News and Exhibitions
September 2017
CONNECTIONS: Prism 8. An exhibition of seventy works by Prism Print International at the IXth International Engraving Exhibition in Cremona, Italy. This is one of several events in a festival between September 24th – October 29th to mark the 450th anniversary of the birth of Montiverdi in 1567.
June 2017
Visiting Artist in Residence at Dilston Physic Garden. June 3rd – June 10th.
During the Residency Pauline is holding a workshop and a two – day course on drawing, Taking a Closer View.
February 2017
This month sees the start of a very exciting new collaboration between visual artist and poet.
Pauline and Christine Stewart – Nuñez are to continue the dialogue, which began with Christine’s response to a print by Pauline. Now the conversation continues with Pauline responding in turn to poetry and prose by Christine.
July 2016
South Dakota Art Museum. July 19th – December 4th.
Woman Working from Women: A Poetry Ekphrasis
Christine Stewart – Nuñez writes, inspired by various works of art by women artists chosen from the South Dakota Art Museum Collection. Sixteen works held in the collection were chosen by Christine and shown alongside the poetry that they inspired.
Art of the Body was written by her, in response to a 1969 etching by Pauline, Aquaform.
“Paired together, the artwork and the poem inform each other, and the viewer can simply step into the conversation. Ekphrasis encourages consideration and revelations.”
Jodi Lundgren
Co-ordinator of Exhibitions
South Dakota Art Museum.
www.SouthDakotaArtMuseum.com
*Christine Stewart – Nuñez is a poet and Professor in the English Department of South Dakota State University. www.cristinestewartnunez.com
July 2016
Visiting Artist in Residence at Dilston Physic Garden 2nd – 9th July.
During the residency week Pauline is holding a two-day course on drawing, Taking a Closer View, on 5th and 6th July.
For details of this course visit the Dilston Physic Garden website.
June 2016
The Spodki Gallery, Bialystok, Poland. 9th June – 7th July.
Prism 7. Prism Print International.
March 2016
Changsha Museum, Hunan, China.
Prism Print International.
An exhibition of selected works from this group of artists, taking place from the end of March to mid April.
March 2016
Clifford Chance Gallery, Clifford Chance LLP, Canary Wharf, London. 14th March – 22nd April.www.cliffordchance.com
Prism 6. Prism Print International.
Prism’s exhibitions, as print curator Julia Beaumont- Jones has noted, have ‘gestated, cross- fertilised, evolved and gathered momentum’. It is this spirit of exchange and collaboration that attracted Clifford Chance to invite the Prism organisation to consider exhibiting in our 30th floor gallery at our London offices.
Nigel Frank
Clifford Chance art collection.
2016
Plants in Mind – Memory Matters
The Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, the University of Cambridge, Anatomy Building, Downing Street, Cambridge.
The continuation of an exhibition of selected works from this project which includes the Dilston Physic Garden series of prints, digital photomontages where micrographs of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles found in the cortical tissue of the brain are combined with the flower of the snowdrop.
(see GALLERY to view a selection of these works)
October 2015
The Embassy Tea Gallery, 195 – 205 Union St, London. 6th – 18th October.
DISTINCT IMPRESSIONS: Prism 5 London – Identity and the International Print Artist.
32 Artists from 6 countries, China – Italy – Japan – Netherlands – Poland – England.
October 2015
The completion of a video profile of Pauline in her studio, talking about her work and in particular her Cardio – Active project. This is available to view on the website in PROFILE with a shorter version on the HOME page.
September 2015
China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China, 22nd September – 3rd October.
IMPACT 9, International Printmaking Conference.
A selection of works by members of the group Prism Print International.
Prism Print International was founded in 2012 to promote cultural exchange through the medium of fine art printmaking worldwide. Read about this important initiative, its founding and philosophy, members and exhibitions on their website.
www.prismprintinternational.com
August 2015
Visiting Artist in Residence at Dilston Physic Garden 1st – 8th August. During the residency Pauline is holding a workshop on drawing on Thursday 6th August.
Looking into the Hearts and Minds of Plants.
August 2015
John Radcliffe Hospital NHS Trust, Oxford. 11th July – 22nd August.
Plants in Mind – Memory Matters
A selection of the digital prints from this project. Drawings, scanning electron micrographs and mixed media works are also on view.
Oxford University Hospitals artlink, www.ouh.nhs.uk/hospitals/jr/
October 2014
The Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Anatomy Building, Downing Street, Cambridge.
Plants in Mind – Memory Matters: Ciphers and Signifiers.
This exhibition runs from October onwards. It includes the Dilston Physic Garden series of prints, digital photomontages where micrographs of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles found in the cortical tissue of the brain are combined with the flower of the snowdrop.
(see GALLERY to view a selection of these works)
August 2014
Drawing Workshop with the Visiting Artist in Residence, Pauline Aitken at the Dilston Physic Garden, Corbridge on 7th August.
Taking a Closer View: Looking into the Hearts and Minds of Plants.
This workshop explores the power of drawing to express the intriguing nature of fascinating and dynamic medicinal plant forms.
Participants will discover the way that these plants affect the human body and experiment with ways to describe this. Pauline will also show examples of her work on medicinal plants.
March 2014
Commission undertaken for a book cover illustration for the publication
The Neuroscience of Visual Hallucinations, Edited by Daniel Collerton, Urs Mosimann and Elaine Perry.
Publishers WILEY Blackwell, published 2015.
This commission provided an opportunity to work within the discipline of book illustration. As a response to her research into the fascinating phenomena of visual hallucinations Pauline produced several mixed media works.
The vision of an artist can capture and communicate concepts and ideas that are immensely difficult to put into words and even harder to assess scientifically. Many thanks for your work on the cover, it is just what we had hoped for
Daniel Collerton
Consultant Clinical Psychologist
Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust and Newcastle University, UK.
October 2013
Newcastle University Institute of Neuroscience, the Campus for Ageing and Vitality, the Centre for the Health of the Elderly. October 21st – March 28th 2014.
THE SNOWDROP: Spring hopes for the Ageing HUMAN BRAIN
The exhibition comprises drawings and photographic studies of the snowdrop and watercolours, drawings and mixed media studies of brain tissue observed from high-resolution microscope images. Also on view are prints, the first of the Dilston Physic Garden series of photomontages, Cipher and Signifier.
( see GALLERY to view a selection of these works.)
October 2012
Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury, Suffolk. October 1st – December 20th.
Gainsborough’s House Printmakers.
An exhibition celebrating the early years of the Print Workshop. Pauline’s work is also included in the book published to mark this occasion, ‘The Coach House in Gainsborough’s Garden’. A short history of the early years of Gainsborough’s House Print Workshop written to mark its thirtieth anniversary 1979 – 2009. Compiled and edited by Miranda Mott, published by Gainsborough’s House Sudbury, Suffolk.
June 2012
New Studio.
The year 2012 sees the setting up of a studio in the calm beauty of forested mountains in Colorado, US. In response to the combination of the brilliance of the mountain light and the ever-changing colour of the forest landscapes, Pauline is starting new work on the changes of hue and the quivering movement of aspen leaves. She is also beginning research on the traditional uses of the medicinal plants of the area.
April 2012
Artist in Residence at Dilston Physic Garden.
An exciting opportunity to study a wealth of medicinal plants and providing a focus for the second phase for the project,
Plants in Mind – Memory Matters
“We are keeping the snowdrop story alive in the Physic Garden with this ‘sci-art’ project. ….… People will soon forget that the drug [galantamine] owes its existence to the snowdrop.”
February 2012
Plants in Mind – Memory Matters
The start of the research stage of the collaborative project being developed by Pauline and neuroscientist Professor Elaine Perry, Emeritus Professor, Newcastle University and Curator, Dilston Physic Garden, Corbridge, Northumberland.
The project seeks to establish visual relationships between the structure of the brain and that of the medicinal snowdrop plant, Galanthus. It is exploring the narratives around the association between this tiny, delicate, medicinal plant and how it helps to heal the human mind when memory needs to be boosted in those with memory disorders.
Throughout the snowdrop plant and found in abundance within the bulb is a poison, galantamine which is produced to protect the plant from becoming a food source for the creatures living in its habitat. It is this chemical that has an important role to play in the treatment of memory impairments. It restores the level of acetylcholine, the neurochemical that transmits nerve impulses across the synapse between neurons and which is lost in those with memory failure.
A series of digital photomontages are being developed that signify the connection between plant and brain. In these the green markings that pattern the flower are either replaced by, or overlaid and integrated with, micrographs of details of the structures found within the tissue of the cortex.
We are keeping the snowdrop story alive in the Physic Garden with this ‘sci-art’ project…… People will soon forget that the drug [galantamine] owes its existence to the snowdrop
Professor Elaine Perry.
March 2011 ACS Gallery London. 24th March – 22nd May.
Crossing Centuries:Works by women artists 1830 to 2000.
Celebrating a century of Intemational Women’s Day, this exhibition
highlights historic, modem and contemporary work by women artists
in the Southwark Art Collection. Pauline’s work is represented in this
exhibition.www.ascstudios.co.uk/asc-gallery/
March 5th 2011 The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Gateway Gallery, John Hope Gateway Gallery,from March 12th until May 30th.
Taking a Closer View: Paintings, prints and micrographs.
The exhibition provides an intimate portrait of one of our most precious and captivating plants, the snake’s-head fritillary, Fritillaria meleagris.The fragile and intricate forms of this plant, together with the strange and beautiful structures revealed with the help of a scanning electron microscope, are explored through a variety of media.There is also a small display of tools, materials and plates used for making the etching prints that are being shown.
As one of the events planned for the Edinburgh International Science Festival 9th-22nd-April the exhibition provides an insight into the development of the ideas of an artist who works in the area where art and science meet.
November 2010 www.life.org.uk The International Centre for Life, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne from Saturday 27th November 2010 until Friday 14th January 2011.
Cardio – Active
A different view of treating the heart
Moving from digitalis to digital
Go to Gallery to view individual works.
October 2010 The Cut Arts Centre, Halesworth, Suffolk from 27th October until 27th November.
A selection of prints, photographs, micrographs and sculpture made between 2000 and 2010.www.newcut.org
July 2009 – February 2010 BioCity Nottingham.
Cardio-Active : The Heart and The Foxglove.
The first exhibition of all of Pauline’s work produced during the Cardio – Active project, funded by the Wellcome Trust opened on July 2nd at BioCity Nottingham. It is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. The exhibition period now has been extended to the end of February 2010.
Large-format Lambda prints are exhibited on two levels of the BioCity R3 building including the reception area, atrium, meeting and boardrooms, lounge and conference hall.
BioCity Nottingham. www.biocity.co.uk
The Arts Council. www.artscouncil.org.uk
The Wellcome Trust. www.wellcome.ac.uk
Photographs by Page One Photography
Pauline’s work has been featured recently in the following magazines.
2010 Wavelength, Nottingham Science City’s magazine. Article by Mark Patterson.
2009 BlueSci Magazine, Issue 14 .www.bluesci.org
March 2009 Infocus, the issue of the magazine published by the Royal Microscopical Society. www.rms.org.uk
The Cardio-Active project was featured in the Spring 2006 edition of The Homeopath and was the subject matter of an article by the editor Jo Evans, Art and Science.www.homeopathy-soh.com