Chester Visual Arts brings internationally acclaimed artists and a new focus on visual arts provision to the City of Chester and the wider region
Chester Visual Arts is a registered charity. Our Board is a group of likeminded business and arts leaders, including experts in arts education, curation and management, property development, historic preservation, urban regeneration, law, environment and industry.
Our ultimate aim is to create a permanent public art gallery in Chester and, to achieve that aim, establish a regular programme of quality events and exhibitions which will lead to the City becoming a go to place nationally and internationally for the visual arts.
Our immediate goal is to attract a wide audience for high quality visual arts and build towards the establishment of permanent exhibition and work space that will present ambitious work from local, national and international artists and to find suitable exhibition space in the City to allow this to happen.
The V&A Pop Art in Print Exhibition was the first in a series of visual arts interventions into underused buildings in the City and the initial aim was to contribute to the renewed cultural vibrancy brought about by the opening of Storyhouse and the Cathedral’s arts programme.
Image: Pen and ink plotter drawing, ‘CYBERFLOWER, Sunshine Version 1’ (2008) © Roman Verostko
Chance and Control:
Art in the Age of Computers
The Old Library, Chester
Friday 7 June – Sunday 8 September 2019
Open 11am - 5pm, Wed - Sun | Free admission
Chester Visual Arts (CVA) brings the major V&A exhibition Chance and Control: Art in the Age of Computers to Chester this summer. Featuring key artworks from the pioneers of digital art over the last 50 years, this groundbreaking exhibition is another significant milestone towards the organisation’s objective to establish a permanent contemporary art gallery in Chester.
Since the 1960s, artists and programmers have used computers to create prints, drawings, paintings, photographs and digital artworks. Chance and Control draws on the V&A’s rich international collection of computer-generated art and includes work by pioneering digital artists such as Frieder Nake and Georg Nees – who produced some of the earliest computer art – through to the younger generation of artists practicing today.
It offers viewers the rare opportunity to trace the chronological development of digital art, exploring how aspects of chance and control shaped the creative process and produced vivid and original artworks.
Created by the V&A - touring the nation
Primary exhibition funder the Tyrer Charitable Trust
UPCOMING EVENTS
Chance and Control: Art in the Age of Computers
Supporting events programme
All events take place at The Old Library, Northgate Street, Chester, CH1 2EF
Wednesday 21 August | 5-6pm | £3 | Booking required
Chance and Control: Douglas Dodds Lecture
Douglas Dodds, Senior Curator at the V&A, provides an overview of digital art and design history, highlighting artworks in the Chance and Control exhibition and the V&A’s collection.
Saturday 31 August | 12 – 4pm | £5 | Booking required
Light Seeking Stickbots Workshop
The Owl Project lead a fun and interactive afternoon of making analog crawling robots that respond to light and create drawings.
Friday 6 September | 1:00 – 3:00pm | £5 | Booking required
Making a Dimension: Digital Image-Making Workshop
Join artist Emily Tilzey to learn digital image-making techniques and create your own drawing, photograph and text based compositions.
Saturday 7 September | 1:00 – 3:00pm | Free | drop-in
Strange Loops
Get hands on with feedback systems in video art as artist Sam Meech sets up studio at the Old Library.
Sunday 8 September | 1 – 4pm | Free | drop-in
Closing event: Nexus collective
After a fantastic set in July, we welcome back Chester-based Nexus collective to close the exhibition with three hours of downtempo, tonal and glitchy records.
Woman's Hour Craft Prize Exhbition Film
Chester Visual Arts have been proud to present the Woman’s Hour Craft Prize, which marked the launch of a new year-long exhibition programme at The Old Library in Chester. The exhibition showcased the most innovative and exciting craft practice in the UK today, the V&A exhibition at the Old Library marks the 70th anniversary of BBC Woman’s Hour. Traditional materials and historic skills met new techniques in an exhibition that combined beauty and precise detail with challenging ideas.
Our Colour Reflection Timelapse Film
Installing Our Colour Reflection is a carefully choreographed process. Over 700 mirrors in 15 colours and 4 sizes are precisely placed on clear acrylic plinths to gradually fill the space. Chester Cathedral’s medieval Chapter House with its Gothic architecture and soaring stained glass windows is the perfect location for this ambitious and visually dramatic work. Shimmering colours are reflected on the walls and ceiling, changing in intensity with the light. This timelapse, filmed over 3 days, captures both the process and the beauty of Our Colour Reflection.
Pop Art Exhibition Film
The Victoria & Albert Museum’s ‘Pop Art in Print' exhibition, presented by Chester Visual Arts and curated by the V & A, brought together, for the first time, an international collection of Pop graphics featuring artists Andy Warhol, Patrick Caulfield, Richard Hamilton, Allen Jones, Roy Lichtenstein and Ed Ruscha.
Latest News
PRESS RELEASE
Chance & Control
Exhibition
Chester Visual Arts (CVA) brings the major V&A exhibition Chance and Control: Art in the Age of Computers to Chester this summer, and the first stop on its tour outside of London. Featuring key artworks from the pioneers of digital art over the last 50 years, this groundbreaking exhibition is another significant milestone towards the organisation’s objective to establish a permanent contemporary art gallery in Chester.
EXHIBITION
Woman's Hour Craft Prize Exhibition
Chester Visual Arts are proud to present the Woman’s Hour Craft Prize, marking the launch of a new year-long exhibition programme at The Old Library in Chester. This exhibition follows the hugely successful V&A Pop Art in Print exhibition and Liz West’s Our Colour Reflection at Chester Cathedral, further cementing the organisation’s ambition to bring great art to Chester.
BLOG
Chester Pop Art Exhibition Success
Chester Visual Arts, the independent, company aiming to put the City on the national and international stage for the visual arts, and Grosvenor Estate hosted a Reception at Chester Cathedral last week to celebrate the Ark Sculpture and the Victoria & Albert Museum Pop Art in Print Exhibitions, in the City.