Looking back…
What a year it has been! Despite the ongoing restrictions around Covid-19 (sorry to bring it up!) we’ve managed to have a fantastic year of exhibitions and community engagement which is all thanks to you.
We kicked off 2021 with our Pillars of Society community project – an immensely significant and timely project looking at the cultural importance of the statues and monuments scattered across Carmarthen town and what they now represent in modern times.
Through a series of thoughtfully put together online public talks, we delved into Carmarthen’s history to better understand the here and now. All these talks are now available on our YouTube page. We also had the pleasure of working with the first-year sculpture students of Carmarthen School of Art on our augmented reality app showing alternative public art. You can find out more on this by heading over to our Pillars of Society page.
After a slightly ‘will we, won’t we’ situation around reopening at the start of the year, we eventually reopened our doors to you in May with the stark beauty of Helen Booth’s solo painting show B R E A T H E. A response to her artist residency at the Hafnarborg Arts and Culture Centre in Iceland, Helen transported us to what she herself refers to as the ‘Divine landscape’. While the show didn’t officially open to the public until the 18 May, we had the privilege of having the paintings in the gallery space since early March where they continued to offer solace and quiet contemplation for us during what were quite daunting and unsettled times. Many thanks to Helen Booth and her daughters Hattie and Leia Morrison for their unwavering support and just generally being good people!
Alongside our exhibitions we continued to expand our beautiful collaboration with Ensemble Cymru to bring you our series of musical podcasts. Available in Welsh and English, these are a brilliant opportunity for youngsters to take a break, rest their eyes and absorb these musical interpretations of nature. There are four series to choose from: Oriel Everywhere, The Lost Sounds, 5 Ways to Wellbeing and Sŵn y Sir. You can find them all on our Podcast page.
We were delighted to be showing the work of prominent Welsh artist Charles Burton back in June. With the help of curator Peter Wakelin, Painting Still presented a look back at Charles’ wildly diverse catalogue, spanning 60 years. Having the work in the setting of a ‘white box’ gallery, it was interesting to see the work in that context and admire the timeless nature of it on the whole. Many thanks once again to Charles Burton, Peter Wakelin and Martin Tinney Gallery.
Cat on a Chair 1981
2021 marked the 30-year anniversary of Oriel Myrddin Gallery. After an extremely difficult past 17 months which had seen the closing and postponement of many galleries and exhibitions across the country - we wanted to offer something a little different to our usual exhibition programme and to give back to our incredible community of artists who have supported the gallery over the years.
Art work by Tom Frost
We received an astonishing number of submissions from creatives across Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire ranging from amateur artists to some of Wales’ finest. We were overjoyed and very humbled by the response and are incredibly grateful to everyone that submitted work.
As we headed into Autumn, what better way to celebrate than by highlighting Wales’ incredible flora and fauna. U N L EA R N E D brought together three Welsh florists: Leigh Chappell, Melissa Ashley of Twisted Sisters Floral Design and Donna Bowen-Heath of Pheasant Botanica who turned all preconceived notions of floristry on its head! They transformed our gallery space into a stunning Welsh wilder-land and inspired visitors from all over to rethink the humble offerings of the hedgerow. Thank you to Abby Poulson for capturing the show so beautifully with her photography.
As we write this, our G A E A F The Welsh House exhibition is still very much on and open to visit. We will be open right up until five o clock on Christmas Eve for any last-minute scramble to find the perfect gift! It’s been quite a treat this year to be collaborating with Dorian Bowen of The Welsh House. We’ve long been admirers of Dorian’s aesthetic and ethos when it came to interior design and were delighted when he agreed to come on board earlier in the year, to curate and style this dream of a show. As with trying to organise anything during Covid, there were a few wobbles about whether the show would be able to go ahead or not but we’re so glad it did. Our gallery technician Christian Brown has done an epic job of constructing our Tŷ (house), we almost don’t want to see it go. Thank you also to Ashley Davies for letting us pillage his corrugated sheet stash – very kind! Massive thanks to Heather Birnie for doing yet another brilliant job of photographing the exhibition for us.
Thank you also to all the makers who have been involved in the exhibition – their support has meant everything.
Sarah Jerath // Llio James // Rosie Farey // Megan Ivy Griffiths // Layla Robinson // Heather Hancock // David White // Lilly Hedley // Terri Lee-Howard (M a g n I f I c e n t M U D) // Every Story Ceramics // Anja Dunk // Claudia Rankin
That’s it from us for this year but…
Looking ahead…
Tir Cof
Gareth Hugh Davies
8 January – 12 March 2022
We’re kicking off the year with Carmarthenshire based landscape painter, Gareth Hugh Davies and his solo exhibition Tir Cof (The Land Remembered) We are thrilled to be showing Gareth’s deeply atmospheric and stormy landscapes.
This series of paintings and drawings is the result of work carried out on location and in the studio during recent restrictions. Everything begins with drawing, and remembering. They begin as an immediate response to a particular landscape but may transform with continual reworking and re-examining to the extent that topographical concerns become secondary, and a more personal visceral response is allowed to develop.
About his work, Gareth has this to say:
‘ Magritte said of his Empire of Light series of paintings that ‘The landscape suggests night and the skyscape day. This evocation of night and day seems to me to have the power to surprise and delight us. I call this power: poetry’
I think this notion of ‘poetry’ has underpinned my recent approach to painting, the notion that the intangible can be suggested through the juxtaposition of form, colour and line. An idea of landscape, reimagined and remembered to convey feeling and a sense of a psychological space.’
Alongside Gareth’s exhibition we have our ‘Featured Maker’ – Isle of Skye based artist, Helena Emmans in our gallery shop. The purpose of our ‘Featured Maker’ is to showcase an artist or crafter, who’s work references or compliments the current main exhibition. Helena’s work offers up a maker’s interpretation on the concept of landscape art and the way we choose to depict it. Through her exquisitely crafted silver spoons Helena work aims to portray the feeling of Skye through an intuitive response to the changing landscape and its colours, watching the changing days and seasons. Rhythms, tides, seasons and shorelines infuse her work. Being within the landscape, feeling the elements while seeing the surroundings change, produces the sense of that moment in all her work.
New Online shop
If it’s one thing that the pandemic has taught us (it’s not, the list is actually incredibly long!) it’s that the work by the makers that we support and take such care in selecting, needs to be made available outside of the physical gallery opening hours. Since the first lockdown in 2020, it became increasingly obvious that we needed an online retail space for our makers and we are thrilled to say that our online shop will be going live from 10 January 2022. Yay!!
The Last Valley
Huw Alden Davies
19 March – 14 May 2022
Set on the slope of the Great Mountain in the Gwendraeth Valley, Huw Alden Davies forthcoming multi-media exhibition draws our attention to a small ex-mining village called Y Tumbl. Exploring concepts such as cultural identity, sense of place, nostalgia, and technological determinism, ‘The Last Valley’, titled by its geographical position, as the furthermost part in line of twenty-one recorded valleys, and the last before the sea; brings together for the first time, a culmination of works produced over fourteen years, dedicated to a community that was once one of the most important centres of coal production in the world.
Cragen Beca Parade
Kathryn Campbell Dodd
Sunday 1 May 2022
Cragen Beca follows the legendary character Rebecca and her ‘Daughters’ in their call to action during the infamous Rebecca Riots of the mid-19th century (1839 – 43) in Carmarthenshire. A period of daring and flagrant insurrection, with the rioting men dressed as women when they attacked and broke the turnpike toll gates of west Wales in demonstration of their dissent.
In collaboration between Oriel Myrddin Gallery and artist Kathryn Campbell Dodd, the Cragen Beca parade will take place on Sunday 1 May 2022. It will start outside Oriel Myrddin Gallery and progress on foot along King Street to Guildhall Square. This will be a fantastic opportunity for the community to join in, get creative and make some noise!
More information will be available soon.
Capital Redevelopment
2022 marks that start of our capital redevelopment. We’re all very excited for what the future holds for Oriel Myrddin Gallery.
The gallery will be closed from mid-year while building work is carried out. However, this presents us with another exciting opportunity where we will be creating a pop-up gallery in the town so you can still come and see us and participate in our programme of events! We’ll continue to post updates on the project via our social media and Journal.