Gallery guide – Whitworth Art Gallery

WHITWORTH ART GALLERY

Oxford Road
Opening times: Monday-Saturday, 10-5; Sunday, 12-4
Free entry

Whitworth Art Gallery, friend and neighbour to Whitworth Park, esteemed part of the University of Manchester, and valued member of the Manchester Museums Consortium, is above all a pretty good gallery. For starters, a ravishing collection of the finest arts, textiles, wallpaper, prints, and sculpture to rival the heavyweight Victoria and Albert Museum in both size and significance. The Fine Art collection is built on themes of place and urban landscape in both Modern and historic work, including the notable British watercolours collection. If that’s not enough to get your pulse racing perhaps a brisk turn about the grounds will. That’s right, our only entry to include a garden, and a sculpture garden at that. The Whitworth builds on this fine base of a stockroom by consistently pushing the artistic envelope with its exhibitions. The upcoming Dark Matters exhibition does not disappoint on this front. It explores the impact of scientific and technological discovery on art; in particular interpretations of darkness and shadow. The sheer potential of artistic interpretation within this subject matter is equaled by the range of mediums and period in the exhibition: commissions, contemporary work, store room gems, a collaboration with Animate Projects, and a programme of film screenings. And it’s only down the road, so no excuses.
Dark Matters, 25/09-15/01/12