Artel will be joining us again this year for another exciting exhibition in the John Rank Gallery. ARTEL Contemporary Art Group is a pool of professional artists who work together to bring a rich and diverse range of artwork, subjects and media to communities, collectors and organisations through an annual exhibition in Chichester. Working in the South Downs area, each artist has developed a unique and informed practice that contribute to a strong selling exhibition each year. After many years of working to a theme, this October you will find the artworks reflect more of the individual artists’ personal subjects of interest. Artel was set up with the intention of adding a more contemporary edge to Chichester’s historic art scene. It sought to challenge the norms; artists came together for discussions and sharing their work and community through mutual support and celebration. Today the current ARTEL artists continue to thrive.
Expect to see a diverse exhibition, covering a variety of art disciplines. Maureen Brigden (whose work was included in the RA’s Summer Exhibition 2024) is showing a modern day interpretation of 17th century Santos cave dolls, whilst Sandra Izard is showing mixed media paintings which are a response to her visit to Canada last autumn.
Sylvia Kopocek combines human, animal and imagined imagery, using colour and line. Deborah Michelson’s garden paintings, evoke the feeling of being in nature. Helen Solly is showing photographs and her metal sculptures, focusing on the surface of the metal and its reflections. Isabel Dodson creates narrative in her seascapes, using collaged newspapers. Bridget Woods aims to express energy - both visible and invisible - through the medium of transparent watercolour.
Sehila Craft, in her last year with Artel before moving to Dorset, is showing woven tapestries. Deborah Richards will be exhibiting unique print and mixed-media works inspired by local Harbour drawings. Tiffany Robinson creates oil paintings on chalk gesso board and are glimpses of the unexpected transcendence found in grieving; Tiffany says ‘death is the passing from one way of being to another, and relationship evolves and grows through the language of loss and miracles’.
Martin Smith’s paintings are conceptual, seeking to answer the Met office’s question “Can moonlight generate a visible rainbow?” Carol Naylor's stitched textiles are a response to land and skies observed in Yorkshire, Sussex, and Northern Spain. Lorraine Molin’s recent work has been inspired by the colours and lines of landscape, buildings, weather, movement, trees and sea.
