Chris Barr

On graduating from the University of the West of England (Bristol, UK) in 2002, Barr was awarded a fellowship with the university where he continued to work and teach for a further two years. Following his inclusion in Bloomberg’s New Contemporaries in 2003 - a group show representing a cross section of the most promising graduates and emerging artists in the UK, Barr has exhibited extensively both in and outside of the UK including group shows in Germany, Holland, Finland, solo shows at Firstsite in Colchester, and more recently with the Found Gallery in London’s east end in February 2007. Barr continues to live and work in Bristol where he is a member of the artists’ project group Plan9, which facilitates curatorial programmes, exhibitions and international studio residencies.
The physical space Chris Barr fabricates with his work is not as definitely encompassing as the space of installation. But is one in which he appears to persuade objects and images to transgress the expected parameters of their mediums, and equally to blur whether they are objects of the real world or are located within the fictive world of painting. In doing so he engineers a kind of theatrical flux: a play of potential and potential meanings that is overlaid with a peculiar and edgy harmony. He says in relation to his practice….
‘The way in which art forces us to question the ‘hierarchical values of the real’ is one of the reoccurring themes that have formed the basis for my ongoing research and, in this regard, my practice is an attempt to explore the rhetoric of power and authority invested in familiar codes and signs in order to re-negotiate their status and validity. At best, my work deliberately confuses painterly and sculptural space in an attempt to question what might remain of painting once the act of ‘seeing into’ it is abandoned. In this sense I believe abstraction itself can be seen as a simple metaphor for transformation where objects, pictorial space and even architectural idiosyncrasies can been seen within a different register of value’.

Sovay Berriman

Born in 1972 in Penzance, Cornwall, UK, Sovay began her study at Falmouth College of Arts, going on to take a BA(Hons) at University of East London and then a MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art; she currently lives and works in Bristol.

Working with sculpture, installation and text Sovay continues a practice that offers potential for escapism through references to landscape and the use of narrative. She is active in the co-ordination and curation of independent and collaborative projects, including recently, more (2007), gostopgo (2007) and Journey to the Centre of the Earth (2008).

Sovay is currently working on a new commission for North Cabin, Bristol that will open in May 2008. She is also completing the second instalment of The Great War series and is beginning Symbol, a programme of collaborative and commissioned one-night events exploring a relationship with real and fantastical landscapes.

Milo Brennan

b. Birmingham, 1982

Milo Brennan is based in Bristol. He graduated with BA (Hons) in Art and Visual Culture from U.W.E in 2006. He currently has work in the group show Meet me round the corner (in five minutes) at Spike Island, Bristol.

He enjoys his ongoing investigation into the boundaries between visual legibility and illegibility. Sometimes this may result in simple abstraction and reduction of established printed forms of communication; cut comics strips and altered advertisements. At other times, the elaborateness of the serif will be under scrutiny resulting in ludicrous and humorous sculptures.

Ultimately the concern lies with that ‘moment’ where the recognisable disappears and we are left confronted by confusing and foreign forms, like repeating a word over and over until it becomes an odd, primal, scrap of noise.

Rhys Coren

b Plymouth 1983

Rhys Coren is based in Bristol. After graduating with a BA(Hons) in Art and Visual Culture from the Bristol School of Art, Media and Design in 2006, Rhys was selected for New Contemporaries 2007, and has shown in Bristol, London, Manchester and Walsall. He has also initiated group shows as part of the collaboration Rhys & Hannah Present, including …a Birthday Art Show and What we’d buy if you buy (our t-shirts).

Through written work; curated fanzines and books, wall based paintings, sculpture and drawing, Rhys enjoys visiting and exaggerating moments where day-to-day similarities occur between people from across the spectrum of potential art viewer. Whether it is a guide to spreading marmite, songs about artists to the tune of Oliver’s ‘Roses’ song, or a poem about his family’s genetic attachment to the double chin, Rhys re-tells, re-visits and reminisces over his own experiences.

Hannah James

Dob 21.03.1985
Place of birth. Nottingham
Based in Bristol

Hannah James’s practice explores the complex relationship that exists between painting and sculpture. The work utilises on both the illusionist capabilities of painting as well as inextricably physical and therefore ‘real’ qualities of sculpture.

James uses the awkward balancing of props within a space to question and undermine the sensitivity and beauty which is evoked within her paintings, resulting in a tension for the audience.

Maeve Rendle

(b. 1980, lives and works in Manchester) graduated from BA Fine Art Nottingham Trent University in 2002, and from MA Fine Art Manchester Metropolitan University in 2005. She has exhibited in London, Nottingham, Helsinki and recently exhibited in a group show with Apartment at the Axel Lapp Project Space in Berlin. In 2007 Rendle had solo exhibitions Mount Purgatory at Apartment, and lefty loosey righty tighty at Porch, both artist-run spaces in Manchester, UK. Most recently she has exhibited in group show Art of Sound, Sound of Art at The Whitworth Gallery, July 2008 Manchester. Forthcoming exhibitions to include, group show o p e n e n d e d, August 2008 Bristol.