Exhibition preview: Tuesday 17 January, 6.30 – 8.30pm
An exhibition of works by the three artists participating in the second Freelands Painting Fellowship.
Zac Bradley, Alex Crocker and Daniel Pettitt spent a last year working as painters at Bath Spa University, Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Brighton respectively.
Each arrived in January 2022 at art schools that they did not attend as students, arriving as strangers. Over twelve months, they have developed their own work, but also engaged with these new communities, interacted with the staff and students and undertaken some teaching.
They have been cuckoos in the nest.
Installation view of Cuckoo, 2023. Photo: Andy Stagg
The Freelands Fellowship programme aims to encourage a cross-pollination of practice and ideas. To create the space for approaches fostered in one environment to become part of the conversation in another.
The works of Bradley, Crocker and Pettitt have been informed by a year of conversation with their host universities. Whilst distinct and different from one another, there is a fortuitous synergy. Brought together in this exhibition, they call to one another.
Banner image: Alex Crocker, Magnifier, 2022 (detail). Courtesy the artist
Since its establishment in 2015, Freelands Foundation has championed progressive approaches to art education through partnerships and programmes across the UK.
The Freelands Painting Fellowships were established in partnership with three universities to provide early career artists with the opportunity to engage with students through teaching while working alongside them on their own studio practices. They aim to invigorate the work of both students and artists through conversations about materials, ideas and approaches in a shared space of making and learning.
From 2023, the programme expands into the Freelands Studio Fellowships, in partnership with six host universities across the UK: Bath School of Art, Film and Media, Bath Spa University; Belfast School of Art, Ulster University; School of Art and Media, University of Brighton; Gray’s School of Art, Robert Gordon University; Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University; and Swansea College of Art, University of Wales Trinity Saint David.
The focus of the Fellowships is on sustained development of studio practice, alongside which Fellows will engage with current students, supporting staff in undertaking workshops, crits and tutorials as well as having the opportunity to deliver at least one artist’s talk.
