Hugo Boss exhibition, Bar Lane Studios, York, until December 18 and January 4 to 7 (From York Press)

Hugo Boss exhibition, Bar Lane Studios, York, until December 18 and January 4 to 7

12:25pm Friday 10th December 2010 in Exhibitions Exclusive By Charles Hutchinson

BAR Lane Studios, in Bar Lane, York, has forged links across the great Pennine divide after being asked to curate the art show for the opening of the Hugo Boss fashion store in Manchester.

In turn, the York studios have now opened their own exhibition of artwork from the Hugo Boss event.

Stars from Coronation Street and Manchester City Football Club attended the launch night last month, held in a pop-up gallery at the New Cathedral Street store, installed by Bar Lane Studio in conjunction with City goalkeeper Shay Given’s charity, Fashion Kicks, in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.

Rock icon Bob Dylan, illusionist Derren Brown, Stone Roses guitarist John Squire, jungle musician Goldie, Scottish singer Edwyn Collins and Swedish artist, sculptor and fashion designer Agnetha Sjogren were among the exhibiting artists, alongside original works by David Hockney, Henri Matisse, a signed print of Andy Warhol's Interview and York’s very own memorial artist Dexter.

“What I saw when I arrived at Hugo Boss was my 1990s piece hanging in an amazing gallery space among art by household names, most significantly a signed print of Interview by Andy Warhol himself,” recalls Dexter.

“If Dexter never does anything else, thanks to Bar Lane Studios he will have hung with Andy! Amazingly, my hand-written version of Dextersworldof90s drew more attention than everything else put together. Hand writing seems to be the new painting.”

Taking part too were the Bar Lane Studios graduate interns from York St John University, who sold their work, received commissions and have been invited to exhibit elsewhere. Suzanne Davis wowed the Mancunian crowd with an installation threaded from 20 kilometres of cotton and is now in talks with Mercedes Benz.

Portraits of Jack Nicholson, Stephen Fry and himself by Derren Brown, an Eve Arnold photograph of Marilyn Monroe and works by Goldie and Edwyn Collins can be seen at Bar Lane from this week.

Collins’s work is of particular note, because he has returned to his great love of painting birds – as featured on the sleeve of this year’s Losing Sleep album – during his recuperation and recovery from the two cerebral haemorrhages he suffered in 2005.

Hockney, Dylan, Matisse and Andy Warhol are all featured too, as are Dexter, Keiran Plows and the St John interns.

Looking ahead, Bar Lane Studios will be launching a new wave of watercolour, screen print, portraiture and digital courses in the New Year, and upcoming exhibitions will include work by Richard Wilson.

“We’re also working with York Open Studios to celebrate their tenth anniversary and will be sponsoring them by giving over our main gallery for a week-long exhibition in 2011,” says project manager Ben Clowes.

“We’ve done more in nine months at Bar Lane Studios than have happened in the last nine years in the York art scene! We’ve had shows by major artists such as Matisse and John Piper; we’ve run the interns’ Incubation programme in partnership with York St John University; we’ve provided affordable studio space for up to 22 artists to rent; and we’ve put on digital workshops, as well as doing that launch show for Hugo Boss’s largest store in Britain.”

The Hugo Boss exhibition will run initially until December 18 and then re-open from January 4 to 7.