Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle: The Symmetry of Intimacy - Michael Dean

Over one hundred years the Contemporary Art Society has gifted more than 8,000 works of art to public collections in this country. Over this time the Society has acted as a catalytic agent in the contemporary visual arts ecology of this country, developing audiences, artists, curators, collectors and collections alike. Talking Around Collections, which ispart of our Centenary Programme, focuses on the Event (whether in the form of a talk, discussion, performance, lecture or some other hiatus devised within an institution dedicated to visual culture). This series aims to bring artists closer to the opportunities and challenges that collections offer, and to provide to audiences and participants a dynamic insight that extends the experience of the artists’ work.

Symmetry of Intimacy is a solo exhibition by artist Michael Dean.  Dean has created two new sculptures and a play, both are inspired by the painting Sunset, The Bay, North Devon (1946), by David Bomberg. Familiar with this work from countless visits to the Laing Art Gallery over the course of his youth, Dean’s work is displayed, as he describes, ‘in conversation’ with the Bomberg painting. Writing is at the centre of Michael Dean’s work; he is concerned with the composition of writing and, what he refers to as, a ‘sculptural typography’. For the exhibition he has written a play that reflects his private childhood relationship with the painting. The play will be performed on the 15th May as part of The Late Shows programme and is also available to visitors in the form of a printed page which you are welcome to tear from the book on display.  The words will therefore continue, through the silent repetition of being read by viewers.

Click here to link to the Laing Art Gallery website