The West Art Collective is a group of six Manchester and Salford students who both make and exhibit art.
The group was formed in spring 2019 and aims to showcase artists and their pieces for no cost to the artist themselves.
Many exhibitionists charge artists up to 50% commission, whilst West install everything for free and require no commission if work sells.
Artists of all talents and all levels of experience are encouraged to submit their work for West exhibitions.
One of the students paintings in progress
The student is also the Creative Director of Antwerp Mansion, ex-nightclub turned art, music and performance space. West has held previous exhibitions at the venue, such as ‘Pure’ in December 2019 and ‘Uncensored’ in February 2020. It was the students relationship with Antwerp Mansion that kickstarted the collective:
“(Antwerp Mansion) were putting art exhibitions on for a while, but it wasn’t really picking up.” she explained, “So when I went to pick up my piece after exhibiting it, they asked me what I knew about setting up exhibitions.”
Lucy was offered more involvement in the creation of art exhibitions at Antwerp, an idea which she took and ran with. She invited five more artists to collaborate in a collective which showcases music and performance as well as art.
“We are all really different,” she confirmed, “which is really good for setting shows up. You can’t compare us to each other because we all do completely different things.”
Tom Kinloch is also a Fine Art student at University of Salford. He works with porcelain or plastic doll sculptures, creating unsettling scenes of doll makers and antiques. Alongside restoring and redesigning vintage dolls, he incorporates himself into the art through photography.
Shayley Crabtree studies Interactive Arts at Manchester Metropolitan University and is a sculpture and textile artist. She works with latex to explore the human form, using synthetic skin materials to create hyper-realistic body parts.
She also combines this gore with trend to create a futuristic fashion concept; incorporating into these pieces comical characters she has created which are inspired by interactions with friends.
Mimi Waddington studies alongside Tom and Lucy study at the University of Salford, using both traditional and digital mediums within her work.
She digitally manipulates photographs to create glitches, amplifying colours and patterns within images to reveal a new layer to the scene. Her striking portraits focus on people and their experiences, using experimental methods such as fluorescent ink to create a deeper audience experience.
Josh Kelly studies Fashion Design at the University of Salford, and creates mixed media pieces on both paper and digital format. Using colour and lighting, he explores the presence of decay and uses this imagery to represent his thought process.
Josh also founded Templar, a Preston-based creative platform who have showcased at Milan Fashion Week and New York Fashion Week. Templar and West collaborated on ‘Pure’ in December 2019, showcasing music, fashion and mixed media.
Jake Sachs studied Visual Arts at the University of Salford, graduating in 2016, and is now a resident at Salford-based Caustic Coastal studios. Jake explores themes of human nature and constructs, such as war, crime, peace and society; using spray paint, marker pens and acrylic paint to create a bold colour tapestry.
The collective will be holding an exhibition later on in the year titled ‘Eden’.
Exhibiting work focused on mental and physical health, this charity event will be raising money for both ‘the Pip Foundation’ and ‘Crohn’s and Colitis’, charities close to the heart of West and Inner City Records.
Lucy told us more: “All the artwork in the exhibition is uplifting, taking on mental and physical health. But we want people to come away from it and feel more positive. That’s why it’s called Eden, we wanted it to be our little safe space.
Eden is in collaboration with Inner City Records, a record label in Manchester, who will be playing live music throughout the day.
There will also be wall work, sculptures, performances, spoken word and video pieces showcased throughout the night.
The unofficial new date for Eden, their collaborative exhibition with Inner City Records at Antwerp Mansion, is Friday 18th September (TBC).
During the Coronavirus pandemic, the collective are still working to showcase artistic talent through their Instagram. They are encouraging artists of all experiences and styles to submit their work for their online exhibition, free of charge of course.
Submit to westartcollective@outlook.com or via Instagram.
View this post on Instagram
Looking forward, the collective want to tour the U.K, exhibiting their art and meeting new artists.
Tom told us: “The more we collaborate with people, the more opportunities come.
“I think that we’ll keep growing, because there’s no reason for us to stop”
“I could see us doing this in 10 years time,” Lucy agrees, “I don’t see us stopping”.
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