The Ferens Art Gallery has announced its exhibition programme for the next eight months. Highlights include a stunning masterpiece from the Royal Collection – Hans Holbein the Younger’s sixteenth century portrait of Sir Thomas More - and a science fiction-themed contemporary art exhibition: Is This Planet Earth?
The year kicks off with the hugely popular annual Open Exhibition, highlighting the strength of local creative work by artists drawn from across the region.
Ferens’ family-friendly summer display will be Microbes, a glowing sensory landscape of suspended inflatable pods which visitors can walk through.
Councillor Marjorie Brabazon, Chair of Hull Culture and Leisure, said: “It is great to see the Gallery continuing to maintain its ambitious programme in 2019. There are such a variety of exhibitions and artists that we hope our offer will continue to appeal to a very wide audience. All are free entry.”
Exhibitions at the Ferens Art Gallery, January – August 2019
Open Exhibition 2019 - 2 February – 14 April 2019
The annual Open Exhibition celebrates the creativity of local amateur and professional artists. Each year it provides an exciting opportunity for artists locally and regionally to display and sell artwork. This year the hundreds of works hung throughout the Ferens impressive exhibition galleries will be selected by John Heffernan, Senior Curator, Humber Street Gallery, Rebecca Jones, BBC Arts Correspondent and Ian McKeever RA, Visual Artist. Visitors can expect to see a fascinating array of artwork including painting, sculpture, photography, ceramics and textiles, mostly for sale.
KWL – Principal sponsor of the Ferens exhibition programme 2018/19.
This exhibition is sponsored by the Friends of the Ferens and BSB Architecture.
Masterpieces in Focus from the Royal Collection: Hans Holbein the Younger, Sir Thomas More (1478-1535), c.1526-7 - 23 March – 23 June 2019
An ongoing partnership with Royal Collection Trust brings a masterpiece by Hans Holbein the Younger to Hull for the first time, generously lent by Her Majesty The Queen from the Royal Collection. A portrait drawing of Sir Thomas More (1478-1535). The portrait, likely connected to a single oil portrait of the sitter, shows his head and shoulders facing three-quarters to the right. He wears a hat and fur collar. The drawing has been pricked for transfer. Inscribed in an eighteenth-century hand at upper left: Tho: Moor Ld Chancelour.
Hans Holbein was born in Augsburg, Germany, trained in Basel, Switzerland and spent a total of 13 years in England, in 1526-8 and 1532-43. The major work of Holbein's first period in England was a portrait of the family of Sir Thomas More and during the latter period he became the most important artist at the court of Henry VIII. A small display focusing on preparatory studies and final artworks from the Ferens Art Gallery’s permanent collection will be highlighted alongside Holbein’s masterpiece. Holbein’s Sir Thomas More portrait marks the third of five exceptional works of art from the Royal Collection to go on display at the Ferens Art Gallery between 2017 and 2021, as part of Masterpieces in Focus from the Royal Collection.
Is this Planet Earth? - 4 May – 28 July 2019
Visitors will encounter wondrous creatures and stunning landscapes filled with colours and sensations that are heightened and strange. Beautiful to behold and often sci-fi in feel, the exhibition will have darker undercurrents relating to our destruction of nature. The varied artistic work pays homage to visionary sci-fi writers and filmmakers who conjured apocalyptic landscapes and creatures such as J.G Ballard, John Wyndham and Douglas Trumbull, to name just a few.
There are sculptures by Salvatore Arancio, Halina Dominska and Alfie Strong, paintings by Dan Hays and Katherine Reekie, a sound installation by Jason Singh, a live performance by Patrick Coyle and videos by Helen Sear and Seán Vicary.
A Ty Pawb touring exhibition, curated by Angela Kingston.
Microbes - 18 May – 1 Sept 2019
Gallery 4 will be transformed by a glowing landscape of suspended inflatable microbe pods of differing shapes and sizes. This exhibition is inspired by the beautiful microscopic imagery of bacteria and cells that live within us. Visitors can walk through the pods causing them to sway and bump into each other. Every few minutes the pods will slowly deflate and then inflate as if breathing, creating a mesmerising spectacle. This family-focused exhibition provides a fun sensory experience not to be missed.
The Microbes are designed by Spacecadets Air Design. http://spacecadets.com/
All Ferens’ exhibitions are free entry.
