Friday 25 May 2012


John Bently and Andi McGarry
Liver and Lights & Sun Moon and Stars






Living is the most important thing
and how you live”

 For thirty years Andi McGarry and John Bently have, with contagious  glee, turned their life into art and their art into life, producing a borderless, not easily categorised  body of work involving Painting, Sculpture, Printmaking, Music, Boatbuilding, Performance, Costume Design, Graphic Design, Film  and Mischief, all somehow bound together  by that most venerably ancient container and distributor of all manner of notions, the humble Book.

 Both artists make work that is deeply routed in their respective communities and both source a prodigiously wide range of ancient and modern skills and techniques.


 Andi McGarry ( sun moon and stars press) is best known for his hand painted books which are collected the world over. Co founder of renowned Wexford Artists' Book Exhibitions, he also works with community groups making  skin boats that embark upon adventures with the excited  constructors, these remerging as books, paintings and even films.
 

John Bently (Liver & Lights), has for many years been turning his books into live costumed performances with his band Bones & the Aft, including most recently the epic song cycle Liver & Lights No 43.The People, an ongoing attempt to create text and image portraits of everyone he has ever known.

Liver & Lights and Sun Moon and Stars celebrate all things running, jumping shouting, kiss chase, lost and found, DIY, hand made and home baked. They celebrate the sheer joy of making without boundaries, nor even the merest hint of post modern Irony. Good friends for many years, bonded by  their shared Northumbrian roots as well as their artistic outlook, this first ever joint exhibition celebrates both their past achievements and current enthusiasms……



total words 281

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