FRANK CREBER
In 2005 Frank Creber was appointed Director of Visual Arts for Water City CIC, leading on a programme of collaborative, educational and exhibition events, which to date have involved over 1,000 children and 200 Artists and musicians.
In 2005 Frank Creber was appointed the official artist in residence until 2012 for Water City, an ambitious new re-development programme centred around a network of local waterways in east London. Extending from the Olympic Park in the north to East India Dock in the south, the East End is once again being subjected to the force of rapid urban renewal which Creber is recording through drawings and paintings as the project develops; a project driven by a vision to create a true legacy for east London, both physical and social.
But as an artist with over twenty years experience of working within community groups in a deprived neighbourhood in Bow, Creber is equally committed to making works that explore a deeply urban affair between a new world created in the pursuit of progress and modernity and the community that it is setting out to serve. A community whose optimism is by no means universal because they have seen before that the developers’ bulldozers can just as easily destroy the inner-city infrastructure geared to serving local needs.
A key to the relationship that Frank Creber has to the East End and its community lies in his role as Creative Director (up to 2010) at the celebrated Bromley by Bow Centre where he was one of the founding artists in 1986. He continues as a lead Artist for the Centre.
Frank was born in 1959 and trained at University of Newcastle upon Tyne (B.A in Painting 1981) and Chelsea College of Art (M.A. in Painting 1987) and he has collected a number of prestigious awards: the Herbert Read Fellowship at Chelsea, Barclays Bank Young Painters Award and the Pickering Fellowship at Kingston.
In 2008 Frank Creber was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, for his work in Community Arts with Young People.
Growing up in Buckinghamshire.
Frank was brought up in Buckinghamshire in a village near Amersham, his parents were both very hard-working teachers and managed to pay the mortgage on a bungalow in an idyllic setting. They moved from the Wembley area in 1950 to live on the edge of the London underground, in the rural Chilterns, for which Frank is always grateful.
Frank’s mother came from a poor Catholic family of 4 girls, living in a tower block in Wembley, and his Grandfather on his mother’s side was a Jewish refugee who at some point ran a Pawnbroker shop in East Ham and also worked on the turnstiles at Wembley Stadium, he was a bit of a wheeler-dealer, his name was Frank Lewe which the family supposes was derived from Levis and this Jewish heritage shows up in Frank and his sisters' DNA, they are indeed one eight Jewish. His mother was a maths teacher and was the maths lead for a comprehensive school in Chesham, a very keen gardener and an adventurous spirit.
On his father's side, his grandfather worked for the civil service, the Home Office in Westminster and they lived in Harrow-on-the-Hill, Frank’s father was a confirmed socialist, he worked at a private school in Hampstead and one of his pupils was Harold Wilson's son, he met Wilson, the Prime minister at the time, on one occasion at No.10 Downing St. at 'Parent's Day' and was very proud of the fact. His Father was also a research scientist, often working evenings and weekends on Paleobotany research, his great love. This joint work on carbon dating fossil wood and studying the fossil wood growth rings, with scientists globally (before the advent of internet) led to the first modelling of climate change going back millions of years, and our contemporary understanding of climate change.
view Frank's profile on LINKED IN
FRANK CREBER
CURRICULUM VITAE
Forthcoming Exhibitions
2023 Solo Show, Making Space, 48 Aberfeldy, Poplar St London
2022 Group Show Bermondsey Project Space starting Dec 2022/ Jan 2023
2022 Group Show TERRA Espacio Gallery, London, 17 - 23 Oct 2022
Previous Exhibitions
2022 Group show ‘The Urban Sublime’ Coningsby Gallery London
2022 Two Person show ‘Roaming our City’ AGIP Highgate London
2022 Group Show ‘Trees and the Sacred’ Norwich Cathedral
2022 Group Show ‘The Tree of Life’ Stanton Guildhouse, Gloucestershire
2020 Group show ‘Being with Trees’ Bermondsey project Space
2020 Group show ‘Being with Trees’ Gustavo Galleria Gibraltar
2020 Solo Show Thames-side Studios Gallery
2019 Group Print Show at the Lounge, Thames-side Studios, Charlton
2019 Open Studios at Thames-side Studios, Charlton
2019 Lost and Found (working title) with Ferha Farouqui at Lumen Space, Tavistock, London
2019 Good and Bad Government, with Michael Johnson and John Clark, at Alison Richards Building, Cambridge University
2019 URBAN CONTEMPORARIES, Espacio Gallery, London.
2018 Time Warp, Group Show, Espacio Gallery, London.
2018 A Country Far Away, Group Show, London and Bad Oeynhausen, Germany
2018 The collection, Group Show, Bromley by Bow Centre.
2018 Good Government Bad Government, Group Show, Thames-side studios, London.
2017 Solo show drawings, Citywood, London.
2017 Solo show, Quaker Friends House, St. Martins Lane, London.
2017 Solo show, Industville, London.
2016 Group Show, Misbehaviour, Mile End Pavilion, London.
2016 Solo Show Tower of London, Large Mural.
2016 Solo shows - 100%Optical, ExCeL, London,
2016 Solo show Cafe East, Roman Road, Cityscapes and works about Lower Clapton Road Hackney
2015 Group Show Opens Studios Bromley by Bow Centre
2015 Solo Show Level39 8 Paintings from drawing residnecy
2015 Group Show Misbehaviour at Mile End pavilion
2014 Solo shows - Walking on Water, ExCeL, London, Lloyd's Register, London
2013 Solo show - Queen Mary University, People’s Palace,
2013 Group shows - Cos Art Walk. The Art of Writing, London
2012 Solo shows - The View Tube, Olympic Site, London. ’What the River Sings’ Trinity Buoy Wharf, Solo show, Ephasus, Broadway market, London
2012 Group shows - Territories, Bromley By Bow Centre. Territories, group show in Den Helder, Holland.
2011 Solo shows - The Hub, Hackney Marshes. Water City, Trinity Buoy Wharf.
2011 Group Shows - Taste Restaurant, Hammersmith. Hackney Utopians, Stoke Newington Library Gallery. Spring, Smokehouse Gallery, Fish island.
2010 Solo shows Gallery Café, Bethnal Green. Water City, Café 88, Wigmore St. Orchestra in a weekend, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London
2010 Group Shows - Conduit, Smokehouse Gallery, London, La Tuerte, Madrid, Spain,
2009 Solo Show - Fishing Village, Trinity Buoy Wharf, Chainstore, London
2008 Solo Show, Art Space Gallery, London.
2008 Group Shows, The Great Purpose, London. New 2008 English Art Club, London.
2007 Group show, Picker gallery, Kingston upon Thames. Art Space gallery, London.
2006 Solo Show, Art Space Gallery, London
2004 Solo Show, Art Space Gallery, London
2003 Solo Show, Greenham Arts, Newbury
2002 Solo Show, Turtle Arts, Nottingham. Solo Show, Art House, Peterborough
1998 Solo Show, Arthur Andersen, London
1992 Solo Show, Sue Williams Gallery, London
1991 Solo Show, Sue Williams Gallery, London
1989 Artist of the day, Flowers East
Awards Fellowships Residencies Commissions
2014 Drawing residency Level39 Canary Wharf
2012 Painting commission from Delancey depicting the East Village.
2012 Drawing residency, The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, Tower of London
2011 Commissioned by LOCOG, depicting the LOCOG team in front of the main stadium
2009Elected Fellow of RSA for work with young people and public art
1988Picker Fellowship, Kingston University
1987Barclays Bank Young Painters award
1986Herbert Read Fellowship, Chelsea School of art
Works in Collections
The Royal Collection, Clarence House, Unilever PLC, IBM, Arthur Andersen, Art for Hospitals, Stanhope construction, Mother and Children’s Unit Mildmay Mission Hospital, Kingston University.
Employment
2009 to presentVisual Arts Director, Water City CIC.
2000-10 Creative Director, Bromley By Bow Centre, led on development of community enterprises, and created “Signs of life” youth Arts enterprise.
2005 to present Arteast, social enterprise for people with Learning Disabilitiies.
1995 Project manager, responsibility for development of Bromley by Bow Gardens, 2-acre Local Park, design, build and maintenance by local communities
1993 Project manager, led on development of Arts and Health projects
1990 Project manager, responsibilities for disability project, youth project and community arts exhibitions and workshops
1985 Artist and Tutor Bromley By Bow Centre.
Community arts projects
2016 Sainsburys Food Waste Mural
2016 Mural with Quakers in Westminster
Chinese New Year Dragon, Bromley by Bow Centre
2016 Oasis Academy 25 metre mural, Royal Docks
2015 backdrop for WaterCity Festival event at St Pauls Way School
2015 Design of 80 metres mural New Union Close Isle of Dogs, scaling up drawing.
2012 100 metre Mural Royal Docks
2009 to present Created and established Community Art Gallery at Rothschild Bank.
2009 to present Organising a range of Public Art and Mural projects as part of Water City Festival.
2010 Curated, Conduit, group show at Smokehouse Gallery
2010 Curated River Run, group show at Trinity Buoy Wharf
2008-2009 Co-led Mural project in Nicaragua and London
2001 Roundabout project with Leaside Regeneration, local community consultation led by local people
1999 The River Within, playground design and build Bromley by Bow Centre
1998 Conference, plan and implement Art and Health projects, sponsored by the Kingsfund
1998 Community artshow, “Inner City Blues”, Barbican Concourse Gallery
Education
1981 B.A. Degree in fine art, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
1986M.A. Degree in Painting, Chelsea, London
Trustee appointments
2006 to present appointed trustee of Stanton Guildhouse in Gloucestershire www.stantonguildhouse.org.uk
2012 to 2015 appointed trustee of Blackheath Conservatoire www.conservatoire.org.uk
2015 to 2017 appointed trustee of SS Robin Trusthttp://www.ssrobin.org
LINKS
In 1985 I moved to East London, Bromley by Bow, with my wife Margy and two young boys we moved into an Acme Artist's house and became involved as founder members of the Bromley By Bow Centre.
Over the last thirty years I have pursued my painting career and also worked part time in numerous public art projects. Below are some links to the partners I have worked with and projects I have helped to create.
ORGANISATIONS:
Bromley by Bow Centre http://www.bbbc.org.uk/
Water City CIC http://www.water-city.com/
Water City Music https://watercitymusic.com/
Arteast public art group http://www.arteast-works.co.uk/
Grassroots Gardens http://grassroot-garden.com/
ARTISTS:
Andrew Crummy http://www.andrewcrummy.com/
Maria Alvarez-Echenique http://www.mazchenik.co.uk/
Eva Bachmann http://www.evabachmann.co.uk/
Andrew Taylor https://www.andrewdtaylor.co.uk/index.html