Painter, printmaker, photographer, Alex Corina was born in Bradford in 1950 and attended Buttershaw School before studying at Bradford School of Art, first on an Art Foundation course in 1969, then later a printmaking course.
Between 1969 and 1975 Alex worked for the Students’ Union at Bradford College, managed the New Lane Art Gallery for a while, before working at the Bingley Teacher Training College as a training and design technician. He returned to Bradford College in 1975 to study and gain the College Diploma in Printmaking.
Print: ‘William Henry’. Image: see artist’s website, below.
To fund his art interests, he worked as a porter at a local hospital and became active in trade union work. He became a shop steward then branch secretary of the Bradford health workers’ union NUPE and was one of the leaders of the health workers’ dispute of 1982 and in the occupation of Thornton View Hospital, Bradford between 1983 to 1984. He also became a Labour councillor at this time and served as a member of the Bradford Education Committee.
He moved to Liverpool with his new wife and retrained in health promotion, and became a Drugs Prevention advisor to Knowsley Council.
He worked as a freelance drugs awareness trainer, designing courses and material for HIV/drugs services and was appointed as Head of The Home Office’s Drugs prevention team in Liverpool.
However, he was pulled back to his earlier interest in art and started a Fine Art degree at Wirral College, Merseyside.
Figure study. Image: see artist’s website below.
‘Angels Trumpets’. See artist’s website, below.
A giant sized version of his ‘Mona Lennon’ produced in 2003 to support the Liverpool bid for European City of Culture was hung from the St Georges Hall in Liverpool to greet the judges when they arrived at the nearby Lime Street Station (see image below).
In 2010 he bought the old Conservative Club in Garston and converted it into a live/work space with a flat upstairs and a studio/gallery downstairs. Since then, Garston Art Works, has become a venue for regular exhibitions, events and work with the community and local schools.
‘Mona Lennon’. Image from the artist’s website; see below.
Artist’s website: Alex Corina