Another Year, another” brings together seven artists who studied and recently ‘graduated’ from the BA (Hons) Fine Art: Studio, Site & Context course at Swansea College of Art in 2020. This show is testament to the end of year exhibition that they were denied as the result of Covid 19. These artists have now finally come together to show you what went right during a time where a lot of things went wrong. Here are some of the artists.
Elisha Hughes, Photography.
Abby Poulson is a photographic artist, young curator and producer currently based in Carmarthenshire, Wales.
Alys Conran published her first novel ‘Pidgeon’ in 2017 and was awarded Wales Book of the Year, her second novel ‘Dignity’ was published in 2019. She teaches creative writing at Bangor University and is photographed here at her home in Bethesda.
Trezza Azzopardi was born in Cardiff, she has published four novels and been translated into more than twenty languages. She teaches creative writing at the University of East Anglia and lives in Norwich, where I photographed her at the Cathedral.
www.blakefriedmann.co.uk/trezza-azzopardi
Jason Gregory was born in Tonypandy in 1974 and graduated from Cardiff School of Art with a MFA Fine Art in 2017, he now lives and works in Porthcawl.
He was joint winner of the BEEP Painting prize with Kelly Ewing in 2018.He is photographed here in the Elysium Gallery/Bar in High Street Swansea with Andre Stitt, (right).
Tom Morris working in his Elysium Gallery Artists Studio in Orchard Street, Swansea.
Steven Wilyeo studied fine art at Aberystwyth University, School of Art, he describes his work as abstract expressionist a relationship of form and colour, a manifestation of his mind and soul laid out in paint.
He is photographed in his studio and joint exhibition with Euros Rowlands, ‘ The Stillness of Chaos’, at the Elysium Gallery studio complex in College Street, Swansea in January 2020.
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Photographed at the joint exhibition with Steven Wilyeo, ‘The Stillness of Chaos’, at the Elysium Studio complex, January 2020.
Euros Rowlands graduated from Aberystwyth University School of Art in 1992. He has been a professional musician, teacher and now works as an artist based at Elysium Studios in College Street, Swansea.
His work is created through a combination of paint, photographs, magazine and advert cuttings, a process of memory through this visual echo.
Fran Williams, is a Mixed Media Artist who works from her Elysium Gallery studio in Orchard Street, Swansea.
www.elysiumgallery.com/ fran- williams
Mark Folds, is a sculptor, who also uses performance, installation and video in his work, he is photographed here in his exhibition, Crisis (from massive to Macro) which opened in January 2020 at the Elysium Gallery/Bar in High Street, Swansea.
Bourdon Brindille, sculptor opened his exhibition Breakage and Repair at the Elysium Gallery/Bar in High Street, Swansea in January 2020.
Dylan Williams, trained in Mexico and has exhibited in New York and Wales. Photographed here in his Elysium Orchard Street Studio.
“My work is made in relation to the landscape of the Afan Valley and the mountains in the area. My paintings and drawings explore the dichotomy between mans spiritual connections to the mountains and the residue of the industrial exploitation of the area. These concerns are explored through various forms of mark making, symbols and painterly values created from sketchbook studies in my studio.” – Dylan Williams
Philip Cheater is a graphic artist with elements from society, a cornucopia of large scale optical semiotics. Photographed here in his College Street, studio, below the old Barons Night Club, where none of the spaces seem to have windows
Artist Paul Nunn photographed in his Elysium Gallery Orchard Street, studio.
Steph Mastoris, is a typographic artist who uses traditional letterpress techniques. His work is concerned with the power and elegance of letter and word forms. Steph studied history at London University and is Head of the Waterfront Museum in Swansea. He is photographed here in his print room in the College Street, Elysium Studios.
Daleet Leon, was born in Israel and has lived in Swansea since 2001, where she studied for her BA and the Swansea School of Art, and in 2013 she completed her MA at the Royal College of Art. Her work involves painting, etching and drawing can be described as landscapes or dreamscapes exploring dimensions of reality and dream like visions. She is photographed here in her Mansel Street, Studio.
Graham Parker was born in the Sandfields in Swansea near to Swansea Bay and the ever changing sea and shore line that has been a source for his painting for many years. His work has evolved from the dynamic realism of the storms that hit the bay, to the calm of his more recent abstract works. He is photographed here in his Mansel Street studio.
Ann Jordan works from the Mansel Street studio complex and is a Founder Director of Elysium Artists. She graduated from the Swansea School of Art with a Masters degree in Fine Art. Ann is a mixed media/textile worker, spinning, weaving, stitching and knitting her complex sculptural landscapes reflecting the traditional and contemporary with a domestic style that echo her first calling as a midwife.
Kate Bell was the first Elysium Artist that I photographed in this project to document the artists working in the Elysium studios. Kate graduated from the Swansea School of Art with a Masters Degree and for thirty years has been teaching and following He her own painting career. Her studio in the Orchard Street Complex is full of her colourful and dynamic abstract landscapes of land, sea and sky with enough space for a sofa to relax over a cup of coffee, what a pleasure it was to see.
Carys Evans graduated at the Swansea School of Art in 2013, she works mainly with the female figure, with water colours, oils and drawing etc., in her bright and welcoming Elysium studio in Mansel Street, Swansea.
Below are members of the ladies painting group who meet at her studio, the last meeting before the Covid 19 lock down on the 9th March 2020. They are pictured around the table from the left. Jane Warwick, Jo Maselis, Lydia Marouf, Mair Francis, Kirstine Dunthorne, Deanna Harding, Ann Jordan, Jane McCarthy, and Carys Evans, standing.