The Gallery
Finding Sea LevelStephen West
11 March - 13 May 2023
Stephen West is an artist who has lived and worked in rural mid-Wales for nearly forty years. His work has been shown regularly in major galleries in Wales, in various National Eisteddfod Lle Gelf exhibitions and has been shortlisted for many UK prizes and competitions. He has worked in the mediums of painting, sculpture, print and drawing. For this new installation at Mission Gallery in Swansea, Stephen’s large-scale drawings are installed to create a sequence of dramatic images, each a narrative but without telling a story.
Stephen explains, "for me Swansea is an ‘imagined’ city, somewhere I’ve visited in fact, but which exists for me more in imagination than in memory. And Mission Gallery is more of an idea of possibilities than stone and mortar. It is a space where drawings can spread across the walls and can relate to the architecture and history of this non-denominational space by the seashore.
My work as a Welsh artist has always re-imagined where I am, weaving dreams with observations, so that actual rooms and buildings and nature can become something else in a drawing or actually become drawing.
I’ve realised looking back at the series of drawings that I’ve made since the 2010s that my vision has been ‘landlocked’ in the centre of Wales. This reflects something of the special environment of Dyffryn Banw, its wide valley, its three villages and its encircling hills have guided the atmosphere of my drawings.
My work has recently been exhibited in a series of seaside locations however, Barmouth, Scarborough, Cardigan, St David’s, Holyhead, and lately the sea has invaded the lower half of the drawings. Figures are standing in the water or by the shore. This is not just a response to showing my work in Swansea, but to the insistent thought that the sea is going to shape our lives more and more as climate change intensifies over the next ten years.
So this exhibition has its roots in the hyper-rural centre of Wales but looks in imagination towards the contested edge of the sea. At the last time of measuring, our front door in Dyffryn Banw was exactly 600 feet above sea-level. In moving the work to Mission Gallery I am in the process of finding sea level."
Image: Detail of Swansea/Cork Ferry by Stephen West. Charcoal on paper, 183x122 cms, 2023.
Image credit: Dewi Tannatt Lloyd
Blog Post
Fining Sea Level
Stephen West, an artist who has lived and worked in rural mid-Wales for almost four decades, launched his latest exhibition, Finding Sea Level, at Mission Gallery in Swansea on Saturday, 11th March.
The exhibition features Stephen's large-scale drawings, which are installed to create a sequence of dramatic images, each a narrative but without telling a story.
We love how Stephen’s work perfectly complements the architectural structure of the gallery space and relates to its history of being a non-denominational Seaman's Mission by the seashore. Upon reflection on his work, Stephen noticed how location has had a big impact on his work. From depicting wide valleys and encircling hills in “landlocked” mid-Wales to the sea invading the lower half of his drawings when exhibiting in seaside locations.
In Stephen's own words, this body of work “is not just a response to showing my work in Swansea, but to the insistent thought that the sea is going to shape our lives more and more as climate change intensifies over the next ten years." Thus, this exhibition has its roots in the hyper-rural center of Wales but looks in imagination towards the contested edge of the sea.
Mission Gallery held a Walk and Talk with Stephen West on the 25th of March, which invited visitors to tour the exhibition with Stephen. For those who missed the event, the full recording of the Walk and Talk is available on Mission Gallery's Vimeo channel.
This event attracted many visitors, including Welsh television presenter, Siân Lloyd.
During the Easter holidays, we had a couple of busy weekends in the exhibition space with our Criw Celf Primary group who took part in a stencilling workshop. This workshop was run by artists Melissa Rodrigues and Joel Morris.
Artist Lewis Prosser also led an adult workshop, where participants learned the key techniques of traditional willow basket making. There’s nothing quite like making art in a room filled with magnificent art!
We’ve also been encouraging visitors to see if they could spot the creatures and figures that live within his drawings. More information about why specific imagery and symbols were included in his drawings can be found in Stephen's Walk and Talk.
For example, during the Walk and Talk, he says "I often put dogs in the drawings. The dog in itself is half a symbol of the natural world but it also stands in for human beings because dogs are domesticated; they're our friends, they live in our houses, but they don't necessarily fit very well with human existence, they can be disruptive.”
Perhaps this is one of the many ways Stephen creates connections between the disruption of climate change on the environment and the disruption that some of these symbols portray.
Stephen sums up the essence of his exhibition by stating that "in moving the work to Mission Gallery, I am in the process of finding sea level."
Mission Gallery encourages art enthusiasts to visit the exhibition and experience Stephen's artistic vision in person. The exhibition runs until Saturday 13th May 2023.
Click here to read Stephen West's full artist statement.
Blog post submitted 29/04/2023
Written by Lucy Anna Howson
