OCA preloader logo
A platform for contemporary artists - The Open College of the Arts

To find out more details about the transfer to The Open University see A New Chapter for OCA.

A platform for contemporary artists thumb

A platform for contemporary artists

Here is Sheila McGregor talking about the organization AXIS, the online resource for and about contemporary artists. Sheila talks about some of the artists her organisation promotes, and explains why artist statements are important, but flannel is not!

Sheila McGregor on the Art Business from Open College of the Arts on Vimeo.


Posted by author: Jane Parry

21 thoughts on “A platform for contemporary artists

  • I have been on Axis since its inception in 1991. I think highly of it. Not only is it a good resource for curators and those interested in commissioning art it is also a good showcase and platform for artists. You may have your own website or blog but a profile on Axis is rocognised and will probably get more hits. Axis has improved over the years and is constantly looking at how to better itself. One thing I think in needs to do is look at how its tags and search words work. They are not comprehensive and often it is difficult to find what you want. My own name rarely appears in searches even though I have put in the appropriate tags. However, that said, I have received a few opportunities through them, some directed to me individually and some where I am one of several alerted to something that suits my practice. They also have an opportunities board which is useful. It’s worth a look. I would certainly recommend getting yourself on there.

  • I found this interview interesting and informative. I did not know of the website prior to the interview and can see on viewing it that there is lots within it that will be interesting and useful.

  • Axis was started in 1991 and was a very useful organisation which provided opportunities to a great number of artists not least in having an individual website at a reasonable price. Unfortunately the organisation has now been taken over by a number of artists and administrators who are concerned that they should show only work by artists who they consider to be ‘contemporary’. This means that artists who are ‘tradition’ or who are ‘modern’ are no longer welcome and in the last month 305 artists were removed from their site.Many of these artists were with AXIS from its inception and are deeply shocked by this type of unilateral behaviour.It may be useful to apply to AXIS for all the benefits it has to offer but it wont happen unless you are a ‘contemporary’ artist and this does not mean what you think it means – perhaps Sheila McGregor would like to come back on to vimeo and give an explanation.

  • I have read, with great interest, the article above and the comment made before that. I was one of the artists subject to selection earlier this year. I was a bit worried because although I see myself as contemporary others may not. I would have been furious if I had been ejected, but I was kept on. I am a painter and don’t work with digital media. My work is fairly traditional in that I work from sketches and use colour, tone form etc. In the article above, someone said she hadn’t the time to put on her most recent work. There was, in fact, plenty of warning and encouragement to update. I think Axis was weeding out those who had not updated for years and whose profiles were, therefore, lying dormant. It is true that Axis does make a point of featuring conceptual and digital artists on their home page. I’ve rarely seen a painter as ‘Artist of the Month’. This is not good. However if you search through the artists on the site there are still plenty of less contemporary artists on it. I think some artists may have been taken off wrongly and I hope they win their battle. I would certainly have been battling if it were me. I still think it is an excellent site and would urge anyone to do their research before having an opinion on it.

  • Sheila McGregor is very articulate on the subject of contemporary art, so much so, that another post follows on 3rd May, in which she seeks to define it for us. I think this will help the debate. Meanwhile, it is worth noting that painters are still the largest group of artists on Axis.

  • I’ve looked at the site and I think it’s great, so much so I’ve joined up on their free portion, as I don’t think I’m ready to show the world any of my work, and I’m sure it’ll provide a great deal of information and inspiration.

  • My thoughts go out to the 305 Axis artists who have now been culled from the site because they no longer are considered to be contemporary .When new members take over an organisation they like to shape it to their own way of thinking and so according to AXIS ‘Artists who trained or began working 20 or more years ago are likely to have a practice that may not reflect more recent trends.’ To be selected for inclusion on their now newly purged website ,artists have to have ‘a critical framework that is ‘contemporary’ rather than ‘modern’. If you have been selected previously under an existing set of criteria it must come as a shock to be told that your work is no longer of any value and that its presence on the site ‘opened Axis up to the criticism that its application process lacked rigour and that the variable nature of the work in its directory deterred serious artists from joining’. Somehow I don’t think that ‘serious artists’ would want to belong to an organisation that treated its members with such distain. But then Axis is an organisation that is wholly funded by public money thanks to the Arts Council of England and with their support do not ‘feel it is unreasonable to distinguish between work that draws on recent ideas and approaches to making art and work that belongs to a more established canon.’
    I look forward to be informed by Sheila McGregor in her next blog post what she considers to be contemporary art and perhaps how its differs from contemporary art of 20 years ago.

    • The teachers of these artists who started working 20 or more years ago might also be surprised by this definition. Michael Craig Martin, Ian Breakwell, Stuart Brisley, Bruce Mclean and Cosey Fanni Tutti are a few that come to mind.. The trouble with
      the artists and curators who have taken over Axis is that they have a very limited knowledge of art history or art appreciation. Is this a natural outcome of the state of art education in our Universities?

  • Its obviously a painful subject for those who have been excluded. But for me as an OCA student I wonder how many OCA art students who are training now will have a contemporary (rather than modern) critical framework by the time we’ve finished?
    (thats a rhetorical question!)

  • I am an Axis artist and my work has been used in their advertising so I am keen to offer my opinion on the comments here. If you wander around the Axis website you quickly get a feel for its purpose, which is to represent recent developments in contemporary British art, with an emphasis on ‘innovation, enquiry and awareness of current debates and issues in visual arts practice’. In the video, Sheila McGregor further emphasizes this and explains that to be a contemporary artist means remaining curious and active, keeping pace with new developments by looking at what others do and keeping in the swim.
    Like it or not, this is what contemporary practice entails, so if you consider Axis in terms of a window for new British art, then you can see that their approach needs to continually develop in line with cultural changes, and this has always been the reality of art practice.
    We artists need to have thick skins, so if one place turns you away, there are plenty of others who will welcome you – but the real challenge is to find the one that can give you what you want and need as an artist.

  • “but the real challenge is to find the one that can give you what you want and need as an artist” — That is the thing as far as I can see it. I suppose that problem arises when a gallery or whatever decides to change its purpose and/or criteria; there will be those who no longer fit. I don’t know about Axis but I do know that some such organisations don’t seem to consider it important to signal their intentions ahead of time and so antagonise those who find themselves ‘cast out’.
    Yes artists do need thick skins (for all sorts of reasons!) but gallerists, curators, and the like equally need a bit more sensitivity and, in some cases, a lot less arrogance.

  • “keeping up with new developments by looking at what other artists do and keeping in the swim”
    I know that this is an Olympic year, but this strikes me as a curious way to develop your art practice.
    Does Sheila MGregor expect that every artist should drop what they are doing just to follow fashionable trends.I suppose she would have expected Lucian Freud to abandon painting for more ‘recent trends” and become an installation artist instead. Then perhaps he might have been accepted onto the Axis website. The world is full of artists working in many different ways. We should have respect for one another.

  • I suspect that there is a difference between wanting artists to change their practice (personally I have a feeling that I might have more time for Freud if he had but that’s a whole different discussion) and carving out a particular road for one’s gallery, website etc. that doesn’t accord with the practices of all the artists currently represented. That takes a lot of tact or brass neck (delete that which doesn’t apply!) A change of policy is never easy to accomplish without upsetting some, perhaps when it comes to a web presence it is better to start something new, of course that ejected artists might try that in this case but it takes time, effort and expertise that many of us artists do not want to take away from our art practice.

  • I don’t think it’s true that Axis wants everyone to follow trends, be installation artists etc. Look me up if you like. I am a figurative painter. I do not use digital media. I would call myself contemporary, although not cutting edge. I am aware of current trends and am curious to try different approaches, but the traditional language of painting is very important to me. There are craft artists on the site too who would not necessarily consider themselves contemporary.

  • One third of the artists on AXIS were removed from the site and I am sure that they all would have described themselves as contemporary artists. We are not told how many of these were working in film ,photography ,performance and installation, but I think I can guess.

  • This debate is probably dead now but I’ve just been turned down by Axis and had no idea about the terms of this ‘controversy’. I’m not over good at admin and all that so I innocently applied having 30 years of making a living as an artist largely through Public Funding. I thought it was a directory for artists to use, I suppose in a way it’s also a directory that uses artists, which is fair enough.
    Now I understand all this I’m not really surprised I didn’t get on it. Definitions and categories and why and how we make them is the territory of philosophy and linguistics, greatly subjective and very interesting.
    In fact it is the intellectual stuff of life.
    Anyway, this debate,( or something like it ) has been running all my artistic life, it isn’t however, in all honesty why I applied to Axis, I thought it might broaden my client base and get me more work (which I said in the app.)
    I wish Axis well and hope it can continue to keep the debate real. I do like Anned’s humour. ( above )
    graham

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to blog listings