On the 8th of July 2024 I visited the New Light art exhibition within the Biscuit Factory Gallery in Newcastle. 

I was looking forward to seeing the exhibition because I think its really important to be able to see the art of local artists. When I entered the exhibition space the first thing I was drawn to was a sculpture lying on the floor in the corner, it was called Fallen (John Clare, poet) by Brian Shields and was the winner of the New Light Sculpture Prize 2024, I was really drawn to it even though it was one of the smallest artworks in the room, I loved the texture and detail it had.

The exhibition was a mixture of lots of different artists work and had a good selection of work in different art forms, I enjoy sculpting with clay, so that might have been why I was drawn to the sculpture first, but there was such a variety of different artwork I think there would be something for everyone to enjoy. Each room had a selection of different media and artists, so every room seemed to have visitors wondering over to their favourite artwork rather than going logically along from one to the next like you might do in a traditional portrait gallery for example.

The next sculpture that I enjoyed was called Paper Horse by Zoe Robinson, there were several sculptures by Zoe Robinson displayed together, and whilst I loved the horse one I didn't enjoy the one called Fox, when I looked more closely I think this was because the materials in each sculpture had been applied differently, the paper in the horse sculpture was smoothed and neatly applied and the paper in the Fox sculpture was more roughly applied and had gaps in it where you could see the textiles come through, this gave the sculptures very different feelings even though they were by the same artist.

Whilst I definitely loved the sculptures it was actually a painting by Mary McClure called Fable that I would say was my favourite artwork, and this was the one i voted for for the peoples award. I loved the expression on the portraits face, it made me feel positive and I loved the way the paint had been applied, I also loved the size of the painting.

I really enjoyed my trip to the exhibition, the gallery is lit by a mix of natural light and artificial lighting, which I thought worker really well, other galleries I've been to seem to rely on artificial light more and it was really nice to be in a naturally light and bright space. There are comfortable chairs to sit on all around the exhibition so visitors can sit and look at their favourite works in comfort and take their time to enjoy the rooms, and there is a shop downstairs where you can buy really affordable artwork.