THE ARTISTS
The artists in the exhibition, while clearly contemporary, and often groundbreaking in terms of approaches to their subjects and painterly techniques, are also artists who are unafraid of referencing, and in some cases, quoting, iconic historical art.
While these five painters and a sculptor each employ intensely personal and idiosyncratic means towards creating their works, they all have in common a high regard for the concept of creating as an art
They are capable of extending the dialogue of art in new and sometimes radical ways while at the same time revealing the strong threads of tradition which entwine as well as embroider the tapestry of painting and sculpture as an evolving language
Born in São Paulo, Brazil, Claudia De Grandi is an artist working variously in painting, photography, printmaking and video installation. Classically trained at the piano she first realised music could be an abstraction, and it remains her inspirational undercurrent
On moving to England, she studied fine art and gained a Masters degree in Transnational Art at Camberwell College, University of the Arts, London. Known initially for creating Visual Sounds Project – a series of collaborative performances with musician Joshua Tennent – she has recently concentrated on large scale paintings based on her observations of the sea
De Grandi’s works are increasingly attracting the art world and press attention with her works finding collectors in New York, Milan, Tokyo and London At the same time, following her original academic pursuits, Claudia recently co-curated the exhibition Axis: London Milano with Alan Rankle at Fabbrica Del Vapore, Milan, Italy
Her series Waves & Horizons are based on her observations and photographs of the Pacific Ocean and closer to home, the steel grey waters of the English Channel near to her Hastings studio They make sublime images, referencing Turner and Whistler while revisiting historical Colour Field Abstraction Her paintings work equally well as depictions of light and movement
Claudia De Grandi
yet also draw the viewer into the abstract. In a noticeably filmic way, these recent paintings evoke the darkly threatening waters of a psychological thriller. You can sense a disturbing, metronomic soundtrack hinting at deep waters and danger below the shimmering surface These themes precipitate De Grandi’s vision for the evolving work as an immersive installation of painting and music De Grandi makes her art with well defined and far reaching objectives:
“When I am painting the action of creating connects me to a greater moment of happening – it is the What and the only thing happening at that moment
Reality is a mystery. When trying to paint it you then realise it’s impossible. It can only be painted as it is immediately seen, in front of you, and then modified by the feeling that it transmits.”
Stephen Newton
Stephen Newton was born in Grimsby in 1948 He received a BA at Leeds University in 1971, M.A. Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University, 1986, M.A. Art and Psychotherapy (distinction) University of Sheffield, 1993, and a Ph D in the psychoanalysis of the creative process , Dept Of Psychiatry, University of Sheffield, 1998.
The critic Mel Gooding described his work as a ‘psycho-conceptual project’
A review in Diva publications described Newton’s imagery as imbued ‘with a inherently disturbing, almost eerie, atmosphere and Feeling’, whilst the editor of State magazine, Mike Von Joel, wrote that his work offers ‘radically distilled imagery, simple – even childlike iconographies represent a far more primeval creative force that stir (often uncontrollable) sensations of recognition in those that take the time to consider and reflect on them’ Stephen Newton is widely acclaimed for both his art and writing. Whilst viewing the work of Stephen Newton, scenes of solitude and isolation cast the mind into contemplation of the human condition and eternity. However, Stephen Newton feels that his work is “ an expression” and that it doesn’t stem from a set idea “My paintings never refer to a specific place that could actually be located somewhere They don’t have any narrative or symbolism or anything to do with dreams or memories, or other agendas of any sort ” His attitude towards his work is clear, as it is not just an extension of him, but something bigger.
Stephen has exhibited extensively throughout Europe, America and the UK. The latest acquisition of his work is Room with a View of Cliffs, now housed at the Madison Museum of Fine Art, America He has also been described by the New York critic and philosopher Donald Kuspit as “ one of the best painters painting in the world today” In addition to being a national and internationally acclaimed artist, he is a highly commended author with a distinguished academic career.
Newton’s paintings have been acquired by Abbot Hall Art Gallery, The East Contemporary Art Collection, UCS; Madison Museum of Fine Art; Priseman Seabrook Collection; Rugby Art Gallery and Museum and Swindon Art Gallery
Matthew Radford
Matthew Radford studied at St Albans and Camberwell Schools of Art He has taught variously in London and New York He is represented in collections worldwide
In an essay on the artist’s work, novelist Peter Ackroyd states ‘When you enter a painting by Matthew Radford you are introduced to a world of arrested movement, of stillness and silence and slow time Yet this sense of stasis is in fact an illusion; the more you observe the canvas the more you understand the play of light and shadow underlying the ceaseless flux of the city’. Radford is pre-eminently an urban artist bewildered and entranced by the energetic life of the city all around him Some of his work might bring to mind J P Chaplin’s Rumour, Fear and the Madness of Crowds but Radford’s unflinching attention is directed towards the solitariness and mystery of the individuals that make up the aggregate of the urban community.
In that context, the artist also invokes some characteristic aspects of a city that is built within the shadows of money and of power; his is a London vision As in some of his earlier work, he is entranced by the scenic and the spectacular as they are expressed in the continual and energetic display of people. Like previous London artists, he understands the variety of the city and he also comprehends its darkness. He is concerned with the external life, with the movement of crowds and with the great general drama of the human spirit. He has a sense of energy and splendour, of ritual and display, which has very little to do with moral judgement or ethical consciousness Radford actively excludes meaning He shares the sublime indifference of the city itself, where the multitudes come and go
When you come close to the canvas, the brush strokes seem almost abstract in their intensity. It is only when you step backwards that the world becomes recognisable again. It is this sense of strangeness and familiarity, of unsettling proximity and formal observation, that captures the actual sensation of living and walking in the city It resembles the effect of certain children’s books, where water smeared across the page will elicit an image apparently rising miraculously to the surface. Radford’s images have that effortless spontaneity, but one charged with mystery and transience. They appear almost impersonally, without a willed intent or purpose’.
Alan Rankle
Alan Rankle, was born in Oldham, Lancashire, England in 1952. He studied at Rochdale School of Art and Goldsmiths College, University of London. He works variously in painting, printmaking and photography as well as collaborating on curatorial and architectural projects
Rankle’s work is increasingly highly regarded and a series of high profile solo exhibitions in Copenhagen, Berlin, Milan and London have confirmed his status as one of the most innovative painters working today
‘Looking to the past in order to paint the future Rankle continues his preoccupation with revitalising the tradition of landscape art within the context of our post-industrial, and arguably pre-apocalyptic, world. In recent works Rankle seems to treat the whole history of landscape painting as a “found object.” He fuses aspects of Classical and Romantic painting with Abstract Expressionistic gestures; he paints trompe l’oeil elements as though from a 19th Century naturalist’s journal He knowingly references conceptual asides to provide an undercurrent of contemporary unease ’ Anthony Wallersteiner Terre Vert Danielle Arnaud London 1998.
Charlotte Snook was born in Middlesex and studied at Hornsey College of Art and the Royal College of Art where she received an MA in Painting.
Snook combines her knowledge of art history and insight into human nature with a free-roaming imagination to create complex artworks. She takes Breugel, Poussin, Claude and 17th century Flemish art as a starting point for her paintings which can be as edgy as they are exquisite. Her art allows for the apocalyptic nature of the world ‘They are concerned with a loss of paradise,’ Charlotte says ‘It’s all about the painting: light, colour, contrast, the composition and brushstrokes I try to set a narrative without there being one’.
A selection of her recent exhibition of paintings and drawings reflects Charlotte’s packed and varied career She was asked to respond to the permanent collection of Hastings Museum and drew on the pastoral porcelain figures as well as the faces of Christian missionaries gazing out from early 20th century photographs. Her work was included in Axis: London Milano alongside artists including the Chapman Brothers. She was invited to exhibit at the Jerwood Gallery, Hastings as part of the exhibitionTo be Continued. She is represented by Sarah O’Kane, Contemporary FineArt.
Charlotte Snook
Charlotte’s work has been included in the Jerwood Drawing Prize from 1995–99, the Hunting Prize and the Garrick/Milne Prize. Solo exhibitions include Rare Affairs at the Basement Gallery, Boise, Idaho, Hastings Museum andArt Gallery and StAnne’s Galleries, Lewes.
Suzie Zamit
Suzie studied Fine Art Sculpture at City & Guilds of London Art School She is Vice President of the Society of Portrait Sculptors and exhibits at their annual Face show in London, unique for it showcasing purely modelled portraits.
She has also designed for the Royal Mint including, in 2009 a Charles Darwin bicentenary £2 coin Her bronze portrait of the Victorian MP and founder of the National Secular Society was unveiled in Parliament in 2016 and is now in the Palace of Westminster Other notable commissions include posthumous portraits of the artists Francis Bacon and Barry Flanagan
Suzie's work is in private collections throughout Europe. Zamits work is predominantly concerned with human and animal forms - expressing their beauty, strength and fragility through the wonderfully fleshy and tactile medium of clay Her work is especially inspired by the terracotta maquettes of the Renaissance sculptors - small scale models with lively sketchy surfaces full of the artists' tool marks and fingerprints These quick studies have an immediacy and vibrancy which can be missing in the smooth perfection of the finished marble.
ROGUE GALLERY
Starting as an occasional exhibition space at artist Ray Gange’s South London studio, Rogue Gallery relocated to St Leonards on Sea and began participating in the annual Coastal Currents festivals in 2016.
Moving from pop-up to a permanent space followed post-lockdown When the current premises became available on Norman Road, already home to several high profile art galleries, Rogue HQ moved in The gallery programmes will feature the work of emerging and established artists as well as bringing projects and exhibitions from elsewhere to exchange ideas and concepts.
Rogue Gallery owner Ray has enjoyed a varied and productive career as film actor, featuring in the seminal cult classic Rude Boy alongside The Clash followed by running an Indie record label and managing bands
A change of direction in the early 1990s saw him studying art at the Chelsea College of Art since when he has created a strong ouvre of highly personal works, developing his conceptual art studies towards painting, sculpture, the written word and photography,
He considers all of these diverse elements to be the foundation of his ambitions for the gallery
