"BLACK DIAMONDS" by Al Johnson

THE LOWRY HOTEL | 50 DEARMAN'S PLACE | CHAPEL STREET | MANCHESTER | M3 5LH

 

2019 marks 15 years of Comme Ca Art Exhibitions at The Lowry Hotel. During this time Comme Ca has brought a plethora of artists and their artistic disciplines to the hotel gallery. This 24-hour Gallery space is a one of a kind with many works on display finding new homes as far afield as Australia, Russia, Iceland, the USA and Europe. 

 

To celebrate the brand new interior of the hotel, Comme Ca Art has put together an exhibition by revered sculptor, Al Johnson. Al is no stranger to the hotel having worked on The Art of Recovery exhibition in 2017. Al worked with ex military service men and women on a series of sculptures in conjunction with the Bravo 22 Drive Project and the Royal British Legion. The exhibition was very well received so it is our pleasure to bring Al back to the Lowry Hotel for an exhibition of her works. 

 

Al Johnson’s works consider recent history and the interplay between politics, power and the collective memory. Al develops her sculpture in thematic series, using a range of materials: textiles, forged steel, wax, copper and timber, creating works that are sensual, paradoxical and challenging.

 

Black Diamonds is an installation: a group of lifelike crows stitched from wired black silks, with associated prints and drawings. In western culture the crow is symbolic of sickness and death.  Yet crows are birds of great intelligence, resourceful, fearless and adaptable, and in many cultures they are not birds of ill omen, but venerated as magical creatures, symbolic of hope, and with the power of prophetic insight. Perhaps the crows are themselves ‘Black Diamonds’. 

 

Al Johnson’s work has been widely exhibited, and is held in both public and private collections. Exhibitions include Reactions at the Imperial War Museum North, Salford, Flight and the Artistic Imagination at Compton Verney, Warwickshire, and Caught in the Crossfire at the Herbert Gallery, Coventry. Sculpture commissions have included the Royal British Legion, the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, and the London Screen.

 

Al believes in the development of creativity as a founding principle of education, and in the empowerment that results from democratic participation in the arts. In addition to her studio practice Al is director of Art for Bravo 22, delivering recovery through art programmes for injured veterans. Al also lectures and leads demonstrations and workshops in major museums and galleries, including the National Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum, the Royal Collection, the Wallace Collection, and the Tate Galleries. 

 

PLEASE CONTACT COMME CA ART DEALERS FOR ANY ENQUIRIES. 

 

CLAIRE TURNER | claire@commecaart.com | T: +44 (0) 161 273 5495

 

CCA GALLERY 5TH FLOOR | HOPE MILL | POLLARD STREET | ANCOATS | MANCHESTER | M4 7JA

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