Thursday, 31 January 2019

Update to The Antidote at St Anne's Gallery

See post below for the dates of the exhibition - opens tomorrow evening for 3 weekends


- new thoughts for The Antidote included a large new Punch and Judy woodcut (definitely domestic violence here) - and I got quite obsessed with Virtus Combusta when I saw it at the wonderful Mantegna Bellini at the NG exhibition before Christmas – Mantegna of course one of the first painter/printmakers so I have played with that in drypoint and monoprint and woodcut; it seems so much an image for our times….. the original is somewhat misogynistic – I have made the figures even more androgynous…

Humanity stumbles towards an abyss guided by Lust, Folly and Deceit; Ignorance watches from a throne on a globe beside burning laurels, served by Fate and Avarice. Hermes appears to try to intervene….

The exhibition also seemed a good point to get down to designing some playing cards – it will still be a partial set and in no way conventional but I can return to it at times of stress... I have always wanted to design cards – the shape and size is so appealing, nice and small to chip away at in comparison with my large woodcuts...

Cards have always been used in a variety of ways, gaming, patience, fortune telling and tarot cards, leading to a range of expressions and metaphors - playing your cards right etc
I like the idea of an ever-changing deck of images that can be endlessly rearranged, sparking off new ideas and narratives… I have been printing my woodcuts on old newspapers from the last month as I feel it answers the need for a patina of age, history and complexity which all the best old cards have - part of their magic for tarot reading; it can also can include topicality and satirical comment if you can decipher what is beneath my printing... and even if you can’t it is still there; and ambiguity mirrors the process of a ‘reading’ – why did I choose that image to print on? (apart from its colour) - read my thoughts and add your own….


Work in Progress!




Friday, 18 January 2019

New Year and The Antidote exhibition

The Antidote

A riposte to Valentine's Day


2 - 17 February 2019

Derya Erdem  Rachel Glittenberg  Solange Leon Iriarte
Oska Lappin  Sarah Shaw  Carolyn Trant  Sophie Wake



As part of The Antidote’s exploration of love, St Anne’s Galleries
 is holding workshops with children at local schools to make 
Friendship Cards, which will be delivered to older people 
in the communityon Valentine’s Day.


We are proud to support Equal Arts, a leading creative ageing charity 
who provide creative opportunities for older people to help combat 
loneliness and improve wellbeing.


Please support them with us!


Find out how at:



THE ANTIDOTE: A RIPOSTE TO VALENTINE'S DAY
2 - 17 FEBRUARY 2019

St Anne's Galleries, 111 High Street, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 1XY
Phone: +44 (0)7860 728 220
Email: michael@michaelbell.co.uk

Open Saturdays & Sundays 
10am - 5pm during exhibitions,
or by appointment at other times



The New Year carried on fairly seamlessly from the old with a few days merriment interrupting work on a series of tiny woodcuts for a set of Antidote tarot/playing cards - something I have long wanted to do - the shape and size of cards which fit in the hand is so appealing; it will still be a partial set by Feb 2nd and in no way conventional but I can return to the project at times of stress... a nice small size to chip away at in comparison with my large woodcuts.... I will add images to this post as they get finished next week - lots of cutting is done,  now the printing and colouring and time of reckoning....
Charlie had marketed her new exhibition at St Anne's as an antidote to the 'pink fluffy tide of commercialised emotion and obligatory romance that engulfs us in February...a refuge for the jaded and curious where the experience of the human heart could be explored in all its complex, ambiguous and frequently dark glory...'
who could resist..
especially with some charitable link-ups working with the lonely and dispossessed...
new thoughts for The Antidote included a large new Punch and Judy woodcut, and I got quite obsessed with Virtus Combusta when I saw it at the wonderful Mantegna Bellini exhibition at the National Gallery before Christmas, so I have made a few responses to that  engraving in various forms:
a British Library label reads...
The subject is an allegory on the hold of ignorance on humanity. At top right the fat naked woman seated on a globe representing ignorance reigns. She is served by the blindfolded figure of fate and emaciated Avarice. At left a sightless woman accompanied by a satyr symbolising Lust, and Error, a man with asses ears, stumbles towards a chasm. Below figures have fallen into the pit. One is being rescued by Hermes, the God of Knowledge, demonstrating that Humanity can be saved....
or as the NG label has it  - humanity stumbles towards an abyss guided by Lust, Folly and Deceit: ignorance watches from her throne beside burning laurels...
seemed apposite...and mildly hopeful according to the BM which is what we need...

Meanwhile this will be the year my book comes out with Thames and Hudson - Voyaging Out:British Women Artists from the Suffragettes to the Sixties; still a few months to go however but hopefully more time for artwork now.
I will be at BABE in Bristol at the Arnolfini 30-31 March - a book fair I always enjoy, and hopefully will have some more playing cards done as well as other new stuff....

James Simpson and I enjoyed the Michael Marks Poetry Pamphlet Awards at the British Library in December and looking at, and listening to, the different exhibits; James is now publishing poems with the Hedgehog Press, including some poems he did for parvenu press in order to give them a wider audience. We are also looking forward to working with Incline Press in the near future.
I am also still cutting new designs for paper toy theatres for the Pollocks Toy Theatre Museum project - someone told me there had been an article in the press about it but I haven't yet managed to track it down... The great excitement before Christmas was acquiring an old wooden toy theatre to play with and try out my designs on ( for sale in the street in L The Centre of the Cosmos) and also going to a performance at the Art Workers Guild by Joe Gladwyn and meeting enthusiasts who told me about the annual European festival in Kiel - preetzerpapiertheatertreffen - where an interesting variety of contemporary takes on performance take place with 21st century graphics...thank you Sarah Peasgood for all the information, it was great meeting you and I loved your Wilton Music Hall turns on paper....