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Artists interviewed in order: David Gledhill; Simon Woolham; Nadia Peters; Nicola Smith; Richard Asbury; Mike Chavez-Dawson; Sophie King; Lucy Ridges; Jen Orpin. This year’s expanded Manifest Arts Festival 2019 ran from 12th to 21st July covering two weekends in Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Altrincham and Wigan as well as midweek happenings across Greater Manchester. The opening evening took place at Rogue Studios in Openshaw. It was a lively and enlivening evening with over 400 people attending to see the Open Studios and the special studio group exhibition ‘Manifestation’. Festival Directors John Lynch, Roger Bygott and Elisa Artesero collected some on the spot interviews and impressions from nine of the artists at Rogue. Manifest Arts is an organisation aiming to promote the talent of North West based contemporary visual artists through various projects including events, talks, podcasts, videos and of course our biennial festival which this podcast focusses on. For further information about Manifest Arts go to our webpage ww.manifestartsfestival.com Check out our Facebook page @manifestartsfestival where we regularly post about the local art scene Follow us on twitter @ManifestArts For more info on Rogue Studios: https://rastudios.co.uk/ Thanks to Arts Council England for supporting Manifest Arts Festival 2019

Manifest Arts visited Warrington Museum & Art Gallery for a brand new exhibition Zeitgeist, by the extraordinary contemporary figurative painter Peter Davis. This is a work that examines humanity and its relationship with technology through a unique collection of original paintings. Each exquisite piece acts as a social documentary that probes beneath the surface of the digital age we live in, and looks at the status of a person within contemporary society. Peter said: “Seeing people glued to their devices is so commonplace that we don’t give it a second glance these days. Maybe my series of Zeitgeist paintings will encourage visitors to the exhibition to slow down and reconsider their addiction to their own devices?” Being able to transform the often-overlooked elements of today’s society is something Peter particularly enjoys about his work, whether capturing the solitary absorption of technology addicts in isolated situations, or highlighting the paradox of the anti-social nature of social media. Zeitgeist is the latest exhibition to form part of the extended Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival programme. Thanks to support from Arts Council England, Culture Warrington – the charity that runs Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival, Warrington Museum & Art Gallery, and Pyramid & Parr Hall – is proud to present the year-round programme that enables them to showcase emerging talent. By working with partners from across the North West, the charity plans to commission local, regional and national artists to connect with Warrington’s neighbourhoods throughout the year, culminating in Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival 2018. Peter’s work will follow on from Echo (check out our podcast with Holly)and Worn; two hugely successful exhibitions by artists Holly Rowan Hesson and Ellen Sampson, which kick-started the year-long celebration of contemporary art. An elected member of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts (MAFA), Peter boasts a glittering reputation amongst his peers, and has also picked up a number of prestigious industry awards, including the Visitor’s Choice Prize at the Warrington Contemporary Open exhibition. In 2017, he was also shortlisted for Artist of the Year by Artists & Illustrators. www.peterdavisartist.com So, for a chance to see this fascinating work first hand, why not turn off your tablet and put away your phone and head down to Warrington Museum & Art Gallery this spring? Zeitgeist will be open to the public between Saturday 10 February and Saturday 28 April 2018. For more information, head to www.warringtonmuseum.co.uk/whats-on/event/zeitgeist/ or contact Warrington Museum & Art Gallery on 01925 442399. Exhibition title: Zeitgeist Date: Saturday 10 February to Saturday 28 April Times: All Day Admission: Free Location: Warrington Museum & Art Gallery, Museum Street, Warrington, WA1 1JB www.warringtonmuseum.co.uk

Manifest Arts visited 'Echo' the site-specific installation by Holly Rowan Hesson at Pyramid Gallery commissioned by Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival. Echo is a new site-specific installation exploring uncertainty, transience and the gap between and interplay within purely sensory feeling and experience and more literal, rational thought-based experience and memory. The projection and sculptural work creates dialogues with materials, memory and the physical space. Check out Holly's website http://www.hollyrowanhesson.co.uk/news/echo-at-warrington-contemporary-arts-festival

A fascinating interview with one of the North Wests premier photographers. He discusses the type of photography he is renowned for, detailed images, often consisting of numerous photographs digitally combined. Cities, particularly Manchester and Salford have become his trademark, but he also hikes, and is just as much captivated by landscapes. His recent exhibition for Manifest combined his interest in Landscape and the detail he is known for. He goes on to describe his current interest in Instagram, and a possible new direction.

Many people would describe Ruby Tingle as enigmatic. She is certainly unique, easily recognised by her style and style of dress. A combination of Edwardian/Victorian and modern, with the addition of Ruby traits, such as her love of the amphibian. Her practice is diverse, including performance, singing and visual arts. In this interview she declares it is all a collage really. As well as describing her recent performance at Chetham’s Library, she goes on to describe how her work has recently undertaken a huge transition, and its causation.

The Penthouse is a Radical Feminist Artist Collective based in Manchester. Refreshingly unpredictable and innovative, Elisa Artesero speaks to Rosanne Robinson and Debbie Sharp about their agenda and current projects.

An interview with Kate Jesson, curator at Manchester Art Gallery, about the photography show at Manchester Art Gallery ‘ Strange and Familiar: Britain as revealed by International Photographers’, which she curated alongside British photographer Martin Parr. Strange and Familiar considers how international photographers from the 1930s onwards have captured the social, cultural and political identity of the UK. http://manchesterartgallery.org/exhibitions-and-events/exhibition/strange-and-familiar/ Image: Bruce Gilden, Factory in the Midlands, 2014. © Bruce Gilden/Magnum Photos