CLICK ON THE ABOVE LIST FOR ARCHIVE EXHIBITION INFORMATION
The ArtSpace changes its exhibitions at least every six weeks. Established artists as well as emerging artists who deserve a little more exposure, either in solo shows or group shows: it's all here! To join our information list please contact us and let us know your details. Click on any of the above list for information on our previous exhibitions.
The ArtSpace started with loosely based group shows from Northern, well regarded artists such as Paula Zimmerman, Steve Whitehead and David Baumforth. We released the first issue of our magazine in tandem with the launch night, attended by 100 well wishers and one buyer! Below is the editorial of The ArtSpace magazine, issue 1:
THE PLACE IN WHICH THE YEW TREE GROWS
York is a pretty city but, alas, like most pretty things its looks are restricted to one layer. Unlike other cities around the world, cities that have caught the virus of restlessness, York has defiantly fossilized its ancient urges, whether they’re religious, patriarchal or provincial, and so rather than innovate beauty in the city centre we find ourselves crushed under the weight of expectation, heavier than the weight of rock, stucco and gargoyle in which it is manifested.
And this suits certain York types fine.. Sepia soaked nostalgia sells. Opportunities for the architect to crack open York’s thousand-year-old veneer to allow a slash of sunlight from the future to shine are limited to talks of building a mini-London Eye. Tourists looking for a Disney-fied North of England love it. So rather than literally reinvent the wheel, the most exciting alternative for the passionate architect is to search the existing urban tissue for potential makeover. And that’s quite an opportunity.
The architect and the City Council and the city’s inhabitants have to learn to embrace this freedom: the legacy of York is a library to plunder and paraphrase and reference. It’s like a mammoth record collection of classic hooks to sample a la 2 Many DJs. At first the hungry artist may feel trapped by York’s legacy, but with a little playfulness this soon gives way to admiration. The Minster is an astonishingly edible building. It has a Baroque muscle that could easily be fused with a modern Brutalism on the proposed regeneration near Coppergate. Think Middlesbrough town centre festooned with Sagrada Familia bling. The Vatican mixed, snatched and sampled by a tecno-robo-DJ from Blade Runner. Something Old York, something Now York. The rococo centre of Munich reimagined by Andre 3000. The music of Prince, Gwen Stefani, Dr Dre underscored with the thrilling rigour of Wagner.
Coney Street. Is there a more faceless conveyor belt of shameless retail in this city? It makes Ikea look like a Hippy commune. Now there is an opportunity to sex up York to the max and bring in the cash. Alas, dollar gorged dinosaurs H&M, Tesco and Zara have claimed their territory and York conforms evermore to Anonymity Anonymous.
There’s no reason why York couldn’t straddle both the past and the future. The benefits would be delicious. Few cities could offer such a rich, wonderfully complex continuum. History makes York a lot of money but a glimpse of the future would give it a magical crackle it has never had before.
It looks like it’s not going to happen though. Like a paunchy stadium filling rock band, York shuffles on stage, delivers its formulaic crowd pleasers and goes home leaving both parties happy, but neither invigorated.
But York doesn’t have to be compared with Status Quo. It is after all a city that contains a quietly bristling community of artists and musicians and poets and party hardies, and moods change. It’s time we let loose the architectural svengalis to reflect York’s artworld’s precious and growing impatience.
November, 2005, Greg McGee, The ArtSpace issue 1.
