01 Nov 2008 - 01 Feb 2009

A painting of the River Tyne, commissioned by Sting and painted by one of America's top landscape painters today, is on show at the Laing Art Gallery.

Northern City Renaissance, Newcastle, England is by Stephen Hannock, an artist whose work hangs in some of America's most prestigious museums and galleries, and celebrates the cultural and economic renaissance of Newcastle, since the closure of the coal mines and ship yards.

Hannock depicts a view of the River Tyne as it is today, with the Sage Gateshead, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and the Milennium Bridge. Partially hidden from sight under the layers or paint are images and text relating to the city's mining heritage.

Stephen Hannock was born and raised Albany, New York and studied art with Leonard Baskin. He is known for his luminous images created by such techniques as sanding down paint and using collage.

In 1998 he won an Academy Award for Special Effects for his work on more than 100 paintings used to create images of heaven and hell in the film What Dreams May Come.

Hannock's work is represented in the collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Smithsonian Museum of American Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego among many others.

Hannock divides his time between studios in New York City and Williamstown.