BEYOND PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION¹

An evening of art, food and music at Left Bank Leeds.

The first Beyond Photography exhibition was held on February 24th 2018 at Left Bank Arts Venue in Leeds and invited all art lovers and creative minds interested in exploring the world of post-photography. The event opened at 18:00 and ran until midnight, with food and DJs entertaining the crowds besides, of course, uniquely inspiring art work. 

The Beyond Photography Exhibition featured 15 artists, who all challenged the limits of photography today. The exhibition showcased fine artists using photography and vice versa, as well as photo sculptures, installation work, fabric printing, and mirror sculptures, offering its visitors a wide range of art forms in an inspiring and unusual setting. The exhibition was a highly collaborative process, curated by Ryan Blackwell and Nastassia Winge, opening up the dialogue on what 'Photography' may mean in a hyper-technological society. 

The event itself pushed the boundaries of the exhibition experience: held in a former church designed in a late gothic revival style, visitors viewed the work in a unique space whilst enjoying food from The Horsebox Pizza Company. Four different DJs played from behind the former church altar and with the space that featured a bar and dance area, Beyond Photography made sure to say goodbye to the stuffy art exhibition stereotype.

Looking at the portfolio of work below, will showcase how all the artists featured in the exhibition shared the thought that a new medium has emerged, yet all in their own unique style and art form. In the digital era, a photograph is not limited to a single print anymore, which the exhibition embodied through its post-exhibition curation style, which featured transparent artwork, immersive audio-visual-physical installations and a huge projection of a 'breathing image' produced by the founders, themselves. By going Beyond a Photograph, the artists proof that the parameters of photography are simply dated, and the exhibition proposed the question: 'What is photography?'

A STILLNESS IN TIME video Projection by Ryan Blackwell and Nastassia Winge

MIRROR MYTHS series of glitch images by Daniel Commons

CONSTRUCTED REALITY series by Mees Kuiper

DETAILS series of images printed on canvas and 3D image cube by Grace Kelly

The Leeds based exhibition is all about community. The artists involved are extremely talented, but are yet to appear in large exhibition spaces; their work is as good as any top tier artist, but their work exists outside the elitist art world. 

Beyond Photography believes that art is for the masses and not the elite. The one-night-only exhibition was funded through a highly successful Kickstarter campaign and brought the arts to the public entirely for free. The founders wished for the exhibition space to be a  visceral and educational place that will only enrich your experience as a human. 

Beyond Photography is now continuing its exhibitions as well as bringing you art online, if you wish to SUPPORT THE CAUSE, click here

0101101110011, CARDINAL and OPHILIA by Ryan Blackwell and Nastassia Winge.

INHABITING PATTERN coat made of distorted photographs printed on fabric by Flo-Armitage Hookes

DEFECTS by Hilda Quick.

The work in this collective is a diverse portfolio working with a broad range of work from fashion, to print, to physical editing, to video. If you missed the exhibition, take a look at the limited edition book we produced on ISSU here

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