Image: Angels by Trish Lock
Successful artistic towns build up from the grassroots and this is true in Bristol where the art scene is buzzing. At its heart is the Jamaica Street Artists studio which is creating quite a stir – not least thanks to a major exhibition at the heart of the city’s art establishment as LESLEY FINLAY found out…
The old and the new establishments of the Bristol art scene are set to collide in a major exhibition that unites the city’s young bloods from the Jamaica Street Artists (JSA) studio with the Royal West of England Academy, the city’s great gallery that was established in the 19th century.
The exhibition of JSA is called Inside-Out and will open up a new audience for both organisations. As the studio’s director Andrew Hood says: ‘For the RWA to work with a studio group is a real first, with the potential to create a very exciting partnership and collaboration. For JSA, taking the studio out of its traditional environment and exhibiting as a group allows the artists to see their work in a completely different setting and creates the freedom to experiment in a new context.’
The exhibition features work from both emerging and established artists from Jamaica Street, including ex-studio members who have gone on to achieve international success. It tells the tale of the studio’s disparate beginnings to its development now as a key player in the city’s art scene. JSA sits in the middle of the city and offers a supportive, vibrant place for emerging artists. One of the largest artist-led studios outside London, it opened 15 years ago and has proved a valuable place for young artists to hone their work in a supportive environment that artists can afford.
One of those artists is Ant Garratt, who moved to Bristol five years ago. He told Ink Pellet: ‘When I first moved to Bristol I got a space in a quieter studio but it was too quiet really so I worked from home for a while. I had signed up to JSA when I first moved to the city because the waiting list is really long and two years later I got the space. The real beauty of Jamaica Street is that it’s busy and people are in every day which makes a really vibrant atmosphere that some galleries don’t have.
‘It’s approximately £90 a month for the space which is amazing – so cheap! You get a good-sized space, there’s an open-plan floor and two floors of closed-off spaces for more privacy but I’m on the open-plan painting floor.’
For new artists, this supportive atmosphere is key to getting them established. Abstract painter Vera Boele-Keimer arrived in the city from Germany six years ago. She told us: ‘When I first came from Germany, I didn’t know anybody so obviously there was a social aspect in meeting like-minded people immediately. The other advantage was being able to speak to people about all aspects of the artists’ lives, like who to go to for framing, for example, so from a networking point of view it has been useful. It’s a really friendly environment, everybody is really supportive and it’s relaxed.’
Over the years, she has seen the organisation grow. She says: ‘I have been at Jamaica Street since 2004 and have seen it develop – it’s become more professional over the years, which is a good thing. For example, when I speak to some of my colleagues it’s recognised as an institution in Bristol rather than just an artists’ space – we’ve developed a name, and reputation in the city.’
Tying Skates by Dan Parry-Jones
On average JSA artists spend around 31 hours a week in their studios and the organisation gives them help with marketing, links to work opportunities, shared resources and informal mentoring and peer support.
Ant says: ‘Being at Jamaica Street is reassuring and in any creative job you go through highs and lows of confidence. If you’re doing very well your confidence is sky high and you really go for it. If you don’t get sales, or you get rejected from a gallery, for example, you can support each other. If you’re working from home you don’t have anyone else to ask and that’s tough.
‘Inside-Out is a really exciting show for us. There’s a great buzz about the creativity and the art scene. ’
Making a career out of art is possible but it helps to be close to other artists. Ant says: ‘When I left school, I wanted to do art and felt that I had to do graphic design because I needed to get a job. More artists should go into schools and talk to young people about how you can get a job out of art, and more importantly, how to go about it. The reality is you spend sixty per cent of your time painting and forty per cent on marketing and this isn’t taught. It’s fine being able to paint but if you can’t market yourself then you won’t get anywhere!
‘The other thing I would say is that colleges are getting less specialised. Falmouth used to specialise in painting and pottery and now they’ve expanded and are doing broadcast journalism, for example. This means less studio spaces are available, with less time with tutors. Colleges should get back to being more about art training.’
In her role as course tutor for the diploma in Art, Design and Media, Vera encourages her students to visit the studios to see real artists at work. She says: ‘I try to encourage some of them to come to the studio to see what we all do, how we market our work and I think it’s useful for them to see people working like this. There are a lot more jobs out there than people realise. As a student you don’t know how many jobs there are in the creative industries. You see people painting in a studio or the handful of artists who win the Turner Prize but you don’t see the jobs in between – in illustration, in publishing, in graphic design. Students should seek out studios like Jamaica Street in their local area so they can see artists at work.
Alongside this fascinating juxtaposition is a second collision of sorts as the RWA show Matisse: Drawing with Scissors, a Hayward Touring exhibition from the Southbank Centre, opens at the same time and features thirty-five lithographic prints of the famous cut-outs, produced in the last four years of his life, when the artist was confined to his bed. It includes many of his iconic images, such as The Snail and the Blue Nudes.
Ant Garratt: in my own words
Burnham on Sea by Anthony Garratt
‘I studied graphic design at Falmouth College of Art in Cornwall. I worked in London as a graphic designer for two years then gradually filtered the art into my life because I couldn’t make a living from it initially. About two years ago, it took off and I was able to ditch the design!
‘I’m a landscape artist. I paint abstract landscapes – they’re big acrylic works mostly. I like to paint places on the British coast that are a bit desolate, that aren’t conventionally beautiful, for instance Dungeness in Kent or Weston-super-Mare – places that have a reputation of being a bit run-down. These places have amazing coastal areas around them that are under-rated. What I like to get across in my work is the vulnerability of the human in the weather so I like stormy weather, I like big skies and I like the idea that the human is not always in control. That’s the direction I seem to be heading in.’
Ant Garratt, www.agarratt.co.uk Ant has had a number of successful exhibitions, residencies for Tresco Gallery on the Isles of Scilly and was picked as Venue magazine’s ‘emerging artist’ in the RWA Autumn Exhibition 2009.
Vera Boele-Keimer: in my own words
Close up by Vera Boele-Keimer
Life as an artist is a career but I wouldn’t say I am making a living out of it yet!
I work mainly in painting at the moment. My work is quite abstract and minimalist and based on patterns and repetition and the irregularities in it. It’s like the human body being impossible to reproduce something exactly. I experiment all the time. I produce lots of small pieces that I don’t exhibit just because I experiment with new materials. I don’t plan a painting. I start a painting then see what needs doing. I can have a painting in my studio for a couple of months, at least, but I don’t work on it all the time. It might sit there for four weeks not getting any attention. At the moment it takes such a long time to dry, if I work in oil, because it’s so cold in the studio!’
Vera Boele-Keimer, www.veraboelekeimer.co.uk Vera is a course leader at Bristol School of Art (adjoined to the RWA building) as well as an artist at the studio.
Further information
Inside-Out runs from 8 January 2011 to 8 February 2011 and Matisse: Drawing with Scissors, late works 1950-1954 runs from 8 January 2011 to 6 February 2011 at Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, open seven days a week. Associated events include exhibition tours, painting and printmaking workshops and lectures. For more details call 0117 973 5129 or visit www.rwa.org.uk.
Jamaica Street Artists: 37-39 Jamaica Street, Stokes Croft, Bristol, BS2 8JP www.jamaicastreetartists.co.uk