Q2 Awareness Blog Post

I have chosen Ian Chamberlain as my awareness artist, who is a living contemporary etching artist based in Bristol, UK. His primary gallery representations are the Rabley Gallery in the UK, and the Anise Gallery in London.

He is currently a senior lecturer and M.A. at multi-disciplinary printmaking and drawing at the University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol.

He has earned a variety of awards, including:

• 2024: Flourish Award Winner (Printmaking in Excellence)

• 2022: Royal West of England Academician

• 2021: Shortlisted, Evelyn Williams Drawing Award

• 2019: Hole Publishing Award, NOPE

• 2018: Highly Commended, RBSA Print Exhibition

• 2017: Shortlisted, Jerwood Drawing Prize

• 2016: Intaglio Printmaker Award, NEO: Print Prize

• 2016: Finalist, Aesthetica Art Prize

He has several collections and recent exhibitions:

Collections:

• Victoria and Albert Museum, London

• Tate Modern, London

• The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

• Bristol Museum

• Royal West of England Academy, Bristol

• Pallant House Gallery, Chichester

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Recent Exhibitions (2020-2024):

• 2024: Flourish Exhibition (touring: Huddersfield, Salford, North Lincolnshire)

• 2020: "Shifting Sands – North Atlantic Wall," Rabley Gallery (Solo)

• Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (regular exhibitor)

• London Art Fair, London Original Print Fair (multiple years)

• International exhibitions in New York, Sydney, Barcelona, Berlin, Hong Kong, Iran

I chose to investigate Ian Chamberlain because he creates large scale etchings and drawings of industrial and technological structures, very similar to my own work. He focuses on:

• The Atlantic Wall (WWII German coastal fortifications)

• Mobile phone masts (Network series)

• Goonhilly Earth Station (satellite communications)

• The Lovell Telescope

• Maunsell Sea Forts (Thames Estuary)

• Acoustic Sound Mirrors (South Kent Coast)

• Derelict and abandoned military/industrial infrastructure

Unconventionally, while he does use traditional intaglio etching processes, he uses a 'Dremel drill' to add "elements of the industrial and unknown, which I found really interesting.

SeaForts, 2014. Etching, plate size 63cm x 53cm

This piece stood out to me because of the interesting line quality I hope to get. In the future, I'm considering laser cutting and then carving further into the pieces to add a level of humanity and make them less boring, and I really appreciate Chamberlain's mark in this piece.

Babel, 2016, 50cmx70cm

I found this piece interesting because it was basically done negatively, with the subject being white and the background being black. I was interesting and confused as to whether he carved away at the background first, leaving the inside, or whether he did something differently.

It turns out chamberlain used aquatint to achieve a black background, by protecting white areas with a varnish and applying aquatint to create black tonal areas when dipping the plate in acid.

Ian Chamberlain: Communcation I. Etching, plate size 27cm x 22cm

The messy trusses of this piece are really interesting to me, and I think I will take some inspiration from his techniques. There are often many trusses in my work, and I could improve and make them more abstract and messy like his if I took some inspiration.