and more - Viva Lewes

Images by Andrzej Jackowski (left), the Nuremberg Chronicles and terry frost (right)
This month’s show at St Anne’s Gallery was
inspired by an intriguing find in artist Tony
Wilson’s Wilmington attic - a powerful poetic
text, hand-written back in 1934 by a French
farmer and conscripted soldier, Auguste Prevotel,
about the indelible memory of army life. The title
of the work - When the Crows Fly White – has
been chosen to describe Wilson’s latest collection
of works in media as diverse as objets-trouvés,
clay figures, drawings, etchings and digital print
works, all inspired by Prevotel’s words. Wilson is
complemented by prints from two other renowned
artists, both colleagues at Brighton University,
Tom Hammick and this month’s ‘Focus On’
subject Andrzej Jackowski.
The Tom Paine Printing Press (151, High St)
is always worth popping into, and throughout
May they’re displaying among the rest of their
printing paraphernalia an exhibition called Pages
featuring prints from books throughout the
history of the industry, from the 15th century to
the contemporary, including a genuine page from
The Nuremberg Chronicles, and work by the
likes of Max Ernst and Eric Gill. Curiously, there
are some pages signed by Stephen Fry, created
on a ‘replica’ Gutenberg Press and featured in his
recent BBC programme The Medieval World.
The organisers hasten to add that all the pages on
display are by-product off-cuts, rather than pages
pulled out of books, or, in their words: ‘no books
were harmed in the making of this event’.
w w w. V I VA L e w e s . C o M
art &ABOUT
Down the road in Pelham House, Tom Walker
and Shyama Ruffell (see last month) will be
joined by Susan Miller, a member of the Sussex
Watercolour Society, whose vibrant painted
flowers will be brightening up the restaurant.
Those dining in the beautiful garden will instead
enjoy the latest sculptures dotted around the lawn.
Finally, it’s a busy May at the Hop Gallery,
which starts with the 20th annual exhibition of a
collection of artists well known to the Lewes scene,
the Star Group, whose latest life drawings (from
their long-running Friday afternoon sessions in
the All Saints) will be on display from the 1st to
the 13th. From the 15th to the 27th there’s a joint
show of the work of sculptor Chris Furner and
photographer David Reed, called People Real
and Imagined. Recent sculptures will sit alongside
photographic portraits representing five decades
of work. And the 29th signals the start of a show
by David Armitage, whose semi-abstract works
bring a smile to your face, albeit accompanied by a
slightly worried look in the eyes. There’s darkness,
in other words, within the celebration. More on
that next month.
Finally, if you’re looking for collectables from bigname
artists, there are plenty to be found within
the colourful walls of Kings Framers, where
they’re selling prints and etchings from the likes
of Tracey Emin, Henry Moore, Sandra Blow,
Michael Stahoe, Bridget Riley and Terry Frost.
A r t
4 7