Current Exhibitions

SUMMER EXHIBITION

Thu, Jul 3rd 2008 - Sun, Aug 31st 2008

New works by over 30 leading contemporary artists including Judy Buxton, Gareth Thomas, Luke Martineau & Robert Newton.

MORE INFO

Future Exhibitions

Past Exhibitions

MICHAEL MONAGHAN & CARL CHAPPLE
Fri, May 30th 2008 - Sat, Jun 28th 2008

VIEW EXHIBITION

WELSH WONDERS@THE CELTIC MANOR
Tue, May 27th 2008 - Mon, Jun 2nd 2008

From Wednesday 28th May through to Monday 2nd June 2008 the gallery at the Celtic Manor will feature works by leading Welsh Artists to coincide with the Wales Open. Featuring works by Sir Kyffin Williams, RA, Gareth Thomas (with paintings of the 2010 Golf Course) and a new series of prints by Valerie Ganz.

VIEW EXHIBITION

GEORGE WEISSBORT - 80th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
Fri, Apr 11th 2008 - Wed, May 14th 2008

It is often said that nothing under the sun is really new: only new twists on existing themes. Is this what can be said about George Weissbort’s work, or is this a story of a neglected genius?

An exhibition showing at Denise Yapp Contemporary Art is attempting to prove that the latter is true. Simply by the huge number of paintings and drawings he has produced throughout his 80 years testifies to the persistance of his creative will. The quality of his work is generally high, yet what escapably strikes one on encountering it is the unfamiliarity of his name. How is it possible that such an artist of such range and productiveness has remained so little known?

George had seen his work exhibited every year at the Royal Acadamy until it was no longer considered cutting edge, yet be sold at leading galleries in London and across the globe and remain as treasured pieces in many of the finest private art collections in the UK, Europe and the USA; and in the Museum of Modern Art in Tel Aviv.

George Weissbort is a quiet, gentle, reserved, almost reclusive man who finds solace in his work. It has been with great reluctance that he has agreed to exhibit on the day of his 80th birthday. For a publicity-shy artist, the exhibition will be a baptism of fire; and a testimont to his love of the art, as he parades himself among the public.

George is a man who has an overriding compulsion to paint – be it on canvas, paper, board, brown paper shopping bags, receipts and napkins, anything that is available to hand if paper is not, it is all there neatly filed in his studio where no piece of work has ever been discounted. Such is George’s obsession to paint, the midnight oil can be seen burning from his studio until past two in the morning. From early self portraiture in the 1940’s where Raphael and Michealangelo were his main influences to Cezanne and later Impressionism the old masterly influences can clearly be seen in most of the works on display. Several of the landscape and flower paintings bear witness to his discovery of Impressionism. Gone is the control and order of his classical period, instead comparative disorder and wild abandon can be seen in these paintings with the love of colour and soft edges bringing an unshakeable authenticity about them. Later, with his still lifes one is immediately struck by the truthfulness to visual experience – it is not rare for George to have two paintings of the same still life on the go at any one time, one in oil, one in acrylic so as to play with light, medium and colours to achieve the closest impression of what he is painting, although to the untrained eye they look identical.

However, throughout the many influences and changes in his work he remains energetically interested in human beings and in figure composition. Indeed, for many years he dreamed mainly of painting portraits, however he lacks one essential ingredient for this task: a taste for socializing. This is not to say when in company he is not animated, particularly when discussing his favourite subject – his work and that of other great artists.
He has for many years badgered members of his family, friends and neighbours to sit for him and when this avenue is exhausted he resorts to painting himself, hence the large number of self portraits in this show.

The work in this show spans almost 60 years of his working life and whilst he has exhibited and been applauded in the past and sold paintings, although not as many as he should have done, he has acquired a certain fame among artists as an anaylist of exceptional skill. So it begs the question: Why has he remained so relatively marginal when lesser lights have achieved prominence?

Finally to quote David Lee, editor of the Jackdaw,” to those willing to look, figurative painting is an open book and this is why, in the end, people will be studying George Weissbort’s work in a hundred years time; that is long after so much of what is now fashionably challenging and winning prizes has been despatched to the landfill. It will move future generations in the same way as it moves us now because the best art is always beyond fashion.”

VIEW EXHIBITION

GEORGE WEISSBORT - 80th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

LIAM MARC O'CONNOR & JO DIXON
Fri, Mar 7th 2008 - Sat, Mar 29th 2008

NEW WORKS

VIEW EXHIBITION

CHRISTMAS
Fri, Nov 9th 2007 - Mon, Dec 24th 2007

VIEW EXHIBITION

AUTUMN
Fri, Sep 14th 2007 - Sat, Oct 27th 2007

VIEW EXHIBITION

New Beginnings
Fri, May 25th 2007 - Sun, Sep 2nd 2007

The title of my first exhibition literally captures the essence of my new enterprise, the establishment of a unique gallery in a beautiful setting, that allows me to build on over a decade of Gallery Management at the Albany in Cardiff and my continuing relationship with some of the best contemporary talent in the UK.

Situated in the picturesque village of Whitebrook in the heart of the Wye Valley, the entire property will be used as gallery space, thereby allowing buyers to see art & sculpture in situ, in an informal and refreshingly novel approach.

VIEW EXHIBITION

SUE HUNT
Thu, Jan 1st 1970 - Thu, Jan 1st 1970

VIEW EXHIBITION