Upper Space Gallery

THE UPPER SPACE GALLERY OPENS IT’S DOORS WITH AN INTRODUCTION TO SKETCH CITY’S FLAGSHIP GALLERY SPACE WITH FRESH WORKS BY SOME OF THE UK’S MOST EXCITING STREET ARTISTS.

Upper Space gallery is delighted to announce that our first exhibition, This Is Us, opens on the 1st March. This show brings together some of the most exciting artists from the UK for the first time in the North West’s only designated Street Art Gallery. The show features work by well respected, established contemporaries along side up and coming underground artists. The first exhibition serves as an introduction to the gallery where the artists have been given full creative control over how they use the space.

Artists Exhibiting:

JON BURGERMAN (www.jonburgerman.com)

The UK artist has built a strong reputation through his unique and colourful doodle-artworks of swooping, intertwining lines and hyper-emotional characters. Working across a variety of media that includes drawing, painting, print, animation, large-scale murals and toy design, his art retains a hand-made, hand-drawn quality. A sense of British self-deprecation, dry humour and modern-day anxiety imbues his work along with an enthusiasm for salads.

Burgerman has exhibited internationally since 2001 with his work in the permanent collections of The Victoria and Albert Museum and The Science Museum in London. He regularly gives lectures at Universities and presented his work at the prestigious Pictoplasma Character Design Conference (Berlin, 2006).

He received a D&AD Silver award nomination for his work for Levi’s and has worked on many commercial projects for high profile organisations including: The Science Museum (UK), The BBC (UK), Sony (Worldwide), KidRobot (Worldwide), MTV (Worldwide), Coca Cola (Worldwide), 55DSL (UK), Crowm Creative Inc. (Japan), NookArt (Worldwide) and Rip Curl (Worldwide).

DAVID EARL DIXON aka DIST (www.distone.co.uk)

Dist has exhibited his work wide and far, constantly looking to push the barriers of where his luminous and hollow beings will take him. He also art directs his own skateboard brand ‘The Harmony’ as well as being a member of the prestigious London based ‘Scrawl Collective’.

Dist has exhibited his work in both solo and joint exhibitions in various cities around the world including shows in; London, Marseille, New York and Los Angeles.

His work is in high demand and Dist has created work for many high profile clients including: Adidas, Orange, Analogue Books, Nike, SB, Konami Games, MTV, Virgin Media, Roxy Surf Wear and Magma Books.

SKETCH CITY ARTISTS (www.sketchcity.co.uk)

From it’s start over 2 years ago, the live street art and music event in Manchester has gone from strength to strength. Some of the most talented Street Artists in the North West have become resident artists painting alongside DJs including Manchester’s own Mr Scruff, Danny Breaks, DJ Woody and Natural Self. Sketch City artists have painted throughout the UK and abroad and have completed projects with clients including: Sony (UK), New Balance (UK), Marsatac (Europe), EA Games (UK), Westworld (UK), Grolsch (UK) and Revolution (UK). We have also taken the event format to festivals including D-Percussion (2005/06/07), Hub Festival (2007) and Glastonbury (2007).

ABOUT UPPER SPACE GALLERY

Situated in the heart of the Northern Quarter in an old warehouse in Manchester city centre, 1600 sq. ft. gallery space will give local street artists as well as national and international artists the opportunity to gain exposure and experience by showcasing their work to the public.

The ethos behind the gallery is the same as our monthly Sketch City event held at the Contact Theatre, we are all about inclusivity and promoting art as a positive form of expression, we aim to provide street artists and illustrators with a safe environment to create work for exhibitions and show the public the art forms that rarely get that chance to be seen in Manchester. This is the first gallery of it’s kind outside of London and is a first for the North West.

We know there are many limitations placed on artists when they exhibit work within a gallery setting, at Upper Space we plan to give these contemporary art forms contemporary space and we encourage artists to interact with the space as they would on the streets outside. We believe in pushing things forward.

For further enquiries please contact:

Barney Francis on 07787 384 814 or via e-mail barney@sketchcity.co.uk

www.sketchcity.co.uk



This weekend also sees the launch of Sketch City's new night Hoya:Hoya at the Music Box in Manchester. To find out more you can read Jonny and Ryan's One Hundred Project installments here and here.