Manchester Buy Art Fair
22nd – 25th September
Old Granada Studios, Manchester
By Liam Whitehead
Image by Grant Searl
Liverpool boasts over eighty active visual arts venues across the city and Merseyside from well-known institutions like Tate Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery and The Bluecoat to much smaller, hidden gems like Metal Culture, The Royal Standard and Camp & Furnace. Add to this the city-wide Liverpool Biennial taking place from now until 16 October and a number of pop-up exhibitions in all manner of venues from grand hotels to backstreet bar basements it’s easy to see why Liverpool is a must visit fixture on the national and international visual arts scene.
Liverpool Biennial will be taking a stand at September’s Buy Art Fair in the Public Institutions section of the fair. Sally Tallant, Director of Liverpool Biennial, said “We are delighted to bring our Limited Editions series to Buy Art Fair. It presents a fantastic opportunity to buy work by contemporary artists who have worked with the Biennial. We will be selling new prints this year by Turner Prize winning artist Mark Leckey, American artist Betty Woodman and Liverpool-based Frances Disley, among others. Each sale directly supports Liverpool Biennial’s new commissions, exhibitions, talks and education programmes.”
The city’s focus on visual arts has acted like a magnet to professional artists practicing today with both Merseysiders choosing to stay and work in their home town rather than moving away and artists from other parts of the UK and abroad flocking to the city to be part of the cultural melting pot that is Liverpool today.
Two artists who live and work in Merseyside and with strong ties to the city are set to exhibit their work at Buy Art Fair in September in the Artists Studio.
Nathan Pendlebury studied fine art at Liverpool John Moores University in the early nineties and still lives in the city today. He has exhibited at the fair every year since its launch in 2008. Nathan says:
‘There is a fundamental need for me to create a bridge for which words cannot be found. I love music, and the feelings I get from it, and part of what I want with my work is for people to get the same feeling from looking at my painting that I do from listening to music that I like.’
Nathan’s latest work was a commissioned piece to be used as the album cover artwork for the new Jake Bugg album ‘On My One’. Limited edition prints of the work, titled Fields of Green 2, will be available at Buy Art Fair.
Southport-based surrealist painter Grant Searl is inspired by his childhood fascination of all things sci-fi, fantasy and musical. He was commissioned by Mersey Travel to create five large scale paintings to be digitally reproduced as a mural in each of the Liverpool underground stations. He allocated each station a different Liverpool theme;
Lime Street: John Lennon and the Beatles
Moorefields: Liverpool History
James Street: Football
Hamilton Square: Liverpool Icons
Central Station: Musical History
The paintings were also accompanied by a poem or ditty which led to 5 clues. The final clue led to a prize, to date no-one has found any.
Buy Art Fair takes place 22nd – 25th September at Manchester’s Old Granada Studios. With 3,000 pieces of art from 100 exhibiting galleries and artists, Buy Art Fair is the leading art fair in the North. With prices from £50 to £5,000+ there’s something for everyone from the first time buyer to the serious collector. Find out more and buy tickets at buyartfair.co.uk