Sheila Wallis Exhibition
Tuesday 14 September - Thursday 30 September 2010
Lewis Elton Gallery,
University of Surrey
FREE, Mon-Fri 10am-5pm
Weekends by appointment
Opened by art dealer and Antiques Roadshow specialist Rupert Maas he commented "It is a powerful and exciting exhibition... Searing honesty, quite naked, not only of clothes, they are stripped of pretension, which I like very much".
In Thinking through Doing Sheila Wallis explores the raw realities of the human condition or as she puts it ‘the seamier side of life...and human conflict’. Her experiences of growing up in Derry in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles have influenced her themes and approach to her work. Sheila is fascinated by people and seeks to communicate innate human feelings of inferiority, hostility and a sense of ‘creatureliness’ (Becker) with honesty and compassion.
Sheila begins to paint by inspecting and learning unselfconsciously without pre-concieved ideas of what the viewer will see, feel or think. As she works she has moments when she recognises particular elements which work; then she stops to leave these visible. This impulsive approach of looking, then thinking through doing is an overarching concept which motivates her practice.
Sheila constantly challenges contemporary and traditional painting conventions. She questions: ‘Why shouldn’t academic painting sit comfortably alongside inventive expressive work? Why can’t the violence of the boxing spectacle be explored through the use of the Sunday painter’s favourite medium (of watercolour)?’ Sheila finds it liberating to experiment with different sizes and mediums. Her miniatures are presented as quiet, subtle and understated objects of art in a society bombarded by the visual image.
Sheila graduated from Farnham UCA in 2009. Since then she has been Artist-in-Residence at Watts Gallery and has led a series of workshops as part of the Art for All Learning and Outreach Programme. Sheila has won The Threadneedle Prize, The Winsor and Newton Watts Painting Prize and The Guildford Arts/ Clyde&Co. Bursary. She has exhibited in local and London galleries and recently made a television programme in Belfast as Artist-in-Residence for Artspace, a BBC Northern Ireland production. Later this year her work will be auctioned for Children in Need.
Acknowledgements
Pat Grayburn and Jo Baker from the University of Surrey, Paul Nelson, Paul Coyle and Elaine Thomas from the University for the Creative Arts at Farnham, Rupert Maas, Winsor & Newton, Man Group Plc Charitable Trust, KPMG Foundation and the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Sheila Wallis is the 2009 Winsor & Newton Painting Prize winner
Exhibition organised in association with University of Surrey Arts Office.
Lewis Elton Gallery, Stag Hill, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7XH
01483 689167
gallery@surrey.ac.uk
