Slow Burn: Meaning and Vision in Contemporary British Abstract Painting

A Mead Gallery Touring Exhibition
Tue 10 Nov – Sat 12 Dec 1998

Works by John Bicknell, Mali Morris, Kevin O’Brien, Emma Rose, Rebecca Sitar, Amanda Thesiger

Towards the end of a century of abstraction, Slow Burn examines the expressive possibilities of paint and the abstract image by bringing together discrete groups of works by seven contemporary painters working in Britain. The exhibition proves a timely consideration of the pleasures of looking and ways in which we can respond to abstract painting.

Nineteen Greys: Drawings and prints from the Rugby Collection

A Mead Gallery Exhibition
Sat 30 May – Sat 27 Jun 1998

The collection of works of art, owned by Rugby Borough Council is currently housed at the Mead Gallery. This exhibition examines the works on paper in the collection including drawings by Cosmo Clark, Lucian Freud and Barbara Hepworth and prints by Bridget Riley and Bryan Wynter.

Peter Collingwood: Master Weaver

Exhibition organised by firstsite and the Minories Art Gallery Colchester
Sat 25 Apr – Sat 27 Jun 1998

Peter Collingwood’s career at the forefront of weaving technique and design has spanned 45 years. this exhibition charts the development of his work from early experimental, reversible flat-weave and pile rugs to his highly contemporary ‘macrogauzes’ and ‘shaft-switching rugs’. these later, more graphic three dimensional design have involved radical alterations to the loom itself. Some works are shown on the wall and floor of the Gallery while other three dimensional pieces hang from the ceiling demonstrating the sculptural possibilities of Collingwood’s work.

The exhibition is supported by the Crafts Council

The University of Warwick Art Collection includes a macrogauze by Peter Collingwood.

Estelle Thompson: Fuse Paintings 1996-98

A Mead Gallery Touring Exhibition
Sat 25 Apr – Mon 25 May 1998

This exhibition features new, large-scale paintings by Estelle Thompson. In three enormous canvases, each measuring 7 × 14 feet, the artist has developed her use of abstract light, colour and space into systems of repeated stripes that fuse colour to produce a powerful optical vibration. Smaller canvases are shown in a more enclosed space within the Gallery. The extremes of scale evoke different visual and physical sensations as the viewer moves towards across and in front of the paintings.

Christopher Bucklow: Guest

A Mead Gallery Exhibition
Sat 14 Feb – Sat 14 Mar 1998

Christopher Bucklow’s ‘Guest’ is a series of portraits, created from photographic paper and the light of the sun. These pictures form an extended self portrait, and attempt to convey a sense of the complex energies present in any individual. To pose for the images, Bucklow chose people that he felt represented aspects of his own psyche. Life-size, the figures are radiant presences in the Gallery.

The Quick and the Dead: Artists and Anatomy

A National Touring Exhibition from the Southbank Centre
Sat 10 Jan – Sat 14 Mar 1998

This exhibition is curated by Deanna Petherbridge. It features the imagery of anatomical illustration ranging from the macabre to the fantastical and from fine drawings to prints. This forgotten world of bizarre and beautiful bodily representation has shadowed the fine arts for several centuries since the High Renaissance. By bringing historical illustrations, diagrams and almanacs together with the work of contemporary artists, the exhibition looks at the various ways we have depicted human anatomy and the unique partnership of art and science that these images represent. Included are works by Michelangelo, George Stubbs and William Hogarth as well as works by twentieth century artists including Helen Chadwick, Mark Quinn and Cindy Sherman.

Peter Randall-Page: In Mind of Botany

A Mead Gallery Exhibition
Sat 10 Jan – Sat 7 Feb 1998

This series of recent drawings and prints by Peter Randall-Page have been inspired by botanical collections in Australia, Great Britain and South Africa. The exhibition investigates the abstract patterns and structures of exotic seed pods and fruits, investing them with a sense of life and growth which is characteristic of the artist’s work in stone. The exhibition contains a selection of Randall-Page’s small-scale sculpture in the Gallery and several of his larger sculptures are installed on the lawns outside the Arts Centre, allowing comparison between his work in two dimensions and his work in three dimensions.