Brian & George Fell: Always Something New

Father and son team Brian and George Fell have been working together for over 15 years. Creating public art that has a sense of place at its heart, there are examples of their work all over the country.

They both love the physicality of making sculpture. Their partnership, which began when George left school, has supported Brian’s established reputation as an accomplished public artist who can make anything in steel and enabled George to develop his own style. Now based at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Brian has strong connections with the North West, having grown up in Seaforth and Thornton and trained as a sculptor at Manchester School of Art, supported by Sefton Council. One of his first public art commissions was in Southport, where he designed the railings for the seafront and created the landmark sculptures celebrating Southport’s seagulls and shrimps and some of the familiar characters who performed on the pier, such as the cyclist and the one-legged diver. The exhibition at the Atkinson highlights key commissions from the past forty years, with a special focus on the work Brian and George have done together. Always making, the show also presents some of the creative work they do for themselves. Brian has found a way to spend his life and earn a living making things, and has passed this on to George, who has inherited his father’s creative drive. Visitors will get an insight into the craft of metalwork at both a monumental and domestic scale and the working relationship between a father and son. The show reveals the approach of a mature artist who moves between materials and uses both figurative and abstract forms to explore and construct his ideas and a dynamic early career artist who brings steel to life using intricate detail.

What to expect:
Installation, Sculpture