is an Anglican church with a big heart and an open door. Their mission is to be at the centre of Waterloo’s community, helping people fulfil their potential. As part of that mission every summer they host the acclaimed Waterloo Festival, which strives to celebrate their community, heritage and location on the fringe of the South Bank through arts, ideas and togetherness.'

My other Artlyst articles and interviews are:

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Brandon Flowers - Crossfire.