MFA Summer exhibition website up and running!

As we head towards the MFA Summer exhibition, check out the MFA Summer exhibition website containing information and images about all the artists involved:

http://fineart.ncl.ac.uk/ma2016/













Anna MacRae
Bex Harvey
Hannah Elizabeth Cooper
Harriet Sutcliffe
Helen Shaddock
James Quin
Jim Lloyd
Liying Zhao
Mehan Fernando
Michael Mulvihill
Mirela Bistran
Yein Son

Newcastle University MFA 2015 Summer Exhibition - Liying Zhao

Liying's exhibition features three projections that explore the notion of the in-between. She states, "I am interested in creating ambiguous visual effects with multi-media." 

"My current work tends to explore the grey space which is ‘there or not there’, ‘real or imagined’, ‘moving or still’, ‘visible or invisible’, ‘at the present or in the past/future’."

"In this overlap, a part is tangible and can be touched and the other part could only be imaged or felt. In other words, my work is questioning how to visualize the overlap which is ‘inhabiting’ or interacting in a paradox."

The risographs have arrived!

Rather than designing a bound catalogue as such, we decided to produce a set of double sided A3 risograph prints for the MFA Summer Exhibition. We used Risotto, Each artist has chosen an image of their work for the front of their risograph, and on the back of all the risograph prints is an essay by Matthew Hearn  titled inbetweenness... which discusses the work of each artists in the exhibition.

Here is a sneak preview of the risographs, but as each print is an artwork in itself, the only real way to  appreciate the work is to see it in person. All the more reason to come along to the exhibition, and buy a print or two for you to enjoy in your own home. 

Helen Shaddock

Ute Kirkwood

Soon Hwang

Liying Zhao

Sofija R.L. Sutton

Paul Martin Hughes

Nigel Morgan

Sarah Dunn

Mirela Bistran

Alex Charrington

Yein Son

Send me an email if you would like to buy a signed limited editioned risograph print.

Many thanks to all who came to the preview of SNIPPET

I would like to thank everyone who came to the preview of SNIPPET at Newcastle University last night. There was a great turnout, a really good atmosphere, and people were very generous with their comments.

Here is a little insight into what was a brilliant evening.




A fragment. A glimpse. A squint to unveil the work of artists exploring painting, sculpture, textiles, sound and video. Geometric colourful shapes along with abstract moving images and experimental sculpture are brought together in SNIPPET. The works shown are manifested from the tensions between painting and sculpture, society and technology.

A central feature to this exhibit is the artwork emerged from the exploration of new approaches to the artists’ usual practices.

Whether they are textiles or paintings, Mirela Bistran’s works start guided by instinct and intuition. Then evolve into journeys of emotions and feelings expressed through lines and marks or cut-outs and stitches. Sometimes playful, sometimes shy or bold and other times solemn and melancholic, they take on a personality of their own.

Starting with collages, Jodie Dunnil creates 3D models that help her understand the depth and illusion she later represents in painterly images that inhabit a space between figuration and abstraction. Her methodology explores the representation of space on a two-dimensional surface introducing sculpture and exploring ideas of perspective, depth and angle.

In a burgeoning momentum of excessive technological consumerism and electronic mediation, Bartira Sena's work attempts to juxtapose the idea of nature, spirituality and technology. Her installations create situations in which we experience alternative cultural representations.

Helen Shaddock’s playful approach invites us to enjoy surfaces, textures, forms and colour. Process is a central aspect to her practice, whereby she strives to make art that embraces chance and the unpredictable. Objects made from coloured plaster are juxtaposed with other, more mundane materials such as cardboard. Her work investigates dynamics between the audience and the space.

Yein Son is concerned in finding the right balance between consciousness and unconsciousness. She depicts images from the theme of absorption in art. Her artwork narrates with a confident mark, a very fluid and dynamic story that seems to have endless possibilities. In her new paintings, the atmosphere becomes more enigmatic and calligraphic.

Liying Zhao is motivated by her life experience and emotions which become the main characters in her artwork. She is interested in using video and different kinds of materials to create an illusory sense. The contrast between the real and the fantasy becomes more dramatic and amusing in her current artworks.

Interested in the bond between art and reality, Tan Zou creates documentaries about household affairs and level of societies. Currently based in Newcastle, the artist creates narratives through film and photography in an attempt to grasp the significance of her own experience in between two different cultures.

Qingchan Li explores the complexity of human emotions with an emphasis on enigma and horror. The artist uses different shapes and patterns to explore the delicate mental activities of human beings. Using simple shapes she presents us a video in which the sound takes on the main role. The purpose is to embark us on a frightful experience.

SNIPPET introduces... Liying Zhao

Liying Zhao is currently an MFA student in the stage 1 at Newcastle University. She is a painter whose practice is primarily concerned with her daily life experience and personal emotions. 

She tends to look in her own back yard, capture and dig deeply into her present, specific and potential mood and feeling she is undergoing, represent through painting, drawing, video, installation or words recording. Someone said that she is like a butterfly because she seldom staying on one flower for a long time. In fact she has been working closely with the periodical emotion, thus once she jumps out from that emotion, the exploration of that emotion of works will not to be continued. As a result, sometime viewers can hardly find out an apparent and coherent clue of the theme of her works. However, there is a clue of her long-term motives of lives can be find when combining these disparate works together into a big picture.

Currently, her works are searched into the relationship of uncertainty and ambiguity between man and woman. The work of research is separated into 3 main parts using three elements say branches, fingers and lines, representing separately through painting, video and drawing, to demonstrate her understanding and feeling of this ambiguous interaction.

As to the development of personal style, it is transforming from graphic image into abstract lines and mark making. In the meanwhile, the notion of ‘title’ is emerging in her mind and showing up by her works. In her previous works, she always tried to tell the whole stories to viewers, but now, what she wants to show is the ‘title; rather than the content of the story. 

For her, the process of experiencing and finding is enjoyable and inspiring, and in this stage, the most cheerful thing is looking for new points ceaselessly rather than sticking on one point. This process of experience, finding and representation is not only an important way to keep life fresh, but also a way of self-criticism and self-definition, to find out who she is.

SNIPPET - Preview: Tuesday 24th February 2015, 6-8pm, Fine Art Department, Newcastle University

A fragment. A glimpse. A squint to unveil the work of artists exploring painting, sculpture, textiles, sound and video. Geometric colourful shapes along with abstract moving images and experimental sculpture are brought together in SNIPPET.

Human emotions are expressed through subtle images creating an immersive environment. The works shown are manifested from the tensions between painting and sculpture, society and technology.

Artists: Mirela Bistran, Jodie Dunnill, Li Qingchan, Bartira Sena, Helen Shaddock, Yein Son, Liying Zhao, Tan Zou.

PREVIEW: Tuesday 24th February, 2015 6 - 8pm  
25th - 27th February 9am - 5pm 
Long Gallery, Project room, Tic Space. 
Fine Art Department. School of Arts and Cultures, Newcastle University 
Newcastle upon Tyne. NE1 7RU.

SNIPPET - Preview: Tuesday 24th February 2015, 6-8pm, Fine Art Department, Newcastle University

PREVIEW: Tuesday 24th February, 2015 6 - 8pm  
25th - 27th February 9am - 5pm 
Long Gallery, Project room, Tic Space. 
Fine Art Department. School of Arts and Cultures, Newcastle University 
Newcastle upon Tyne. NE1 7RU.