MAKING LIGHT WORK OF ART
AN exhibition of stunning neon signs has opened in a Manchester art gallery. Bolton-based neon sign studio Neon Creations - which has produced work for singer Lucy Spraggan, dirty food restaurant Solita, footballer Peter Crouch and model wife Abbey Clancy, and clothing brand Missguided - is showing some of its one-off works at Manchester’s Artzu Gallery.
The company, which was established in 2005, has created 20 bespoke pieces, some of which will be exhibited alongside acrylic and resin based art by Stephen Farley in the city centre exhibition which will run for two weeks.
Tony Spink, owner of Neon Creations, was born and bred in South East London, but moved to Manchester in 2001 with wife and co-owner Caroline.
Catherine said: “We set up the business as Tony was frustrated with the companies he worked for as he wasn’t getting the chance to be as creative as he would like.
“He was fed up making repetitive work, so I told him to stop moaning about it, and let’s do something about it, so we did.”
Tony added: “More recently I have been wanting to do my own thing again and create my own designs rather than always be working to a brief from clients. So I set aside a day a week to work on my own pieces. I’ve been looking for a platform to show off my work and by chance met Charles Blair from Artzu and the opportunity arose.”
The first neon sign was displayed in public in December 2010 by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show, although the theory behind the technology dates back to 1675.
The way that neon signs are made has not changed during this time – a hand crafted product produced by heating straight lengths of glass tubing in a flame and bending into shape.
Once electrodes have been fused onto each end of the tube, air is removed from the glass sections under vacuum and the tube is then subjected to high voltage electricity.
The sections of glass are then pumped with neon or argon gas, depending on the final colour of the sign/light then wired together and to a transformer, to create an electrical circuit, and the sign lights up. Tony’s pieces are available for sale priced from £1,000 upwards.
Artzu Gallery / Quay St, Manchester M3 4PR / 0161 827 1717 / www.artzu.co.uk