The Gallery
Llwybrau | PathwaysLlwybrau | Pathways
25 June - 09 July 2022
An exhibition celebrating emerging Welsh artists. We’re delighted to present brand new work by artists who have, over the years, passed through Mission Gallery’s education programme, Raising the Bar. Llwybrau | Pathways provides an insight into where they are now in their creative journeys. Many have gone on to study Art & Design subjects at degree level and all have maintained a passion for creativity.
These select artists and makers have been invited to showcase their current practice and where it may lead in the future. Although they have a shared experience in Raising the Bar, their practices tackle different mediums, subject matter and processes. In this group show, we see how creative curiosity has led these practitioners down a variety of different pathways; demonstrating now more than ever, the importance of different, artistic perspectives to the world around us.
'Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference’ - Robert Frost, extract from The Road Not Taken
Featuring work by:
Safiyyah Altaf
Safiyyah is currently studying a Degree in Surface Pattern Textiles at Swansea College of Art UWTSD. Her practice begins through intuitive research, where she desires to find the story within the environment around her- seeking hidden memories in the natural world, museums and streets. She encourages us to recognise the eccentricity in our everyday happenings. This selection is inspired by the locality of Swansea- it’s shops, buildings, and notably Japanese and Chinese porcelain collections within the Glynn Vivian.
Katie is a student currently studying Illustration in University of Wales Trinity Saint David. She lives in Pontardawe which is nestled up in the Swansea Valley, but her favourite place to be is down the valley by the sea in Swansea. These illustrations are a celebration of simple fun and adventure at the seaside. The illustrations are a combination of traditional and digital drawing techniques. First drawn with fineliner on paper, then scanned and coloured digitally. Katies work has a strong emphasis on women and the natural world, particularly Welsh landscapes. As is common with a lot of her work, she features in all the illustrations. She believes this is because all her art stems from what she knows and loves. Katie feels that there’s a lot of beauty to be found in the everyday, and hopes to shine light on moments that otherwise go unnoticed.
Ewan Coombs
Ewan Coombs is a multi-disciplinary artist currently studying Fine Art: Studio, Site and Context at University of Wales Trinity St David. His experimental process works with many mediums and unconventional materials, from both industrial and natural sources. Within his recent practice he has been exploring how we perceive light, and its effects on how we understand the physical space around us. He often creates site specific pieces exploring the idea of something hiding in plain sight and the subversion of preconceived ideas. His work is inspired by feminist, queer and POC practitioners.
Isabella Coombs
Izzy is an Illustrator based in South Wales. She is studying for her BA in Illustration at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David alongside pursuing a Diploma in Mental Health. Izzy is also an Outreach Tutor for the University, delivering workshops in local schools.
Izzy’s practice is rooted in her love for nature and people, her work is a direct response to the environment around her. Within her work are themes of animal anthropomorphism, which is fuelling the development of short illustrated stories which she hopes to publish in the future. Alongside her practice, Izzy is exploring critical theories surrounding narrative drawing from psychology theories.
“I want people to feel something when they look at my work; giggle, question and interpret”
Flora Luckman
Flora is a Swansea born artist going into the third year of her Illustration degree at the University of Edinburgh. She completed a foundation course at Llwyn y Bryn, Gower College in Swansea before starting her degree. Throughout her degree, she has worked with narrative based work particularly in book form. She took an elective that taught her about artists’ books and book binding which has influenced her work heavily. She enjoys the tactility of hand bound books, and the attention to detail it allows her. Flora likes her work to be light hearted explorations of simple subject matter, and has recently developed a body of work based on Welsh holidaying- dwelling on the simplicity of a day out in the Welsh countryside. The work displayed is about Rosebush, a slate mining town in Pembrokeshire, West Wales that she visits annually to go swimming. She developed the video first and the paintings second, hoping to convey the peace and serenity of Rosebush across her work.
Joseff Rowlands
Joseff is studying Architecture at the UCL Bartlett School of Architecture in London. He was a part of the Raising the Bar cohort in 2019, and subsequently awarded the Raising the Bar Studio Residency Jane Phillips Award.
Joseff’s current Architectural work is an investigation into different ways of seeing. These explorations have involved Physical and digital drawing and model making, as well as the application of editing software. The Schools annual theme of Mental Health and Well-being informed his use of materiality, using heavy industrial materials and soft, lightweight and translucent materials to represent the gravity and lightness of one’s mental health; prompting the discussion around reprieve. He enjoys working with mixed media, and the use of photography and film is pivotal in his work- allowing him to blend a diverse range of elements into an immersive user experience.
Rebeca Serban
Rebeca is a second year Fine Art student, studying at the University of West of England. Her practice involves working with mixed media such as: oil pastels, clay, photography, paints and embroidery. Her work is currently exploring themes around identity- frequently drawing on dreams and memories as inspiration, and often referencing surrealism. The abstract nature of her work allows her the freedom to portray subconscious thoughts and connect authentically with each expression. Her practice is inspired by the works of Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dali, Claude Cahun and Helen Chadwick.
Tomos Sparnon
Tomos’ practice is an exploration of what it is to be human. Through different media including painting, drawing and sculpture, he explores man’s relationship with his fellow man, with the world, with objects, with himself and with God. His aim is to capture the conflict between the visible and the invisible, between reality and what is not real.
Owain Sparnon
Owain creates works that respond to things he comes across on a daily basis. These can include photographs, landscapes, reflective lighting, sounds and shapes and forms of everyday objects. He is intrigued by the idea of layering, unravelling, intertwining, and decontextualising an image, and the boundary between painting and sculpture. His paintings reveal recollections, thoughts, secrets and experiences of his subconscious through colour, remnants, texture and the unknown.
He is currently working at Swansea College of Art after winning the Step Change Fellowship Programme Benevolent Fund Award.
Serena Williams-Dulley
Serena is a first year illustration student at UAL Camberwell in South London. She predominantly works digitally or with pencil and ink on her course, and has been creating an activity booklet for children about the life and discoveries of Mary Anning over the past few months. However, in her personal work she enjoys exploring collage, photomontage and painting. The piece on display is a painting of a collage about the relationship between joy, freedom, power and enlightenment when creating. She likes to use a mixture of different mediums in each artwork she makes. The piece on display was painted with acrylic and matte wall paint- it’s high coverage helped her achieve the bold shapes and flat colours she likes to use when considering composition.
Gemma Yeomans
Gemma is a third year student at Swansea College of Art and is about to graduate with a Surface Pattern and Textiles BA. These textiles are from her “Cloth Constructed Landscapes” graduate collection, which explores the feeling of ‘magic’ that is felt through tactility and surface. This magic is created when a touch becomes tactile, and that reciprocity when the object is being touched and the person is being touched by the object- both metaphorically and literally. Inspired by blissful moments of crashing waves and cloud filled skies, “Cloth Constructed Landscapes” captures luscious landscapes through materiality which delight the eye and the hand.
(Image credit; Swansea Beach Postcard, Katie Baugh)
