The Fully Awake exhibition takes place at The Holden Gallery at the Manchester School of Art from November 5 until December 17.
Fully Awake 6.6 is the final show in a series of exhibitions involving academics, artists and art educators which have been held in cities across the UK. In each version of the show several artists are invited to submit a piece of work to be included in an exhibition. In addition to submitting a piece of work themselves, the artists are also asked to invite two ‘guests’ (each of whom will also submit work for exhibition) with the following conditions: one must be an artist that they have been taught by; and one must be an artist that they have taught. The aim is to create unexpected fluid networks which are in turn revealed by the exhibition. It features internationally acclaimed painters such as Lisa Milroy and Ken Kiff.
Wayne Robinson, a PhD Research student in the University’s Department of Art and Design was invited to display a piece of his work. He then in turn invited Dr Tom McGuirk, Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at the University and Amy Robinson, an MA Fine Art graduate.
Wayne has exhibited an assembled painting; Amy a photographic print and Tom a lithograph.
Wayne chose Amy as he has taught her on two occasions as a tutor on her foundation course and during a postgraduate project. He said: “The rapidity of her development and her transition into the ‘ways’ of the fine artist, developing her practice into drawing, painting, printmaking and photography, always struck me as being something very special. Amy progressed onto the MA in Fine Art at University of Chester, where I think she once again left her questioning mark!”
Wayne selected Tom as he is currently involved with supervising his PhD. Wayne said: “Tom’s patience, generosity and seemingly limitless knowledge of art theory and his deep understanding of the difficulties of integrating theory and practice, has supported my efforts grappling with the philosophical and theoretical content in my PhD.
“Tom has an uncanny ability to be able to keep your feet firmly on the ground while at the same time making everything seem possible. I like that.”
The exhibition is open Monday to Friday from 12pm to 5pm. For more information visit https://www.holdengallery.mmu.ac.uk/2021/fully-awake/
