Terry Duffy’s acclaimed work, MONUMENTS, is to be shown for the first time in more than a decade, as part of a broader exhibition of contemporary abstract art at the new Chester Visual Arts exhibition space.
The exhibition, from February 8 to March 7, is entitled ‘ReMark’.
MONUMENTS, an installation of huge vivid abstract paintings, was first revealed at the 2008 Liverpool Biennial sponsored by Barclays Bank, then at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral.
It was later installed at the Palazzo Contarini in Venice, sponsored by Sotheby’s, during the internationally prestigious Venice Biennale. Following this it was installed at the Brunswick Centre London to launch the 2012 Bloomsbury Arts Festival.
Alongside MONUMENTS, Terry (pictured) will be unveiling more recent work, including the large scale ‘Adjustable Angel’. His work has been exhibited all over the world including New York, Berlin, Paris, Dresden, Cape Town, Venice, Liverpool, London and in 2017 in war-torn Kurdistan as part of a peace installation.
He has forged a reputation for unique, challenging works from sublime minimal abstracts to semi-figurative paintings that become symbolic vestments worn by senior members of the Christian Church. They depict deeply moving and provocative historical scenes of inhumanity and injustice commissioned for major commemorations
Terry said: “I had forgotten just how striking they are. A fascinating mix of solidity and strength yet translucent and fragile with vivid, passionate, expressive colour.
“I have been asked many times to reinstall them, but the location has never been right until now. Chester Visual Arts’ space is in the middle of a busy modernist shopping centre, surrounded by fashion shops, coffee bars and more. It seems that 80 per cent of the thousands of people who come into the space have never been in a gallery before.
“Nothing seems to have changed, art continues to be viewed as elitist, but this feels different. The space and the location is readily accessible, inviting, spacious, professionally planned and organised. I am honoured to share the paintings with the large numbers of shopping public and see how MONUMENTS is received, especially alongside some of my latest work.”
‘ReMark’ at Chester Visual Arts immersive gallery space in the Grosvenor Shopping Centre, has been designed to offer visitors the opportunity to explore the very different work of four acclaimed contemporary artists from the North West.
Exhibiting alongside Duffy are Chester-based Anne Byrne, semi-finalist on Sky Arts’ Landscape Painter of the Year 2023; Preston-based Julie Meyer whose practice is rooted in the traditional materials, processes and histories of modernist geometric painting; and Preston-based Julie Saul whose bright paintings are drawn from everyday experience, observation and memory.
