Miles Thurlow: "DEADPAN", The Royal Standard, Liverpool, UK

DEADPAN The Royal Standard, Liverpool, UK Liverpool Biennial 2010 28 October -28 November http://www.the-royal-standard.com Amidst a ridiculous tableau of minuscule beasts, repetitive streaks and a gargantuan lobster, DEADPAN presents several newly commissioned works produced especially for the exhibition. From sloppy seconds to flying willies, aside institutional critique and the highly crafted sleek, DEADPAN expands The Royal Standards exhibition spaces, overflowing with large-scale sculptural works, drawing, installation, animation and performance alongside the inaugural presentation of work within The Royal Standard's Sculpture Garden; brought together for DEADPAN along with key works borrowed from collections including The Black Room, a seminal 7 piece installation by Jamie Shovlin, presented here for the first time on British soil. With a good glug of irony and a sarcastic nod, DEADPAN gives a kick up the arse to the utter mess of an art world at a point of over saturation by questioning strategies used by artists to make new work. Considering mimicry and the referential alongside the blatancy of homage, DEADPAN presents with barefaced cheek a pastichised viewpoint of art with lampooning consequences; providing a glimpse into the dirty world of satire within contemporary art today.  David Sherry Jamie Shovlin Jess Flood-Paddock Jock Mooney Josephine Flynn Laura Ford Laurina Paperina Miles Thurlow Noel Clueit Toby Huddlestone The Royal Standard Unit 3, Vauxhall Business Centre 131 Vauxhall Rd Liverpool L3 6BN

Workplace Gallery at The Manchester Contemporary , UK - 28-31 October 2010

Workplace Gallery is pleased to announce our participation at The Manchester Contemporary Booth 2 The Manchester Contemporary Spinningfields, Manchester, UK http://www.themanchestercontemporary.co.uk/ 28-31 October 2010 Arcade, Bureau, Ceri Hand Gallery, David Risley Gallery, Faye Fleming & Partner, Man & Eve, Mermaid & Monster, Nettie Horn, Seventeen, The International 3, Workplace Gallery, WORKS|PROJECTS, and Emin International For a full list of available works please contact info@workplacegallery.co.uk image: Mike Pratt Bombay-Badboy pII, 2010 (detail) crystacal, wood, enamel paint, foam, wire, wool fabric and parcel tape 159 x 65 x 106 cm (MP0120) Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Eric Bainbridge: "Facon, Plads og Kulør", Rundetårn, Copenhagen

Facon, Plads & Kulør (Shape, Space and Colour) RUNDETAARN, Copenhagen, Denmark 9 October -21 November http://www.rundetaarn.dk/ A large floor show featuring 26 artists, exploring the boundaries between painting and photography, design, sculpture and installations - an exhibition focusing on the work of Ib Braase: "From my younger sister's room". Parked art If visitors get the impression they are standing in a basement car park when they enter the "Shape, Space and Colour" exhibition, they are not far off the mark. Long neon tubes cast a sharp light over the exhibited works, standing side-by-side, as if Rundetaarn's huge exhibition hall was the most decorative car park in Europe. "We wanted to show how clean and beautiful the over 900 m² room can look when it is used matter-of-factly, without excuses, without interruptions to overview and false temporary walls. We wanted it to be a floorshow with the best works - with artists who can and dare to use all kinds of materials", explain Hans E. Madsen and Torgny Wilcke, the two artists behind the exhibition. Taking inspiration from Ib Braase's work, 'From my younger sister's room', which occupies 4.24 m² of floor space, all participants in the exhibition were asked to create a work of similar size - about the size of a car. "We picture the works being positioned like cars in a car park, where some are parked perfectly, and others hastily, roughly, badly, or terribly", say the organisers. Boundaries Apart from Ib Brasse's work (1979), the 26 floor works in 'Shape, Space and Colour' were created and intended for the exhibition, and contemporary works from 2010. The works feature a variety of materials and expressions, and explore the boundaries between painting and photography, sculpture, design and installation. "The boundaries between the traditional forms have not disappeared, but the ideas behind sculpture, painting, photography and installation art have been influenced. Rather than throwing out these concepts, we choose to actively engage with the boundaries of these forms and work with them", explain the two organisers. They raise Eric Barnbridge as an example of an artist whose sculptures can be mounted on the wall, flat, or built directly without shape, and composed in a way reminiscent of the painting method, with the room serving as the artist's canvas. Everday objects - a means to reflection Another thing the works have in common is the exhibitors' choice of materials, which are both classic, and drawn from everyday surroundings. Cupboard doors made from cheap veneer, plastic bowls, wigs, and chair legs have been put in a context which gives the objects new form and meaning. The title, 'Shape, Space and Colour', hints at this idea of everyday objects being adopted by the art works as a means to encourage reflection about the reality we are living in, here and now. Third exhibition on the same theme 'Shape, Space and Colour' is one of a series of exhibitions, such as 'Wham, Fact & Value, ETC.', 'Fabrikken besøger Illums Bolighus' and 'VÆGTILVÆG' with a focus on paintings and directly executed works.   Artists: Ib Braase (From my younger sister's room) Eric Bainbridge (GB), Thomas Bang, Claus Bjerre og Ditte Hammerstrøm, Maiken Bent, Monika Brandmeier (DE), Claus Egemose, Jesper Fabricius, Kim Grønborg, Peter Holm, Søren Jensen, Pablo Lambias, Axel Lieber (DE), Hans E Madsen, Bjørn Poulsen, Jesper Rasmussen, Finn Reinbothe, Torgny Wilcke, Lone Høyer Hansen, Ellen Hyllemose, Marianne Jørgensen, Karin Lind, Tove Storch, Charlotte Thrane (DK/GB), A-Kassen. Image: Eric Bainbridge New Modernist No.3, 2006 Teak, Melamine 249 x 245.5 x 130 cm 98 1/8 x 96 5/8 x 51 1/8 in (EB0011)

Catherine Bertola: "Thought for the Week" Scion - Beacon Art Project

Artwork of the Month Series Scion, Beacon Art Project Somerset, England 27 October 2010 Contemporary Art at Barrington Court Barrington Court, Nr Ilminster, Somerset TA19 0NQ Scion is the title of a series of activities developed by Beacon and the National Trust that will deliver a programme of contemporary art at Barrington Court over the course of sixteen months culminating in a major exhibition in 2011. Beacon Art Project is based in Lincolnshire and commissions and presents artwork by national and international artists within unusual, non-gallery settings, emphasising the importance of the context in which we experience art. This project is supported by Trust New Art, a programme to connect more people to National Trust places through contemporary art and craft. The National Trust is working in partnership with Arts Council England. Arts Council England and the National Trust believe that placing high-quality and innovative contemporary art within historic settings can inspire artists and audiences and encourage new ways of looking at the work and the world. As the partnership develops, a wide programme of events, projects and products will be developed to make contemporary arts and crafts an integral part of the National Trust's daily offer to visitors, building new audiences and providing career opportunities to both emerging and established artists. Artwork of the Month Series Each month an existing artwork is installed at Barrington Court. The artworks are not new commissions, but are selected on the basis of their fit to the building and to the curatorial remit of Scion. The artist is invited to give a lunchtime talk about the work and a question and answer session follows. Everyone is welcome to attend these talks for which free entry can be gained through presentation of the downloadable voucher (see below). Scroll down to see details of previous Artworks of the Month. Thought for the Week Is an ongoing series of embroideries, each containing a text derived from emails the artist receives every week from a life coaching website. Image: Catherine Bertola Thought for the week (Don't be a prisoner..), 2008 Linen, cotton thread, wadding, mdf, card, brass tacks, glue 23cm diameter (CB0055) Photographer: Colin Davison

Paul Merrick: "The New Domestic Landscape", Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art

The New Domestic Landscape National Gallery for Contemporary Art Sunderland, England 01 - 30 October 2010 http://www.ngca.co.uk "In the 1970s more people than usual were searching for an ideology or an aesthetic which would transform the world... Parts of the 1970s are very much with us. More than 30 years on, 1970s style and design still divides and confuses. It can seem antiquated or contemporary, extravagant or impoverished, embarrassing or enviable. It is reviled and it is revived. It is celebrated and written off." Andy Beckett, London Review of Books, 19 August 2010 "If you never change your mind, why have one?" Edward de Bono Work by: Christopher Cox, (Denver) Dan Ziglam and Elliot Brook (Newcastle) Fantome (North-East England) Kyouei Design, (Toyko) Max Lamb (London) Clarita Lulic (Newcastle) Paul Merrick (Newcastle) Martin Ruiz de Azua (Barcelona) Ronja Svaneborg (Copenhagen) Laila Maia Baria (London) Does the temper of our times demand more contradiction and complexity than ever from "the stuff that surrounds you", as Wallpaper* magazine calls our domestic consumer items? In 1972 the Museum of Modern Art staged a seminal exhibition entitled "The New Domestic Landscape" which revealed a new spirit in design, of exuberance and contradiction. The 'New Domestic Landscape' of 2010 is, if anything, even more complex and contradictory. The exhibition brings together a range of international artists and designers who create objects that might resemble conventional furniture in either form or function, but whose real aims are to challenge our established ways of life or our conventional habits of mind. All of the works are intended to be enjoyed in - or endured in - a domestic environment. 'The New Domestic Landscape' is part of the Design Event North East festival which is supported by the Arts Council, England and Northern Rock Foundation.  The festival takes place from 21-31 October 2010 throughout the North East region and the theme this year is Conversation.  There will be a range of exhibitions and events covering all aspects of design from product design to graphics, fashion and architecture.  For more information please visit www.design-event.co.uk. Image: Paul Merrick Untitled (Chair), 2009 Sterling board, ply wood, aluminium, gloss paint 81 x 48 x 56 cm (PME0082)

Workplace Gallery: FIAC 2010 "Tuileries Gardens & Cinéphémère Projects"

Tuileries Gardens at FIAC Louvre, Paris 21 - 24 October 2010 Darren Banks Palace Band-Wagon : Mobile Cinema, 2010 http://www.fiac.com/tuileries.html Palace Band-Wagon  refers both to Darren Banks' interest in the decline of VHS and to the Ghanian "mobile cinemas" of the 1980's where local artists were commissioned to make promotional posters for the films without necessarily having seen them beforehand. Transforming a 1970 Cadillac Eldorado into a mobile cinema, Palace Band-Wagon presents a continuous show-reel of Banks' archive of Palace Pictures VHS. The public are invited to watch the video show-reel and add to the Palace Band-Wagon archive of promotional film posters. For the fifth consecutive year, in collaboration with the Musée du Louvre, FIAC presents a program of outdoor projects in the Jardin des Tuileries. The growing interest for this annual event among galleries and artists - together with the exceptional beauty of the site - has enabled us to us to bring together over twenty seven projects, including sculptures, installations and ephemeral creations, deployed in the garden's fountains, basins, lawns, alleys and groves. Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla, Carl Andre, Darren Banks, Mark Dion, Mounir Fatmi, Otto Freundlich, Bruno Giroconli, Subodh Gupta, Thomas Houseago, Rodolphe Huguet, Rolf Julius, Yayoi Kusama, Guillaume Leblon, Jean-François Leroy, Markus Lupertz, Justin Matherly, Jonathan Meese, Richard Nonas, Not Vital, Bernard Pagès, Jean Prouvé, Ugo Rondinone, Assan Smati, Franz West, Virginie Yassef. Cinéphémère at FIAC Tuileries Gardens, Louvre, Paris 21 - 24 October 2010 Darren Banks Found Installation 1.14.33 - 1.14.37, 2009 Marcus Coates Follow The Voice, 2009 (10 min 45) Matt Stokes the Gainsborough Packet, 2008, (8 min 56) http://www.fiac.com/cinephemere.html Hosted by the Louvre Museum and in collaboration with the Ricard Foundation, FIAC will present Cinéphémère in the context of the programme of outdoor projects presented in the Tuileries Gardens. Cinéphèmère is a fully equipped 14 seat cinema installed in a especially redesigned container.  Between 5 and 10 artist's films of a maximum duration of 30 minutes will be screened every day during FIAC. Screenings will take place hourly from 13.00 until 18.00, and will present one or two films depending on their respective duration. A hostess will be present during opening hours to enable members of the public to make advance reservations for screenings Adel Abidin, Boris Achour, Pilar Albarracín, Kader Attia, Darren Banks, Irit Batsry, Louidgi Beltrame, Patrick Bernatchez, Pauline Boudry et Renate Lorenz, Robert Breer, Elina Brotherus, Mircea Cantor, Lu Chunsheng, Marcus Coates, Omer Fast, Michael Fliri, Aurélien Froment, Elika Hedayat, Ryan Gander, Dora Garcia, Aneta Grzeszykowska, Ali Kazma, David Lamelas, Christian Lebrat, Chikara Matsumoto, Christina McPhee, Ra di Martino, Ariane Michel, Robert Morris,  Anca Munteanu Rimnic, John Pilson, Bettina Pousttchi, Moussa Sarr, Matt Stokes, Marie Voignier, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Martin Walde, Jessica Warboys, Sun Xun, Tobias Zielony.

Workplace Gallery at FIAC - Cour Carrée du Louvre, Paris - 21-24 October 2010

Workplace Gallery is pleased to announce its participation in FIAC, LaFayette Sector at Cour Carrée du Louvre, Paris. We will be showing new work by Marcus Coates and Darren Banks Images: (Left) Marcus Coates The Spinach Eulithis Mellinata (Fabricius, 1787), 2010 Silver Gelatin Print, 21 x 27.9 cm (Right) Darren Banks Where Everything Is, 2010, mixed media FIAC Booth F29 LaFayette Sector Cour Carrée du Louvre, Rue de Rivoli, 75001, Paris France www.fiac.com

Fade Away, 2010, Darren Banks

Laura Lancaster - Preview: Friday 15th October, 6-9pm

Laura Lancaster You are a Movement 16th October - 13th November 2010 Tuesday - Saturday, 11am - 5pm (or by appointment) Preview: Friday 15th October, 6 - 9pm Workplace Gallery is pleased to present You are a Movement our second solo exhibition of work by Laura Lancaster. This exhibition of Lancaster's new work consists of a series of large-scale oil paintings alongside collage, works on paper, and film installation. Located firmly within a tradition of figurative painting and portraiture Lancaster's subject matter consists of images sourced from an archive of found anonymous photographs and family albums bought at charity shops, car boot sales and flea markets. Lancaster transposes these forgotten, lost or discarded moments of strangers' lives into vivid, fluid impressions that, through their painterly application, thwart any definitive understanding of their context or history. With an immediate and adept handling of paint, Lancaster's figures bleed into their surrounding scenes, moving towards an abstraction and ambiguity that divorces the subjects within her works from their specific identity and individuality, enabling their significance to relocate to a place of collective memory and experience that resonates with our own. These new works by Lancaster signify a substantial shift in the development of her practice in terms of scale, physicality, and in her rejection of sentimentality, embracing a dynamic and vigorous ambivalence as a strategy towards an objective and searching investigation into both painting and humanity. Laura Lancaster was born in Hartlepool in 1979 and graduated from Fine Art at Northumbria University in 2001. Her work has been exhibited in a number of high profile exhibitions internationally. Recent exhibitions include: Ego Documents. The Autobiographical in Contemporary Art, Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland; 'Mediations' Voyage Sentimental, Poznan Biennial, Poland; Paintings From England & America, Crisp, London; Dawning Of An Aspect, Green On Red Gallery, Dublin; Secret Exhibition, Ma2 Gallery, Tokyo; Behind, Monitor, Rome; Micro Narratives, Musee d'Art Moderne, Saint-Etienne; Past as Present, York Art Gallery; Formal Dining, Hales Gallery, London; Giardino Luoghi Della Piccola Realta, Palazzo Della Arte Napoli; Local Stories, Museum of Modern Art Oxford; Blue Star Red Wedge, Glasgow International; When I Lived in Modern Times, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland. Laura Lancaster lives and works in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. You are a Movement runs concurrently with Laura Lancaster's first major museum solo exhibition at The Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle (until 30th January 2011). Workplace Gallery was founded by artists Paul Moss and Miles Thurlow; based in Gateshead UK, Workplace Gallery represents a portfolio of emerging and established artists through the gallery programme, curatorial projects and international art fairs. Workplace Gallery opened in 2005 at 34 Ellison Street, Gateshead - part of Trinity Square Shopping Centre particularly noted for its iconic Brutalist car park designed by architect Rodney Gordon for the Owen Luder Partnership, which featured as a key location in Mike Hodges 1971 cult British gangster film Get Carter starring Michael Caine. Since the original gallery was demolished in 2008 as part of the planned regeneration of Gateshead Town Centre, Workplace Gallery has relocated to The Old Post Office in Gateshead; a listed 19th Century red brick building built upon the site where the important British artist, engraver and naturalist Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) lived and died. The next exhibition at Workplace Gallery will be a solo exhibition of new work by Cecilia Stenbom opening on 19th November 2010. To celebrate the opening of You are a Movement please join us afterwards at Central Bar in Gateshead. Kindly supported by:

Marcus Coates: "Implicit Sound" Fundacio Joan Miro, Barcelona

MARCUS COATES DAWN CHORUS 08.10.10 - 05.12.10 Implicit Sound Espai 13 Fundació Joan Miró http://www.fundaciomiro-bcn.org/ The Fundació Joan Miró presents Implicit Sound, the second cycle of exhibitions for Espai 13 curated by multidisciplinary artist TRES. The title of the project not only stresses its connection with the previous Espai 13 cycle, Explicit Silence, but also reflects visual artists' growing interest in using sound in their work. The five participants in this project are all eminently visual artists who use sound in an implicit fashion, i.e. by including sound in their work though not necessarily as the main component. Their preference for installations suggests a form of art without any limitations in terms of expressive resources, where the transformation of space tends to be a central aspect. Implicit Sound is not therefore in essence a cycle on sound, and even less so one on sound art. It is a visual arts cycle that aims to express our interest in a form of sound hidden or contained in pieces by certain visual artists without ever playing a major role. The cycle follows in the same vein as Explicit Silence in that it refers to sound as a concept closely linked to silence, either by its nature as "tacit" or "understood", the discreet way it is approached or the specific meaning artists give it. Current trends in contemporary art show a clear interest in sound and music. With Implicit Sound, Espai 13 at the Fundació Joan Miró is keen to reflect this general interest and add a fresh touch which we think defines a certain trend in up-and-coming contemporary art. TRES MARCUS COATES (London, 1969) Marcus Coates is one of the most original artists to come out of the United Kingdom in recent years -an eccentric Englishman of the kind we thought had become extinct. Through his films and performances, Coates takes audiences on a dark journey full of humour to explore the true power of the imagination and the relationships between nature and culture, as well as questioning the role of artists in society. Coates examines the limits between human and animal through a kind of experimentation that lets him turn into an animal himself. Thanks to his interest in ornithology, zoology and anthropology, he has honed a series of skills to break free of his own human condition and explore the world through the mind and body of animals by literally taking on their own skin. In his films he often plays the role of a shaman to access a 'lower world' inhabited by birds and mammals, whose spirits he communicates with to try and understand the nature of certain difficult problems of interest to the audience, in whose name he acts. Through this power of becoming something or someone else, he tries ultimately to reveal the role of the artist as an interpretive force in society. Coates's videos take us far away from our anthropocentric perspective and back to a time before untrammelled industrialisation and the destruction of habitats to stress our species' arrogance in our disrespect for the environment. Coates's interest in both the magical and the rational suggests that the gap between belief and knowledge might not be that great. image: Marcus Coates Dawn Chorus, 2007 (still) 14 Channel HD Video Installation 18 min Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

Matt Stokes: Art on the Underground "The Stratford Gaff: A Serio-Comick-Bombastick-Operatick Interlude"

Art On The Underground A new film for Stratford Station The Stratford Gaff: A Serio-Comick-Bombastick-Operatick Interlude Matt Stokes art.tfl.gov.uk Artist Matt Stokes has drawn together a diverse group of local performers to create a spectacular film installation for Stratford Underground station. The Stratford Gaff: A Serio-Comick-Bombastick-Operatick Interlude, with acts ranging from an opera singer to a beatbox artist, draws on the area's rich history of popular entertainment, theatre and cinema. The film is a contemporary take on the Victorian 'Penny Gaffs', temporary theatres that were abundant in the East End at this time. For a penny, audiences were entertained by quick-fire performances including comic songs, dances, music, acrobatics and short plays. Theatrical playbills and portraits announce the show in the station. On the three screens the players perform their acts, accompanied by a 'house band'. Mirroring the busy life of the station, each show lasts only a few minutes and offers regular visitors a chance to see a different performance on every journey. Stokes began his project by researching Stratford's history. Popular entertainment has been significant here since the nineteenth century, when rapid industrialisation led to an increased population and a growing demand for affordable entertainment such as the 'Penny Gaffs'. These were soon followed by licensed theatres, including the Theatre Royal in 1884, which still exists to this day. Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England Image: Matt Stokes The Stratford Gaff: A Serio-Comick-Bombastick-Operatick-Interlude, 2010 Production photographs of Victoria Elizabeth Day, Murray Melvin, Dizzle Kid, Sovra Newman, Mangal Singh and Bhanu Kanthagnany Photography: Nadia Bettega Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery, UK.