Two Years of the Six Shot Gallery
2 x 12 = 24 Exhibitions … 24 x 6 = 144 Works
Plenty to See Here!
The Signifier : six : shot : gallery officially launched for January 2021 and, every calendar month since has hosted an artist’s showcase of just six images linked by aesthetics, techniques, processes, philosophies, formal or conceptual elements. Some of those exhibiting with us are already well-established, internationally renowned artists, some have gone on to win major accolades since featuring. That’s not saying they wouldn’t have without the six shot! They were clearly on those positive trajectories when selected, but Signifier believes their successes are worth celebrating here. Plus, it’s a welcome vote of confidence in the acumen of the curator’s eye...
As curator, I led by example with the first exhibition that rang in the New Year 2021 with examples from my concept-driven series The Stars, At Our Feet, a profound contemplation of our place on Earth within our portion of the cosmic timescale — a poetic journey that started with the found poem of a quarry-worker and ended with the death of stars… which was also a beginning.
With bold and beautiful, almost minimalist, charcoal drawings, Stephen Green continued this thematic conversation about the land that ran through all our exhibitions for 2021. His Porth Annwn Variations series took us on another trip into deep time through portals that link the land with the ancient mind.
Julie Upmeyer also explored aspects of landscape with metaphors of transformation in her photographic sequence, Possibilities of a Pond, an origin story, which spoke of her own relationship with people and places, past and present. It also externalises her frame-of-mind as she self-initiated an ambitious project to turn Plas Bodfa, an abandoned care home in rural Wales, into a studio, gallery, and vibrant hub for creativity. She has since hosted major artist takeovers involving hundreds of international creatives and the historic house has also served as a filming location for British director Daniel Turner.
Next, automotive enthusiast, Lou Gunstone took us on a road trip into poetic nostalgia where cars become vehicles for re-visiting personal histories. His colourful prints celebrate ‘old bangers’ that are just Too Good to Scrap, even when they exist in memory alone. Then, environmental artist Tim Pugh got on his bicycle to explore the seasons and the heritage embodied in the land along the Western Fells cycle-path through Ennerdale, West Cumbria. His six shot showcase, Cycles, presents a selection of photographs documenting a series of his ephemeral art installations in nature.
Ceramicist Elin Hughes picked-up on the theme by using the very land itself in the clay and mineral colours of her glazed tiles, exploring Patterns of Self. Playful colours and intuitive mark-making act as notations for her relationships with childhood, growing up, personal history, and broader heritage. Coinciding with her six shot showcase, an exhibition of her larger experimental vessels, Territories of Self, was shown in tandem at London’s Dover street Market Gallery and at the Machynlleth’s Museum of Modern Art. This introduced a dialogue of place linking the intangible realm of non-local digital display with physical objects on show in specific real-world locations.
Since her showcase, Elin Hughes has won the National Eisteddfod of Wales Young Artist Scholarship, The Craft Pottery Charitable Trust Grant, and the Dr Daniel Williams Educational Fund Grant. She has also specialised in wood-firing techniques and co-led a firing at Oxford University’s Anagama project before taking up the Young Artist Residency for Wood Firing at the International Ceramics Research Centre in Guldagergaard, Denmark.
David Thomas looked to liminal regions of the rugged coastline at Gogarth through the painterly media of digitally manipulated photomontage. Pushing through the frontiers of surface, challenging the boundaries of landscape, blurring the line between analogue and digital in textural monochrome. By contrast, Jan Gardner’s acrylic paintings explode with rainbow colours. Her six shot showcase, Compassion of the Brush and Heart expresses a joy of life, connecting the inner self with the vitality of the energising natural world, where each expressive mark records a moment informed by memories, emotions, and observations…
Poet and print-maker KK Sharma took our gaze beyond the land in her linked poems and calligraphic expressions of the sea from Pen-y-Cil. Themes of internal and external landscapes are picked-up by Géraldine Swatridge in Résumé, a series of watercolours mapping out the psychological terrain of a developing pandemic. Her own thoughts and personal responses merge with contrasting media ‘sound-bites’ and social uncertainty. The series of water colours showcased in the six shot gallery developed into a body of work that formed the core of her 2022 exhibition Lockdown at Oriel CARN, Caernarfon.
Darren Neave changed the tone of the six shot with his raw and poignant roadkilllandfillgoodwillmother — a conceptually-driven tour of rural Lincolnshire overlaid with private reminiscences and loss. Yet there’s also a playfulness that draws one into the darker corners where remnants of beauty may still linger… in the back of a cluttered drawer, at the back of the mind. Darren Neave has since co-founded the Turntable Gallery in Grimsby and was shortlisted for the Ingram Prize 2022.
James Milne is a multi-disciplinary artist fascinated by evidence of what used to be there… He’s drawn to the remnants and ruins of our industrial heritage as it disappears, to be consumed once again by nature, or is swept aside by so-called ‘developers’ pursuing ‘investment opportunities’. Using photographs and richly textured charcoal and wash drawings, his Memory and Oblivion exhibition was a fitting finale to the six shot gallery’s first superbly varied year of 12 showcases, all thematically linked by an ongoing conversation about landscapes, both within and without.
Exercising curator’s privilege, I [Remy Dean] launched the 2022 programme with a set of fresh Biodes. These abstract photoreactive prints retain a vestige of landscape fused with botany, biology, philosophy and foody aesthetics. They are intended to be printed on appropriate vessels and shown as a distributed exhibition on anyone’s kitchen shelf. Since the six shot showcase, Signifier has added a range of mugs printed with 12 different Biodes to their Redbubble online store, which can now be curated and displayed by disparate users.
David Armes, of Red Plate Press, introduced a typographic touch with his delicately balanced drawings worked through carbon copy paper for The Inchoate Schematic. Their clarity and awareness of 間 (ma) seems to resonate with artist Gwen Vaughan who followed with her series, Structure. These mixed media surfaces are sometimes intricate, and sometimes supremely simplistic… diagrammatic patterns reminiscent of mind-maps, scientific diagrams or even the tree of life.
Wales has more than 11-million sheep, they’re part of the landscape, and it was lambing season in the fields and on the wild slopes around the home of KK Sharma. With Baa-a the artist-printmaker returned to the six shot gallery, introducing us to some of the woolly characters she knew well and some of their new offspring, seen springing about during the spring. Just as the ewes and lambs are entwined with the history and heritage of the Welsh highlands, so mythic folktale folk populate the secret places and ancient byways of West Yorkshire. Artist and storyteller Michael Powell researched and resurrected just a few of those legendry characters in his illustrations and short film Calder Folk, creating a timeless sense of place.
As part of the transatlantic ‘Canada Goes Cymru’ initiative we threw the curatorial net a little further afield, hoping to increase our international element. The six shot gallery was privileged to welcome artist, author, and photographer Rodrigo Sarrat-Cave, our first contributor from Canada. His series of photo-collages, The Housing Project, invited us to explore connectivity and find our own stories that may reside ‘just down the road’. Then back in Cymru (that’s Welsh for Wales) artist print-maker and community builder, Tara Dean zoomed-in on the details of her surrounding landscapes with Transform — a series of small and delicate prints using hand-made paper, merging observational drawing with emotional engagement and a poetic response to climate issues.
Artist-photographer Bonnie Lautenberg created a conceptual commentary on the histories of both art and cinema. With her series Artistica! she directed new visual dialogues by colliding images from both genres in a conversation between her highly personal responses and public perceptions. Bonnie Lautenberg has since been appointed by the White House to the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts (PACA). Staying with lens-based media, the richly toned, often austere, landscape photography of James Deegan explored the Wirral Peninsula in all its deserted drama during pandemic lockdowns. In a Lonely Place, was an adventurous departure for the artist and author better known for his film-making, pop videos, and portrait photography.
With a strong concept driving subtle, environmentally responsive watercolours, Kim Vertue documented the seasonal cycle of a historically significant mountainside. This series of tiny paintings is a meditation on Nature’s Pace and the eternal elemental forces that shape our surroundings. Through her vibrant papercraft tapestries, architectural artist Victoria Si Wah Dong tackled the barbed question, “Excuse Me, But Where Do You Come From?” An investigation into identity-making as well as a deeply personal journey into her family heritage of globe-spanning diaspora, highlighting the commonality and distinction that make us all who we are.
Which brings us to our current showcase and the second from an artist working in Canada. Tanya P Johnson’s Wisdom Engines: Technologies for Evolution and Happiness are intricate illustrative ‘blueprints’ for profound self-change to create positivising ripples that can touch others. With imagery from nature, mathematics, mysticism, magic, and alchemy, Tanya P Johnson invites us to forge a deeper appreciation of the beauty and interconnectivity of our microcosms and the great macrocosm. The themes tackled here make it the perfect December six shot showcase to span the Winter Solstice and usher in the New Year.
Six shot submissions are currently open and guidelines can be found here.
If you appreciate being able to view and engage with such a variety of new, high quality art in our decentralised online gallery and would like to support The Signifier : six : shot : gallery going forward into its third year, then please remember to tap the ‘clap’ button a few times and give a round of applause for favourite exhibitions in the six shot gallery and articles you enjoy in The Signifier. Taking a moment to leave an encouraging comment for the artists also helps and can really ‘make their day’. Whether you’re a Medium subscriber or not, you can also spread the word by sharing articles you enjoy on your social media. A little reader support goes a long way and doesn’t cost you a penny. Always appreciated.
A good way to support an artist is to buy their art so, each showcase has a link to the artist’s website or agent. The Signifier : six : shot : gallery would also welcome sponsorship from private or corporate patrons, so if that’s you, please get in touch!
Seasons Greetings and All the Very Best for 2023 from Signifier!
Please note that all images are copyright to the respective artists and are used here by kind permission. All rights reserved. Images must not be downloaded or re-posted from this article without obtaining prior permission in writing.
Thank you.
