Falkirk Art Club
49th Annual Exhibition
20th - 25th May
Howgate Shopping Centre
Aside from the theatre
productions and folk music gigs, one of the most anticipated event at
this years' Tryst Festival
was the 49th Annual Exhibition by
Falkirk and District Art Club, where members offer up their best
examples of illustrations, oil and acrylic paintings and wood
engravings.
Following in the
footsteps of the pop up art space on Falkirk High Street, the Art
Club are found residing the white, open, and very bright contemporary
space of a vacant retail clothing outlet in the Howgate Shopping
centre. The exhibition is presented in the classic salon style, in
which the artwork on show appears to be hung in a first come first
serve manner, paintings of wild animals are seen to be roaming
through magnificent highland scenery and Mediterranean landscapes
where 70's music icons David Bowie and Bryan Ferry can be seen to be
relaxing. The work on show explores the vast interests of their
memberships, studies of family pets in which the artist tries to
capture a life like image on the canvas to thickly layered abstract
oil paint compositions. As expected from an art group's exhibition
there are a lot of different styles and ability on show, which forces
the viewer to realise this exhibition is not declaring to the world,
we are here, come see how awesome we are,but designed to simply
raise the awareness of one of the few fine art based clubs in the
District, which comes across as refreshing, fun and honest.
Moving out of the
advertised location, Falkirk Town Hall, suggests the main motivation
of this exhibition is to get as many people through the door
regardless to whom they may be or their interests, the more eyes on
the work the better, the impression is given that group will judge
this exhibition solely by how many turned up. Conflicting with the
venue stated in the Tryst Festival brochure the group have fallen on
a double edged sword, rejecting the advertising and promotion that
comes with being featured in a catalogue and the professional venue
and dedicated audience that the Town Hall boasts, in order to attract
a wider audience of shoppers who have not come out for the purpose of
visiting Falkirk Art and District Art Club. The true success of this
exhibition shall be seen in how many of the numbers are transformed
into new members the club attracts and not how many people attended
or entered a prize draw.
Over all the work on show at the old Republic shop was one of a high quality, the mix of styles and media used demonstrates how diverse the Art Club is and it's ability to nurture it's members. Although the focus on attendance is a little off putting the venue has shown to be a perfect suit in the exhibition of paintings and drawings as the spacious and airy location showed the work off in the best light.
