Exhibitions @ Café 164
Café 164 is not just a sandwich and coffee bar, we also hold exhibitions and display work by local artists and designers. Whether you want to sell your pieces or just give them an audience we’ll do our best to accommodate you.
If you’re interested in exhibiting please email sara@cafe164.com with a sample of your work and a covering letter and she’ll consider your application. We welcome a wide selection of media, from photography to fine art to clothing to product design…
May – June 2012
Yorkshire Graphic Design showcases the work of graphic designers in Yorkshire.
We as curators are interested in exploring what graphic design is within the context of an exhibition. Where does the line come between illustration and design, or art and graphic design? Can graphic design be considered art or does the fact it often serves commercial ends undermine this? Does design even belong in an exhibition? Are logos, typography and branding something that should be kept out of the domain of the art exhibition? These are all questions we want you to help us answer and all submissions will be considered on their own merit.
For more information please download the call for entry or view exhibition details.
Curated in association with Split Design.
Upcoming Exhibitions
June – July 2012
Leslie Child: Portraits of Leeds
Leslie Child, the renowned Leeds artist, has won several awards both nationally and internationally over the past few years. His work has been acclaimed as far afield as Canada, Germany, Romania and Italy and is currently being exhibited at several galleries in the North of England.
A winner of the Winsor and Newton award for watercolour in 2008, he was named as a runner-up and prize winner in Daler-Rowneys “Make Your Mark” competition from over 1800 entries worldwide. His entry “Market Day” was also exhibited at The Barn Galleries in Henley-on-Thames in September 2010.
A prize winner in the “Simply the Best” competition organised by Leisure Painter Magazine for his painting of Leeds Commercial Street, his work was duly exhibited at Art Materials Live show at the NEC Birmingham in November 2010.
Visit his website: www.lesartistic.webs.com
August – September 2012
“Considerate Trespassing provides an edgy photographic guide to the forlorn calmness of abandoned and derelict buildings. Cameras may paint with light and shade, but in the hands of storytellers such as Considerate Trespassing they are also eulogies and engender the kind of melancholia that can only come from excellent art.” – Greg McGee
September – October 2012
Miriam Laville - The passion and inspiration for her artwork is the investigation and response to natural forms: their complexities of line, texture, shape and colour, represent a uniqueness which she aspires to evoke and visually debate in her work. She experiments with various media, building up surfaces in certain areas of the paintings using sand, collage materials, oils and oil pastels: leaving other parts of the painting simpler with just drawn black lines.
She manipulates the original drawn sketches by abstraction and changing the scale of them. She explores the use of the colour in her images by instinct sometimes to compliment and other times to oppose, producing diverse results.
She has B.A. Hons Degree in Graphic Arts and Design from Leeds Metropolitan University, where she graduated in 1994.
For more information, images and contact details please visit Miriam’s website.
November – December 2012
Jon Stanley Austin is based in Leeds, working as an editorial photographer.
His work focuses on everyday life and the humble day to day moments that we all encounter. Focussing on situations or objects that are often overlooked, Jon’s simplistic technical approach instills a sense of familiarity in the viewer, yet his choice of colour palette may sometimes challenge.
Focussing on aspects of English leisure, such as the seaside holiday, or British summertime, Jon’s photographs bring together subtle humour and a feeling of great optimism.
For more information, images and contact details visit Jon’s website.
Past Exhibitions
April – May 2012
Now you see it
now you don’t
Paintings and drawings by Carla Moss
Carla Moss, a Leeds based artist, is inspired by our relationship with the environment and the process of change that happens over time in the landscape.
Water is a dominant and vital part of nature and when it recedes, it leaves its imprint. This is true of the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan that Carla has visited on several occasions. This shrinking sea has reduced in size by over half in fifty years because of water being siphoned off for cotton irrigation. The holes in the paper, created using a sewing machine or tracing wheel, and the pins, draw together this cause and effect, that have contributed to the changes there.
How the landscape recreates itself as changes occur is a source of fascination for Carla and she explores it through art media that interact together creating unplanned elements in the work. The landscape changes the landscape; the picture creates the picture.
The playful title suggests a game and an illusion. There are elements of illusion within the works, transparent and three-dimensional surfaces that are not always apparent on first glance.
As part of the ‘game’, Carla is inviting café visitors to participate in the interactive books that will be placed on the tables during the exhibition and rather than a private view, will be holding a games day 11am – 2pm on Saturday 28th April when board games will be available on the tables to play.
For more information, images and contact details visit Carla’s website.
February – March 2012
Johanna Hooson is a photographer and therapist living and working in Leeds. The collected images in this exhibition are an exploration of the relationship between strength and fragility in nature, inspired by an interest in the way a hostile environment contributes to beauty and character in the form of trees and plants. This links to Johanna’s belief and experience as a therapist with children and families post-abuse, where she sees that trauma and grief can be transformed and reframed into stories of perseverance, character and hope. The main images were taken in a harsh winter on the North York Moors, where trees are gnarled and shaped characterfully by the prevailing wind, and in Pompeii, where plants colonise the volcanic remains, bringing new life from the ashes.
For more information, images and contact details visit Joanna’s website.
January – February 2012
Wall Art for a Digital Generation!
Inspired by a passion for technology, sci-fi, video games, anime and digital art, the World Famous Wall Art Rockers have developed a stunning range of hyper contemporary wall art that dares to be different!
Not content with traditional display methods, this unique collection of digital art is printed onto a series of huge 675 x 1400mm (8mm thick) “high gloss” acrylic panels which when mounted to the wall look like enormous wide screen computer monitors.
The company was founded just outside of Leeds by local graphic designer Craig Hymes and his partner Siobhan.
Over the past 6 months the duo have teamed up with some of the worlds most talented creatives which includes artists from Sweden, Russia, Argentina, Japan, Germany, USA, UK and France.
One artistic collaboration involved the software giants EA/Valve and Pro Gaming peripheral manufacturer Steel Series to produce a Portal 2 themed wall art.
The collection now features over 40 individual pieces all of which are featured on their website.
Why not connect with them on Twitter (@WallArtRockers) and Facebook (/wallartrockers)
November – December 2011
Our current exhibition is Papercraft, a group of six local artists sharing their paper-based artworks, including hand cut, hand drawn and mixed media.
Papercraft is:
Karolina Haluszczak
Carla Moss
Alex Sickling
Jonathan Videgrain
Victoria Whincup
Mr Yen
This is our first group exhibition and we’re very proud to have these exceptional artists displaying their work in our café. If you’re looking for a unique holiday gift, you may find something perfect here.
October – November 2011
Kasia Breska‘s artworks exhibited at Café 164 are inspired by the journey to the French Pyrenees and exploring the wild and rustic landscape of high mountains. They are all based on the original sketches executed outdoors while exploring the mountains. It is crucial for all the works to be based on the experience of being in the wild, being surrounded by the unchanged and ancient land. Through her art she tells a story about visited lands, their magnificent beauty, fragility and freedom of space. They also express the anxiety of disappearing wild habitats, its fragmentation and unchangeable damage.
The technique differs from very simple and limited resources when creating outdoors to mix media, photography, short video recordings and collecting ‘samples’. All the material and experience gathered while being surrounded by the natural landscape is used later on in the studio where the whole aura of the visited place is re-created. The creative processes are massively influenced by the music listened while out working. It enhances the emotional experience of being within the wild land and sharpens all the senses.
The final works are a combination of traditional mixed media methods and digital imagery. They are a visual and emotional interpretation of experiencing the event of being immersed in the wild environment and create a direct connection between herself and the natural land. The current exhibition at Café 164 shows a series of semi-abstract artwork inspired by the Pyrenean wild lands as a series of limited edition prints.
For more information about Kasia and her work go to her website kasiabreska.co.uk or read Kasia’s write-up by East Street Arts.
September – October 2011
Our opening exhibition was a show of limited edition prints and t-shirts from One 4 Sorrow of Leeds and London, purveryors of limited edition screen printed t-shirts and quality organic apparel. O4S was started by Ellie Halls Schiadas, a Leeds-based freelance illustrator and designer, in 2010. The second collection “Slogans, a Feather and a Horse” is now available.
This exhibition features pieces from both the Winter 2010 and the Summer 2011 collections, as well as fantastic paper prints from a selection of designs chosen from both collections, including “Skullface” (shown here), that are available in A1 and A0 sizes which have all been signed by the artist.
Made from quality 100% viscose, the Summer collection t-shirts and vests have been laser-printed to enhance their vibrant colours – this means that the print is ‘within’ the fabric. The latest designs are light-hearted, with fun slogans and pretty illustrations on loosely fitted capped-sleeved t-shirts, long and short racerback vests.
For more info about One 4 Sorrow go to one4sorrow.com/shop Or why not say hello on Twitter @one4sorrowLL!
