after the first week

Dear all,

both Hanbury Road Gallery and "partially here" by Hanan Kazma, our first show, have now been open for a week. It was a great one too, with lots of visitors, interesting comments and a super positive feedback! 

This week we were part of Caerphilly Creatives Arts Week, a very positive event which we hope 

will happen again in the future!

We've been exploring Bargoed a bit more and found some interesting things, including a palm tree, which is quite alive, and for those of you unfamiliar with climate-resilient British flora might seem peculiar (in a good way), as it still does to 50% members of our project!

We have also been trying out different routes leading from Bargoed to Abertillery (which is where we live), and we'd like to encourage everyone from outside the Valleys to come and explore this fantastic region, be it by bus or car! We hope our gallery will give you an excuse, which should not be needed considering views like this one:

  More updates about "partially here" (on till the 16th of September!), Hanbury Road Gallery and Bargoed coming soon - for now we're off for our weekend break!

PS And while you're waiting for the exhibition to re-open on Tuesday morning, read an interview with Hanan on the page of the Finnish project Laatikkomo - both the interview and Laatikkomo are very interesting.

first full day at the gallery

Dear all,

today was our first full day after the gallery opening and we're happy to say that despite the miserable weather we had our first visitors after the opening! 

Our opening and first week of the exhibition coincides with Caerphilly Creatives Arts Week, a series of events, exhibitions and open studio visits happening all around Caerphilly County Borough that Bargoed is part of.

We're also exploring Bargoed's independent shops and cafes and it's great to see there are so many of them in town! We'll make sure to take more photos of Bargoed and the area when it stops raining so much.

Fireside Coffee Lounge

 

Aubrey's Bakery

"partially here" by Hanan Kazma - installation and opening

Evening everyone,

we'd like to thank everyone who came to last night's exhibition & gallery opening in Bargoed - we had a great time!! And a big thanks to Hanan for being our first artist in the new space.

 Here are some images from the installation:

 

(the red light is a laser level, which makes hanging the photos so much easier and faster!)

 And from yesterday's opening night:

 

 

As you can see, a good time was had by all :-) 

We're really looking forward to the next 8 months in Hanbury Road Gallery. 

***

"partially here" will be open for another 3 weeks, Tuesday to Saturday (10.30-6) till the 16th of September. 

If you don't live in Bargoed, here are some directions on how to find us. For those of you who live too far away and would still like to visit the gallery, we can arrange a Skype tour - just drop us a line.

"partially here" - before the opening

Dear all,

Thursday and Friday were the last two days of preparations for the opening of Hanan Kazma's "partially here", the first exhibition in our new gallery in Bargoed. The opening is today at 6 and we hope the rainy weather won't discourage you from attending! 

So, before you look up your route to Bargoed, here are some photographs from the last touch-ups: the floor is now complete, we've installed new LED lights and chased away almost all the spiders inhabiting our bathroom.

A big thanks to our friend Daniel for giving us a hand!)

The photos are ready (and up) too! - an installation update will follow 

once we've recovered from all the work.

 See you tomorrow!

Hanan Kazma - artist info (Welsh)

Y mae "partially here" yn gasgliad o ddelweddau gan y ffotograffydd a'r gelfyddwraig o Lebanon Hanan Kazma. Ar hyn o bryd mae'n gweithio yn Tripoli, Lebanon. Mae Hanan yn gyn-lawfeddyg deintyddol plant ac wedi dysgu'r grefft o ffotograffiaeth ei hun.

Ar gyfer yr arddangosfa yma yr ydym wedi dethol rhai o bortreadau gan Hanan. Hi yw'r model a'r ysbrydoliaeth. Y mae'n ddefnyddio technegau ôl-goruchwiliaeth a thechnegau mewn camera i greu dull unigryw o greu portreadau. 

Mae hi'n gymysgu technegau traddodiadol fel lluniau aml-ddinoethog a hir-ddinoethog, gyda thriniaeth digidol a phortreadau, gan ddefnyddio camera tandd­­ŵr. Y mae hi'n ddefnyddio lluniau fel modd i archwilio ei hemosiynau ac ail greu ei hunaniaeth. Ymgais yw hyn ganddi i ddangos yn weledol rhannau o ei phersonoliaeth sydd yn gudd ac fel modd i archwilio ac astudio emosiynau cudd er mwyn ceisio eu deall yn well.

Y mae Hanan yn gelfyddwraig cynhyrchiol sydd wedi cyhoeddi a chynllunio nifer o lyfrau unigol ffotograffig, tri llyfr ffotograffig mewn cydweithrediad a'r celfyddwr Americanaidd Richard Leach a chyhoeddiadau grŵp. Y mae'n gydweithio yn aml â ffotograffwyr ledled y byd. Gellir gweld hyn yn ei phortreadau "di-a-log" ac yn ddiweddar bu'n ran o'r prosiect Ffinneg Laatikkkomo.

Yn 2011 fe wnaeth arddangos ei gwaith am y tro cyntaf yn Tripoli, Lebanon. I gyd-fynd a'r arddangosfa cyhoeddodd lyfr yn dwyn y teitl "In Solitude and Out of Control”.

 

Hanan Kazma - artist info (English)

“partially here” is a collection of images by Lebanese photographer and artist Hanan Kazma. Currently living and working in Tripoli, Lebanon, Hanan is a former paediatric dental surgeon and self-taught photographer.

For this exhibition, we have chosen a selection of Hanan's portraits. Working with herself as model and inspiration, she uses both post-processing and in-camera techniques to create her unique style of portraiture. Mixing traditional techniques like multiple and long exposures, with digital manipulation and photographing herself with an underwater camera, Hanan uses her images as a way of exploring her emotions and reinventing her identity.

Hanan’s images are an attempt to visually represent the parts of our personality that we don’t share outwardly with others, or as a way to explore and study the emotions we wouldn’t normally get to see and scrutinise, in an attempt to understand them better. 

Hanan is a prolific artist and has published and designed several solo books of photography, three photography and poetry collaborations with American artist Richard Leach, as well as group publications. She frequently cooperates with photographers from around the world, as can be seen in her series of portraits “di-a-log”. Recently, she participated in the Finnish project Laatikkomo. In 2011 Hanan had her first solo exhibition in Tripoli, Lebanon which was accompanied by the book “In Solitude and Out of Control”

 You can find Hanan's work on Tumblr and on her page.

The exhibition is opening on the 22nd of August in Hanbury Road Gallery, 52 Hanbury Rd, Bargoed, CF81 8QW, Wales. You can join our facebook event here.

Stay tuned for updates!

[Welsh exhibition info coming soon]

Hanbury Road Gallery - (almost) last renovation updates

Evening,

we are happy to report that the renovation of our new gallery space is almost finished! 

Today it got a nice new floor, which replaced a dusty (and slightly rotten) carpet and covered old plywood boards. We hope this will discourage spiders from spending so much time with us.. 

It's good to see the last week made quite a big difference:

we've also been spreading the news about our first exhibition, 

"partially here" by Hanan Kazma.

 

"partially here" will open on Saturday at 6 and will start at the same time as Caerphilly Creatives Arts Week, a series of art events happening all around the county. 

our posters are already up in Bargoed Library and around town!

more updates, including more information about Hanan in Welsh and English, coming soon!