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Local artist Ray Mutimer will be opening his home gallery to the public during the Knaresborough FEVA festival next month.

Mr Mutimer, a professional freelance illustrator and artist, is best known for illustrating Postman Pat for 14 years. His work appeared in eight Postman Pat annuals and in BBC magazines.

Some of this artwork will be included in a free exhibition of his lifetime’s work at his home in Calcutt from Friday, August 11 to Sunday, August 20. Details are available here.

Between 1975 and 2002, Mr Mutimer illustrated 207 books for various publishers including, Collins, MacMillan, Ladybird, and Scholastic. He was also head of art at St. Aidan’s Church of England High School.

A central part of the exhibition will be Mr Mutimer’s unusually shaped paintings, which he calls ‘landSHAPE’.

Mr Mutimer told the Stray Ferret:

“In the 1960s, frustrated with having to confine my images to square or oblong framing, I painted pictures on boards and began to cut them out.

“At the time they were semi abstract. Recent shaped pictures are realistic, and create a greater, sometimes amazing, illusion of depth and space.”

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This will be the largest collection of landSHAPE installations he has ever displayed.

The exhibition can be viewed at 8 Whiteway Head, Calcutt, Knaresborough HG5 8LE from 11am to 4pm daily during the 10-day FEVA festival.

FEVA is a festival of entertainment and visual arts that includes art exhibitions, workshops, music and spoken word events.

 

Major new exhibition seeks sponsors for young artists

Mercer Art Gallery in Harrogate is appealing for sponsors to support a major new exhibition this summer. 

The show, called Total Recall: Myth and Memory, will feature archive works and new acquisitions, as well as some contemporary works by five young Northern artists.  

Co-curator Joe Nickols said: 

“We are exhibiting some highlights from our collections, including John Piper prints, paintings of Harrogate by  John Atkinson Grimshaw, and intriguing works by Cândido Portinari.
“New acquisitions come from Lisa Dracup, Kate Mellor, Caroline Walker, Dorothy Cross, and Martin Creed. To complement this we are working with five contemporary Northern artists to further the exhibitions resonance to our area and explore how art is developing. These artists are: Sally Barker, Ka Bird, Jill McKnight, K Walker, and Hang Zhang.

“The exhibition is a great opportunity for these new artists to show their work in a public gallery. We are hoping to grow a budget of around £2,000, which will go to support the artists, transportation of artwork, and outreach production costs. The Mercer Art Gallery is striving to be more inclusive and grow engagement with the local community, and this exhibition is part of this progression.”

Metallic fluid-looking pink and white shapes on a black background - detail from plmvlt, a 2021 work by Newcastle artist Ka Bird.

A detail from plmvlt, a 2021 work by Newcastle artist Ka Bird.

The exhibition, due to run from July 13 to the end of October, will feature some pieces that have been seldom seen, as well as others which may be more familiar to viewers, such as a copy of Work No. 88 by Turner Prize-winning artist Martin Creed. The work caused considerable controversy and made headlines internationally when it was first unveiled in 1995, as it consists simply of a “sheet of A4 paper crumpled into a ball”. 

Joe said: 

“Some people don’t enjoy that piece, but it does ask a lot of questions. What was it? What memory was inside it? What does it contain?” 

Mercer Art Gallery is currently hosting an exhibition of works by Yorkshire-born Martin Creed, in collaboration with Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. 

Creed’s Work No. 370 Balls 2004 fills the entire main gallery at the Mercer. The vast installation features nearly 1,000 balls of different scale, weight and texture. Visitors will also be able to see Creed’s iconic neon Work No. 890: Don’t Worry 2008 alongside Work No. 1340 2012, a large-scale wall painting of diagonal stripes. 

Artist Rooms Martin Creed runs until July 2, and admission is free. 

For information on Mercer Art Gallery and its exhibitions, go to its page on the North Yorkshire Council website. 

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