On the typical weekend apart from shooting for my major project, my family and I would backpack, wear hiking boots and go exploring UKs landscapes however, this weekend was different. As the weather wasn’t good, we decided to visit art galleries instead.
In the morning, I’ve had my first weekend shift volunteering for Hepworth Wakefield. Due to prints fair, it was very busy, I don’t think I have ever seen Hepworth as full before. In the first hour, I was meeting and greeting visitors near welcome desk. As I am still learning and I only spent an hour there before, seeing all these visitors coming from every direction I was a bit stressed however, working with all this nice and helpful people absolutely helps a lot. After busy hour it was time to go upstairs and looking after the galleries. The rest of my shift went very nice and quick, talking to visitors and other gallery hosts. When I finished, my boyfriend picked me up and we went to Leeds where we spent a nice afternoon visiting art galleries.
Firstly, we went to Leeds Art Gallery. To mark the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci, Leeds Art Gallery display a range of da Vinci’s greatest drawings. The exhibition is free to visit and will be open to public until 6 of May. If you haven’t seen it yet, I would recommend it as it’s totally worth it. Seeing da Vinci’s art always feels as a pleasure and seeing these exact drawings could be one of a life time experience. Most of the drawings are small, framed in A4 or A3 sizes however, there is one enormous depicted horse. There is a variation of different forms from mechanical engineering and sculpture to architectures and human’s anatomy. What’s mostly visible in da Vinci’s drawings are the huge amount of details, his skulls, so as body parts appear as real body x-rays or scans.
After da Vinci exhibition, we went to explore the rest of gallery. There are many impressive and Huge paintings, so as sculpture and photographs. I liked the frame of John Hilliard’s photographs. I need to think about my final year exhibition, and this is a very good example to consider it for my photographs.
After Leeds Art Gallery, we went to visit The Tetley, to see the 22nd International Contemporary Artist Book Fair. There were many interesting artists selling their art. I got myself an interesting book and collected a few business cards from publishers and printing companies.
On Sunday morning, I’ve had a photoshoot. The day was dark and dull, but thankfully I manage to make some new photographs for my project. When I came back, my boyfriend, our daughter and I went to visit Hepworth Wakefield. Firstly, we went to Calder building for a Print Fair.The building is both huge and bright, great place for this kind of events. It was a very busy place, but great to see so many interesting artist’s stalls, so as galleries and print makers. Again, I looked at frames, to get the idea for my exhibition. There were a few good ones, but so expensive, I decided to make my mind up about the size and the colours first.
From Print fair we went to The Hepworth Wakefield. It felt good being a visitor this time, especially that yesterday was super busy. I showed my little family around Hepworth’s new amazing exhibition. Magdalene Odundo’s The Journey of Things, and other wonderful art from all over the world, both ancient and contemporary who inspired Odundo’s work. Both my child and my boyfriend were overwhelmed by Egyptian Canopic Jars; however, apart from this my daughter wasn’t too impressed, she’s only 9 years old and unfortunately she gets bored in the art galleries. Never mind, I am sure that one day she will appreciate the art.
If you haven’t seen Magdalene Odundo’s exhibition and/or haven’t visited The Hepworth Wakefield, you should definitely do it. It’s an amazing place full of wonderful art.
I’ve had a lovely weekend, filled with amazing art.
Marlena Sierota 