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NGCA Collection University of Sunderland Executive Boardroom
Six artworks from Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art’s collection are now on display in the Executive Boardroom at the University of Sunderland’s Edinburgh Building.
Key recent acquisitions in Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art’s collection are currently on long term loan in the Executive Boardroom at the University of Sunderland’s Edinburgh Building.
The artworks have close ties to the University of Sunderland’s Art and Design faculty with alumni students, residency programmes and key artist relationships illuminated.
Artists featured: Jeffrey Dennis, Ian Macdonald, Jill McKnight, Janina Sabaliauskaitė and Jhanee Wilkins.
Ringbinder and The Long Cast
Jeffrey Dennis
2015
Oil and charcoal on linen
Jeffrey Dennis is a painter and Senior Lecturer on the Fine Art Programme at Chelsea College of Arts. In 2015 NGCA hosted Ringbinder a major solo exhibition of Dennis’ paintings.
‘My work is rooted in the daily experience of the city: how people move around, inhabit spaces and make sense of their daily routines. Of particular relevance to this and to the structure of my paintings are the ideas of proximity, contiguity and adjacency… The paintings themselves provide a fluid, mutable net to hold narrative fragments and connective elements in place; a landscape corresponding to the fragmentary mental maps which people construct in order to give their existence some measure of meaning.’
– Jeffrey Dennis
Mr Leon from Likkle Paradise Series
Jhanee Wilkins
2023
Inkjet print
Jhanee Wilkins is an artist-photographer and filmmaker born and living in the West Midlands. Wilkins graduated from the University of Sunderland in 2021 with an MA in Photography.
Likkle Paradise is a photographic celebration of the Windrush generation through Caribbean food and culture. Wilkins spent seven weeks at a local Caribbean food shop in Smethwick called Leon’s Food Store. People from all over Birmingham came to Leon’s Food Store to buy and cook the food they were brought up with and carry on the traditions of their family. Wilkins met many people of different ages and from different places discussing everything from their experience of growing up in Jamaica to being given a recipe for Saturday soup, a thick flavourful soup.
Heather & Rene at home, Gateshead, UK
Janina Sabaliauskaitė
2022
Silver gelatin print
Janina Sabaliauskaitė is a Lithuanian born and Newcastle based artist-photographer, researcher and curator. Sabaliauskaitė graduated from University of Sunderland in 2014 with a BA in Photography, Video and Digital Imaging. Since then, she has exhibited internationally.
Her photographic portraits of dear and loved friends, described as a chosen family, seek to mobilise and make visible queer-feminist lives in the pursuit of solidarity, emancipation and positive social change. The photos are the result of close personal relationships presenting moments of joy and intimacy, alongside intimate collaborative photographs of Sabaliauskaitė and her lovers. They celebrate the LGBTQ+ community encouraging dialogue about the fight for human rights both within Lithuania and the United Kingdom.
Worker handles glass tubes at James A. Jobling and Co, Sunderland, March 1966
Jill McKnight
2024
Jesmonite, drypoint print on decal
Worker handles glass tubes… is part of Past and Future Pact, a new body of work comprising sculpture, works on paper and video inspired by Sunderland’s industrial heritage.
The artworks were produced between 2023-24 using art and design facilities at University of Sunderland while artist-in-residence for Artists Access to Artschools, a national scheme that highlights creative careers. The resulting work explores the identity of Sunderland 30 years on from mass closures across many heavy industries and the vital role women played within these industries. Past and Future Pact tells a story often marginalised in the visual arts of female and working-class labour, articulated through artwork drawn from careful research.
Young lad outside the boarded-up Junction Pub, South Bank, Teesside
Ian Macdonald
1987
Black and white photographic print on archival paper
Ian Macdonald boasts a rich and prolific career spanning five decades behind the lens. His photographic journey has been dedicated to documenting life, the evolution of working-class communities, and the rise and fall of industry in Teesside and Cleveland, located in the North-East of England.
In 2024 NGCA presented Fixing Time a retrospective exhibition exploring 50 years of Ian Macdonald’s work. In conjunction with the exhibition the National Portrait Gallery acquired two photographic portraits into their collection.