Art in Llanelli

Llanelli is fast becoming a favourite destination for art lovers from far and wide.

In the last year we saw the opening of Y Tŷ Celf-The Art House in the Stepney Street in the Town Centre, providing a range of arts and crafts from a collective of makers and artists. Just along the street is The Gallery an established café and Art Gallery featuring work of local artists. Less than a minute away in John Street is the studio and shop of another prominent artist Denise Di Battista.

Llanelli Library holds regular art exhibitions and Llanelly House is another venue where local artists, photographers and creative people can show off their work. Llanelli has a thriving art society and its members work can be seen at numerous pop up events and exhibitions around the Town.

Another fantastic venue for the arts is at Oriel Ffwrnes Gallery, based at Llanelli’s Ffwrnes Theatre, which this week saw the launch of another amazing exhibition by a local artist, this time a solo exhibition by Peter Spriggs called “Tales of Sospan Fach”

Curator Michele Shiels told us

“Tales of Sosban Fach”

As curator at Oriel Ffwrnes Gallery in Park Street, Llanelli, I am thrilled and excited to showcase this exceptional and exciting artist. I invite the whole community to visit this free exhibition, which is open until the 17^th of March. Peter Spriggs is an established local artist who creates artworks that are inspired by personal and emotive experiences. Greatly influenced by culture and history he produces paintings, drawings and prints that are both visually and narratively powerful in their colour, content and design. This present exhibition has been many years in the making and brings together Sprigg’s sense of the connection between Barcelona’s and Llanelli’s industrial history, whilst using the colours of Gaudi’s mosaic’s as a backdrop to the starting point of this collection; a piece of slag shaped like a human head found on Llanelli beach.

Oriel Ffwrnes Gallery has been exhibiting fine art for over two years and we have been exhibited artists work from California, Denmark, Pakistan, England and Wales. As curator I am in a wonderful position, as I have the opportunity to meet these talented artists and get to know their work up close. This inspires me to share this passion with the local community and give people an occasion to view art works in an open and welcoming environment. With this in mind, I offer art talk walkarounds for groups should they been interested in learning and understanding more about various exhibitions. Please contact the Ffwrnes box office for contact details ay 0345 2263510 or call in to see us!

Among the invited  guests at the exhibition launch was, Shadow Cabinet Member and Chair of the Communities Scrutiny Committee at Carmarthenshire County Council, Cllr.Fozia Akhtar.

Talking after the launch she said, “I was delighted to be invited to this and other exhibition launches. Its wonderful to see Llanelli as a focal point for artists and art lovers and for exhibitions to be free and available to all the community. Congratulations to Michele and thank you for the hard work and dedication that she puts in. I know she is keen to bring the work of other prominent artists to Llanelli, giving people who can’t always travel to the large cities a chance to enjoy and appreciate these works. We want to encourage and support creative people and put our Town on the map, as a destination for creativity”

These words are echoed by Y Tŷ Celf-The Art House, quoting directly from their website. “We believe that making space for artists and makers to create an Artisan Quarter in Llanelli town centre has the possibility of creating a new identity for the town centre as a vibrant, creative hub offering one-off, unique experiences, products and businesses that will transform the heart of the town and the lives of people living there. We hope to connect with the innovative and creative heritage of the town whilst bringing celebration, creativity, festival and colour to release a creative enterprise culture and promote health and wellbeing”. ( https://www.ytycelf-thearthouse.com/about)