The Rinse Cycle is the first ever full-scale survey of Jim Shaw’s work internationally and will bring together more than one hundred paintings, sculptures, drawings and videos from the last twenty-five years.

Los Angeles-based Jim Shaw is one of America’s most important and prolific contemporary artists. Part of a ground-breaking group including Mike Kelley, John Miller and Tony Oursler that graduated from California Institute of the Arts in the late 1970s, Shaw has one of the most distinctive visual imaginations of his generation. The Rinse Cycle is the first ever full-scale survey of Shaw’s work internationally and will bring together more than one hundred paintings, sculptures, drawings and videos from the last twenty-five years.

Watch a new full-length film on Jim Shaw at vimeo.com/balticmill

An accompanying exhibition of Jim Shaw's collection of found thrift store paintings also tales place at BALTIC 39, Newcastle.

The exhibition is accompanied by a major publication and a limited edition print available from BALTIC SHOP.

Shaw’s work is informed by his enduring fascination with the imagery of popular culture, art history, politics, religion and myth, as well as his own unconscious mind. Drawing from these different sources he makes work in distinct series that often take years to complete and represented together for the first time in this exhibition. Shaw’s alter-ego, dreams and fictitious religion ‘Oism’ will be represented alongside monumental banner paintings that reveal a schizoid vision of America. Collectively, these works prove Shaw to be one of the most enquiringand influential artists working today, dissecting the fractured natureof contemporary visual culture and the popular imagination at anunprecedented level.

The exhibition is accompanied by a major publication and a limited edition print available from BALTIC SHOP.

Visit Jim Shaw: My Mirage microsite.

The Encampment of Eternal Hope is a major new sculptural installation by Zoë Walker & Neil Bromwich extending their enquiry into the role of art as an active agent for transformation in society. Taking apocalyptic predictions for 21 December 2012, the end date for the Mayan Calendar, as an imaginative catalyst, the project envisages a post-apocalyptic utopian community, a kind of ‘garden of earthly delights’. 

BALTIC will premiere The Encampment of Eternal Hope, a major new sculptural installation by Zoë Walker & Neil Bromwich extending their enquiry into the role of art as an active agent for transformation in society. Taking apocalyptic predictions for 21 December 2012 – the end date for the Mayan Calendar – as an imaginative catalyst, the project envisages a post-apocalyptic utopian community, a kind of ‘garden of earthly delights’.  This ambitious participatory installation will evolve within the gallery space involving audiences in a programme of events, which bring together experts in the fields of ecology, economy and the arts to explore hopes and fears for future survival. 

The Encampment of Eternal Hope is a nomadic social sculpture, field laboratory and evolving community. Part-tent and part-garden, it seeks out positive strategies for future living at a time of global uncertainty. The collaborative duo are renowned for their large-scale participatory events and exhibitions that invite audiences to imagine better worlds.

View The Encampment of Eternal Hope Events Programme
View The Festival of the Apocalypse Events Programme
Watch a film on The Encampment of Eternal Hope on YouTube

RELATED EVENTS PROGRAMME
10 November – 22 December 2012
Daily at 13.30 until 20 December 2012 / Level 2 / FREE
The Encampment of Eternal Hope will include a programme of events and daily activities. Visitors are invited to become part of this laboratory for future living. Join a team of experts within the fields of ecology,economy and the arts and play your part in this live artwork. The programme includes invited expert speakers such as physicist David Korowicz from Feasta (The Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability), Transition Towns Newcastle, Heaton Herbalists, Dr. Geraldine Wright from the Honeybee Lab, Newcastle University, alongside survival exercise classes, around the ‘campfire’ discussions and soapbox opportunities, the ritual dance of Eternal Hope rehearsals, apocalyptic choir recitals and off-site visits, featuring a field trip witha professional forager and visit to Bill Quay Community Farm.
Explore the full programme by clicking on the info to the right. 
View video footage from the Events Programme so far on YouTube

THE FESTIVAL OF THE APOCALYPSE
21-22 December 2012
These activities will climax in The Festival of the Apocalypse, a two-dayfestival starting on 21 December 2012, the apocalyptic end date for theMayan Calendar and continuing (hopefully) into the new dawn andrebirth on 22 December 2012. 
Explore the full programme by clicking on the info to the right.

The first solo exhibition in the UK of Yugoslav-born Bojan Fajfrić includes the major recent work Theta Rhythm 2010. A film and installation, it examines the intersection between personal and collective memory. 

The first solo exhibition in the UK of Yugoslav-born Bojan Fajfrić includes the major recent work Theta Rhythm 2010. A film and installation, it examines the intersection between personal and collective memory. The film is a painstaking reconstruction of a day in the life of the artist’s father, an administrator for Belgrade’s City Committee, who was present at the infamous 8^th Session, over which Slobodan Milosević presided. The meeting is considered by many to be a turning point that contributed to the rise of nationalism in Serbia and subsequently plunged the country into war and economic distress up to the NATO bombings in 1999.

• ARTIST WEBSITE

A new narrative installation resulting from Tris Vonna-Michell’s recent residency at Gibside, Gateshead as part of The Residents series in partnership with the National Trust.

A new narrative installation resulting from Tris Vonna-Michell’s recent residency at Gibside, Gateshead as part of The Residents series in partnership with the National Trust. The work incorporates slide projections and a narrated soundtrack, developed from research into the orchestrated relationships between humans and nature and the changing aesthetic, structure and function of the site over time.

 

BALTIC has won the public vote to be crowned the UK’s favourite arts project in this year’s National Lottery Awards - the annual search to find the nation’s favourite Lottery-funded projects.

In 2013 BALTIC will present an exhibition of recent work by Thomas Scheibitz, one of the leading German artists of his generation.  This large-scale presentation including painting, sculpture and works on paper will retrace the conceptual and painterly development of Scheibitz’s career with a particular focus on the theme of the human figure, and the determination of form between figuration and abstraction.

Thomas Scheibitz: ONE-Time Pad is organised by MMK Museum für Modern Kunst Frankfurt am Main.

In 2013 BALTIC will present an exhibition of recent work by Thomas Scheibitz, one of the leading German artists of his generation.  Investigating the boundary between figuration and abstraction, Scheibitz draws upon motifs and themes from the everyday and popular culture in the form of film, literature, music and advertising as well as architecture. He also takes inspiration from art historical imagery such as Renaissance paintings or medieval engravings which he places in new perceptual contexts.  This large-scale presentation will retrace the conceptual and painterly development of Scheibitz’s career with a particular focus on the human figure, and the determination of form between figuration and abstraction.  The exhibition will comprise over two hundred works across BALTIC’s Level 3 and Level 4 galleries, including painting, sculpture, drawing and works on paper. 

Thomas Scheibitz: ONE-Time Pad is organised by MMK Museum für Modern Kunst Frankfurt am Main.


       

FRIEZE VIDEO: STUDIO VISIT
Thomas Scheibitz talks about his studio practice in a film specially produced by Frieze Video. Click the image to watch.

A £1 million initiative for new site-specific commissions across the UK. Artangel and BBC Radio 4 today launch a new Open for artists anywhere in the UK. Artangel will visit 12 cities across the UK for Open Platforms, events providing artists the opportunity to talk to Artangel directly about the initiative, including BALTIC. Read more

A £1 million initiative for new site-specific commissions across the UK

'Artangel lets artists do what no one else will. It's as simple as that.' Jeremy Deller

Artangel and BBC Radio 4 today launch a new Open for artists anywhere in the UK: a call for artists working in any media to share with Artangel and BBC Radio 4 proposals for ground-breaking projects that will transform the UK's cultural landscape.

Previous Artangel Open calls have led to some of the most iconic projects of the past decade – Michael Landy’s Break Down, the very public destruction in a department store on Oxford Street of absolutely everything the artist owned; Jeremy Deller's The Battle of Orgreave in South Yorkshire, the re-enactment of a dark day in the conflict between police and colliery workers during the 1984 Miners' Strike; Roger Hiorns's Seizure, thebrilliant blue crystal council flat in South London; and Clio Barnard's award-winning  film The Arbor shot on the Buttershaw Estate in Bradford.

James Lingwood and Michael Morris, Artangel Co-Directors, say: 'Artangel is adamant that nothing potentially exceptional should be thought of as impossible. It’s the right time for artists to be as ambitious as possible and for Artangel to be as open as possible. Some remarkable new art in extraordinary places will come out of Open and we're delighted to be collaborating with Radio 4.'

Gwyneth Williams, Controller, Radio 4 says: 'I want to open up the airwaves and invite artists to bring their talents to Artangel and Radio 4. At a time when political and economic ideas often seem to reference the past, what does culture have to say about the way we live now? I am thrilled to launch this new initiative for artists across the UK.'  

To mark the new alliance of Artangel and BBC Radio 4, five artists including Christian Marclay and Susan Hiller will participate in Open Air, a series of short pieces scheduled for broadcast immediately after the Today programme from 25 – 29 March 2013.

12 Open Platforms for artists across the UK are being hosted by some of the UK’s leading arts organisations in cities including Belfast, Bristol, Glasgow, Manchester and NewcastleGateshead between January 28 and February 26. The Platforms are an opportunity to meet Artangel Co-Directors James Lingwood and Michael Morris and artists including Barnard, Deller, Hiorns and Landy.

Click here to book a place the Artangel Open Platform event at BALTIC.

Open proposals are encouraged from visual artists, filmmakers, writers, composers, theatre makers, choreographers and producers as well as artists working in the digital space. The closing date for 2013 Open submissions is Monday 29 April. Shortlisted artists will have the opportunity to meet and develop their proposals with Open Mentors.  A range of influential cultural figures including  Andrea Arnold, Felix Barrett, Adam Curtis, Tacita Dean, Ryan Gander, Rachel Whiteread and Penny Woolcock have made themselves available as Open Mentors.

In June the first Open commissions will be chosen by a selection panel including James Lingwood and Michael Morris, Tony Phillips, Arts Commissioning Editor at Radio 4, Clio Barnard and Roger Hiorns. They will be announced in June and presented between 2014 and 2015. 

For more information and submissions visit artangel.org.uk/open
View the Media Release here

The work of Marcin Maciejowski (born Babice, Poland in 1974) re-presents everyday images of our time. Using those already in popular circulation as starting points - found photographs, movies, posters, newspaper illustrations - his paintings naturally inherit the social and political implications of their source material.

The work of Marcin Maciejowski (born Babice, Poland in 1974) re-presents everyday images of our time. Using those already in popular circulation as starting points - found photographs, movies, posters, newspaper illustrations - his paintings naturally inherit the social and political implications of their source material. Current affairs, film stills, military and religious figures and film noir femme fatales all populate his art. Witty and often ironic, these subjects are presented in a deliberate abandonment of the traditions associated with the history of painting. Echoing the speed of the digital reproduction, the slowness of his chosen, analogue, medium brings an examination of the role of painting in today'’s cultural world. 

This will be the artists first exhibition in a public UK venue and will include paintings from 2003-12. 

David Jablonowski (born in 1982 in Bochum) makes work which investigates the history and potential of communication in visual culture. His sculptures, films and installations explore cultural aesthetics, display systems and information transfer, from calligraphic manuscripts to TV advertising and the World Wide Web.

David Jablonowski (born in 1982 in Bochum) makes work which investigates the history and potential of communication in visual culture. His sculptures, films and installations explore cultural aesthetics, display systems and information transfer, from calligraphic manuscripts to TV advertising and the World Wide Web. Jablonowski’s sculptures combine a wide range of materials including aluminium, plaster, Styrofoam, ceramic, wood, found texts, offset-printing plates and components from information technology hardware such as computers and flat bed scanners. He is interested in the possibilities of these materials, overlapping and layering different surfaces to make new sculptural assemblages.

At BALTIC, Jablonowski will present an installation of recent sculpture and video together with new work made especially for the exhibition.

Fabrice Hyber (born Luçon, France 1961) is one of the most inventive and influential artists of his generation. Hyber’s continually evolving work includes painting, drawing and installation and is developed from a principle of echoes, in which each work is made in response to another.

Fabrice Hyber (born Luçon, France 1961) is one of the most inventive and influential artists of his generation. Hyber’s continually evolving work includes painting, drawing and installation and is developed from a principle of echoes, in which each work is made in response to another. Since the 1980s Hyber has created hybrid works made from a vast array of materials and based upon a network of unexpected associations. In his exhibitions, visitors are invited to experience the work by interacting with it directly and generating new ways of behaving. Raw Materials is the artist’s first large-scale solo exhibition in the UK and will bring together more than fifty works spanning Hyber’s prolific career.

Fabrice Hyber: Raw Materials was originated by Palais de Tokyo, Paris.

Fabrice Hyber: Raw Materials was originated by Palais de Tokyo, Paris.

BALTIC and BALTIC 39 have been selected as one of 10 finalists for The Art Fund Prize, Museum of the Year 2013. The prize celebrates museums and galleries across the UK - annually awarding one outstanding winner £100,000. 

BALTIC and BALTIC 39 have been selected as one of 10 finalists for The Art Fund Prize, Museum of the Year 2013. The prize celebrates museums and galleries across the UK - annually awarding one outstanding winner £100,000. The announcement was made live on BBC Radio 4 Front Row by Mark Lawson on 2 April. The judging panel this year chaired by Art Fund Director Stephen Deuchar, includes the Daily Telegraph’s Arts Editor Sarah Crompton, writer and broadcaster Bettany Hughes, historian Tristram Hunt MP and artist Bob and Roberta Smith.

The winner of the prize will be announced on 4 June at a ceremony in London broadcast live on BBC Radio 4 Front Row.

Godfrey Worsdale, BALTIC's Director, commented: "I am thrilled that BALTIC has been included as one of this year's finalists. As a still young institution, BALTIC is continuing to engage new audiences in its programmes of international contemporary art through innovative practices and partnerships and to have that work recognised in this way is tremendous".

To celebrate BALTIC’s nomination for The Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year 2013, BALTIC will host Say Cheese!, an open photographic weekend. From 4-6 May we're inviting visitors to take photos throughout the building and galleries to find the best photograph of BALTIC.

Over the May Bank Holiday weekend, 4-6 May we're inviting you to take photos throughout the building and galleries to find the best photograph of BALTIC.

From the most innovative and atmospheric or a beautiful image of the façade to a snap of a favourite object, or even something humorous with family and friends – the winning picture will creatively capture the spirit of BALTIC. The Art Fund will then select the winning image from each of the ten museum finalists then hand over to the public to choose the overall winner from 20 May 2013.

Look out for these special photo opportunities throughout BALTIC all weekend:

ON SATURDAY
   - Go on a Family Quest with one of our BALTIC Crew at 11.30 on Saturday and find out about our current exhibitions with opportunities to take interesting photos.

ON SUNDAY
   - Join us for a Behind the Scenes Tour of the building at 11.00 on Sunday and discover unique photo opportunities
   - On Sunday, teens can try their hand at a digital photography workshop as part of Art Mix, from 14.00-16.00

WHOLE WEEKEND
   - Meet and talk to camera and photography enthusiasts and professionals
   - Add your photographs to The Street to help create a wall of photos
   - Check out our I LOVE BALTIC Wall on Level 5 and add your own messages or pictures
   - Join in with special Busy B’s session in the studio all weekend from 11.00–16.00 and make props to pose with in the photo studio on Level 5 
   - Pop into our Information Superhighway for help to upload your photos online or use our computers to do it yourself
   - Have fun with the Portrait of BALTIC Studio Photo Booth and take home a photographic souvenir of your visit
   - Take a Spotlight Tour of our exhibitions at 11.30, 13.30 & 15.30 which offer exciting photo opportunities
   - Step into BALTIC SHOP Fashion Window and strike a pose with our fantastic props and gorgeous giant Tatty Devine Jewellery

FOR PHOTOGRAPHY GROUPS & CLUBS 
   - Special access to BALTIC roof and Power Plant for photography groups and clubs. Please e-mail learning@balticmill.com as booking is essential and places are limited.

We will be documenting the weekend's activities through photos on the tumblr site balticphoto.tumblr.com

PRIZES
The winning BALTIC entry will have their photo displayed on a poster in the building.
The overall winning Say Cheese! photographer will be decided by the Art Fund and will receive:

An iPad mini / A year’s NationalArtPass / A selected image published in the Art Fund’s magazine, Art Quarterly / Two tickets to the Museum of the Year ceremony on 4 June at the V&A, London

SUBMITTING YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS
Visitors can enter by visiting artfund.org/prize, emailing photo@artfund.org or sending a twitpic to the @artfund Twitter account. You can enter up to 5 different photographs. Photographs uploaded or sent by email must be in JPEG format only. Full information on how to enter can be found at artfund.org/prize 

Closing date for entries is Wednesday 15 May 2013

On Thursday 18 April three of the judges visited BALTIC to experience first-hand the exhibition programme and learning offer. The judges met with BALTIC Director Godfrey Worsdale and BALTIC Head of Learning Emma Thomas, as well as visiting BALTIC 39, BALTIC’s Project Space based in Newcastle, judges met with BxNU Institute of Contemporary Art students and studio holders.

BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art is one of the ten finalists for the prestigious Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year 2013. Celebrating the very best UK museums and galleries, this prize, the largest arts prize in the UK, rewards and highlights their innovation and creativity in bringing objects and collections to life.

On Thursday 18 April three of the judges visited BALTIC to experience first-hand the exhibition programme and learning offer. The judges met with BALTIC Director Godfrey Worsdale and BALTIC Head of Learning Emma Thomas, as well as visiting BALTIC 39, BALTIC’s Project Space based in Newcastle, judges met with BxNU Institute of Contemporary Art students and studio holders.

Stephen Deuchar, Director of the Art Fund commented: “BALTIC celebrated its tenth birthday in 2012, having become one of the UK's very best art galleries. Its programme of exhibitions is unfailingly adventurous, international in scope, and its visitors and supporters are passionate and loyal - a very impressive combination."

Bob and Roberta Smith, Artist commented: "BALTIC can lay claim to being one of the most
innovative galleries in the UK. The programme is the vanguard of contemporary curatorial practice and its ambition to educate people of all ages, from children to PhD students, is unrivalled in any university art school or education programme."

Sarah Crompton, Arts Editor in Chief of the Daily Telegraph commented:"I was really excited to visit a gallery that has such a sure sense of itself. It feels very exciting and ambitious.

The current programme of exhibitions is contrasting and the education programme is entirely integrated. It was a really invigorating and enjoyable experience to be there. BALTIC is an institution that has such confidence in itself and has an important place not just in the region and nationally - but in the world."

BALTIC will present an exhibition of new and recent work by Heather Phillipson (born London, 1978). Yes, surprising is existence in the post-vegetal cosmorama – consists of three videos within custom made environments in BALTIC’s Ground Floor Gallery.

BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, is presenting an exhibition of new and recent work by Heather Phillipson (born London, 1978). Yes, surprising is existence in the post-vegetal cosmorama – consists of three videos within custom made environments in BALTIC’s Ground Floor Gallery. Cardiovascular Vernacular (as in ‘it’s time for my regular cardiovascular vernacular’) 2013, will also be launched. A new audio-visual walking tour that takes visitors outside the gallery space, the work will link BALTIC with its sister venue, BALTIC 39, in Newcastle upon Tyne.

The exhibition invites visitors into a multi-layered interior of hidden and revealed structures, containing moving images, sounds and machineswhich are re-coloured, re-sized and inhabited. Portals and enclosures provoke a succession of arrivals and departures and throughout, the voice is a pervasive and contagious presence.

On entry the visitor encounters immediately and for a short time balloons weapons too-tight clothing worries of all kinds 2013, introducing a world that is occasionally familiar. The video detours through incidental music, gestures, undertones, overtones and deliberate decorative elements while the narration glues together the painted, collaged and digitally enhanced backdrops. The second video, ha!ah!  2013, takes a plunge into oral hygiene rituals from within a boat on a wave of water bottles. Last, A Is to D What E Is to H 2011-13, undertakes an odyssey between language and architecture. Constructed around two interchangeable words and two interchangeable locations, the mouth becomes the central byway, a cavity for language and sensual experience.
 
In counterpoint, Cardiovascular Vernacular (as in ‘it’s time for my regular cardiovascular vernacular’), a 12-step walking tour, journeys beyond the gallery. The city and its systems become prompts for physical and virtual digressions. Delivered through a smartphone, the tour is an exercise class with no visible instructor. Its 'personal trainer' has the appearance of omniscience and authority, but is subject to blunders, doubts and technical glitches. The walking tour is presented as part of Festival of the North East, taking place throughout the region in June 2013.

Heather Phillipson was born 1978 in London, lives in London
 
RECENT SOLO EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS
immediately and for a short time balloons weapons too-tight clothing worries of all kinds, LOOP Art Fair with Rowing Projects, Barcelona, 2013; Splashy Phasings, Random Acts, Channel 4 television, 2013; Zabludowicz Invites: Heather Phillipson, Zabludowicz Collection, London, 2013; Bleurgh, CIRCA, Newcastle, 2012; PRESSURIZATION, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2012. 
 
RECENT GROUP EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS
Flux Projects, Flux Night, Atlanta, USA, 2013; WE OBJECT! Aid & Abet, Cambridge, 2013; Verging on the Absurd, Contemporary Arts Society, London, 2013; PLAY, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, 2013; LOCO Film Festival, BFI, London, 2013; The Space between Words: Filmic Expansions, Café Curio, Camden Arts Centre, London, 2013; EYE MUSIC FOR DANCING, Flat Time House, London, 2012; The Dan Cox Library for the Unfinished Concept of Thingly Time, Cubitt, London, 2012; London Open, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2012;  Performing as Publishing, Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland, 2012.
 
Philipson was a LUX Associate Artist 2011/12. Phillipson is also an award winning poet recent awards Faber New Poets Award 2009, Eric Gregory Award 2008.

To celebrate BALTIC’s nomination for The Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year 2013, BALTIC hosted a Museum of the Year Photography Competition Say Cheese! weekend asking visitors to take photos of their favourite view of BALTIC.

The Art Fund selected David Winham as the winning image for BALTIC, from today 20 May the voting is handed over to the public to choose the overall winner.

We are calling upon the public to help us make David’s entry the winning photo. To vote for BALTIC’s winning image by David Whinham, BALTIC Round 2013 click here

Visitors will be able to see BALTIC’s entry, which will be displayed on a poster in the Cafe Bar.

The overall winning Say Cheese! photographer will receive:

An iPad mini, a year’s NationalArtPass, the selected image published in the Art Fund’s magazine, Art Quarterly and two tickets to the Museum of the Year ceremony on 4 June at the V&A, London.