OBE

Exhibitions

October 2022

Works with Music A Retrospective exhibition

Linbury Gallery Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama,

Castle Grounds, Cathays Park, Cardiff. CF10 3ER

November 2021

Central Academy of Drama, Beijing, China

The exhibition is curated by Xiaoyuan Hou and is a collaboration with Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff Wales where I am currently International Chair in Drama.

I feel extremely honoured to have been invited by the Central Academy of Drama Beijing to have this wonderfully curated retrospective exhibition of my works as Director/Scenographer (Visual Theatre Artist). In this beautiful White Space, where in 2017 with design students of CAD we made a wonderful immersive event The Metaphysical World of Macbeth. I asked for my work, which is always with music, to be displayed on music stands. I like people to be able to touch and feel my work, which is good for visitors who are sometimes in wheelchairs or with sight impairments, and they can enjoy the work as others do. Each of the productions are shown in separate areas of The White Space, and each space is playing recordings or in some cases films of the productions. My practice is to use every production I do as a chance to experiment with different materials and surfaces to work on. For example the characters for The Marriage are painted onto the backs of Brown Paper carrier bags from Wholefoods Supermarkets in Pittsburg, CA USA which is where I started this project. By contrast, The Greek Passion (a great grand opera by Czech Composer Bohuslav Martinu) drawings are made on cardboard, covered in plasticine, and then scraped away with pins, knives, needles, and anything else that I found could make a mark. The Greek Passion was presented in the 11th Century citadel overlooking the sea in Thessaloniki, Northern Greece, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and was an unforgettable experience. By contrast, my paintings for Bizet’s famous Opera Carmen were inspired by passing Halfords on the Portfield Retail Estate, Chichester that were offering Chamois leather car cleaning cloths 3 for the price of 2. I looked at them and fell in love with the feel and texture of the cloths that made me think of the dry hills of Andalusia, Spain where I have been many times. The cloths were all different shapes which allowed me to easily draw and paint responding to the form of the cloths. The exhibition also celebrates the translation into Chinese by Professor Lu Ning of the 3rd edition of my book “What is Scenography?

Images from 2021 exhibition

Contents of the exhibition

The New Jerusalem Performed at Stansted House Hampshire

The Marriage Opera by Bohuslav Martinu. National Janaćek Opera BRNO

Carmen Opera by Georges Bizet National Opera Ljubljana, Slovenia

Charlotte - a Tri-coloured Play with Music Produced by Theaturtle, Toronto 2013 -1019 including a world tour ending at the Prague National Opera (Nova Scena)

The Ballad of the Cosmo Café 2019 London Insiders/outsiders Festival

The Adventures of Mr Brouček to the Moon (Opera by Leõs Janáček) National Opera Brno CZ

Sarlatan workshop to stage this as a Chamber Opera Royal Scottish Conservatoire of Music, Glasgow Scotland.

Virtual tour of 2021 exhibition

Click on screens to see the

full view of the exhibition which is filmed from The

Real White Space.

You will also be able to have
a closer look by clicking
each drawing you see in
the exhibition.

Click here

to hear Pamela’s introduction to the exhibition and an interview.

Plus Prof. Haibo’s

speech

October 23rd - November 7th 2018

‘Crossing Over’

Installation / Exhibition showing work as Director / Visual Theatre Artist

East Stroudsburg University Gallery, New York USA

Curator Yoshi Tanokura

In order to create a successful scenography, one must constantly cross one discipline to the other – painting to sculpture, directing to psychology, business to advertisement, storytelling to biography. In early 2000, Professor Howard made one of the most significant crossovers in her life – designer to director. Her remarkable cross over from a stage designer to a director is the result of the principles and practices of scenography – finding creative solutions through drawing to the challenges of space and text – which she has been nurturing throughout her career.

The drawings in the exhibit illustrate how Professor Howard transforms her ideas—from painting to sculpture; directing to psychology; business to advertisement; biography to storytelling. To accurately convey her thoughts, Professor Howard combines diverse media and techniques with found and repurposed materials which provide Professor Howard with the absolutely right feeling for a project. As she draws a character or scene, Professor Howard adds a layer of personal history and experience and brings the drawing to life.

This exhibit features some recent works – Carmen (2015) at National Opera of Slovenia in Ljubljana; The Excursion of Mr. Brouček to the Moon (2010) at National Theatre in Brno, Czech Republic; Charlotte – A Tri-Coloured Play with Music (2017) at The Theatre Center in Toronto, Canada, and The New Jerusalem.

Funded by ESU’s Faculty Development & Research grants program, this exhibit provides ESU students and faculty with a tremendous opportunity to learn about scenography and its practical application from these drawings and from a virtuoso of scenography, Professor Pamela Howard, OBE herself.

Images from ‘Crossing Over’ 2018

August 31st 2018

A Touch on the Times

7 notable Theatre Artists Connected through OISTAT

Their Art Speaks Louder than Words

A Touch on the Times is a large hand drawn artwork in old-fashioned pen and Indian ink and watercolours on hot pressed watercolour paper. It was produced for the OISTAT@50 celebrations hosted by Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. The drawing is adapted from Thomas Rowlandson’s satiric drawing , but substituting famous figures who were part of the Organisation Internationale des Scenographes, Techniciens et Architectes de théâtre that was an offshoot of the Unesco initiative The international Theatre Institute started in 1948 under the directorship of Julian Huxley to mend cultural bridges that had been broken after the 2nd World War. In 1968 the Scenographic Commission of ITI became an autonomous organisation and was for many years the organiser of the Prague Quadrennial, which in turn became an autonomous organisation. All this simply demonstrates the importance of artists working together and creating events. My drawing shows simply 7 people who are no longer with us, but who I knew, and whose legacy lives on. In the speaking bubbles are quotes I noted from conversation and discussions. I am the small person sitting on a very large Chair and on the steps are the early aims of OISTAT that are as relevant today as they were in 1968.

June 18th - July 2nd 2018

‘The Art of Pamela Howard’

http://www.gctm.ru/en/home-en/

Bakrushkin State Central Theatre Museum: Moscow

Curator Igor Roussanoff

2017 - 2018

Charlotte - a Tri-Coloured Play with Music

A travelling exhibition of the drawings created for this production, with references to Charlotte’s visions of her remembered past.

The Living Museum (Contextual Research for Charlotte- A Tri-Coloured Play with Music) at World Stage Design 2017

Images from World Stage Design 2017

March 22nd - April 21st 2016

Drawing Theatre

http://aub.ac.uk/exhibition/drawing-theatre/

An installation showing 6 works with music, created since 2005 as Director/Scenographer, and in response to Sir Peter Cook’s architecture in this innovative new building

Venue The Drawing Studio (the Gallery)

Arts University Bournemouth, Wallisdown, Poole, Dorset BH12 5HH

01202 533 011

Curator Rebecca Pride rpride@aub.ac.uk

Publication Drawing Theatre (Published 2016)

By Text+Work, The Gallery, Arts University Bournemouth

ISBN 978-0-901196-72-9

Editors Rebecca Pride and Violet McClean

Copies available contact Gallery@aub.ac.uk or AUB Online Store

Please click an image to enlarge.

Images from Drawing Theatre Exhibition

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February 13th - March 13th 2016

Atomic Landscapes

The Metal Collages by Ralph Koltai CBE

Constructed from found objects on his farm in France, this exhibition also co-incides with Koltai’s designs for 3 new productions at Welsh National Opera in their Figaro Forever season

Curator Pamela Howard

Venue The Linbury Gallery

Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Castle Grounds, Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3ER

September 23rd - October 29th 2015

Staging the Artwork

A Group exhibition of national and international artists. The first in a series of exhibition-events investigating aspects of ‘theatre’ and it’s influence on artwork both in display and context.

Curator Mona Casey Mona.casey@bcu.ac.uk

Venue Birmingham School of Art, (Birmingham City University)

Margaret Street, Birmingham B3 3BX

March 19th - July 19th 2015

Carmen

Paintings on Chamois leather skins of characters for the production at the National Opera and Ballet, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Venue National Opera Ljubljana, Slovenia

September 2013

World Stage Design 2013

The exhibition featured a selection of the most innovative and ground breaking designs for performance from across the world. ‘The Spirit of Broucek’ was exhibition finalist

Venue Cardiff, Wales

March - June 2012

The Art of Chichester Festival Theatre - A Celebration

To mark the 50th anniversary of Chichester Festival Theatre – an interactive exhibition/installation including works by Peter Rice, Michael Annals, Carl Toms, Stefan Lazarides, Ralph Koltai, Pamela Howard (Merchant of Venice and Terra Nova) Anthony Powell, Patrick Procktor. And many others associated with the birth of the theatre.

The Art of Chichester Festival Theatre from Pamela Howard on Vimeo.

Venue Pallant House Gallery:

9, North Pallant, Chichester. West Sussex PO19 1TJ

The image is an imagined recollection of the opening

of the theatre in 1962.

Giclee print commissioned by Pallant House Gallery

Available from bookshop@pallant.org.uk

2011

The Marriage

Part of the the additional programme of Prague Quadrennial 2011.

La Fabrika is a unique location in Prague. A former factory in Holešovice, Prague 7 it has been semi converted into a thriving International Arts Centre by its owner Richard Balous. Studio 2 is the unreconstructed factory space, full of atmosphere. The adjacent Gallery is a modern clean well designed art space. La Fabrika is a music and performance venue in Studio 1, as well as a cinema, café, cyber centre and meeting place.

In Studio 2 “The Marriage” an interactive installation of 1000 vintage objects created for the performances in 2010 of the chamber opera by Bohuslav Martinů at the Mozart Sal, Reduta Theatre (National Opera Janáček Theatre Brno CZ). Visitors were able to walk through the installation, open cupboards, the fridge, read letters and imagine how the characters, Russian emigres, may have lived in New York in 1950.

The Story of the Wall

“The Story of the Wall” is an artefact taken from the Tricycle Theatre London’s highly successful production of The Great Game 2009/2010 and USA tour 2010/2011. It was conceived for the Society of British Theatre Designers exhibition in Cardiff in March 2011 to respond to the theme “Transformation and Revelation”. It shows how the principal scenographic element - a wall 5 metres high x 13 metres wide built on a simple hydraulic system transformed from an exterior wall to an Afghan Poppy field, following the content of the 12½ hour specially commissioned plays that made up The Great Game. The Carousel was inspired by a photo of an Afghan child in a destroyed landscape going to a fairground and playing with a miniature diorama. Each stage of the Wall is held between the points of a Red Soviet Star, which sits on top of a golden Pentagon. The viewer can turn the carousel. A central pole is painted in the Nuristani style and depicts the life cycle of the poppy, and the carousel stands on a base depicting an Afghan landscape as if seen from the air. It is entirely constructed out of found and discarded materials.

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Carousel 1:25 The Story of the Wall (from ‘The Great Game’Tricycle Theatre London).

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The story of the wall montagé

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The carousel

Afgan landscape

The wall

The Taliban whitewash

The wall becomes a projection

September 11th 2001

Poppies always come back

The story of the wall montagé

Photographs of installation and gallery by:

Maylan Thomas, Krystof Kris, Fred Meller

Exhibition credits

Richard Balous and Staff at La Fabrika, Komunardů 30, Holesovice Prague 7; Staff and Technicians from Naródni Divadlo Brno; Academy of Performing Arts (DAMU) Prague; National Theatre Prague; Monica Bastos and the team of volunteers from DAMU and elsewhere; Stan Mädl; British Council Prague; British National Exhibition (for Transport); Tomás Pilař

2009

Le Phénoméne Martinů

Scenography for ‘The Greek Passion’ (2005). ‘The Marriage’ (2009).

Venue The National Museum, Prague - The Czech Museum of Music, Prague - Czech Republic

125 years of the Victoria and Albert Museum London

“What does the V&A mean to you?”

Fine Art Print and inclusion in commemorative book of 125 Artists