EAST SUSSEX.- Brewers Towner International is an open call exhibition of contemporary art that takes place at Towner Eastbourne. The second edition features a range of artists, local, national and international, coming together to share work which addresses the theme of SANCTUARY.
The Brewers Towner Award of £10,000, sponsored by Brewers Decorator Centres, is given to one of the exhibiting artists alongside mentoring from the Towner team. The winner of this prestigious award has been announced this weekend as Harald Smykla.
Harald Smykla studied painting/printmaking at Karlsruhe Academy of Fine Art (Germany). Based in London since 1988, his practice evolved into merging unorthodox notions of drawing and other traditional media with performative and participatory strategies, exploring contexts of place and time, materiality, process and interaction. His practice of social engagement in the public realm – especially through street market projects - involves people of all backgrounds as incidental audiences and active participants, e.g. in acts of “re-facing” banknotes, produce-based chess games, collective cardiography, research into art and emotion, dental sculpting, hand-drawn projection mapping and other approaches to artistic interaction with the public.
His current studio practice is focused on 'rewilding' press images by revealing underlying pictorial life forms and such transformations imply various political readings. In particular, press photos that illustrate the ongoing tensions / conflict between Islamist extremism and Western secularism are 'defused' by being converted into floral imagery ('Iconoclash Press Flowers'): By following classic Islamic art rules rejecting the human image, violent ideological bravado is subverted, and victim exposure reversed.
He said, “Being selected for the Brewers Towner International and winning this award has given me a strong sense of validation of my current art practice - especially after the dearth of opportunities to present work ‘in real life’ during the pandemic.”
The exhibition has been curated by Noelle Collins, Exhibitions & Offsite Curator, Towner Eastbourne. She says of the winner, “We are delighted to announce that Harald Smylka has won this year’s Brewers Towner Award. His convincing and direct work appeals to us all, and is highly accessible whilst remaining complex. The London based, German artist makes images which ‘rewild’ press images, providing respite from the ‘bad news’ in the form of colour and texture. The exhibiting artists this year were of a fantastic caliber, and Harald’s work in particular was appropriate to our theme of SANCTUARY.”
Following an open call, 23 artists were selected by an esteemed panel including Elizabeth Price (Turner Prize winning artist), Sepake Angiama (Artistic Director, Iniva), and Noelle Collins (Exhibitions & Offsite Curator, Towner Eastbourne). This same panel met on Saturday 21 October to choose the winner from the exhibiting artists.
19 artists are part of the exhibition and a further four, meanwhile, are to present a concurrent public programme this season including film screenings, artist talks and performances. The artists include a number based on the South Coast - Nigel Caple, Sharon Haward, Kevin Hendley and Benjamin Phillips & Amy Fenton who live and work in East Sussex, as well as Graham Ellard & Stephen Johnstone, Hicham Gardaf, and Edward Liddle who are based in Kent. Artists based elsewhere in the UK include Maud Haya-Baviera who lives in Sheffield, and Ufuoma Essi, Melanie Jackson, Amanda Kyritsopoulou, Dene Leigh, Karen Russo, Lara Smithson and Harald Smykla all based in London. Christophe Lennox lives and works in Norway, and Steph Goodger, lives and works in France. Work presented includes moving image, photography, drawing, painting, installation and live performance.
Mark Brewer added, “The open call for Brewers Towner International is an opportunity to recognise and appreciate how artistic communities are reflecting and responding to the economic, political, cultural, and environmental changes that are unfolding in the contemporary moment. Artists have studied the places that have become a sanctuary throughout the pandemic - finding solace in the studio, the home and the landscape. The resulting exhibition brings together a community of artists, makers and storytellers, examining subjects as varied as pattern, memory, identity and the migratory experience”
The exhibition and project:
In Brewers Towner International, paintings and drawings exploring ideas of memory, trauma, healing and collaboration will be exhibited alongside newspaper clippings embellished with floral patterns - transforming images of fear and violence into imaginary ecosystems. Considerations of the natural environment and its resilience are captured in large scale paintings of a WWII-era pillbox engulfed by tree roots on the banks of the Medway river. Observations of routine and handcrafting, and ideas of the body as an archive - a repository of history and site of resistance, will be presented in film and video works. Sculptural installations responding to architectural histories and ideas of exposure, vulnerability, light and shadow, will be shown alongside photographs of cinnamon stick structures reflecting childhood memories of Morocco and feelings of homesickness. Locations along the Sussex coast will feature in a series of works on paper, based on local landing points for those seeking asylum.
A new element for this edition of Brewers Towner International, will include the accompanying public programme. On Saturday 5 November there will be an artist film screening on Patrick Hough’s The Two Faces of Tomorrow (2021), followed by an in-conversation with the artist. On Saturday 26 November there will be a screening of Felix Melia’s Money for Nothing (2021), followed by an in-conversation with the artist.
Running concurrently with Brewers Towner International in Towner’s ground floor Studio 2 is Duette, an exhibition of new and recent works by Ayo Akingbade, the recipient of the inaugural Brewers Towner Award in 2020.
Akingbade is an artist, writer and director who lives and works in London. She works predominantly with moving image, addressing notions of power, urbanism and stance. Interested in the fluid boundaries between the self and the other, she gathers local and cultural experiences in intimate and playful interpretations. In the exhibition, Akingbade presents a duo of films: 55 Days (2022) and Red Soleil (2021); these works reflect the aspirations and ambitions of an emerging artist navigating the challenges and opportunities of daily life. The work has been partially made in Sussex during the artist's mentorship with Towner Eastbourne.
Shot on 16mm film, 55 Days is a portrait of New York City at dusk. Windows of high-rise apartments, brownstones and bodegas illuminated like light boxes, offer a glimpse of neighbouring occupants. The accompanying audio combines ambient sounds of the city with excerpts from the artist’s diary - written while working in the city over a 55-day period. Inspired by Chantal Akerman's New York films and lifelong creative pursuit of experimentation, Akingbade’s short film is underlined by a sense of isolation and displacement in what would otherwise appear a dream scenario.
Filmed in Peacehaven, on England’s south east coast, Red Soleil traces the journey of a young woman who has decided to chase the sun. Looking out across the Channel her image dissolves over footage of the setting sun, a nod to French filmmaker Éric Rohmer’s The Green Ray/ Le Rayon vert (1986).
Mark Brewer, Chairman at Brewers Decorator Centres and exhibition sponsor, said: “I'm delighted that Brewers’ partnership with Towner Eastbourne continues to grow as part of the thriving arts scene in our hometown. We’re proud to be part of Brewers Towner International, an initiative that sets out to encourage, nurture and provide opportunity to artists both near and far with the Brewers Towner Award offering a platform and additional support to one of the exhibiting artists. We’re also very excited that the winner of the first Brewers Award, Ayo Akingbade, will be showcasing her exceptional talent with a solo exhibition at Towner Eastbourne, running concurrently with Brewers Towner International”
Joe Hill, Director, Towner Eastbourne said:
“We’re thrilled to be launching the second iteration of Brewers Towner International this autumn and to once again be presenting work in a diverse range of media by artists living and working here on the South Coast, alongside a range of national and international artists. I’m also delighted to also be welcoming Ayo Akingbade back to Towner and want to take this opportunity to thank Brewers Decorator Centres for their ongoing support, without which we couldn’t have provided Ayo with a platform from which to grow her career and make new work. I look forward to discovering which of this year’s artists the judges choose as the recipient of the award, and for our audiences to join us this Autumn to discover a range of talented artists in the exhibition and public programme”
Harald Smylka
Harald Smykla studied painting/printmaking at Karlsruhe Academy of Fine Art (Germany). Based in London since 1988, his practice evolved into merging unorthodox notions of drawing and other traditional media with performative and participatory strategies, exploring contexts of place and time, materiality, process and interaction. His practice of social engagement in the public realm – especially through street market projects - involves people of all backgrounds as incidental audiences and active participants, e.g. in acts of “re-facing” banknotes, produce-based chess games, collective cardiography, research into art and emotion, dental sculpting, hand-drawn projection mapping and other approaches to artistic interaction with the public. Such works have been commissioned by Axisweb, Ovalhouse (Brixton City), Creative Barking and Dagenham, Deptford X, hÅb Manchester, Beacon art project, Chester Performs and many other cultural organizations and independent curators. Hehas performed and exhibited UK-wide and internationally, including with Southwark Park Galleries, The Courtauld, QUAD Derby, Cornerhouse Manchester etc al, and on many occasions (including a one-person show) with England & Co, who last featured his “Movie Protocol” drawing performances at the inaugural DRAW Art Fair in 2019.
