Staffordshire St MAKES | Reimagining Goya's Legacy

8 Jun-9 Jun 2024

Francisco de Goya

Overview

A two-day clay workshop offering a rich ground for practical experimentation based on exploring Goya's work through figurative expressions led by Manuel Calvo and Dena Haghsay.

In the context of the upcoming painting exhibition A Painting Show, this engaging two-day workshop aims to provide a creative journey based on Francisco de Goya’s work, starting with a brief presentation of his figurative paintings, focusing on conveyed emotions and social commentary in his art and how his work has provided inspiration for the painting exhibition, followed by an introduction to our approach for creating expressive ceramic sculptures, including demonstrations on various techniques.

Over the workshop we will encourage participants to explore narratives with a series of modern approaches such as :

● Creating a piece that comments on societal norms, folly, or superstition, thinking about modern equivalents to Goya's satirical depictions.

● Drawing inspiration from the intense and sometimes emotional landscape of Goya's "Black Paintings” and creating a work that explores complex emotions such as despair, isolation or fear.

● Sculpting a figure in Goya's expressive style, focusing on capturing the personality or a particular emotional state.

● Reflecting on the themes of conflict, peace, or the human cost of war, possibly related to current global or local issues.

● Exploring the boundary between the real and the surreal, through pieces that juxtapose or blend dream-like elements with realistic details.

● Enhancing the emotional impact of their work by using light and shadow to create mood and focus through the use of glazes, carving, or added elements that cast shadows.

During the closing session, we will reflect on this journey and the ideas incorporated into the artworks.

Tickets:

General price : £100 + VAT

Concessions : £75 + VAT

100% refund 14 days in advance. 50% refund 10 days in advance

Staffordshire St is committed to making our workshops accessible, while paying facilitators and artists fairly.

We offer a concession price if you can’t afford the standard ticket as well as the opportunity to pay-it-forward and cover a portion of the ticket cost for another person if you can.

If you are financially able, please consider contributing more, to help us keep Staffordshire St accessible to all.

All materials and equipment provided.

Manuel Calvo | @quiromanu

I am a Spanish interdisciplinary artist based in London, UK. My artistic practice brings together drawing, ceramic sculpture and music into a multilayered narrative that explores the mystical aspect of vessels, the telluric interior of ceramic bodies in relation to caves, and the tension between the psychic and somatic. My ongoing investigation of the symbolic aspects of the planets in our Solar System and the alchemical relation to metals used in ceramics began in 2020 with my solo exhibition Pangaea: Ceramics & Drawings and is currently developing in 2024 in my studio at Staffordshire Street.

Dena Haghsay | @dena_haghsay

A shift from my original training in architecture and interior design, my primary focus in my South London studio is now clay. A search for meaning, identity, and belonging has always driven my journey in art which created a profound language for me that unravels and reveals truth through the fusion of various elements; an insight into human fragility and resilience through the years I worked with clay and the embodiment of our remarkable ability to navigate both fear and compassion.

The figures I sculpt often embody the universal narrative of human perseverance.

Initially serving as vessels for ageless stories, my creations have taken a new direction on contemporary psychological landscapes, drawing inspiration from psychoanalysis and personal experiences.

As an artist, I extend this exploration through teaching and community engagement. I aim to foster art as a collective medium for connection and self-reflection, celebrating our shared journey in uncovering and expressing the depths within us.

About the exhibition:

Staffordshire St x Paint Talk present A Painting Show. Taking inspiration from the work of Francisco Goya (1746 - 1842), 26 painters will exhibit an entire spectrum of work.

A Painting Show seeks to reflect and embody the endless possibilities of paint. Expansive, immersive abstraction, a varying trail of graphic language, observed reality, canvases turned in on themselves, portraits, patterns, all manner of heads, architectural structures, collaged, stitched, scored, dense surfaces, saturated colour, coupled with the precise rendering of matter. The scale of approach and matter are wide and sweeping.

​Exhibiting artists: Karolina Albricht, Ned Armstrong, Klaas Op De Beeck, Veronica Bez, Sophie Birch, Max Boyla, Luke Burton, Ethan Caflisch, Noemi Conan, Ruby Dickson, Grant Foster, Jake Freeman, Alex Gibbs, Gommaar Gilliams, Alex Gilmour, Lily Hargreaves, Sophie Lourdes Knight, Joachim Lambrecht, Holly Mills, Andras Nagy-Sandor, India Nielsen, Paige Perkins, Francisca Pinto, Heidi Ukkonen, Ryan Winnen, Fen De Winter.

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