News from the gallery: January 2023
We wish you a very Happy New Year and all good things for 2023.
We hope that you have had a peaceful and restful festive break and are starting the year with the best New Year resolution of all: to support ambition in the arts and the galleries that support that!
Your support to date has been so welcome and we are delighted that those generous purchases from our recent Art and Environment exhibitions has meant the gallery has not only helped some excellent artists but has also been able to make its promised donation to the Cam Valley Forum to contribute to the work they are doing to sustain our local River Cam.
Meantime, in true Fen Ditton Gallery style, we are delighted to give you a preview of a varied and dynamic programme of exhibitions and events in the coming months. We are lucky, as a small, independent business, to be able to think creatively about all the ways a contemporary gallery today - particularly in these uncertain times – can work with talented artists and makers of all generations.
Submissions open on 13th January for the Contemporary Printmaking Prize 2023
2021 prize winner Stefan Tiburcio with his entry 'Coronavirus: Stay at Home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives'
This week, Hannah is getting ready to launch the second edition of the Contemporary Printmaking Prize. Printmaking has become a key strand of interest for the gallery from early connections to masters such as Norman Ackroyd and Kip Gresham and strengthened since the inaugural prize in Spring 2021. We look forward to seeing what's in store this time round and who will follow in the footsteps of Stefan Tiburcio's piece Coronavirus: Stay at Home, Save Lives, Protect the NHS, who was the 2021 winner.
We are delighted to welcome back to the judging panel Elenor Ling, Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Fitzwilliam Museum, who will be joined by two new judges: Master printmaker Kip Gresham of The Print Studio, Cambridge, and Sir Richard Heaton, art collector, Trustee of Koestler Arts and Warden of Robinson College, Cambridge.
As well as the overall prize of £500, we have leading industry magazine, Pressing Matters, on board as a media partner and will be awarding their own prize. Thank you to John and his team for supporting the Contemporary Printmaking Prize.
Submissions for this free-entry prize will open on Friday 13th January
For more information visit fendittongallery.com/printmaking-prize
The art of printmaking and our relationship with Kip and The Print Studio, Cambridge will continue later in the year with an exhibition that explores the collaboration of Kip and American sculptor, Willard Boepple. More information on that will be released soon.
Willard Boepple and Kip Gresham at The Print Studio, Cambridge (April 2022)
The 2023 Artist Residency programme begins later this month with Carmen Renwick taking up residency at the gallery for two weeks. Carmen, who is a Cambridge-based artist, will be relocating to Fen Ditton to fully immerse herself in the residency and comments: "It is an opportunity for me to take daily walks by the river with my sketchbook and be inspired by different surroundings. My studio at home is quite small and dark, so I'm looking forward to being able to create some bigger work in a light, bright space."
You are invited to visit Carmen at the gallery on the 28th and 29th January (open 10am - 5pm) for an open studio weekend.
Carmen Renwick working in her studio. Photograph by Jemima Wilcox.
We will be shining the spotlight on emerging artists once again in February, in an exciting new art and wine evening in partnership with the Cambridge Wine Merchants. Throughout the evening, you will have the chance to try three wines from young wine makers who are using modern techniques and less traditional grape varieties to produce new styles of wine, whilst discovering the works of the next generation of artists.
The event will take place on Thursday 16th February, 6 - 8pm with an informal introductory talk from Hannah. Full details to follow - register your interest here
Pistachio Eaters, oil on copper, Felix Higham
We look forward to seeing you soon.
Lotte, Hannah, Amanda