THE FIRST ROUND PROPER.
An exhibition of two halves.
Bloc Projects, Sheffield. 6th – 25th April 2026
Curated by ‘A Bell is a Cup’.
Stephen Carley, Kate Jacob & Sean Williams
THE FIRST HALF list of Artists.
FIRST HALF HIGHLIGHTS.
THE SECOND HALF list of Artists.
The First Round Proper is an exhibition about painting, spilt into two halves across three weeks. Each half features 48 artists from across the UK and Europe, all of whom explore painting and paint, in various forms and dimensions.
This text looks at painting as a three-dimensional experience, the making, the placement and the viewing, writing about the work from each one of these perspectives. The painter, whose concerns come from the intimate relationship with the self, materials, substrate; the curator who makes relationships between the works, and acts as translator between painter and viewer; and, finally, the viewer, where the life of a painting truly belongs.
The Painter.
Painting is dead. Long live Painting.
Painting can ‘fuck right off’. All hail Painting the ‘King of Art’.
Oh Painting you are so old and tired.
Hey Painting, this is fun and new and funky and all that.
On repeat. A locked groove.
The fable of ‘The Baby and the Bath water’.
The baby is bruised and upset. The bathroom is soaking wet.
The mirror is steamed up. The soap is impregnated with hairs…
The exhibition last year at Bloc Projects was ‘A Bell is a Cup Until it is Struck’. We had as our curatorial focus a set of provocations by John Hoyland.
Painting is… Painting isn’t.
Painting is not; ‘doing the right thing’.
Painting is not; designed to impress.
Painting is not; his or hers.
‘Painting is; a breath on a mirror, a footprint, grease on a towel, blood on a stone, damp wallpaper, torn advertising, meaningless graffiti, melting snow, dead leaves, weathered paint, broken windows, neglected gardens, a cry, a smile, a scream, defacement on defacement.’
Those provocations enabled us to collate, organise and group work in an unusual and quite idiosyncratic curatorial way.
For ‘The First Round Proper’ we have considered isms, or jargon, associated with ‘the beautiful game’. Football gave us another set of unusual and idiosyncratic curatorial frameworks…
‘Back of the net’ - triumphal exhortation, the definitive moment in a game.
‘High press’ - an aggressive strategy to pressurise the opposition.
‘Tiki Taka’ - possession-based style, easy on the eye. Lots of quick, short passes, constant movement.
Grouping artists’ work with a particular piece of football jargon. Surprising, fun and possibly revealing unexpected relationships and another layer of meaning…
The Curator.
There is an element in the curatorial ethos of this exhibition that emerged from 'ir(REV)erance', a testbed micro show in the Prosaic Projects Gallery within Bloc Studios in January by Stephen and Kate. Individual paintings were paired together, a juxtaposition if you will, based on an aesthetic affinity, be that an obvious visual connection or a discordant yet interesting jarring. How might this be extended? Stephen and Kate's work bear similarities - collaged and assembled. What happens when Realism meets Gestural Abstraction, for example? Or a painted object, almost a sculpture in its robust physicality, is placed alongside an unframed watercolour, delicate and fragile. If they speak to each other, what do they say? What happens in the middle, in the gap? The premise is relatively simple, the outcomes intriguing and poetic.
The distance between the works seems crucial - far enough apart to remain discrete, yet close enough to begin to whisper, connect and form a relationship bordering on symbiosis. Connections are key - between works, between people, and between thought and emotion.
The Viewer.
Each of the works here are a living space filled with the imagination, of both you and the maker. Each one is a delicacy, to taste, savour and enjoy. Like them, dislike them. Ponder and wonder. Drink in their physicality, as here, in your presence, under your gaze, they come alive. Here in this room, in this silent presence, they ask your imagination to run a little wild: the freedom of the brushstroke, the joy of the colour, the curiosity about the mark; be engulfed, become lost in the story.
Take some time to walk amongst them. Who calls out? Which ones make an impression on you? Who draws you in, and who pushes you away? Perhaps you find some that transported you to another place, realm or time. Perhaps you become curious about the ones that you turn away from. Does it leave you cold and how long can you look into the coldness, before it or you warm?
This work all looks to you for your approval. You are the cheering or jeering masses; home or away supporters, fair weather or diehard fans, thumbs up, thumbs down. Go Gladiators go.
Exhibition text by;
Kate Jacob. www.katejacob.com @k8jacob1
Stephen Carley www.stephencarley.co.uk @carley.stephen
Sean Williams www.swseanwilliams.wordpress.com @swseanwilliams
A Bell is a Cup @a_bell_is_a_cup
THE FIRST ROUND PROPER.
An exhibition of two halves.
THE FIRST HALF 6-14 April.
THE SECOND HALF 17-25 April.
No extra time. No replays. Straight to penalties.