New gallery Space open weekdays and Saturday mornings.
Frank Briffa: An Eye for Music
7th November to 21st December 2017
Open evening 13th November 7-9pm
Paintings and drawings inspired by music in which links between music and visual art are used to produce pictorial equivalents of specific pieces. These links are expressed by colour, texture, tonality and composition.
Since 2005 all my paintings have had strong associations with music. There are already links between music and the visual arts such as a shared vocabulary, for example, composition, tonality, colour, chromaticism, texture.
Some music has the ability of transporting us to another place and my paintings are based on pieces of music which, for me, have this quality. In making these paintings I am not primarily trying to illustrate anything – I am more concerned with trying to find a pictorial equivalent to the musical language, although in some paintings figurative elements do creep in.
The pieces of music I use I have known over a long period so that they have had time to produce a response. The paintings that result may be based on an entire piece or to just a few bars from a large work.
The composers I have used include Nielsen, Janacek, Mahler, Martinu, Schoenberg, Berg, Rimsky-Korsakov, JS Bach, Dowland, Bartok and Charles Ives, a composer who has had a particular influence on my work.
Biography
Born 1947
Education: Challoner School, London
Hornsey College of Art ,London (part time)
Newcastle University – B.Sc., Ph. D., P.G.C.E.
Certificate in Art Studies, Newcastle University
Open College of the Arts painting course.
Worked as a College Lecturer until 1998. Now painting full time.
Solo shows
1997 Paintings Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle
2000 Under The Skin Hancock Museum, Newcastle
2000 Place The Cluny Gallery, Newcastle
2001 Jesmond Paintings Calouste Gulbenkian Gallery, Newcastle
2001 I Heard A Fly Buzz Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle
2002 I Heard A Fly Buzz Axis Gallery, Leeds
2003 Crossings Trevelyan College, Durham University
2005 The Cruising Cloud Darlington Arts Centre
2006 Inscapes The DLI Museum & Durham Art Gallery
2010 8 Paintings Butterfly Rooms Gallery, Saltaire, West Yorkshire
2011 Recent Paintings Butterfly Rooms Gallery, Saltaire, West Yorkshire
2011 An Other Place The Light House Arts Space, North Shields
2011 Somewhere Else The Python Gallery, Middlesbrough
2012 Mass The Sanctuary Artspace, Gateshead
2012 Music Paintings Glendene Gallery, Easington(included workshops)
2013 Paintings Gateshead Civic Centre, Gateshead
2013 Filling the Void 17 Claypath Contemporary Art Space, Durham
2015 Rebellious Spirit The Sanctuary Artspace, Gateshead
2014 Muse The Customs House, South Shields.
2015 Cargo Fleet Selected paintings and drawings, The Heritage Gallery,Cargo Fleet,
Middlesbrough.
2016 Seeing Music, Palace Arts Gallery, Redcar
2016 Music Seen, The Brentwood Road Gallery, London
Selected group shows
1998 Works The Globe Gallery, North Shields
1999 Out of Gateshead VANE, Newcastle
2000 Unnerve The Queen’s Hall Arts Centre, Hexham
2001 Diverse Visions Art House Gallery, Musselburgh
2001 Real to Real The Queen’s Hall Arts Centre, Hexham
2002 Christmas Show The Circle Gallery, Edinburgh
2004 Think of a Space Musa, Gateshead Visitor Centre
2004 Figure 8 show Long Gallery, Newcastle University
2005 Figure 8 show, Streetworks, Shire Pottery Gallery & Studios, Alnwick
2006 Figure 8 show, Pictures not Words, Lamplight Centre, Stanley,Co. Durham.
2006 Figure 8 show, The Customs House, South Shields
2007 Figure 8 show, The Guildhall, Newcastle on Tyne
2008 Figure 8 show, Seen in Colour, The Gallery, Gateshead Central Library
2008 Figure 8 show, Colour Room, Myles Meehan Gallery, Darlington
2008 Figure 8 Paintings, The Biscuit Factory, Newcastle
2008 Figure 8 show, Colourworks, The Tom McGuinness Gallery, Bishop Auckland
2009 contributing artist Biscuit Factory,Newcastle Spring Show
2009 Figure 8 show New Paintings Preston Hall Museum Gallery
2009 Mixed Show, Globe Gallery, Newcastle
2009 Figure 8 show Paintings Red Box Gallery, Newcastle on Tyne
2010 Empty Shop Open, Durham
2010 Coast Lines, The Links Gallery, Whitley Bay
2010 Autumn Show, The Biscuit Factory, Newcastle
2012 Figure8 show, The Biscuit Factory, Newcastle
2012 Figure8 show The Tom McGuinness Gallery, Bishop Auckland
2013 Hindsight , Pythongallery, Middlesbrough (with Brian Ord)
2013 Hindsight, Mandela Gallery, Newcastle College (with Brian Ord)
2014 Figure 8 Show, The Northern Rock Foundation Gallery at the People’s
Theatre, Newcastle.
Work in public and civic venues and commissions
2005 External Mural and seven paintings. Private house,Malaga,Spain
2006 Canary Wharf, London, commission – Atlas, oil on canvas 4.5m x 2m
2007 Civic Centre, Gateshead. Four paintings from Crossings series
2009 Whitley Bay Playhouse – Cullercoats, oil on canvas 92cm x 92cm
2012 True Potential, Newcastle, commission for reception area – Vision,
oil on canvas, 180cm x 145cm
Work in private collections in UK, France and Spain
Residencies
2000 The Hancock Museum, Newcastle
2010 NSA Studios, North Shields
Represented by
Alpha Art, Edinburgh
Haslam’s of Hallgate, Hexham
Other
October 2008 – 2011, Artistic Advisor to the Whitley Bay Regeneration Project – redevelopment of Whitley Bay Playhouse and advisor on colour choices for street furniture.
Website: www.frankbriffa.weebly.com