The Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery at Leeds University always has an interesting display of art from the university’s permanent collection. However, only a small selection of art can be on display at any one time.
One of the attractions for visiting artists is that they can not only develop their own art but they interact with the permanent collection and use artworks as part of their exhibitions. October saw the launch of two new exhibitions where both artists have engaged with art from the university collection and incorporated it into their exhibition.
Boris Maas has responded to the moonlit works of John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836-1893). Two of Grimshaw’s works from the 1880s, Briggate and Thames Moonlight, are hung opposite a range of nocturnal photos of Leeds City Centre. In Maas’s photographs, the moon is replaced by neon and street lights, that have the power to both focus and distort vision.
Maas came to Leeds in 2023 as part of a visiting artist programme during the 2023 Year of Culture. He was impressed by the use of light in Grimshaw’s work and began to explore night, light and shadow further in his own work. At the end of the gallery is an immersive light installation that plays with colour, movement, light and shadow. His work has been supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the UK and was promoted as part of Leeds Light Night. It is good to see collaborations between Dutch and Yorkshire institutions. After all, they are our nearest continental neighbours.
Mary Griffiths is the current Gatenby Fellow at the University of Leeds. This is her first institutional exhibition and contains work produced over the last ten years. It is an example of how a university can help develop the work of an artist. Griffiths has had access to the permanent collection, the assistance of an experienced curator in Dr Laura Claveria, academics who have contributed to a book to accompany the exhibition and a space to display her work and create new work. Her wall drawing, ‘Prophet’, is on a bigger scale than most of her previous work, having been commissioned for the high wall at the end of the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery.
The work emerged from a collaboration with Tony Crowley, Professor of English Language at the University. It is a reflection on their experiences of living in terraced houses and references Prophet Street in the Dingle, Liverpool. Like many of the works here, the work benefits from spending time exploring the work. What initially appears as a stack of pointed shapes suggesting rotated terrace houses reveals a myriad of detail and internal life on closer inspection.
These are multi-layered art works which take time to produce and require time to fully appreciate. Griffith’s art focuses down on to minute detail but still manages to deal with big concepts. Descriptions of the work include going from ‘the macroscopic to the microscopic’ and from ‘the cosmological to the atomic.’
Griffiths’ work is mainly monochrome and paper based, although she is starting to branch into colour, but her choice of art to display from the permanent collection is diverse. There are screen prints and works on paper, including one by Bridget Riley who would seem to be a clear influence upon her work. However, there is also a textile wall hanging, a ceramic bowl and splashes of colour. She explains why she chose each piece but even without the explanations the collection seems holistic.
The two exhibitions sit well together – Griffith’s For This We Go Out Dark Nights is inspired by astronomy and speaks to concepts of light and dark. I would suggest starting with the Maas, experiencing the brightness, then moving on to Griffith’s work to explore light and shadow in greater detail.
Boris Mass: You have seen nothing yet until 22nd February 2025
Mary Griffiths: Everything and All of Us. Until 8th March 2025
Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 5pm
Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery, Parkinson Building,
Leeds University, Woodhouse Lane, Leeds LS2 9JT
Main image: ‘You have seen nothing yet’ installation at Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery. Copyright University of Leeds.
