The Mike Toll film archive: Mike Chapman, Oliver Creed and David Jones. A joint ncas and Norwich 20 Group event

Event date: 14 October 2025
Review by Danusia Wurm

 

Right to left: Oliver Creed, Mike Chapman, former ncas Chair Keith Roberts and David Jones

 
 

Echoing the 2024 ncas exhibition, Post War: People and Place, that showcased the work of Robert Fox and Leslie Davenport, the evening at Norwich School’s Blake Studio was another brilliant time-capsule, this time transporting us back 35 years to the early 1990s.

Pre-dating a period marked by the rise of youth and popular culture and a shift towards individualism, we witness three artists beautifully captured in Mike Toll’s superb cinematic portraits “just being themselves.”  Even better, all three artists were present to witness their honest, unselfconscious, younger selves to the delight of an enthusiastic ncas and Norwich 20 Group audience.

Eloquently introduced by former ncas chair Keith Roberts (whose excellent notes I have unashamedly plundered) the films were made in1989 and 1990 in VHS format. They were transcribed to a more user-friendly digital format by ncas and the Norwich Twenty Group in 2018. All the films have now been deposited through Dr Nick Warr in the East Anglian Film Archive.

On the films themselves, Keith wryly comments, “Even after only 35 years the films do seem curiously dated…. - it’s hard to pin down why, but even their voices seem to be from a slightly different era - but their key interest is the tight focus that Mike Toll brings to the artist’s materials and methods, about how artists in practice make their stuff”.

 

Mike Chapman in his studio at St Ethelreda’s

“An artist is not joined to his work.  The work has its own integrity and life”
— Mike Chapman
 

Mike Chapman: Thinking With My Hands

Thinking With My Hands, was made in 1989 and follows Mike through the priest’s door and into his studio in the round-towered, St Etheldreda’s artist’s church in King Street. Keith comments: After some great drawings, and he really can draw, he goes on to describe in detail his approach to 3D and to 2D work, a distinction he rejects. In the film, Mike categorically states “I’m not a sculptor or a painter.”

 
 

He goes on to describe his huge appreciation of Van Gogh’s strong, ‘real’ paintings and drawings; Picasso’s sense of ‘fun and abundant inventiveness’; Rodin’s sculptural fluidity and Russian constructivist Tatlin who used new experimental materials such as zinc. To Mike ‘excitement and inquiry’ in the practice of art are very important.

A modest man, but a real artist, Mike continues to follow his ‘Constructivist’ line of enquiry in 3D and 2D art today. 

 

Oliver Creed

 
“Sculpture is a form that describes itself”
— Oliver Creed
 

In this film from 1990, Oliver is three years out of art school as a mature student and looking young and dapper. He talks confidently about his Contact Gallery show, Working an Edge. He covers his earlier work as a boatyard welder before talking in detail about the various considerations he takes before making a work, mostly with cement or plaster but all with a strong emphasis on structure with a capital “S”.  

 
 

He is particularly concerned with how a sculpture exists “outside of itself”; how it connects with another 3D form “stripping away associations to make the object its own thing”. A quintessential object maker and modeller, for the last decade, Oliver has been working exclusively in ceramic stoneware which still maintains its strong architectural flavour.

 

David Jones

“I paint the world immediately around me - from what’s about”
— David Jones
 

The film David Jones covers a lot of ground. Drawings and paintings and prints, but all with a clear central preoccupation with the real world around him, whether it is friends and family, mannequins in a shop window, the urban landscape, allotments, scrapped cars, castles, canals or street plans. David explains “Much of my work is about history. What interests me is how we can see evidence of the past around us.

 

In terms of carrying out the work, drawing is an essential basis together with a strong pictorial style. He is constantly looking for balance. He says, “A painting has to have its own discreet arrangement.”

Colour is also very important. He says, “Colour resonates to create atmosphere like notes or chords in music.” Influenced by, but not “explicitly following” artists including Braque, Matisse, Bonnard and Derain, he continues to be a serious observer of where and how we live.

In all, it was a wonderfully evocative and uplifting evening, which not only explored the aspirations and practices of three wonderful artists but also shone a light on the fascinating social history of the early 1990s.

We remain forever indebted to Mike Toll.

ncas would also like to thank Norwich 20 Group for their enthusiastic partnering in this event and Norwich School for their excellent hosting.

 

Figures in a Landscape: a talk by the artist Daniel & Clara on landscape, place and nature

Event date: 18 September
Review by Danusia Wurm

 
 

Image of Daniel & Clara from their publication Birding

 
 

Touched by Adam and Eve

It’s not often that an artist’s presentation is so eloquent and haunting that it’s hard to describe it in words. Such was the talk delivered by the artist Daniel & Clara to a captivated ncas audience at Norwich School’s Blake Studio.

 
“We are the work and the work is us”
— Daniel & Clara
 

Since meeting in 2010, the artist Daniel & Clara have lived a shared life of creative experimentation across a wide range of media, exploring the nature of human experience, perception and reality. Their art is solely based on their life experience, where they intensely observe the inner and outer landscape of themselves and that around them.

At its core, their practice is a meditation on the human search for meaning and the ways we attempt to make sense of our existence during our brief time on this planet.

Whilst the moving image and performance lie at the heart of their practice (this is how they met), Daniel & Clara also use digital, analogue and lenticular photography, installation and, unconventionally, mail art - correspondence and small images sent by post, originally to complete strangers (in an effort to connect) and latterly to subscribers. The mail art is particularly worthy of comment in that at a time of the “short read”, sound bites and endless scrolling, Daniel & Clara produce the opposite – exquisite often haunting text, that conjure up images of hyper-focussed clarity imbued with an underlying sense of atmosphere and place.

 

Extract from Letter 7 of “The Naturalist Letters”, Daniel & Clara

 

Daniel & Clara do not dictate how the viewer might perceive their work.

“One thing we are always trying to do is to place the viewer or reader at the centre of the work in some way, to not make art that tells them what to think or feel but to create a space where they can become conscious of their own thoughts or feelings”.

The viewer enters very much at the artist’s invitation. Echoing the work of sculptor and environmentalist Sir Richard Long RA (also a previous ncas speaker), their work appears to slow down time. As Amanda Geitner eloquently puts it “There is a hallucinatory intoxication to the body of work”.

 
“Two humans. One artist ”
— Daniel & Clara
 

The quantum leap from the “inner” to the “outer” came from a seminal visit to the Avebury stone circle in Wiltshire in 2017 where the relationship between nature and the human psyche rang out to them like a clarion call. Their “cataclysmic” encounter with Avebury led Daniel & Clara to permanently move to the UK in 2018 and begin make work in response to the British landscape. This period produced, amongst other works The Avebury Letters - letters written from the perspective of the Avebury stones! It was also at this time the artist first appeared in front of the the camera as its subject, transitioning from the “observer” to the “observed”.

 
 

2020 found them in lockdown on Mersea Island, near Colchester in Essex. At a time fraught with tension, isolation and anxiety, they noticed a “turn up” in the volume of nature. This is beautifully captured in On the Island a series of 100” videos “like small notes, sketches or diaries” which document the eerie stillness of the pandemic, interspersed with the insistent calls of nature. Other works at this time include The Yellow Letters (yellow being the colour associated with illness and disease) which describe the artist's isolation during the pandemic.

 
 

Throughout 2022 Daniel & Clara presented Landscape Imaginary, a series of exhibitions and events of their work across the East of England. This was accompanied by the publication of the first monograph about their work. Their continuing fascination with the “observer” and “observed” continued with Birding (2023) a body of work about the human gaze, exploring the optical and psychological processes at play when humans look at nature, and Birds and Beasts a poignant series of hand-painted photos of dead animals encountered in their daily walks. Daniel & Clara say “Painting became a way to have a deeper engagement with the subject and to bring into the photograph… a vitality of life while lived …” The series is ongoing.

 

A Sudden Downpour, The Lost Estate, Daniel & Clara

 

In 2024, commissioned by Norwich Castle Museum & Gallery, Daniel & Clara produced The Lost Estate, a series of six large-scale photographs that explore the sometimes fraught relationship between humans and the natural world through imagined narratives taking place in the gardens of a country estate. The series was conceived in response to the work of the British 19th Century Romantic movement, particularly John Crone.

Going forward, Daniel & Clara’s work continues to focus on the complex relationship between humans and the natural world, particularly exploring the climate crisis as a psychological crisis.

 
“We feel like Adam and Eve at the end of the world confronting the beauty and terror of existing”
— Daniel & Clara
 

Their latest work "ANGELS" (September 2025), is a series of painted photographs of Exeter Cathedral's eroded stone angels. Covered in layers of green paint the angels emerge and dissolve suspended in an absence of absence and presence. For the artist, these fragile weather worn figures have become a powerful metaphor for the erosion of traditional structures and shared myths. “In a world where such guiding narratives have faded, ANGELS expresses a deep sense of disorientation – a longing for meaning, guidance and connection”.

It seems somehow appropriate to close this essay on the subject of angels. Mysterious extensions of a higher power, these otherworldly creatures are often seen to presage momentous events. It calls to mind Daniel & Clara’s practice in response to the ongoing climate crisis.

Their art is inquiring and reflective but also fiercely analytical and visionary. It permeates with a quiet wisdom and space to think.

Our thanks go to Daniel & Clara for their superb presentation, to Lisa Newby, Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery for her excellent introduction and to the Norwich School for their effortless hosting.

ncas Small Grants winners announced

ncas are pleased to announce the two winners of the latest round of Small Grants Awards.

 
 

Being Woman is a touring series of exhibitions that bring together work from a number of intergenerational female artists, who have an affiliation with Norfolk and Suffolk, under the theme ‘Being Woman’.

 

Included in this exhibition will be loaned works including pieces by Paula Rego, Eileen Cooper, Celia Paul, Maggie Hambling and Liorah Tchiprout. The six-week exhibition will take place in Mandell’s Gallery in March/April 2026 and will be curated by Rachel Allen.

Featured poster from Being Woman at Corn Hall, Diss March - May 2025.

More information here

 
 

From Shangrila to Cromer is an exhibition in tribute to the late Derrick Greaves, featuring a body of work inspired by Derrick’s extensive practice, along with works by Derrick himself.

The proposal came from a group of friends, most of whom met during a three-year course at Art Academy East in Norwich, and who now get together regularly in the studio of the late Derrick Greaves hosted by his wife Sally Butler.

The exhibition will be exhibited at Cromer ArtSpace in 2026.

Featured images above (R to L): With the Parrots, Derrick Greaves; Scrambled Woman, Linda Sonntag; Pink and Green, Polly Johnson.

More information here

ncas Norwich University of the Arts Graduate Awards 2025

Every year ncas awards two prizes to Norwich University of the Arts graduates, a Fine Art and New Makers prize with two commendations in each category.

This year ncas is delighted to award the Fine Art prize to Layla Adams (pictured above with ncas Vice Chair Selwyn Taylor) for her triptych of large landscape paintings in oil and oil pastel. Commendations go to Lily Molesworth and Casey Jackson.

The New Makers Prize was awarded to Elizabeth Maw (pictured above) for her large structure of repetitive and organic forms made from boxed steel section and steel mesh. Commendations go to Esme Vivian-Shaw and Niamh Thompson.

“What colour is that?” Notes of a painter on the slippery properties of colour. A talk by artist-curator Trevor Burgess

Event date: 15 May 2025
Review by Danusia Wurm

 
 

Trevor Burgess at the Blake Studio, Norwich School

 
 

Artist David Hockney has said, “I prefer living in colour.” And this could apply equally to artist-curator Trevor Burgess whose beautifully articulated talk explored the “slippery” properties and perplexities of colour and how artists attempt to render its sensation.

Exploring the difference between the colour of paint and the colour of light; colour as space and colour as light, Burgess took the audience on a journey that was part science and part experiential. As Burgess succinctly puts it “How inadequate words are for describing colour sensation! That’s why artists use paint”.

Most of Burgess’ work relates to his daily visual experience. “I usually paint from photographs I have taken. In making paintings from these I am seeking to recover a memory of something I saw and what I felt about it”.  Inspired by a quote attributed to Plato "A thing is not visible until it is seen", Burgess is also motivated to depict elements of contemporary life that are not often treated in painting.  He says “Painting has an important role in making things seen”.

 

Quoting Plato is not surprising given that Burgess initially studied literature, going on to train and work as Assistant Curator at the Norwich Gallery for four years at the time of the establishment of the ‘East’ international exhibition. He founded and steered the development of the Warehouse Artists’ Studios in Norwich, where he was based from 1990 to 1997. 

Completing an MA Winchester School of Art in European Fine Art, Burgess moved to Barcelona in 1997. During this period he produced a series of large, figurative paintings exploring the relationships of families and children.

After returning to the UK in 1999 to live in London, he became interested in the characteristics of the urban space around him as subject matter. He began using his own photographs of people’s daily lives in the city as a source. A strong and constantly recurring theme of Burgess’ practice is his painting of street market stalls and shops in his home city of London and various other urban settings painted during his extensive travels.

 

“Living in a city I am affected by the urban environment around me, and for over twenty years my paintings have been a celebration of London's street life and diverse communities.  I am interested in social and cultural expression in public space, and civic life in cities. I have also travelled extensively in Europe, Latin America and India, which gives my work an international perspective”.

A series of paintings of homes in London called A Place to Live, inspired by images in newspaper property adverts, took Burgess in a new direction, winning acclaim from Time Out’s art critic Ossian Ward for The Discerning Eye 2011.

In 2015, he received a commission from Townshend Landscape Architects for a triptych painting of Granary Square, the centre-piece of the King’s Cross development in London. This generated a series of studies and related paintings.

 
 

In recent years, Burgess has become more explicit in asserting and writing about the social context of his paintings, opposing insular, exclusionary and divisive tendencies in UK politics and society. Specifically, the twin crises of Brexit and the Covid pandemic provoked a radical rupture in his work, in which he began experimenting with inverting colour in his paintings.

“My inverted colour paintings were an experiment to see whether colour, the intrinsic material of painting, might be mobilised to oppose and challenge those who seek to foment division and conflict”. 

 
 

The view of Birling Gap and the Seven Sisters cliffs on the South coast of England was the first painting Burgess produced in inverse colours. He made it the day immediately after the Brexit vote (2016). At its centre is a Union Jack flag, torn, also with its colours inverted. 

Equally totemic is where Burgess’ inverts the colours of a painting of the Port of Dover (after Oskar Kokoschka) who fled to Britain from Prague in 1938. “My inverse version of Kokoschka’s painting was completed during autumn 2019 at the height of the parliamentary crisis over Brexit. The painting expressed my fear and forebodings, by making visible the national reversal of the European values that Kokoschka held dear”. 

The Inverse Colour paintings were first shown in a solo show at Flashback, London in 2021.

Throughout, a key aspect of Burgess’ practice is his extensive collaboration with other painters, exploring the social context of painting. Where We Live, a national touring exhibition (2021-2023), brought together five artists who examined under-regarded aspects of the social landscape of England.

Most recently (2024), in collaboration with Raksha Patel, Burgess has curated Standing Ground, an exhibition of twelve British artists who use paint to depict the landscapes that belong to them. Collectively, their work offers an intersectional and intergenerational conversation spanning six decades of life in post-war Britain through examining what it means to paint the place that we live in today. 

ncas wishes to thank Trevor for his superbly delivered and highly stimulating talk and to the Norwich School for their effortless hosting of the event.

 
 
 
 

Sculptor Bruce Gernand studio visit

Event date: 30 April 2025
Review by Selwyn Taylor

 
 

Bruce Gernand’s studio is in the grounds of The Old Manor on the outskirts of Garboldisham in Suffolk.

Thirty ncas members visited Bruce on a wonderful warm, late spring day and were made most welcome in his sprawling home, studio and garden containing Bruce’s working studio and an outer building housing his archive of past projects.

 
 

Bruce originally studied philosophy during the political upheavals of the late 60s in San Francisco. He moved to England to study sculpture, blending the formative intersection of American minimalism and the more lyrical sculptural references practiced in Britain.

Bruce became interested in the potential of digital imaging. For some years his work has negotiated and searched for a relation between the digital and material. Using 3D computer modelling and transferring this data into material form has been a challenge rife with welcome conundrums and paradoxes.

 
 

During his time as a Senior Research Fellow at Central Saint Martins, Bruce undertook an AHRC funded project, Coded Chimera (2011), which explored the transformation grids of D’Arcy Thompson in collaboration with the Natural History Museum and the Computer Lab at Cambridge University. The convergence of zoological form and computational strategies was guided by a rather un-scientific and poetic concept: the chimera, a composite which makes a link with a long tradition in art where unfamiliar conjunctions act as repositories of our own imaginative projections.

 

Bruce Gernand with ncas member

 

ncas would like to thank Bruce for a wonderful tour through his philosophy and resulting work.