Textile designer Amarjeet Kaur Nandhra’s work selected by The Embroiderer’s Guild

We are delighted to announce that Textile designer Amarjeet Kaur Nandhra’s work has been selected by The Embroiderer’s Guild.

Appearing at the Alexandra Palace in London from 11th to 14th October will be a selection of new work by the talented West London artist, Amarjeet Kaur Nandhra. Her work will be showcased within the The Knitting and Stitching Shows.

Amarjeet is a successful independent artist, producing vibrant and provocative pieces, ranging from wall hangings to free standing three-dimensional sculptures. She uses all types of materials in her practice including fabric, paper, metal and glass. The remarkable graphic power in Amarjeet’s work often derives from the dramatic events in her own life, which include references to both her Asian heritage and British home. Over the years, she has developed a unique style and technique that embodies both eastern and western traditions of textile art. 

Amarjeet Kaur Nandhra is a key artist with The Art Ministry whose recent successes have given rise to her reputation as a dedicated, thoughtful and dexterous artist willing to explore techniques and style whereby her work is constantly challenged. 

The Knitting and Stitching Shows where Amarjeet’s work will appear is taking place at three other venues, although her work will primarily be showcased at the Alexander Palace. Other venues include; the National Exhibition Centre, RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin and the International Halls at Harrogate and take place throughout September to November 2007.

This year the Guild is offering each graduate a gallery format space to showcase their work. The show expects to attract 47,000 people over the four days in London and a further 39,000 in Harrogate and an attendance in the excess of 20,000 in Dublin.

Upcoming Textile Art Exhibition

The talented Textile Artist Amarjeet Kaur Nandhra has gone from strength to strength. She is currently working on a project that promises to be both exciting, highly original and deeply affecting.

Amarjeet’s work is a delicate balance; a relationship between the powerful message that is always present and the desire to create work that is aesthetically appealing.  With this in her minds eye, her project focuses on social aspects of humanity: codes of behaviour; rules set out to govern aspects of our lives; and its penetrating effects on individuals and the society as whole.

However, the truly original aspect of this project is Amarjeet’s strength of placing herself in her work – she brings her own experiences into being. She has explored the complex rules of Sikhism, parenting and relationships. The techniques she currently uses range from screen-printing, discharge, machine and hand embroidery.  Each process is skilfully layered to produce a visually stunning and moving piece of work. All this within the creative aspects of Textile Art – who said that meaningful art was dead?

This body of work has been created as part of Amarjeet’s final year of the H.E Diploma in Stitched Textiles at East Berkshire College. We wait with abated breath to see the final exhibition. The exhibition runs from Wednesday 20th June to Saturday 23rd June from 10am to 6pm. Private View is on Tuesday 19th at 6.30pm at East Berkshire College, Windsor Campus, St. Leonard’s Rd, Windsor, Berkshire.

The annual Windsor exhibition has achieved a high profile and has attracted many visitors over the years. It is a showcase for students studying on the H.E. Diploma in Stitched Textiles, City and Guilds Embroidery and the Advanced Embroidery workshop. It is an amazing opportunity for like-minded people to indulge in a feast of exciting, original and beautiful textiles.

Amarjeet also teaches the Advanced Embroidery workshop at East Berkshire College, an exhibition of her student’s work will be on display.  This would be an excellent opportunity for visitors to see the work created during the course, to talk to the students and Amarjeet. Not only will visitors be able enjoy the wonderful exhibits but it also provides a chance for some retail therapy.  As tradition has it, the exhibition also attracts a number of textile and art traders selling a range of supplies.
 
Finally, Amarjeet is involved in an exciting venture with the London Transport Museum Textiles Project.  It will be four textile-based workshops with South Acton Skills and Arts Collaborative (SASAC), who are based in Bollo Lane. The group consists of mostly women, from a diverse range of ethnicities drawn from the Acton estate.  They meet up to take part in activities, mostly sewing and improve their English. The women have worked on similar projects before. The dates are not yet finalised, but intend to be in the last two weeks of July or the first two weeks of August.

We will of course keep you informed on any developments of Amarjeet’s extraordinary creative life!

Creative Studies Exhibition

For further info www.eastberks.ac.uk

Women Without Bounds

Ealing Open Studios

Four Ealing artists open the doors of their studios for the first time to the public.

What does an artist studio look like? How is an artwork created? Wouldn’t you like to have a peek into the creative atmosphere and surroundings of an artist studio and spend time chatting with the artist?

On Sunday, 3 December, from 11am to 5pm, you can visit the studios of the following artists:

Amarjeet Kaur Nandhra is a textile artist. She creates vibrant wall hangings as well as freestanding three-dimensional sculptures using textiles and other materials. Her embroideries are full of colour, embracing the visual richness of both her Asian and British culture. Ancient texts and philosophies, images of rites of passage, are often worked into the fabric.

Studio: Sudbury Heights, Greenford. UB6 0LP. Email for further info. Website: http://www.artministry.co.uk/amarjeetkaurnandhra. Amarjeet’s work is available at The Art Ministry, to see her current collection click here

Yousif Naser is a painter whose work ranges from studies of the figure and portraits to colourful renditions of middle-eastern cities and landscapes in mixed media, acrylic and oil. He is a highly regarded art critic and writes in the cultural pages of Arabic newspapers. His work is on show at the Ark Gallery, which Yousif has been the director of for the past 8 years and available on line at The Art Ministry.

Studio: The Ark, The Old Stables Block, Longfield Avenue, W5 2UQ (behind Ealing Town Hall, by council car park). Email for further info. Website: http://www.artministry.co.uk/yousifnaser. Yousif work is available at The Art Ministry, to see his current collection click here.

Andrea Tierney, a painter, who has exhibited widely in England and abroad. Her paintings are colourful, imaginative and very modern. Born and educated in Austria, she studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in her 20s. She is now completing a degree course in textile design/print at Central Saint Martins College in London. Her most recent project was a huge art tent for Ealing featuring local artists and performers.

Studio: Cathay Walk, Northolt UB5 6TD. Email for further info.

Judith Craig is a sculptor. She worked at Madame Tussaud’s since 1978 where she had sittings with and sculpted many famous people – John McEnroe, Boy George, Martina Navratilova, Queen Elizabeth II, Rajiv Gandhi, Sylvester Stallone, and Margaret Thatcher. She also met and assisted at sittings with Michael Jackson, the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela. Judith became Head of the Portrait Studio at Madame Tussaud’s in 1987. The artist is also an accomplished painter and visitors to her studio will be able to see her numerous paintings of landscapes and the famous rhino.

The late Jim Mathieson’s work is exhibited alongside Judith’s at their studio. Everyone will know his famous statue of William Hogarth in Chiswick, but few will be familiar with his smaller sculptures, for which he investigated plant and animal shapes, trying to capture the essence of their sensuality by abstracting them.

Studio: Cuckoo Dene, Hanwell, W7 3DT. Email for further info.

Rima Staines is a painter and illustrator living and working in the basement of the
remarkable Hermitage in Hanwell. This unusual thatched house, which looks like it has come straight from a fairytale, provides great inspiration for Rima’s artwork. Her illustrations blend flavours of whimsical folk art, medieval manuscript illuminations and dark nursery rhyme illustrations.

Studio: basement flat (down steps at right hand side of house – not main front door). The Hermitage, Church Road, Hanwell, W7 3BP. Email for further info. Website: www.the-hermitage.org.uk