Galleries - December 2010

galleries designed by Tony Fretton (ofLisson Gallery and Camden Arts Centre) and now they are mounting the 2010 edition oftheir lively Open biennial. Offering no large cash prizes to the first three, they do something far more useful – a solo exhibition in their main space for the winner (to include curatorial input, mentoring and full marketing), a similar package for the 2nd Prize to show in their smaller Rope Store space and a purchase prize for the 3rd. Go and have a look – it is a delight. HAWKSMOOR AND ART There are not many exhibition spaces in a 1720s Hawksmoor rectory, which makes the collabo- ration between Rev Andy Rider, vicar ofChristchurch, Spitalfields and Curwen to open one on the ground floor of 2 Fournier Street (behind the church) such an exhil- arating venture both artistically and architecturally. Worthwhile, too, as the Rectory Gallery focu- ses on emerging artists and inter- esting new projects; currently it is the work of well-regarded young printmaker Bill Pryde. However, as the building is still a private home and working area, ring up the Cur- wen & New Academy to arrange a visit or an invitation to an upcom- ing event there. Well worth it! LANYON @ TSI Elusive, quixotic and most rom- antic ofthe St Ives modernists, Peter Lanyon redefined in abstract settling down into Victorian pros- perity. The late 20th C. was not so kind and like many other small art societies they had to take shelter at the Mall Galleries c.1970. They still show a lot ofenterprise how- ever and their new display of members’ work at Gallery LeFort in Bath is a good case in point. Plenty ofgood stufhere! 12 STAR MOVE Five years and 68 wide-ranging exhibitions later the European Commission Representation in London’s excellent and remark- ably active exhibition space, the 12 Star Gallery, is on the move this month, following its parent body across Westminster from Storey’s Gate (behind Central Hall) to more spacious accommodation in Smith Square. To mark the occ- asion, the inaugural show is dedi- cated to the redoubtable British artist Maggi Hambling and her ser- ies ofpaintings entitled ‘The North Sea’. With Conservative Party HQ as near neighbours, the gallery will certainly be very much more ‘in the thick ofit’ from now on . . . QUAY OPENING Situated in an ex-brewery in the old dock area ofNewport, I-O-W, Quay Arts is an arts centre that appears to punch well above its weight for a small Island town. When we last wrote about it they had just put on a top-notch show ofpost-war British Art from the West Collection in the handsome ANTENNAE 14. GALLERIES DECEMBER 10 INS AND OUTS Saying farewell to a gallery is always sad especially if, as in the case of Rainyday Gallery in Pen- zance, it has been a feature of the town for many years. The current Chris Hankey exhibition is to be the last, freeing up proprietor Martin Val Baker to concentrate on org- anising the increasingly success- ful St Ives September festival. In Newlyn, the lease on Badcocks ’ idyllic gallery ends after their cur- rent annual postcard show in aid of Shelterbox and will leave the vill- age similarly bereft, though Bad- cocks will continue in peripatetic form at fairs and pop ups until new premises become available. Mean- while, as the Exchange continues to buzz with the current Richard Cook show, visitors will be able to view, not only David Briggs ’ new studio situated just upstairs but stroll across the road to explore the New Street Gallery , a co- operative of 14 artists and makers showing paintings, sculpture, ce- ramics, glass and jewellery. You win some you lose some, but West Cornwall remains a powerhouse for the visual arts. Pip Palmer TAKING THE WATERS Always an enterprising bunch – the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours was set up in 1808 to show the work of those artists its older brother, the RWS, refused to show under their clique-y mem- bers only policy – the RI, as it is usually known, had a disting- uished (Cotman, de Wint, Blake) and turbulent early history before