Castlefield Gallery explores the relationship between paint, sculpture and architecture in new exhibition

Each artist’s practice has a highly imaginative and unconventional engagement with pictorial and physical space, and 40 Years of the Future: Jo McGonigal x Frank Bowling offers a unique chance to see work from two esteemed artists side-by-side.

In his book Frank Bowling: Sculpture (2022), writer and curator Sam Cornish shares a story of Bowling receiving an invitation from Castlefield Gallery in the 1980s to exhibit his paintings alongside the work of a contemporary sculptor. As a response, Bowling provided the sculptures himself.

This led to a solo exhibition of Bowling’s paintings, works on paper and sculpture at the gallery back in 1988. Bowling made a series of welded steel sculptures largely put together from the by-products of an engineering firm next to his studio.

Like his paintings, the sculptures have multiple influences, playfully mixing references from high modernism, classical African sculpture, cubism and Russian constructivism.

Except for a tour of this work at the time, the public has rarely had access to Bowling’s sculptures since, making Jo McGonigal x Frank Bowling that bit more special.

Meanwhile, McGonigal’s paintings leave the constraints of the canvas behind, interacting directly with the environment in which her works are placed. McGonigal is interested in the interaction between painting and architecture as well as deconstructing the internal architecture of painting itself.

Her recent works involve applying layers of traditional gesso, normally used to prime canvases, directly onto the gallery walls before introducing lines of coloured chalk, piles of pigment geometric structures, textile and archaeological elements into formal abstract compositions.

Through these combinations, McGonigal aims to activate the body just as much as the eye through her work.

This special exhibition forms part of Castlefield Gallery’s 40-year anniversary celebrations. 40 Years of the Future: Jo McGonigal x Frank Bowling will run from Sun 20 Oct – Sun 2 Feb. Entry is free and no advance booking is needed. You can find out more about the exhibition here.

Featured image: Jo McGonigal, Act Seven: Paler, Blinder