Exhibitions - February 9 onwards

Feb 5 2012 by Michael Green, Chester Chronicle

EXHIBITIONS

CHESTER: January 30-April 27 - Walking Through The Stalls: A Glimpse of Chester Market - markets are historically seen as the hub of the community and Chester Market is no exception, playing a central role in the business and cultural life of the city, as can be seen in this foyer photographic exhibition at Chester History and Heritage Centre.

CHESTER: January 28-May 7 - Colourful Impressions: The Joy of Modern Prints - this exhibition at Grosvenor Museum’s Exhibition Gallery One presents the museum’s large and rich collection of modern prints including work by David Hockney, John Piper, Patrick Heron and Eduardo Paolozzi as well as contemporary artists from Cheshire and North Wales. Exploring a wide range of techniques, styles and subjects, it celebrates the remarkable diversity of British printmaking over the past 60 years.

CHESTER: January 14-April 1 - The Head That Wears The Crown: Decoding Royal Portraits in Chester - this exhibition at Grosvenor Museum’s Exhibition Gallery Two decodes the representation of the monarchy and monarchs through their portraits, considers the political and social context of the times in which they were made and explores Chester’s long relationship with the Crown.

CHESTER: January 12-February 24 - Fastnet and Dogger - Fastnet and Dogger are Laurie Lax, Robert Prideaux, Eliot Sargeantson and Mathew Denniss showing new work including drawings, videos, maps, writings, sounds lights quarries, caves sandstone, mud and fog at Contemporary Art Space Chester, University of Chester Faculty of Arts and NMedia, Kingsway. Call 01244 515870 or visit www.chester.ac.uk/casc.

CHESTER: January 9-March 30 - Lunatics, Lovers, Poets and More - quirky and unusual exhibition looking at some of the curious and remarkable characters who have visited, lived or worked in Chester over the centuries, from charming eccentrics to martyrs, witches and intrepid inventors, at Chester History and Heritage Centre.

CHESTER: July 23-July 1 2012 - Fifties Frocks: Female Fashion from the 1950s - an exhibition of day and evening dresses, cocktail and dance dresses, ranging from the Parisian haute couture of Dior and Jacques Fath to those made in Wilmslow and Liverpool, at Grosvenor Museum’s Costume Gallery.

MANCHESTER: February 11-May 13 - Cotton - Global Threads - the ground floor galleries combine to tell a compelling story about the production, consumption and global trade in cotton, at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Oxford Road. Call 0161 275 7450 or visit www.manchester.ac.uk/whitworth.

MANCHESTER: February 3-29 - Porter and Jenkinson present Curious Pursuits - the Manchester based art historian collective showcase the results of an international open call, inviting contemporary artists to respond to the lost themes and ideas behind dark, strange, curious and peculiar Victorian aesthetics, at the Portico Library and Gallery in Mosley Street. Call 0161 236 6785.

MANCHESTER: January 28-March 25 - Samantha Donnelly: Contour States - the first major UK public solo show by British artist Samantha Donnelly. With a strong interest in the images presented in today’s media that continue to idealise and objectify the human form, the exhibition features new work that explores representations of female identity in photography, TV, film and advertisements. The exhibition creates an illusion of erotically charged nudity, but fundamentally only offers a fiction to buy into and invest in. Rather than just presenting a finalised work, Donnelly actively encourages visitors to engage with the process through which meanings are made and unmade. The exhibition can be seen at Cornerhouse in Oxford Street. Visit www.cornerhouse.org or call 0161 200 1500.

MANCHESTER: Until April 15 - Dark Matters: Works from the Collection - this display of works reveals ideas surrounding shadow and darkness as captured by the artist in a variety of media, at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Oxford Road. Call 0161 275 7450 or visit www.manchester.ac.uk/whitworth.

MANCHESTER: January 17-February 25 - Last Orders by Rik Sterken - a startling exhibition by award-winning Manchester photographer Rik Sterken which recounts the demise of hundreds of pubs in the North West which shut down each year, at the Royal Exchange Theatre, St Ann’s Square. Ring 0161 833 9833 or visit www.royalexchange.co.uk.

MANCHESTER: January 14-February 19 - Creative Stars: Lost is Found - Lost is Found is a group show of work from nine artists based in the North of England. The exhibited works find beauty in the redundant and discarded, explore past lives and find new stories in transformations and fleeting identities. Displacement of identity, relics of childhood, secret desires, fragments of memory and traces of history are brought to life through sculpture, photography, installation and drawing. Curated and developed by the Creative Stars, 19 talented young people from the Greater Manchester region, the exhibition can be seen at Cornerhouse in Oxford Street. Visit www.cornerhouse.org or call 0161 200 1500.

WREXHAM: February 3-March 31 - My Giant Colouring Book by Jake and Dinos Chapman - The Chapman brothers first came to prominence as part of the young British artists movement of the 1990s and caused outrage in 2003 when they painted their own ghoulish imagery over an original set of Goya paintings. They return to this method of work, this time appropriating join-the-dot drawings from a children’s picture book, at Oriel Wrecsam, Rhosddu Road. Call 01978 292093 or visit www.wrexham.gov.uk/arts.

WREXHAM: February 3-March 31 - Chrysalis Series presents Alison Gardner - Inspired by studies and sketches of her own chickens, Alison’s work captures the movement, characterisatics and essence of her subject in clay. Her sculptures can be seen at Oriel Wrecsam, Rhosddu Road. Call 01978 292093 or visit www.wrexham.gov.uk/arts.

WREXHAM: Until March 17 - Jewellery by Elle Plummer, glass by Rebecca Bean, ceramics by Michelle Freemantle and enamelled bowls by Patricia Thatcher at Oriel Wrecsam, Rhosddu Road. Call 01978 292093 or visit www.wrexham.gov.uk/arts.