This Weekend Get a Free Copy of Aesthetica Magazine at The Hepworth Wakefield

Visitors to The Hepworth Wakefield in West Yorkshire this weekend will have the opportunity to pick up a free copy of Aesthetica magazine with purchases of £10 or more, while stocks last. Current must-see exhibitions at the gallery include new works by the Northern Art Prize 2010 winner Haroon Mirza. Running until 29 September 2013, Mirza’s exhibition will feature an audio composition and physical light installation through which the artist will accentuate what usually goes unheard and unseen in the art gallery.

Three distinct groups of objects comprise the first part of Mirza’s new work Water, Electricity, Reflection (2013) all found by Mirza at the Hepworth. These include Alice Channer’s sculpture Invertebrates (2013) a group of empty plinths and Philip Reinagle’s painting Wakefield Bridge and Chantry Chapel (1793). The adjacent gallery includes four new light installations (Light Work xx, Light Work xxi, Light Work xix, Light Work xviii (2013), part of a series of 50 works, which respond to the existing architecture of the gallery space. The works repeat and refer to the angles, dimensions and features of the gallery, drawing attention to the physical structure of the building. The second part of Water, Electricity, Reflection, contains elements that also respond to the specific context of the gallery: the image and sound of the River Calder’s weir just outside the gallery are relayed to its interior. The visual and acoustic aspects of this exhibition immerse the visitor in a sensory experience that is at odds with a conventional gallery atmosphere, where a silent or hushed visual contemplation of artwork tends to prevail.

The Haroon Mirza exhibition is on display concurrently with the William Scott exhibition, jointly organised with Tate St Ives and Ulster Museum, in commemoration of the centenary of the artist William Scott CBE RA (1913 – 1989). This exhibition will be on display until 29 September 2013. Evolving from the original presentation at Tate St Ives, the exhibition at the Hepworth will include an expanded display comprising several additional works and an archive that illuminates the relationship between William Scott, Wakefield Art Gallery and his association with Barbara Hepworth. The exhibition will showcase two paintings from Scott’s seminal abstract series Berlin Blues, painted between 1965 and 1966, and Three Pears, Pan, Plate and Knife (1955) from the Wakefield Permanent Art Collection which has not been previously displayed at the gallery. Through this enhanced exhibition, visitors will be presented with an opportunity to see Scott’s work in the context of the Hepworth Family Gift and alongside work by Barbara Hepworth, making connections between both artists who shared associations not only with St Ives, Cornwall but also through their role as pioneers of British abstraction.

Visitors can enjoy free admission to The Hepworth Wakefield, Haroon Mirza and the William Scott exhibitions and, for a limited period only, a free copy of Aesthetica magazine when spending £10 or more over this weekend. For further details about the gallery and the summer programme of exhibitions and events visit www.hepworthwakefield.org.

William Scott and Haroon Mirza 25 May – 29 September 2013.