The Baltic Frame. Arena Studios.
4 Jordan Street
Baltic Triangle
Liverpool
L1 0BP
25th September—10th Oct 2008
11.00am-16.00pm Tuesday-Sunday

Artists confirmed for the Baltic Frame Exhibition are as follows:
Birgit Deubner, Nick Fox, Britta Bogers, Claus Dieter Geissler, Tine Wille, Andrew Bracey, Tony Smith, Nick Sykes, Bernard Georgeson, Susie Macmurray, Lesley Halliwell, Anna Ketskemety, Dagmar Schmidt, Steve Boyland.

Situated in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle Arts Quarter this exhibition sets out to display an eclectic mix of work from artists that have an inquiring thread within their particular practice. Curated by Liverpool painter and Arena member Tony Smith, the event involves both national and international practitioners. Artists involved are comprised of elements from London, Liverpool and Cologne, Germany and it is hoped that this programme should prove an interesting meeting of works. One of the criteria behind the selection process involved a study of studio group practice and in particular the observation of the ontological nature of the artist in their studio. The note of the being and doing within studio is often an interesting study with the actual product of this activity evidencing as a complex exploration and questioning of the language of art history. This event sites some of the ‘symptoms’ of studio art practice and although there is no theme other than an inherent thematic disjuncture of the participant artists, it is hoped that the exhibition would be useful to both visitors and exhibitors alike. Studio ideas are often, at their final stages, worked through in a solitary manner but the studio group context would dictate that the resultant product is not purely formed from an isolated environment. One would expect that the interaction between other practitioners would influence and inform their respective output. This is a sentiment which would hopefully be productive in the gathering together of these various groups and at the heart of the selective process was a notion of how one artist would react or manifest in the company of another. As a studio group, Arena would anticipate a healthy interaction and fruitful discourse with these other studio group artists. In May of this year, Tony Smith curated a similar show in the city of Cologne named ‘A Painter’s Glance’ in which Arena and other Liverpool studio group artists took part. The exhibition was held at The Kunsthaus Rhenania Studio and Gallery complex. This event was made possible through collaboration with and financial sponsorship by the ‘Eight Days a Week’ artist initiative. Ten Arena artists made the trip over to Cologne for the opening night and it was through this event that Tony Smith invited four German artists to Liverpool to exhibit at the Arena studio complex which is currently being converted into a gallery and will remain so for the duration of the Liverpool Biennial. During the opening of ‘A Painter’s Glance’, speeches given by amongst others the Bürgermeister, Mayor of Cologne, noted that the visiting Liverpool artists formed a representation of Liverpool city in its current status as European Capital of Culture.