Directly off the Road, we are plucked from the pavements of Victoria Street into one of Liverpool’s most successful grass routes exhibition spaces. Through the entrance, the exhibition lines the walls of the corridors, enticing us down to the lower floor, then raising our spirits as we climb up to Road Gallery at the heights of the Carlise Building. A delight, taking in a remarkable selection of artwork with Love Liverpool as its central theme.

‘Wrecked’ by Nigel Leslie is abstract works which direct us towards feelings of turmoil. We get the impression of a ship like for from the base, an indication of an old-fashioned wind powered, sailing vessel. Central to the ship there is an indication of a central figure, possible a human form of even a feline based creature. The pink tones of the water suggest a blood, combined with a simple line of the horizon they are not intrusive in regards to the central focus. The title ‘Wrecked’ looks at the idea of awakening from a night of drinking and general misadventure suffering the consequences and deciphering what had happened the evening previous evening. Leslie spent the mid-nineties studying in the Capital, falling in with the Jarvis Cocker, Damien Alburn and Damien Hirst crowd that centred around St Martins. After a decade of hard parties, sofa loafing and at times making some Art, he returned to Liverpool in 1999. He presents two painting for Liverpool Loves created last year and reflective of the emotive relationship which is played out within the Metropolis.

‘Palm House’ from Alison Little brings in some girly pink to the urban loft space of Road gallery. The Palm house in Sefton Park is one of Liverpool’s most iconic buildings, grade II listed it was built in the later years of the Victorian era. Alison explores new methods of combining fabrics and the use of freehand machine embroidery. We are presented with a mixture of patterns to create variations between flowers, cloud forms, foliage and the man-made structure of this symbol of South Liverpool and the splendour of Sefton Park. An almost grid-like form presents the Victorian structure, this is contrasted with the patterned fabrics used for the natural forms, combined with spiralling methods of embroidery she has produced this large-scale wall-based piece. The combination of colour, patterning and hard-edged embroidery techniques bring the white washed walls to life.

Not forgetting an extraordinary image of a face and skull which stole the show. Painted directly onto the plastered wall of the exhibition venue using a simple monotone black. We see the phrenology of the mind, drawing our attention to prominent fixtures and fittings of the city: the Duck Boat, food banks and the sausage bridge. James Tomo, the artist behind this sticking visualisation began the work at 4 pm Thursday afternoon, finishing at 4 am Friday morning. A spontaneous, oraganic process where preliminary sketches and planning processes are ignored, the artist finding genius through his anti-creative working practice. Based in Liverpool, originally studying Graphics at John Moores he now has a studio at Road and works across the visual arts spectrum. We hope to see many more worked etched on the walls of the creative spaces which are multiplying across Merseyside.

Road Studios is a city-centre Liverpool artist studio that was established in 2012, located in Carlisle buildings on Victoria Street. The Studio spaces encompass a vibrant community of creatives ranging from artists, designers, photographers, sculptors, jewellery makers and more. Road encourages studio-wide collaboration of members and provides opportunities to exhibit in the recently opened “Roadworks” gallery space, bring in exhibitors from across the Region.

Road shows us that lino printing is alive and kicking in Liverpool. A miniature show us how to rotate and we are reminded that outdated floppy disks still have their uses. A maximum impact exhibition utilising every nook and cranny of wall space available, time to be taken as the stairs are embraced lined with the artwork which makes this city so great.

Well worth the ascent!

Liverpool and Love

Loverpool

57-69 Victoria St, L19

1-19th February 2017

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