The works in this exhibition were selected from over 550 entries to the inaugural Fen Ditton Gallery Contemporary Printmaking Prize. The selection was made by a panel of expert judges, artists Nigel Hall RA and Rebecca Jewell and Curator of Prints at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Elenor Ling. Thank you to the judges for their time, knowledge and wisdom. It has been a pleasure to have your support on this project.

The Winner - Stefan Tiburcio

We are delighted to present to you the winner of the 2021 Contemporary Printmaking Prize Stefan Tiburcio, with his work Coronavirus: Stay at Home, Save Lives, Protect the NHS. The judges thought it was a powerful and well-constructed image, skilfully executed with a clever reversal of colours to frame the composition. The artist has cut the lines of this essentially linear technique to give a real sense of liveliness and energy, which speaks to our restless physical and mental states due to staying inside during the Covid-19 lockdowns. Hannah interviewed Stefan to make the announcement and find out more about him and his practice.

Fen Ditton Gallery would like to thank all the artists who entered the Contemporary Printmaking Prize and congratulate those who were shortlisted. The variety and breadth of printmaking expertise that has been showcased has been superb. We are thrilled to be able to offer a platform to such an important and specialist art form. We hope you enjoy the exhibition as much as we have enjoyed putting it together.

We are kickstarting our 2021 exhibition programme with our Spring Exhibition. Selected by Lotte and Hannah, these works reflect the start of the new season and a time for optimism.

Add art to your daily walk! We have displayed a selection of the works from this exhibition in the windows of the gallery. We hope you will enjoy browsing them as you take a walk in the beautiful village of Fen Ditton. If you see any works below that you would like to view in person, we can arrange for them to be displayed for a 'window viewing'. Contact us on info@fendittongallery.com to enquire.

This exhibition will introduce James Horton, Past President of the Royal Society of British Artists, to the gallery for the first time. We are delighted to have a selection of his oil and watercolour paintings, the subjects of which span his travels in India to his own garden.

We are pleased to welcome Frances Priest back to the gallery, with three drawings from her Grammar of Ornament series, created especially for this exhibition. Yorkshire glassmaking duo, Gillies Jones, also return with their superb glass bowls which draw inspiration from the wildflowers they encounter on their daily walks.

Other artworks include mixed media works by award-winning wildlife artist Nik Pollard and a new screenprint to celebrate the end of lockdown by Nigel Hall RA in collaboration with Kip Gresham (Cambridge Print Studio); as well as Daphne Carnegy's plant-inspired ceramics, screenprints by member of the Society of Wildlife Artists, Kittie Jones, art nouveau inspired ceramics by Lola Swain, a thoughtful study of snowdrops by Lotte Attwood and still life mixed media studies by Carmen Renwick.

Plantlife was the third in an annual series of exhibitions at Fen Ditton Gallery that focus on the natural world.

A developing part of the gallery programme this series foregrounds artists, makers and designers across media who draw particular inspiration from the natural world and create memorable objects and images in response. 

Due to the pandemic, the exhibition took two forms; The first ''virtual' edition of this exhibition with the opportunity to view by appointment (view details of this exhibition here) took place in June 2020. The second version of the exhibition brought back some of the superb works that were on display then; Pauline Burbidge's 2m sq quilt (listen to Hannah’s interview with Pauline here), Malcolm Appleby's gingko leaf brooches and Lizzie Farey's willow drawing; and combines them with new additions such as domestic ceramics by Daphne Carnegy and Annie Hewett, solarplate etchings by Susie Turner, intricate wood engravings by Andy English, black and white photography by Paul Hart and Lotte Attwood, engraved glassware from Katharine Coleman and Gillies Jones (listen to Hannah’s interview with Gillies Jones here), botanical works by Barbara McGirr and Sandy Sykes, ceramic bowls by Jane Perryman and a concertina watercolour drawing by Anna Raven.

The exhibition also highlighted works that artists had created during lockdown, inspired by their gardens or the plants they encountered on daily walks; drawings by Nigel Hall, an original feather meadow print by Rebecca Jewell and new drawings by leading designer and ceramist Frances Priest from her Patterns of Flora project.

Once again (with your help!), we donated a percentage of sales to support the work of Plantlife conservation charity, as they call for councils to make road verge cutting regimes more wildlife-friendly. Road verges are a vital refuge for wild flowers and the wealth of wildlife they underpin. There’s been some good news locally: Cambridge County Council councillors asked for a review of grass cutting regimes across the county. Plantlife's Road Verge Campaign Manager has had initial discussions with the councils highways team and their contractors to discuss verge management guidance. And other positive progress is happening, with the On the Verge Cambridge verge volunteer group working hard to raise awareness for flower-rich verges and greenspace across the city. 

This exhibition is open 10th October - 15th November 2020
Opening times are Saturdays and Sundays from 11am - 5pm
Other appointments are available by appointment: please contact us on info@fendittongallery.com to book

As is the times we are living in, masks are compulsory and visitor numbers will be limited to 6 at a time. You can read our COVID-19 policies here.

Exhibiting artists: Malcolm Appleby, Lotte Attwood, Jonathan Buckley, Pauline Burbidge, Daphne Carnegy, Katharine Coleman, Andy English, Lizzie Farey, Studio Gillies Jones, Nigel Hall RA, Paul Hart, Annie Hewett, Rebecca Jewell, Barbara McGirr, Jane Perryman, Frances Priest, Anna Raven, Susie Turner

Pasqueflower by Jonathan Buckley

With the kind permission of award-winning garden photographer, Jonathan Buckley, we have produced a limited edition run of high quality giclee prints of this beautiful image of the Pasqueflower - the flower of Cambridgeshire!

Originally photographed for Sarah Raven's Wildflower book, all profits from the sale of these prints will be donated to Plantlife Charity to support their Road Verges project.

Pasqueflower, Jonathan Buckley
297 x 210mm
Edition of 20, giclee print

Postponed due to Covid-19, we are delighted to announce the news dates of Paul Hart’s exhibition at Fen Ditton Gallery.

Opening times:
Friday 18th - Sunday 20th September, 11am - 5pm
Saturday 26th & Sunday 27th September, 11am - 5pm
Other times available by appointment

All works are for sale and additional unframed prints are also available. Enquire here

This Spring saw the publication of ‘Reclaimed’ the final of a series of three extraordinary photographic books by artist photographer Paul Hart in collaboration with Dewi Lewis Publishing. In this series, ‘Farmed’, ‘Drained’ and now ‘Reclaimed’ Hart – 2018 winner of the inaugural Wolf Suschitsky photography prize - explores one of the most productive yet haunting agricultural landscapes in England: the Lincolnshire fens.

Amanda Game has worked closely with Paul Hart on behalf of Fen Ditton Gallery to select and present some key images from each book of the series (plus two images from his earlier forest image book, Truncated) and to present them in this exhibition.

Fen Ditton Gallery is delighted to present this new selection of high quality photographic prints with Hart: an artist with whom the gallery enjoys an increasingly important working relationship following the successful presentation of his work in ‘Trees Observed’ (2018) and ‘Land Lines’ (2019). All the images are available for purchase by contacting the gallery and are available in two sizes: 17 x 17 in image size (20 x 24 in paper size) edition of 8; 14 x 14 image size (16 x 20 in paper size) ed. 12. All works are signed, titled and editioned verso. Books can also be ordered through the gallery.

Each of the selected black and white images - carefully composed with medium and large format film cameras, hand-printed by Hart on fibre-based silver gelatin paper - reveals the artist’s characteristic ability to focus attention on an overlooked everyday beauty of this intensively farmed land. But his observations are also acute in other ways, exposing something of the unstable relationship between land and man in this ever-shifting, reclaimed waterland.

People do not feature in these images any more than they are evident if you take a walk along the edge of a Fen dyke: this is a mechanised, unpeopled world though still replete with traces of human activity. Few other artists have Hart’s ability to create images that give such resonant form to our paradoxical relationship with land. Each work evokes with poetic sensibility the muddy texture of the sensory living world, on whose health we all depend, but, by documenting all he sees – the brick houses overgrown with trees; the deserted concrete tracks; the lack of human community – he asks us to consider these agricultural edgelands in a new light and ask how productive they really are, and for whom.

British photographer Paul Hart (b. 1961) works primarily with the black and white analogue process and is one of a diminishing number of photographers whose practice involves all aspects of the photographic process from the negative through to the print. Hart studied at the London College of Printing (UK) and Nottingham Trent University (UK), graduating in 1988 with a BA (Hons) in Photography. He has concentrated on long-term self initiated projects for seventeen years. His work has been exhibited widely in the UK, most recently at ; Fen Ditton Gallery (Cambridge), The Austrian Cultural Forum (London), The Royal Academy of Arts (London), The Photographers Gallery (London), The Royal Photographic Society (Bristol), The University of Cambridge (UK) and internationally at art fairs including Paris Photo and the AIPAD Show (USA). In 2018 Hart won the inaugural Wolf Suschitzky Photography Prize/Residency (London/Vienna) and was shortlisted for the Mark Rothko Memorial Trust Award (Daugavpils) and in 2019 was shortlisted for the HARIBAN Award (Tokyo). His work resides in important collections including : V&A Museum (London), Ivor Braka Collection (London), MoMA Library Collection (NYC) and Martin Parr Foundation Library (Bristol, UK). Photo books are central to Hart’s practice having published four monographs to date in addition to the three Fen books, his first book TRUNCATED (also with Dewi Lewis 2009) received widespread acclaim.

Founded in 1994, Dewi Lewis Publishing has published many leading British and international photographers such as Laia Abril, Martin Parr, Simon Norfolk, John Blakemore, Paul Hart, Simon Roberts and Bruce Gilden, as well as books by lesser known emerging photographers. It publishes up to 20 new titles each year.  Before establishing the imprint, Dewi Lewis was founding Director of Cornerhouse, a major Manchester based Centre for Contemporary Visual Arts and Film, where in 1987 he established Cornerhouse Publications, a winner of the Sunday Times Small Publisher of the Year Award. Many of the books published by Dewi Lewis have been shortlisted for international prizes and several have won awards. In 2014 the imprint received the PhotoEspana’s prize for Outstanding Publishing House of the Year and, in 2018, it  won both the Paris Photo / Aperture Foundation Photobook of The Year Award and the Rencontres d’Arles Author Book Prize. Dewi has worked in close collaboration with a number of European publishers and was a founding member of The European Publishers Award for Photography, which ran from 1994 to 2016.   Dewi Lewis was appointed an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society in 2004 and in November 2009 he was awarded the inaugural Royal Photographic Society Award for Outstanding Services to Photography. He was awarded the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Publishing at the World Photography Awards in April 2012.

The next exhibition of the Festival of Photography is a sensitive recording of County Mayo, Ireland, captured by former head of photography at Central St Martins, Graham Murrell. These unseen photographs were taken during Murrell’s fellowship with the Ballinglen Arts Foundation Trust. This virtual exhibition will go live on Thursday 30th May.

Former Head of Photography at Central St Martins College of Art, London, Graham Murrell is a distinguished photographer. Widely published and exhibited, Murrell has worked on projects with organisations such as Kettles Yard and Blackwell Arts and Crafts House.

Murrell describes his approach to photography as ‘reductive’ and says “I am interested in the least amount of information that will result in pictures that are about ‘place’ rather than descriptive of it in the conventional sense.” His photographs are a construction of line and tone that seek to create a sense of balance, often around a central point, engaging with the tension of equilibrium between unequal values.

VIRTUAL EXHIBITION

Fen Ditton Gallery is thrilled to present an exciting collection of black and white photographs.

An era of fashion and freedom, this exhibition brings together three photographers who lived and worked in 1970’s London.

The exhibition includes unseen photographs of Mary Quant and her collection, captured by the late Tony Boase; the Japanese view of this exciting era from photo-journalist Setsuo Kato; hand-tinted photographs and the iconic Biba Nude poster by former milliner turned photographer, James Wedge.

Tony Boase (1943 - 2002)

Fashion photographer turned wood turner, Tony Boase, began his photographic career in London in 1965 and went on to spend 35 years in the industry.

Boase worked with a number of top fashion designers, including Mary Quant. Gallery owner, Lotte has worked closely with the widow of Tony Boase, Jacky Boase, to bring to life this exclusive collection of Tony’s photographs, exploring the extensive catalogue of negatives from his 35-year photography career and carefully selecting this exhibition of images we present to you today. All photographs are hand-printed by Lotte in her Cambridge darkroom.

Setsuo Kato MBE

Setsuo Kato was born in Tokyo in 1941. After studying journalism at the Waseda University, Kato worked at Keystone Press as a news photographer, before moving to London in 1970.

Since then, Kato has worked as a photo-journalist in Japanese media, covering news, tops and features in Britain and Europe, capturing such events as the wedding of Charles and Diana, the Japanese Emperor’s visit to the UK, as well as photographing leading figures in politics and the arts, including Bernard Leach and Margaret Thatcher, amongst others.

Kato’s photographs offer a unique Eastern perspective of London at a time of great change and freedom for the British people.

In 2019, Kato was awarded an MBE for his contribution to UK-Japan relations and mutual understanding through his photo-journalism. This is the first time Kato’s photographs have been shown in the UK.

James Wedge

James Wedge was born in 1939 into a working-class London family. After serving in the British Navy, Wedge studied at Royal College of Art, specialising in millinery and went on to open two boutique clothing shops on the King’s Road, Chelsea.

By 1970, Wedge had moved into photography. He was friendly with David Bailey and Terence Donovan, and was persuaded by Donovan's lifestyle – driving a Rolls Royce, with a model on his arm – to switch his career path.

Wedge spent the next thirty years as a photographer becoming highly regarded in this media, producing many iconic images which are still recognisable today, including the Biba Nude. His work has been published in books and magazines and exhibited at galleries in Europe and America.

This exhibition is the second in a series of exhibitions exploring colour that Amanda Game is curating for Fen Ditton Gallery. Each show brings together works by artists, from different disciplines, to explore how colour as both subject and medium remains a fundamental part of many artistic processes.

The first show in the series, International Blues, (June 2018) brought together Japanese ceramics, prints and tapestry. Seeing Red combines a series of abstract, luminous works on paper by Garry Fabian Miller – created through passing light through glass, liquid and paper forms by long exposures onto light sensitive paper – with glass vessels by Danish artist Tora Urup and UK glass studio Gillies Jones. As John Gage, said ‘red…is one of the primary colours of light.. and glass appears to generate and embody light itself’ something explored with great precision by each of these artists.

An intense meditation on the red spectrum is also present in an oil painting and lithograph by Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, sculpture and prints by Nigel Hall, a large ceramic wall piece by Merete Rasmussen, enamel jewellery by Ann Little and vibrant oil paintings by Rosemary Cullum.

27 September - 20 October 2019

Special Event:
In Conversation and book signing with Paul Hart
Saturday 12 October, 11am - 6pm
Tickets are £5, refreshments provided
Book at landlines.eventbrite.co.uk

Fen Ditton Gallery are delighted to welcome back artist photographer Paul Hart to the gallery following the successful first introduction of his work here last autumn as part of the ‘Trees Observed’ exhibition curated by Amanda Game. Amanda has been working with Paul in the meantime to select a new series of prints from his series ‘Drained’ and ‘Farmed’ which will be exhibited in Fen Ditton this autumn. His compelling images draw us into ‘the hidden truth of the ordinary places that most of us pass by’ - Fen landscapes familiar to all of us living and working in or near Fen Ditton yet rarely presented to us in this way. Paul has had a successful past year winning the inaugural Wolf Schusitsky Photography Prize followed by a major show in London and having works selected for the RA Summer Exhibition.

In a recent discussions with Amanda about the art of photography at the newly opened, magnificent V & A photography galleries the idea was born for Paul to nominate one or two other artists whose work he admires to show a print as part of ‘Land Lines’. We were delighted at this prospect as, with both Lotte’s own background in photography and Amanda’s growing interest in the subject, Fen Ditton Gallery will be building a regular programme in this area.

Invited artists:

Mark Steinmetz is a leading Amercian photographer based in Georgia who has works in many significant public collections including the Art Institute of Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We will be showing three prints from his ‘Pastoral’ series dated 2011 mostly images taken around Tennessee.

As with Paul’s ‘Farmed’ and ‘Drained’ ‘Pastoral’ is also a photographic book - there will be a reference copy available for viewing. Steinmetz talks of his ‘interest in the dichotomy between nature and culture’.

As his American agents Claxton Projects state: “Steinmetz has described his approach as archaeological – attuned to the ambience of the locations he shoots in, to shifts in light, to incremental changes in the atmosphere, and to the fluid nature of time itself.”

Steinmetz is showing for the first time, we think, in the UK.

Fay Godwin (1931-2005) was probably one of the UK’s most influential photographers of the UK landscape. The majority of her archive is in the hands of the British Library but we have managed to source examples of her work from two different sources. From the family of the late, great printmaker Hugh Stoneman we have two beautiful photogravures from the Remains of Elmet series, created in collaboration with the poet Ted Hughes (1979/1994).

From her own family we will have 3 silver gelatin prints from different periods of her career but all illustrated in one or other of the major publications associated with her work (Land; Our Forbidden Land; The Edge of Land and Landmarks (the 2001 Barbican Gallery retrospective). Although, as with Paul’s work, people are rarely seen in the images, traces of people’s lives, and their relationship with specific environments are embedded in the images. As the artist herself said in the preface to The Edge of Land ‘the people who speak…do so as voices in the landscape.’

Poet laureate, Simon Armitage, who wrote the preface to the Barbican catalogue, Landmarks, comments; “There seems to be a point of view but never a caption.. as with metaphor in poetry the meaning of a Fay Godwin photograph is implied rather than spelt out….”

14 - 22 September 2019

In an era of technology, the inherent importance of art in our lives is ever-more apparent. The benefits of switching off and losing yourself in a work of art that has captured your imagination are unrivalled... but where to begin?

You are invited to view this collection of contemporary artwork and prints that explore and enhance modern life.

Exhibiting artists:
Lotte Attwood
Rosemary Cullum
Nigel Hall
Katharine Le Hardy
Justin Hawkes
Felix Higham
Harriet Hoult
Iona Howard
Alice Kirkham
Roger Law

8 - 23 June 2019

Fen Ditton Gallery is excited to announce its next exhibition celebrating the importance of birds.

Birds form an integral part of the landscape and soundscape of our daily lives. Their familiar sounds and comings and goings bring pleasure and interest to people all around the world, and though they often hover at the edge or our vision, birds provide the opportunity to celebrate our deep connections with all of nature.  

The exhibition is an opportunity to view a range of works inspired by encounters with birds by talented artists who study their habits, form and character.

For time immemorial, birds have been used as environmental indicators.  They play a vital role in monitoring the health of our planet, and BirdLife International based in the new David Attenborough Building in Cambridge, maintains the Red List for birds on behalf of IUCN, and works at the forefront of bird conservation research, policy and practice.  The BirdLife Partnership is active in over 120 countries. 

One of BirdLife’s active global programmes is called ‘Forests of Hope’ and focuses on the challenges of sustaining forests which are key habitats for may threatened bird species, as well as other fauna and flora.  Forests are also important to human communities, providing a wide range of livelihoods.

In support of Forests of Hope, the Fen Ditton Gallery will donate a percentage of exhibition sales to the international work undertaken by BirdLife.

Exhibiting artists:
Norman Ackroyd, Lotte Attwood, Geoffrey Cory-Wright, John Fanshawe, Jill Fanshawe Kato, Rebecca Jewell, Roger Law, Hannah McAndrew, Amanda MacPhail, Nik Pollard, Belinda Rushjansen, Nina Sage, Lynne Strover

An exhibition of artists’ perspectives on trees in celebration of the work of Oliver Rackham OBE (1939-2015) and the Woodland Trust.

21 September - 28 October 2018

"Oliver’s work has had a profound influence on our understanding of trees and woodland as places where history and ecology, human influence and natural forces have combined and interacted to create complex and continuously fascinating places." Mike Townsend, Principal Advisor, Woodland Trust

Twelve artists, one subject -  trees and woodland : an exhibition devised to celebrate the life and legacy of  Oliver Rackham and to support the work of the Woodland Trust.  All works are for sale and a percentage of sale proceeds will be given to the Woodland Trust as a contribution to work they continue in Oliver’s memory.

Oliver Rackham was the leading historian and ecologist of British woods as well as a fellow and master at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He spent many years researching the history and ecology of ancient woods and the remarkable adaptability of trees, which allowed him to write with extensive knowledge and insight, bringing the history of woods to life. In 1986, he decided to write a number of distinct volumes on the ancient woods of Britain. Although only one was published, he worked on several others including The Woods of the Helford River, Cornwall. Sadly it was not quite completed and remained unpublished at the time of his death in 2015. The Woodland Trust has been working closely with Corpus Christi College to finish and publish the book, so that Oliver’s outstanding knowledge can be passed on to future generations. 

Exhibited works are drawn from different disciplines and demonstrate distinct visual responses to trees and woodland: all however are conceived by artists for whom this subject has been a central concern. David Nash’s massed charcoal rendering of the ‘giz’ of old lime trees; a pine cone minutely observed in pencil and then transformed into chased silver by Michael Lloyd; Paul Hart’s acutely observed photographs of trees edging the industrial farmlands of the fens; an oak log elegantly realized as a dramatic black seat by Jim Partridge and Liz Walmsley. Printmaking, drawing, engraving and tapestry are all explored as the means to capturing the experience of trees and their continuing presence in our twenty-first century lives.  

All works will be for sale and a percentage of sale proceeds will be given to the Woodland Trust to support the work they continue in Oliver’s memory.  

Exhibitors:

Norman Ackroyd – Etchings and Aquatint; Malcolm Appleby – Engraved Silver; Lotte Attwood – Black and White Photography; Wilhlemina Barns-Graham (1912-2004) – Drawing; Sara Brennan  - Drawings and Tapestry; Buckmaster and French – Etchings;  Paul Hart – Black and White Photography; Michael Lloyd – Drawings and Chased and Handraised Silver Vessels;  Garry Fabian-Miller – Photograms; David Nash – Drawings; Jim Partridge and Liz Walmsley – Furniture/Wood ; James Ravilious (1939-1999) – Photographs of the work of Jim Partridge in woodland in the late 1980s.

8 - 24 July 2018

International Blues launched an occasional series of shows devoted to a single colour. Working with Oxford Ceramics Gallery, Amanda sourced a vibrant selection of modern ceramics from Japan, Denmark and the UK which were installed alongside screenprints and lithographs by Howard Hodgkin (1932-2017) and Wilhelmina Barns-Graham (1912 -2004) and a tapestry by Jo Barker.

International Blues and subsequent shows planned on 'red' and 'yellow',  acknowledge the considerable importance of Cambridge-based research into pigment and the culture of colour  in particular through the work of the late John Gage. 

Ceramic exhibitors included:
Michael Casson; Walter Keeler; Jin Eu Kim; David Leach; Bodil Manz; Maeda Masahiro; Niisato Akiro; Colin Pearson; Lucie Rie; Inger Rokkjaer; Shinobu Kawase; Janice Tchalenko.