Art Research Group

The Art Research group focuses on practice-based and theoretical research in contemporary Fine Art. We explore diverse models for creative practice ranging from performances, to free share sound archives to painting, sculpture (analogue and digital), time based arts, drawing, printing and photography. We explore these models of practice in the public, nationally and internationally through exhibitions, seminars, conferences, screenings, events and critical writing.

The Art Research group contributes to the overall research culture and expertise at Manchester School of Art through the international and national profile of the staff, who are creating cutting-edge exhibitions, events, installations, performances, radio programmes, writing and curated exhibitions.

Our activities include:

• Leadership of and contributions to the postgraduate research student environment through seminars, lectures, other events and research training and research supervision.
• Development and dissemination of internationally acclaimed digital media work.
• Development of bi-lateral partnerships for lab-based cross-disciplinary teaching and research in Art and Architecture in the Ruhr area and Manchester.
• Research and consultation in Socially Engaged art practices (historical and contemporary).
• Continuation of research and its dissemination along key research themes.
• Archiving the work of one of the UK's most significant post-war painters/educators: Dave Pearson.
• Consultation to Contemporary Art Manchester Advisory Board (strategic partnership between City of Manchester and Arts Council).
• Consultation to AXIS.

Research Areas

Our research expertise is fundamentally rooted in the evolving contemporary Fine Art Practice and the associated field of Curation, History and Anthropology of Art. The majority of members of the Art Research group are engaged in studio-based activity. We embrace and recognise the importance of the individual practice as well as collaborative and inter/trans-disciplinary work.

We have expertise in the areas of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, sound and video. We actively promote the fact, that art is generated and developed in digital and analogue idioms across real and virtual sites, platforms and realities. We embrace new technologies and methodologies as well as cross-disciplinary collaborations with academic and non-academic partners in the UK and abroad whilst also providing specific expertise and knowledge in materials and processes outlined above, which include research in and with 'out-dated' analogue media such as slides, Vinyl and film.

Staff of the Art research group continue embrace, interrogate and respond in research environment that is clustered around rigorous intellectual research themes—

Archives, Museums, Cultural Heritage and Domestic Histories

Chara Lewis (Brass Arts), Joan Beadle, Sutapa Biswas

Language, Power, Politics, Protest, Site and Communities

David Osbaldeston , Ian Rawlinson, Dave Griffiths, Dr Amanda Ravetz, Brigitte Jurack (Foreign Investment), Eileen Simpson, Jane Brake, Ella McCartney

Simulation, Materiality, Identity, Fiction of the Image

Chara Lewis (Brass Arts), Oran O'Reilly, Ian Hartshorne, Dr Magnus Quaife, Sophie Benson, Rick Copsey, Jo Lansley, Professor Keith Brown, Andrew Lacon, Sutapa Biswas

Events

Following the success of the Teaching Painting Conference (Whitworth Art Gallery) we are planning further practice informed international conferences:

29—30 October 2015

Teaching Painting Conference (Whitworth Art Gallery)

Autumn 2017

Teaching Sculpture in the post-industrial digital age (venue to be confirmed)

Summer 2019

International Art festivals and learning and teaching

Recent Projects

Members

• Brigitte Jurack
  Research Group Leader
  —
  
• Sophie Benson
  Principal Lecturer
  Director of Studies & Academic Lead for Education, Department of Art
  —
  
• Jon Biddulph
  Tutor,
  Dept of Art and Performance
  —
  
• Sutapa Biswas
  Reader in Fine Art
  —
  
• Dr Sian Bonnell
  Reader,
  School of Fashion
  —
  
• Professor
  Keith Brown
  Professor of Sculpture and Digital Technologies
  —
  
• Professor
  Pavel Büchler
  Professor Emeritus
  —
  
• Rick Copsey
  Senior Lecturer,
  Dept of Art and Performance
  —
  
• Dave Griffiths
  Senior Lecturer & International Lead
  Department of Art
  —
  
• Dr Ian Hartshorne
  Subject Leader Painting and Print Media
  —
  
• Andrew Lacon
  Lecturer,
  Dept of Art and Performance
  —
  
• Jo Lansley
  Senior Lecturer,
  Dept of Art and Performance
  —
  
• Ella McCartney
  Lecturer,
  Dept of Art and Performance
  —
  
• Oran O'Reilly
  Senior Lecturer,
  Dept of Art and Performance
  —
  
• David Osbaldeston
  Reader in Fine Art
  —
  
• Dr Magnus Quaife
  Programme Leader BA (Hons) Fine Art, Department Lead for Employability and Placements
  —
  
• Professor
  Amanda Ravetz
  Research Professor,
  School of Art
  —
  
• Ian Rawlinson
  Reader in Fine Art
  —
  
• Eileen Simpson
  Senior Lecturer,
  Dept of Art and Performance
  —
  
• Jo Vickers
  Senior Lecturer,
  Dept of Art and Performance
  —
  

Exhibitions & Publications

Exhibitions

Bonnell, S., 2020. Feast for the Eyes, The Hasselblad Foundation, Goteborg Museum of Art, Gothenburg, Sweden, 29/2/2020 - 10/5/2020.

Bonnell, S., 2019. 209 Women, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, 1/3/2019 - 30/4/2019.

Michalski, M., Tecklenberg, P., Livanis, D., Ajerman, M., Napier, L., Rochford, M., 2019. 40 Celcius, Croydon Art House, 16/11/2019.

Bonnell, S., 2019. Beyond the Camera VI, The Diesel Factory, Pingyao International Photography Festival, Pingyao Ancient City, Shanxi, China, 19/9/2019 - 25/9/2019.

White, B., Simpson, E., 2019. Eileen Simpson and Ben White: Open Music Archive, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester (UK), 14/6/2019 - 18/8/2019.

Quaife, M., 2019. Expanded Painting in Context, Contemporary Forward, Touchstones, Rochdale, 5/5/2019 - 30/6/2018.

Bonnell, S., 2019. Feast for the Eyes, The Photographers Gallery, London, 18/10/2019 - 9/2/2020.

Bonnell, S., 2019. Feast for the Eyes, CO Berlin, Germany, 8/6/2019 - 7/9/2019.

Hartshorne, I., 2019. fully awake - six part exhibition cycle, various, 5/4/2019 - 1/5/2020.

Bonnell, S., 2019. JUMP! curated by Sian Bonnell, LOOK Biennial of Photography, The Gallery, Liverpool, 4/10/2019 - 27/10/2019.

Jurack, B., 2019. Scavengers 2, Cheeseburn Sculpture Park, 6/5/2019 - 1/9/2019.

Bonnell, S., 2019. Sian Bonnell, The Secret Life of Trestles, The Cotton Factory, Pingyao International Photography Festival, Pingyao Ancient City, Shanxi, China, 19/9/2019 - 25/9/2019.

Quaife, M., 2019. Thomas Bell Ale, Portland Basin Museum, 30/1/2019.

Jurack, B., 2019. Translating The Street, Alternator Studio and Project Space, 1/1/2019 - 13/4/2019.

Bonnell, S., 2019. Video del Giorno: Sian Bonnell Excerpts from Luda, MACRO, Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome, Italy, 4/10/2019 - 4/12/2019.

Artefacts

Copsey, R., 2020. 'Erosion 3', UK.

Copsey, R., 2020. 'Paintscape 20', Russia.

Copsey, R., 2020. 'Paintscape20', UK.

Copsey, R., 2020. 'Untitled 2014', Moldova.

Copsey, R., 2020. 'Untitled2014', Moldova.

O'Reilly, O., 2019. 'Hostile Environment', ASC Gallery, London.

Performances

Jurack, B., Tischler-Wood, A., Foreign, I., 2019. 'Happy Hour', Holden Gallery, Manchester School of Art, 10/10/2019.

Books

Bonnell, S., 2019. '209 Women', Bluecoat Press.

Osbaldeston, D., 2019. 'Communication', Wiley.

Townsend, P., 2019. 'Creative States of Mind Psychoanalysis and the Artist's Process', Routledge.

Book Chapters

Ravetz, A., Kettle, A., Felcey, H., 2020. 'In the Bee Hive: Valuing Craft in the Creative Industries'. In Blain, M., Minors, HJ. (eds.) Artistic Research in Performance through Collaboration, Palgrave.

Journal Articles

Roy, A., Ravetz, A., Prest, M., 2020. 'Unsettling Narrative(s): Film Making as an Anthropological Lens on an Artist-Led Project Exploring LGBT Recovery from Substance Use', Anthropological Notebooks, 26.

Ravetz, A., 2019. 'On Reverie, Collaboration, and Recovery', Collaborative Anthropologies, 10 (1), pp. 45-66.

Illingworth, S., Griffiths, D., 2019. 'SciArt: Teaching Across the Interface', Eos, 100.

Conference Papers

Jurack, B., 2019. 'Living Heritage - Translating the street - the sewing awl and cobblers anvil', Mapping Contemporary Art in the Heritage Experience, Newcastle University, UK, 29/7/2019 - 30/7/2019.

Other Outputs

Simpson, ES., White, B., 2021. 'Auditory Learning'.

Biswas-Rodgers, S., 2020. 'Flights of Passage by Sutapa Biswas. Part of RadioCity2014/15, Tate Britain'.

Biswas-Rodgers, S., 2020. 'Mixed Bathing World 2015 Triennial'.

White, B., Simpson, E., 2019. 'Everything I Have Is Yours'.

Quaife, M., Hartshorne, I., 2019. 'Teaching painting: An organisation'.