Neale Howells Talks Artistic Work & Galleries | A.i.R

Neale Howells Talks Artistic Work & Galleries | A.i.R

The second instalment from August’s artist in residence, Neale Howells discusses his artistic work and different art galleries as part of the new series, Artists in Residence. Throughout 2017 artists, including Neale Howells will take a leading creative role in what Wales Arts Review publishes, centring their skills on a challenging project over the course of a month. We were inundated with applications, receiving hundreds of emails about the positions, and it was no easy task whittling down all that talent to this final eleven. Our team of six editors debated long into the night, and in the end, we decided on a collection of people who we most want to work with, and whose work excites us. We think you will be excited by them too.


The Artistic Work of Neale Howells
The Artistic Work of Neale Howells
Art Galleries & Neale Harris
Art Galleries & Neale Harris

studio today was an earlyish start… collection for the john martin gallery london summer show… (see above)… we recently had our solo exhibition which finished in july 2017… went really well so lots of potentional with other galleries… before christmas though we were out in hamburg… i had an enquiry from jargon naskrent, one of the directors of the only art club gallery in hamburg… now if anybody out there hasn’t been to hamburg then they are in for a treat… first of all what a modern city… second the ease of getting around – the transport there of trains, tubes and buses all so convenient… then there’s the car rental which can be done by the mile… hamburg is the place to visit… and of course don’t forget the Reeperbahn with its amazing old pubs and red light district…

i’ll come back to hamburg during my month as artist in residence no doubt, even if it’s just to chat about the 360 youtube film we made there… but this weekend, after getting back from another visit to that bi-annual arts events in a famous city without cars, there was the unique opening of the mission gallery’s 40th birthday showing its artists who have shown there over the years… i’m part of this show, by the way, as i have shown there twice, once in 1997 and the other 2012… it was run by jane phillips then who spotted my work at the national eisteddfod that year… she offered me a show…

ok quick interjection here… i ended up in berlin because i had previously stayed out in cyprus at their college of art… this is not a conventional college, by the way… so it was suggested to me that visiting berlin would be good for the work… i must say how again important i found cyprus… ok… there was one time that we were talking about our art and after listening to everbody’s observations i took a knife and cut straight through the middle of my work… ok… what was that about… well, i was trying to get away from the obvious and found myself more interested in the subconscious… creating art… well, Stass Paraskos, who run the place, picked up the work and then started to rip it himself… but he was ripping it face down… clever… so then you could not see the image… not only that but when you do this you don’t think but you just do it… ‘do or do not’… ‘never just try’… anyway, this is a great example of an artist who taught me something which i still today to some extent… it’s very important, you see… the uncontrived… when i think about it the island itself was a bit like Star Wars

well, any hoo, the mission gallery exhibition proved very special for me… showing large works and the other berlin and cyprus stuff… jane remembers me having had a black eye at our opening… well, i don’t remember that… ha ha…

the mission has proved an important artistic space to swansea and wales… it has given young artists that first step on their early career path so we all owe the mission, jane and now amanda a great deal… and this is a fasinating show of artistic work with some fairly successful artists included… its worth a visit… ok yes i could go on but i have fashion designer jayne pierson coming along to the studio tomorrow… london fashion week is around the corner and we need to blow their minds… again… ha ha…

 


This contribution by Neale Howells is part of the Artists in Residence series.