Waterloo Square Gallery is based in Alfriston and will be popping up here at Colonnade House to showcase a selection of their artists.
This promotional idea came about after gallery founders Dave Apps and Mark Wagner looked into advertising soon after they had opened – which turned out to be extremely expensive. Sticking to their DIY punk ethics they decided to take the gallery on tour and stage exhibitions over the coming two years within fifty miles of Alfriston. They are also staging a Brighton exhibition in November 2018.
About Waterloo Square Gallery
Waterloo Square gallery is a new quirky art gallery opened in October 2017 and situated in the beautiful village of Alfriston, East Sussex. With the picturesque countryside, rolling hills and valleys that surround it, it’s as if you were in the village that time forgot.
Masterminded by artists David Apps and Mark Wagner, their vision is to bring new, exciting art and people to the already busy village and work alongside the three art galleries already situated within the growing art community of Alfriston. They are showcasing their very special brand of contemporary art with a mix of artists focusing on original paintings, screen prints and sculptures. The working studio space within the gallery will also provide a unique opportunity to see some of the artwork being produced.
The aim is to bring beautiful and unusual artwork together from a selection of extraordinary artists whose artwork is both weird and yet wonderful. They have worked hard to create a magnificent gallery experience with a strong mix of vibrant and interesting art. We want our visitors to be excited, engaged, provoked and most importantly, inspired by their visit.
Definitely a gallery but also a curiosity shop…..the kind of contemporary, edgy, thoughtful, stimulating and humorous work you’d have found in Soho or Notting Hill a while back. You may not expect this in rural Sussex, but Alfriston is clearly becoming a place to go for this kind of vibe.
Waterloo Square Gallery Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/Waterloo-Square-Gallery
Location
Located in the heart of the Cuckmere Valley on the South Downs Way, we are just five minutes from the A27 (Drusillas Roundabout), and 10 minutes from the A259 coast road. Only 25 minutes from both Brighton and Hastings, and 15 minutes from Eastbourne. Parking available in our short stay and long stay car parks at the northern end of the village.
Here are details of the artists represented by Waterloo Square Gallery. The exhibition will include a selection of work from these artists.
Gaye Black/AKA Gaye Advert – (West London)
Gaye was the quintessential punk poster girl who appeared on the covers of Sounds and NME. In recent years Gaye has made a series of collages, which reference her past and explore the contrast between attraction and horror.
Carrie Reichardt (West London) – www.carriereichardt.com
“I’M AN ARTIST YOUR RULES DON’T APPLY” Carrie works from a mosaic-covered studio in London. “Mad In England” is the art brand of Carrie’s who uses murals, ceramics, screen-printing and graphic design in her work. Carrie has spoken on the use of art as protest.
Tom Spencer (West London)
Tom studied graphic design and the art of hand lettering, manual paste up and page layout, skills which are all still used in the traditional art of stained glass making. Tom is also the bass player in The Professionals alongside Sex Pistol Paul Cook.
Michelle Brigandage/Sexy Hooligans (West London) – www.sexyhooligans.com
21st Century clothing by Michelle Brigandage, Sexy Hooligans has a wide range of alternative punk rock clothing, including British Seditionaries punk prints, screen-printed in the same way as the originals by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood.
Mark Wagner (Hove and Essex)
Mark finds inspiration for his art in almost everything he sees and often everything he sees ends up in his art. Working mainly in oils and acrylics he continually experiments with new media to build up layers in his work that reflect his passion for showing distressed, worn textures and the passing of time.
David Apps (Alfriston) – www.artificialdesigns.co.uk
David will only use an image he has taken for his designs, and re-works his imagery to build up his original, striking works of art. To further his artistic vision: he uses antiqued mirror over his hand painted designs, revealing a small part of the image through the mirrored glass. Each frame is made up from plastic toys and Jewellery.
Grande Dame, Tiff McGinnis (St Leonard’s) – www.grandedame.co.uk
Tiff McGinnis, is a self-taught multimedia artist: an audio/visual storyteller, who writes music, creates animations and makes an array of art in different mediums from the images in her animations.
DNA Factory (South London) – http://thednafactory.com
Dallas & Angel continue to produce some of the most unique and uncompromising sculpture, montage & installation. Their work is held in influential collections worldwide, exhibited in Europe, US, China & UK
Saffron Reichenbacker (Hove) – www.saffronreichenbacker.co.uk
Saffron is a Brighton based Artist inspired by a dream world of silver screen vamps and Weimar Berlin ghosts.
Michelle Mildenhall (St Leonard’s) www.michellemildenhall.co.uk
Michelle creates unique, striking portraits in latex. Through her stylized imagery, she seduces the viewer into a world of disconcerting beauty and mystique. By using popular but somewhat taboo themes of sexuality, fetishism and subversion, she creates work in which a fascination with the subject evolves.
Julia White (Brighton)
Trained in print making Julia combines her work by using impressions of digital imagery along with traditional techniques and uses a more holistic ethos by using vegetable based inks by experimenting with making dyes and powders from the plants and land of the Sussex Downs.
Ian Bailey (East London)
Ian was a student of the late seventies and still angry. Ian’s art and repeat pattern wallpaper designs are inspired by Pugin, Strummer, Jamie Reid, Orwell and Delia Smith CBE
Lynne Blackburn (East London)
Lynne’s work explores the memories and history embedded within familiar places and buildings – the human traces left behind in buildings, and on everyday objects, from the visual traces to subconscious and psychological ones.
Helen Bruce (Essex)
Helen is an innovative young artist who likes to bring together quirky taste and wearable style. Her brooches, lapel pins, medals and cufflinks all convey her trademark eccentric countryside influence, and feature repurposed shotgun cartridges and natural feathers.
Billy Chainsaw (Hove) – www.koolkrakenincorporated.com
In his early teens Billy developed an obsession with American comic books, masks, the movies, magick and author William S. Burroughs. They’re elements that feature heavily in my mixed-media ‘cut up pop art’, which also references such diverse sources as cartoon surrealism, tattoos, and Lucha Libre (Mexican masked wrestling).
Dominic Murphy (St Albans) – www.dominicmurphyart.com
I love to paint all day…..I paint straight from the mind and want to inspire others to be creative….I have recurring themes including Alice in Wonderland and Mad Hatters. Francis Bacon ruined my life because he made me realise you can paint what the hell you want and make a living from it – how great is that?
Kitty Finegan (Brighton) – www.kittyfinegan.com
Kitty’s work is intended to take the viewer on a visual journey through the styles, culture and colour schemes of the 1950s 60s & 70s. She sprinkles her own blend of high-gloss 21st century glamour over era-defining subjects including synchronised swimmers, tattooed pin-up girls and roller disco-belles.