Mark Walter and the many shows

September 10, 2023

It’s been a busy time regarding exhibitions and l have a lot coming up.

The exhibition at Nottingham was a busy time. I had a great weekend, thank you to Jake Francis for his fantastic work in getting the show on, curating and doing most of the invigilating taking down & packing up the show!
It is set to get even busier soon with exhibitions in my diary spread over the next year or so. My next exhibition is a group show in Hastings at a new gallery called Blast set up by Tessa Thornett and Marcus Thonett. See my recent article on them and the gallery; titled A New Gallery Takes Off The exhibition called Abstraction is on from Wed-Sat 16th - 26th August 12-5 pm. PV is on 18th August 6-9 pm at St Andrews Market, Waldegrave St, Hastings TN34 1SJ

In September I am showing at The Electro Studios with two very good friends of mine Wolfgang Dubieniec & Nick Hudson. It's set to take place from the 21st-24th of September.
I will also have a solo show probably in November, I will have more details soon. I also have three shows booked for next year again more details to follow. Please view my Events page for details of dates. I am busy preparing new work for the next show.

My work from the recent Hastings Art School Exhibition.

The Private View from the recent Hastings Art School Exhibition.

As always there have been a lot of exhibitions in Hastings and St Leonards & l have seen a fair few but one of my favourite exhibitions at the moment is at is by the Korean Artist Yun- Hung -Keun. As you enter the space via the closed doors, you are immediately hit by the calmness the paintings give off. The artist referred to his monumental works as 'the gate of heaven and earth. Yun said that he diligently deposited layers of pigment onto raw cotton or linen canvas, creating hazy rigid-looking pillars that appeared almost black. He then diluted the paint with turpentine until it fused with a cloth. Yun restricted his palette to sombre earth tones and used multiple coats of blended burnt umber that look like a rusty red and a deep blue ultramarine. Using this method, Yun said that he sought to endow his works with an ethereal, fearsome quality reminiscent of the powerful forces of nature. I thoroughly recommend this exhibition and you can see it until the 1st of October at The Hastings Comptempory.

Hopefully to get see you at one of my up-and-coming shows and as I say there will be more details to follow. Please contact me if you need more details regarding exhibitions and my work.

Mark Walter Remains in Nottingham

June 06, 2023

Hello. Welcome to my latest newsletter. Time has flown by and it's now time for my second exhibition of the year. As a result, this is a quick update newsletter. I will send out a more detailed one after the exhibition.

My latest group exhibition is in Nottingham and features 10 artists, please take a look at the flyer below for more details. The exhibition is at the Backlit Gallery in Nottingham from the 27th of May until the 3rd of June. The Private view is on Friday the 26th of May from 6 pm-9 pm. Please view my Events page for opening times and dates.

Above left: My Heart Feels Like Rotten Fruit
Oil paint and household paint on canvas 60 x 60 x 5 cm

I have not had a lot of time to see exhibitions with the exhibition in Nottingham looming but I did see an interesting exhibition last Friday at the Hastings ArtsForum Gallery featuring four artists. One is Tim Oakenfall, whose figurative abstraction I loved. Tim says " Ultimately, I’m creating paintings I would want on my wall". which might be why I bought one! The exhibition also features Nathalie Frost who is inspired by textiles and antique lace and also found objects including shells to create her art. And as she says "She aims to promote the use of stitched works/embroidery/craft as an art form". The other two artists are Mark Shepard whose work is inspired by the everyday and Richard Reinhardt a UK-based composer with a focus on ambient, experimental, and cinematic music. The exhibition is on until the 28th of May and is really worth a look.

So If I don't see you in Nottingham hopefully catch up with you soon.

Mark

Mark Walter and the Unfair

June 06, 2023 in Newsletter

Hello. Welcome to my latest newsletter, It's been a busy time.

The group show I was involved in at the start of the month, All the Fair of the Unfair, was a great success. We had a busy Private view and Exhibition and plenty of our works were sold. I have added a few pictures from the private view below. The paintings in the background of these pictures are top to bottom on mobile, or clockwise from top left on a big screen. A Mood Painting is not to be seen but to be felt, then there are two pictures of the triptych, Torment and the pain leaked through and the last picture is Banal Expectations

My next show will be at the Backlit Gallery in Nottingham at the end of May. I will have more information about this exhibition in my next newsletter, please view my Events page for times and dates.

I recently wrote a piece about my friend and fellow artist Victoria Kiff for the Hastings Independent. Victoria is showing at the Rogue Gallery, I really love Victoria's work, it is of a figurative bent and has a classical yet modern quality and fantastic movement. The exhibition is on until May 7th and is a must-see.

There are some great exhibitions at the moment at the Hastings Comptempory, including Kosoff and Soutain There are around 40 works from the two artists. The discovery of Soutine’s paintings in the early 1950s was apparently a significant moment for Kossoff, who was already finding his way towards the kind of direct and expressive use of paint he saw in his predecessor’s work. I plan to review this show in the coming months. Also at the contemporary is We Out Here The exhibition represents six Black Artists of Caribbean heritage living in Hastings. The artists worked in different mediums, exploring different themes including migration, Black lives in coastal towns, relationships with the sea, climate justice and racial injustice, fast fashion and the Black presence in crafts. Another excellent show so a great reason to have a day by the sea.

Hopefully, see you at my next exhibition at the end of May.

Mark

A comtempory visit

December 12, 2022 in Exhibition

On a freezing cold winter’s morning, I rose from my bunker and tentatively made my way out onto the stone path and was immediately hit by the temperature but once into my stride I quickly warmed to the task and made quick headway towards the Hastings contemporary gallery situated in the fishing quarter of Hastings.

Once there I moved into the main gallery and was immediately impressed with the large paintings on show. The artist is Belgium born- British artist Caragh Thuring. The work spans fifteen years and is the first major survey of her work. With more than 20 works from paintings, drawings and monotypes it represents an impressive body of work.

Thuring grew up in Scotland she lived near the beautiful Holy loch in Cowel. Although from 1961 -1992 it was used as a United States Navy Ballistic Missile base, which might be the reason that Thuring has the clash between industrial and nature that flows through her work. The exhibition is on until March 12th 2023.

There are currently two exhibitions in the upstairs gallery. I was particularly taken by the drawing of Penny McCarthy. The catalyst for the drawing according to the press release was a newspaper image from 2016 of a Fata Morgana mirage in the sky above Hastings that looked like a portal in the sky. She was prevented by the pandemic from going to Hastings, but a path opened up for her to look at the exploration of myths and narratives associated with the sea and sky. The artist received the biennial Evelyn Williams award in 2019 and McCarthy has achieved a great body of work from it, that entwines the atmospheric overtones of the gothic. The exhibition is on until 12th March 2023. The third exhibition is a group show titled Making Waves and is a special exhibition to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the gallery opening its doors. The exhibition includes works by Chantel Joffe, Rose Wylie, Maggie Hambling and Quentin Blake. The exhibition is on until 12th March 2023 and I really recommend a visit.

Cathy McCarthy Title; Clouds fall in love with mortal. For me this has the drawing quility of Anselm Kiefer.

Mark Walter Art in St Leonards

November 28, 2022

This is my first newsletter for a while. A quick update on St Leonards, I love it!

Since my move here I have been writing for the local paper, The Hastings Independent’s/art section. This came about after I was interviewed by Nick & Helen Pelling who also write for the paper and they suggested that I should do the same. I thought "okay, why not" and up to now have enjoyed writing, its also given me the chance to meet a lot of creative people in the local area. If you want to read my articles and the one about me click on this link. As well as writing I have been working on new artwork. Although it's an old theme of mine, on the surface, there is a lot more to explore. For this series I have been using wooden panels, wood suits my work well as it's a lot more durable than canvas, it takes well to sanding and scraping of the surface. I will be using it a lot more.

It's been a long time since I have had an exhibition or event to report but a bit like buses three come along. I was part of an auction last week for the Hastings independent, the catalogue is here.
I donated an artwork called "An iceberg through a slaughterhouse window" which sold. I have two exhibitions planned for next year see my event page for details. I plan to make up for lost time and have a lot more exhibitions next year.

This work titled "An unusual lightness, like bland innocence", is from my new series of paintings on wood panels. Oil on wood 51 x 41 cm. For Sale

One of many things I like about St Leonards/Hastings is the number of small independent galleries and the number of private views there are mainly on a Friday evening. A couple of highlights included Shadowlands, an alternative photography process a group show featuring six artists. I enjoyed seeing the different processes achievable in photography. The exhibition was part of the month-long Hastings photo festival featuring artists from the photo Hastings group. The second exhibition is currently on at The Big Yin Gallery in London Rd St Leonards and featuring Harry Mcmorrow. I loved Harry's quirky loud tufted tapestries. According to the catalogue, they are images and characters from classical Mythology associated with the pop art movement, so it's well worth a visit.

Finally, there are many lovely walks in St Leonards and the Hastings area. It's on these walks I have found artistic inspiration. It's not always a lovely building, of which there are many, or a stunning landscape, but it could be on the ground or a derelict wall or building that takes my interest. This is evident in my ongoing series of photographs/ digital paintings. This work is entitled Confront the silence without light.

So that's about it for this newsletter, but if you would like to see my new work then please check out my website and the usual social media sites. In my next letter, I hope to have more information about my group exhibition in March.

Mark Walter and the end of 2021

January 03, 2022

This is my final post of 2021 and it had been another bumpy, eventful year with not as many opportunities to exhibit or to attend events.

The year started in lockdown and there were opportunities to be productive and I felt that some of the work produced during this lockdown is amongst my strongest to date. Taking the opportunity to open the house in Brighton for Artists Open Houses was a learning experience and an inspiration to run my own gallery. As the year has progressed I have had to put the Walter Wolf Gallery project on hold for now and I am selling the house and leaving Brighton. I will also be moving from the studio in Portslade which is being taken over by the artist Mike Barrett.

Brighton Station on Monday morning was started in 2019 and then completely reworked in 2021. This is a triptych, oil on canvas, with each panel being 1 m x 50 cm with layered textures created by rubbing each layer back. I have completely overpainted the canvas and reworked it again to get to this point.

I visited the Hayward Gallery in November to see the Gerhard Richter drawing exhibition. This was his first show in a major gallery in London for ten years. The drawings were a mixture of graphite, ink and watercolour and a series of overpainted photographs. I really enjoyed the fluidity and movement of the works particularly some of the watercolours.

I had an amazing trip to Paris for my dear friend Nick Hudson's birthday weekend and we even managed to see some art! I haven't been to Paris for some years but I was blown away by the Pompidou Centre, it is very different to when I was last there. They had a lot of amazing art on show as well as two exhibitions by Georgia O'Keefe and Georg Baselitz, both stunning shows as O'Keefe's detail and Baselitz's direct and dynamic brushstrokes were both stunning to behold.

Mark Walter and the many shows

Mark Walter Remains in Nottingham

A comtempory visit

Mark Walter Art in St Leonards

Mark Walter and the end of 2021

Mark Walter’s Blog

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