SCAPE
March 6 - April 27, 2014
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SCAPE
View Art Gallery presents a group show
SCAPE
March 6 - April 27, 2014
View Art Gallery 159-161 Hotwells Road Bristol BS8 4RY United Kingdom for enquiries: +44 (0)5603 116753 info@viewartgallery.co.uk
SIMON AVERILL VIVIENNE BAKER THOMAS DOWDESWELL KRISTIAN FLETCHER GLENN IBBITSON IAN JACOB ANDREW MUNOZ ANDY PRICE SIMON LEDSON SCARLETT RAVEN
SIMON AVERILL Each delicately beautiful piece by Simon Averill is based on a response to landscape. Even though the paintings are made in the studio, they rely on observations and information collected from particular locations that hold a resonance for him. Playing with the fragility of light and rhythm, Simon moves across the real and the imagined. His dreamy compositions seem to announce their own transience, like a dying star showing us its great beauty before vanishing. Simon’s intention is not to keep a record of places but to capture the essence of what has been seen and how it converses with us, almost as if the painting might have made itself. He states “When it works well it is a dialogue”.
Light Strata acrylic on panel 124 x 81 cm ÂŁ4,200
Light Divide acrylic on panel 124 x 81 cm ÂŁ4,200
ANDREW MUNOZ The contemplation of works by unconventional artist Andrew Munoz requires an amount of subjectivity. While some people could find his paintings disturbing, some others would say they capture something beautiful. His work could be seen as a game of opposites. Notions such as Good and Evil, the Grotesque and the Beautiful, Tragedy and Comedy are all present. Taking parks and other green areas within urban environments as starting points, Andrew recreates and reinterprets narratives from cultural history. He also captures his fascination with fear and desire, projected in the imagination of the human. He produces works with psychological depth but also visually interesting and attractive. His current collection is influenced by the ideas of Benjamin, Nietzsche, the writing of Kafka, and the photography of Arbus and Mikhailov.
Towpath oil on canvas 63 x 63 cm ÂŁ3,300
Bluebirds oil on canvas 60 x 35 cm ÂŁ1,980
Sunrise oil on board 48 x 34 cm ÂŁ1,980
Cuckoo oil on board 25 x 22 cm £1,650
Boy With Dog oil on canvas 16 x 16 cm £1,430
Telly Tubbies oil on canvas 75 x 57 cm ÂŁ3,300
Torso oil on board 36 x 22 cm £1,760
Dead Dog oil on board 36 x 22 cm £1,760
SCARLETT RAVEN Scarlett is a celebrated international artist who has enjoyed a rapid rise to success and credibility. Her art is purchased by collectors and celebrities and exhibited in highly reputable galleries. Landscapes and seascapes are prominent in Scarlett’s work. She tries to capture the romance of nature and its ability to affect and reflect human emotion. Scarlett is interested in what we leave behind, the way that translates into how we feel, and how our environment affects us. She uses natural landscapes as a setting to explore and illustrate this, and animals, houses and flowers as symbols to represent our mental state and behavioural patterns. She uses abstract forms, patterns, impressionism and sculpture as devices to imply movement and draw the viewer in, encouraging them to lend their imagination to, and establish a presence within, the painting. Her work embodies creation through movement and action. Layered with continual development, the painting evolves alongside her as an artist; a recorded journey of inspiration.
Dusk mixed media on board 122 x 122 cm ÂŁPOA
Wild Horses mixed media on board 183 x 122 cm £POA
Deckchair mixed media on board 61 x 61 cm £POA
KRISTIAN FLETCHER At View, we have witnessed the upward trajectory of the highly-skilled artist Kristian Fletcher and have also admired the latest metamorphosis of his work, as a result of his time spent on a residency in Dumfries. He has been deeply influenced by colour and shape of the Scottish landscape. This new work is concerned with the diverse nature of structures and public spaces that are in a state of flux or a state of change. For the panoramic viewings, Kristian still uses powerful and well defined drawing traces. However, the element of colour has become equally relevant. The result are works that combine realism with a sense of mysticism and atmosphere. We believe there will be more recognition to come, building on the two Jerwood Drawing Prizes and the purchase for Prince Charle’s royal collection.
Two Blue Chairs charcoal and pastel on paper 59 x 84 cm ÂŁ1,250
Kenneth’s House charcoal and pastel on paper 56 x 153 cm £1,500
The Green Wall charcoal and pastel on paper 56 x 153 cm ÂŁ1,500
GLENN IBBITSON Glenn Ibbitsons’s usual work practices in the media of painting and film are largely preplanned, but his approach to collage is essentially intuitive. The success of a work may hinge on just one fragment of torn paper, which provides that special intersection of texture or colour, not evident when originally embedded in the source print. These collages are often discovered in the process of their creation, and sometimes by accident. The composition assumes a life of its own and deviates positively from any original plan. Surfaces are constantly adjusted through a series of overlayerings, and areas of particular detail are more painstakingly constructed with smaller paper fragments. A unique characteristic of this form of collage is the variation in focus which Glenn is able to achieve by combining the printed image edges with the physical tears of the paper fragment itself, producing ambiguities of form and space.
City Nocturne pen on paper 75 x 75 cm ÂŁ550
The Necropolis (right) paper collage 40 x 40 cm ÂŁ395
The Nightshift (left) paper collage 48 x 65 cm ÂŁ550
IAN JACOB From his studio overlooking the River Cleddau in Pembrokeshire, Ian Jacob offers a fresh new vision of the landscape that surrounds him. Using experimental and unconventional techniques such as the three-dimensional element and a rich variety of materials including airbrushing, enamel paint, iron filings, perspex and even diamond dust, Ian creates layered constructions full of exceptional depth and vibrancy. This collection presents nature set in the form of mini stages. The theatrical compositions are magical and transforming, inevitably making us feel like we belong to them.
Garron Pill mixed media construction 101 x 81 cm ÂŁ1,095
Stinker’s Point mixed media construction 101 x 81 cm £1,095
Turquoise Rope mixed media construction 58 x 48 cm ÂŁ575
SIMON LEDSON At first sight, Simon Ledson’s landscapes can make the observer feel safe and cosy. However, as we gaze at them, the tilted horizons, powerful colours and abyssal viewings, cease to suggest peace and safety but rather turn to be a majestic experience of feeling fragile against the nature. Simon uses his work to document the process of a struggle; “I used statistical information gathered and calculated from the mapping of the movement of waves on the surface of the ocean combined with time related hair growth data collected from the changes in my own body as it connects with the sea, thus documenting the passage of time both implicitly and explicitly”.
Turn of Tide oil on canvas 61 x 46 cm £1,870
Light from Darkness oil on canvas 26 x 122 cm ÂŁ3,740
Invisible Level oil on canvas 26 x 122 cm ÂŁ3,740
Rising Scape oil on wood 26 cm diameter ÂŁ800
Clouds Dance oil on wood 26 cm diameter ÂŁ800
Levels Turning oil on canvas 91 x 155 cm ÂŁ4,400
Point of Balance oil on canvas 91 x 155 cm ÂŁ4,400
THOMAS DOWDESWELL Self-taught artist Thomas Dowdeswell explores the mechanical dynamism of the cityscape with an evolved vision of known movements such as Vorticism, Futurism and Constructivism. By developing a style that draws facets of these early Twentieth Century movements, Thomas makes them relevant to the present day. “I believe these movements remain relevant to contemporary society as we continue to balance cultural traditions with rapid technological and global changes”. With a flawless method, he uses sharp bold lines and pure pigment to explore the modern urban environment. The fake individualism, played by the miniature people in his paintings and the mechanic cityscapes make his works a perfect example of the dizzy speed we are exposed to in urban societies. Thomas Dowdeswell’s work has evolved over the past decade to incorporate and reinterpret the Vorticist language for the 21st Century, commenting on peoples relationships in a globalised society and the events which shape the world we live in. Currently he is producing a vibrant body of cityscape paintings which are so exact and detailed in their construction that they blur the lines between what we perceive as handmade and that which is digitally created.
Neon Gods oil on canvas 106 x 155 cm (framed) ÂŁ3,250
Day Breaks on the Garden oil on canvas 152 x 122 cm ÂŁ2,750
VIVIENNE BAKER Observing the beautiful original paintings of Vivienne Baker is a dreamlike experience. Her working methods usually include a build-up of layers of different tonal values and the use of colour contrasts and harmonies in the description of space. Starting points for recent paintings have been memory and the use of tiny low resolution photographs taken on a mobile phone. Using these low tech photographic resources combined with memory, her work captures the essence of a place or memory without being strictly figurative. Through the use of traditional materials, using untraditional tools such as decorating rollers and spray guns, the image evolves and emerges from a slow multilayering process, creating undefined spaces that the viewer has to work to interpret. The images and memories that Vivienne works from are all scenes that she has encountered but changed and distorted during the process of painting, to reveal something new. They suggest that there is more to the story and capture moments, like stills from a film or an old home movie. Ancient woodlands have particular appeal because of their long life span, contrasting with the relatively short life of a human or the fleeting moment of a human passing through.
Paradise Bottom III oil on canvas 90 x 100 cm ÂŁ1,100
Green Tree oil,on canvas 75 x 61 cm £880
Blue Lagoon oil on canvas 61 x 75 cm ÂŁ895
Paradise Bottom I oil on canvas 90 x 100 cm ÂŁ1,100
Through The Looking Glass oil on canvas 40 x 51 cm ÂŁ660
ANDY PRICE Throughout his oeuvre, Andy Price has experimented with varying subject matter. One that particularly caught his eye was the buzz and urbanity of the Japanese cityscape. As we have seen in his geisha paintings, the changing weather, time and seasons of the city fascinate him. We are presented with images of density, of technology, nightscapes, and the quotidian routine of workers, as well as the quintessential Japanese railway. The technique used for the paintings differs to the geisha works. His art hints at a photographic space, a hovering between photo-realism and an emphasis on the actual painting process. For Andy Price, it is important that the detail is painted, because in seeing the paintwork there is a sense of a human touch, which “connects us more to the animated life of the city”. The results are works of pure plastic beauty that illustrate his versatility as a painter.
Osaka City acrylic on board 107 x 107 cm £2,500
Cherry Blossoms Tokyo acrylic on board 160 x 107 cm ÂŁ8,350
Twighlight Osaka acrylic on board 160 x 107 cm ÂŁ8,350
NEW PRINT A Winter’s Tale limited edition print edition of 25 42 x 25 cm £260 unframed £365 framed
For the full range of limited edition prints, exclusive to View, please visit:
viewartprints.co.uk
viewartgallery.co.uk
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