INDEX 1. Olga Doulkeridou 2. Anniek Verholt 3. Iris Sun 4. Min Angel 5. Freddy D’azure-Hernandez 6. Babs Thwaites 7. Sina Ghahremani 8. Jill Christine Miller 9. Myfanwy Williams 10. Emma Dolphin 11. Sharleen Olivier 12. Rafael MC 13. Karls Berzins 14. Rebecca Bradley 15. Christina Kolaiti 16. Maggy Milner 17. Ben Snowden 18. Chris Webb 19. Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos Video Art: 20. Hazel Soper 21. Bryan Ridpath 22. David Ian Bickley 23. Roberta Weissman Nagy Artists Represented by Art Number 23: 24. Kim Wan 25. Ronald Gonzalez 26. Mia-Jane Harris Artist in residence: 27. Katarina Balunova
Olga Doulkeridou magsmiln@sky.com www.maggymilner.com Athens, Greece
Τhe two artworks attempt to operate as a philosophical comment on the current political, cultural and social changes in Greece. The sculpture of an Aphrodite as a symbol of beauty, love and eternal youth, and as a reference to ancient cultural and social prosperity is presented in a paradox context, that implies the discrepancies between the past and the present. The organic matter becomes a tool for highlighting the passing of time and fragility through the upcoming decay. The second image is a graph that depicts the decay rate, with elements that attempt to create metaphorical connections. The given information appear to the graph in a labyrinth as the effort for a personal destination within this specific social, political and cultural background. ‘Ripening Aphrodite’, 40cm x 50cm, Print, 2018 1
Anniek Verholt info@anniekverholt.com www.anniekverholt.com Brighton, UK
The abstract oil paintings in this exhibition, like most of my paintings, represent the every day journey of the mind. This includes the constant movement between thoughts, feelings and emotional responses. It has been my personal mission to understand this process better and to integrate it in my own life as well as perhaps inspire or uplift others. I believe the language of abstraction most effectively translates this often complex and adventurous journey of the mind. The various layers of paint, mark making and colour give these art pieces a complex and dynamic quality. How to read these artworks? Your mind might be busy at times, deep in thought, trying to find solutions or overwhelmed by emotion. Perhaps you are worried about the future, or find yourself stuck thinking about events that happened in the past. These paintings started with a first brushstroke, a first layer of colour. Perhaps you can still get a glimpse of it. This was a first step, an interaction with the paper. Now, a memory of the past. It has moved on. The painting has matured, grown, developed into what it is now. ‘Mindscapes XS’, 28c x 33cm, Oil on Paper,2018
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Iris Sun info@irisunart.com www.irisunart.com Athens, Greece
My inspiration for the painting “Black Garden” came from the climate changes. Nature is so beautiful as it is, but the climate changes are so radical and devastating where at the end catastrophe will be dominant and everything will become a black garden as my painting. ‘The Black Garden’, 40cm x 60cm, Oil on Canvas
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Min Angel
www.minangel.com min.angel@mac.com London, UK
Min Angel’s practice is concerned with transitions and is influenced by happenchance, language and the mash-ups of everyday life. In 2012 she came across a book published in the 1950s on the etiquette of flower arranging for the modern housewife. The styling and the lighting of the black and white photographs appear nostalgic and are evocative of the time. They are accompanied by what read as helpful and instructive captions, but as with the concept of nostalgia as a longing for a golden and better past, the messages within these images pivot on fallacies. The darker subtext here is the striving and failing of women to reach female perfection. Etiquette manuals for women of this period were underpinned by the prevailing belief that women always felt they fell short of perfection.* Nostalgia, like these digital reproductions of reproduction photos from a found book is an in-between transitional state, a transmuted memory which waits in the recesses of our minds ready to ambush us, flinging us backwards and sideways away from the realities of the present. It’s easy to be seduced by nostalgia and accidental encounters. This series of digital prints takes it’s title Artful Carelessness: The Value Of The Dalia Is Lost from captions within the book. * Ref, Virginia Nicholson.The Guardian. Mar 4 2015
‘Artful Carelessness: The Value Of The Dalia Is Lost’ Digital prints, 15.5 x 23.5 cm 4
Freddy D’azure-Hernandez http://dazure33f.wixsite.com/dhmond modamenorporqueno517@gmail.com Mexico
This work is about how the childhood at an early age that many of them have problems about the existence and question of who they are in their lives and fight to have love and acceptance to keep going with their to move forward with encouragement and stability in their lives to have a positive vision that in any situation, whether it is good or negative, it is all for a purpose of endeavor to realize that being in this world is worthwhile. This is the first graphic of the series that I am working on. It is made with a black ink that I created to use it in my art work that is part of my work as a new media artist in what I involve the sciences and the technology which I incorporate with traditional supports. The is the translation of the text of the work: (I do not know whether to cut my veins or change tires to get to my house at one horizon of distance)
‘Sigue Adelante (Keep Going)’, Graphic, 30 cm x 30 cm, 2018
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Babs Thwaites silverunicorn@hotmail.co.uk London, UK
My work concerns the power of memory. Memories are fragile and transient yet imbue everything we encounter; I am particularly interested how textiles, have the capacity to retain and communicate memory. The work consists of a knitted lace ground in 1 ply Shetland yarn with words embroidered across the lace in the same yarn. The embroidered yarn has been treated with phosphors so that as they absorb UV light enabling the words to fluoresce and glow when it is dark. The words are from letters my Uncle Jim wrote during the 2nd World War. Sadly, his life was lost, and although I never knew him, through the power of his words and letters, he became alive, like a ghost from the past invading the future. My lace panel is a fragile representation of his life and memory.
‘Uncle Jim’, Textiles (knit), 59cm x75cm, 2018
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Sina Ghahremani www.sinaart.co.uk sinaart.co.uk@gmail.com London, UK
This is an eternal story of a man and a woman. A man will fall in love with a woman which is unexplainable for the reason. What stays between them in my painting is just a window. The lover is just looking at the endless beauty of his love and this is his life forever. The lover spent all his life to find the right beauty of his soul and now his is profoundly lost in the magic of his love. The female attracts her lover purely by showing herself naked, which this means there is no space and obstacle between them anymore.
‘Lost’, Acrilyc on Fibre, 25cm x 25cm / 20cm x 25cm, 2018
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Jill Christine Miller jillcm3@gmail.com www.jillchristinemiller.com Monroe, USA
The angel figurine holds many personal childhood memories and associations of happiness. The painting focuses on generating emotional feelings in a space without physical human presence, along with an emphasis on the painting process building an intuitive language of brush marks. The psychological impact and interaction between space and object is also examined, along with ideas of liminality. Liminality is explored in the under painting blue and background green colors, with metaphorical memory states hovering between these areas of transition. Bringing human emotion into physical and cohesive visual representation through a painted object is the aim of the work.
‘Home’, Oil on Wood panel, 28 x 36 cm, 2017
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Myfanwy Williams www. myfanwywilliams.com myfanwy.williams@talk21.com Sheffield, UK
In 1943, the lost village of Derwent in Derbyshire was flooded to make way for the man-made Lady Bower Reservoir, which was to provide water for industrial Sheffield. It led to the destruction of the local community of Derwent Village. Occasionally, the site of the submerged village is revealed when a drought occurs. This happened in 1996; I walked around the lost village and saw bridges, remnants of buildings and stony paths leading around the village. It was a poignant experience. The silence of the old community was profound. I felt nostalgia for the people who had lived there. This is a photograph of a path leading from the church. The path is part of a journey – literally and metaphorically. I have superimposed a blue veneer onto the path; the blue represents the power of the water, a sadness, and it evokes the memory of the drowned Derwent Village.
‘Drowned Derwent Village - Path’, Photographic print , 25cms x 37cms x 0.5cms, 1996
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Emma Dolphin
emma.dolphin@network.rca.ac.uk London, UK
Memory constructs and deconstructs; that fracture and disruption mirrors the impermanence of life and with that nebulous ethereality comes a degree of the melancholy. Although we think of memory as something solid, it is by it’s very nature, unstable and changes with time. How does time project and recede according to individual experience? The past is only a memory - a relic. We understand the concept of ‘future’ - the tomorrow, the future as an ambition, but the present is the only thing which is real. This image, describes the everyday, a trace of an event which has rendered time into an eternal fixed moment. Time and space - the past and present caught in an eternal limbo. The passage of time and the memory of it, captured in a visual nexus of arrest.
‘Half Remembered Dreams’ Limited Edition Print on a double layer of silk organza and fine lawn 49.5cm x 37.5cm, 2017 10
Sharleen Olivier sharleene.olivier@draglobal.com www.sharleeneblog.wordpress.com South Africa, Johannesburg
I mistakenly registered for the wrong art degree. It is my fault for not reading the fine print. In the first year all the art streams were the same - traditional art making - so I did not yet realize my error. I thought “multimedia” meant any media or material. It turns out I had to work in video editing and animation, digital art. I longed for traditional media – pencil, paint, sculpture. Getting my hands dirty with art materials. To hold a pencil, feel the pressure of the graphite on the paper. To begin the first mark on textured paper – instead I began with a white screen. I continued with paint, drawing, sculpture and scanned or used them in the required format for the degree. I completed the “wrong” degree. I could not replace the pencils for the mouse. I could not replace a printed book for a tablet.
‘Pencil Work’ pencil shavings, glue on stretched canvas 41cmx31cm, 2018
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Rafael MC
rafaelmoralescendejas@gmail.com www.rafaelmc.net London, UK
‘Backwards’ is a photobook inspired in the collected writings of Michael Snow, a Canadian filmmaker who says that sometimes you might try to find new directions when you turn the page to previous experiences. For this reason, I decided to go outside London by choosing an aleatory location to stay for a week. The place was Goteborg, Sweden where I did a series of photo-performances to explore the city and remember that sometimes we need to stop our daily routine and go backwards to have reflective moments, to imagine new ways of capturing them visually and making something remarkable afterwards.
‘Backwards’, Photobook, photomontage, 21 cm x 21 cm, 2018
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Karls Berzins karls.berzins@gmail.com www.karlsberzins.co.uk Leeds, UK
This painting is created as one of the works in the series about a toy train. These works were inspired by my two years old son. Games with my son led me into thinking about my childhood, and my toys. Some of which have not changed over time. And this could be considered a monument to my father because there’s no longer Him to ask about His childhood.
‘Back in Childhood’ (series) Oil on canvas, 36.5x53.5cm, 2018
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Rebecca Bradley www.rebeccabradleyartist.com info@rebeccabradleyartist.com Cork / Fermoy, Ireland
Rebecca Bradley’s ‘Illegible Frontiers’ is a series of oil paintings on birch ply wood. They reference railway journeys and the fleeting, momentary glimpses of unfamiliar landscapes afforded by railway travel. As train passengers our engagement with the passing views is fragmentary and distant, allowing for a particular kind of contemplation and speculation. The unfolding, flickering landscape acts as a trigger for our inner thoughts and dreams and contemplation of the internal landscapes of our sub-conscious mind and memories. It is the ephemeral and transient nature of these insulated encounters with the landscape that interests Bradley, particularly in their power to provoke recollections, imaginings, and a curiosity about our connection to place. ‘Postcard-like in format, Bradley’s paintings are miniaturized epics. Vastnesses pulled down to tiny formats, they give us expanses condensed. Hanging like ultra- high-res thumbnails, these Lilliputian landscapes are dense with sensual data, and littler than seems possible.’ (Sarah Hayden, 2017) This body of work is also the subject of a collaborative book, with an introduction and poems by Sarah Hayden.
‘Graze’, 18.5 x 25.5 cm, oil on birch ply, 2017
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Christina Kolaiti www.christinakolaiti.com c.kolaiti@yorksj.ac.uk Aegina, Greece / Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
This image is part of a series that draw metaphorical links between a diagnosable condition called Mal de Debarquement or (MDDS) -a term referring to nausea experienced during long journeys- and the notion of self. Female subjects (who are most likely to be affected by MDDS) have been asked to pose in front of a seascape; the element of water symbolises the journey. Parallels are drawn with the systemic model in psychotherapy according to which the person’s perception of self is not formed in solitude but is part of a system or context (Bowen, 1974). The female subjects have been instructed by the photographer to ‘pose as another member of their family’. These re-narrations result in portraits where the visual narrative is ambiguous; the subjects perform what could be described as systemic portraits, therefore suggesting a relational and rather metaphorical nausea of self. References: Bowen, M (1974) Toward the Differentiation of Self in One’s Family of Origin. [Online] Ménière’s Society. 2015. Mal de debarquement MDDS [Online]. [Accessed 20 February 2014]. Available from: http://www.menieres.org.uk/information-and-support/symptoms-and-conditions/mal-de-debarquement
‘A Memory’ (from the series ‘Mal De Debarquement’) Photography, 30cm x 40cm, 2016 15
Maggy Milner
www.maggymilner.com mm@maggymilner.com Southwell, UK
DEMOLITION In the centre of Nottingham the huge Radford Lace Mills were ripped down…. Victorian Lace Mills, a famous part of Nottingham’s history, are beautiful buildings, Many have been left standing and can be seen today. I used to drive past this area regularly, but in 2013 I was shocked to see what was happening. This photo shows the brutal way in which beautiful, historic buildings can suddenly become dust and rubble. Presumable the land was being cleared for the promise of new profits…. NO 60 Walking round Bermondsey, London this building caught my eye. It had history and narrative. Once a shop or a home it seemed to have been left locked and empty. The graffiti was perfect contrast. An Angel or fairy, joyful or helpless, floating down to the ground. Someone had felt playful sympathy for his building. A mixture of humour and sadness ….
Phtographic prints, 2013 16
Ben Snowden www.bensnowdenartist.com info@bensnowdenartist.com Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK
My work explores the relationships and ideas between subject and emotion, combining visceral energy with experience through painting. Inspired by the human form, poetry and the natural world, I use the language of abstraction to create work that emphasises on mood and expression to determine the overall feeling of the paintings. I predominantly work with enamel and household paints on materials such as paper, board, card, cloth and wood that I find in everyday life. My main focus is to create work that evokes the senses and ultimately communicates a positive and constructive view of the world.
‘Love is in my Head’, Mixed Media on board, 15.3cm x 12.3cm
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Chris Webb
www.chriswebbartist.com chriswebb44@hotmail.com Portsmouth, UK
The nostalgic memory is from 1998 on the Isle of Iona in Scotland, a violinist is playing in a church hall behind me whilst I sit looking out to sea. The movement of the waves seemed to be in time to the music, an ocean symphony. Created from memories of before I lost my sight. Chris Webb is an abstraction painter, creating a unique expressive and impressionistic view of his world after sightloss. It is clear that his visual impairment informs his artwork in very profound ways. The abstraction style he uses reflects his visual abilities and concentrates on the tones and depth to a painting.
‘Ocean Symphonies’ Acrylic Abstraction 30x50cm on Wood Panel
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Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos nikolaos2011@yahoo.com Athens, Greece / London, UK
In this installation I am trying to depict a deformation that is not a physical one but rather a poetic or a metaphorical one. Each head is torn open in a aggressive way from inside outwards and it is almost like some kind of explosion happened. Furthermore, through that kind of alteration I am trying to illustrate the very concept of the eternal psychological conflict that occurs inside our selves, where humans suppress their inner instincts and that leads into this aggressive metaphorical burst; to the point where the human and the inner animal are forcefully separated leaving behind an empty fragile shell.
‘Ortolans’, 17x17 cm, ceramic, gold leaves
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Hazel Soper
hazelsoper@gmail.com www.hazelsoper.wordpress.com Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
This video piece utilises the dadaist cut-up technique of writing, taking text from online Ads to create poems that tap in to nostalgia, memory and our subconscious, hinting at emotive narratives where no such thing exists. It explores the boundaries between the online and offline realms, our relationship with intimacy through digital forms.Technology is now an essential aspect of contemporary life, and often our phones and our person are physically inseparable- does a reality without the online now exist? I am particularly interested in how human communication is translated to an online realm: how speech and body language are represented in the absence of
‘The Evolution of a Love Story’ Video, 2017
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Bryan Ridpath bryanridpath@gmail.com www.bryanridpath.com Stevenage, UK
‘Yeah, about utopia…’ is a personal response to my current contemporary environment, it’s a sarcastic and satirical comment on how what once was this early ‘utopia’ is now non-existent, and this dream utopian new town is now becoming dated and forgotten, a kind of ‘hinter-town’. This is my view of this place, I’m sure other people may feel different and not as cynical or pessimistic as I am. They may feel some form of nostalgia, but what I see is innocent mistakes of the past and ways we must strive for a better future. This is the conversation I want to come from this piece, the value we hold on our environments and how we may feel proud or embarrassed of our own home towns and cities. Footage from: ‘Round and About: Part 1’, 1959. ‘New Towns Act’, 1966. ‘Stevenage Comes of Age’, 1967. ‘Tour of Stevenage’, 1970. ‘Stevenage’, 1971.
‘Yeah, about utopia...’ Video, 2018
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David Ian Bickley
dibickley@mac.com www.davidianbickley.com Cork, Ireland
Part of a Phd curation project at The Lewis Glucksman Gallery, University College Cork. This short film examines the concept of the gallery as a “frame,” outlining and focusing the internal exhibition through its architectonic structural and decorative detail, much in the manner of a medieval tabernacle frame. The exhibition in question, Everything Must Go, which in itself “frames” aspects of the concept of “value” in art, is never seen, only the patina of curation; the building, the remnants of packing materials and installation tools. The soundtrack is made entirely from processed location recordings made around the gallery.
‘Frames’ Video, 2016
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Roberta Weissman Nagy robertawng@gmail.com Croatia,Istria, Pula
I can only talk about my mother. Seeking her scent. About her absence. Wetting a black and white photograph of Mother in clean water, carefully, ritually dipping it ... I have dedicated the meaning of water as a key element of life. Then, I tried to shape the water, in the form that represenst appearance of the Mother, I froze it, giving it a form of plate, the one from which I ate the soup like when I was a little girl .... that one that nurtured me. Icy. Transient. It lasts only while on the table, as well as fragments of my memories .... In the same water, now melted, washing my face, trying to smell with palms and tips of my fingers ... seeking for Mother and her scent. Absence. Passing through states of artificial creation, revival and preservation, ritually and painfully following by singing the only song that I remember mother sang or I can only assume that it was with her nearby. I’m trying to find( fantom) the smell .......
‘Memento Mori Materem’ Video, 2015
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Kim Wan info@kimwanart.com www.kimwanart.com Hastings, UK
I paint my self portraits at night, each one is individual, a testament to that time and place, capturing a reflection, inside and out, only ever painted in one sitting...each new and different, but of the same face... no two ever alike, and yet integrally profound in their rendering. They represent the life and events of my sitting at that exact moment, I couldn't tell you what has happened, time and memory are transient.
‘​Self-portrait’ tryptich, 3 panels each 25x20 cms, mixed media on canvas, 2017
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Ronald Gonzalez www.ronaldgonzalezstudio.com rsculpture@yahoo.com Johnson City, New York
Over the years I have made a number of human gures out of found ob- jects and detritus from my surroundings. I have been especially interested in making small solitary,- decaying doll like bodies. is gure stands inside a small black box, now untouched, as if on a tiny stage for a moment in time as a nal place of nostalgia, deformation, and mortality.
‘Figure in Nich’, Sculpture, 10cm x 7cm x 2.5cm, 2016
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Mia-Jane Harris mia-jane@live.com www.mia-janeharris.co.uk Kent, UK
My art delves into the curiously odd and morbidly beautiful, wishing to intrigue the viewer and pull them in to my world with strange objects to manipulate peoples’ emotions on the subject of mortality- life, death & resurrection. My work aims to challenge the inevitability of our disappearance after death by preventing decay and rescuing ‘junk’. I take used and discarded objects such as childhood dolls and give them a second chance at life as an art object. This artistic resurrection turns one persons’ nostalgic trash in to another persons’ treasure. This piece speaks of the discarded past in two ways; the literal hearts of deceased animals that are preserved on the sculptures’ nails, and the metaphorical hearts of past lovers that these represent.
‘He said he’d never met a woman who’d torn out so many hearts’ Found wood and nails, antique doll, mummified animal hearts 2016
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Katarina Balunova www.katarinabalunova.com katarina.balunova2@gmail.com KoĹĄice, Slovakia
The main themes in my work are city, urbanism and architecture, conflict between nature and civilization, searching for a home. I am often inspired by the city and the urban environment, which I see not only as a defined physical space, but also as a psychological projection. The city is a man-made object that goes beyond the individuals’ experience of a building, street, or district. I try to find a new perception to invisible layers of nowadays cities. It is possible to read various stories inside; I try not to represent reality, but to give the city structure a symbolic form that bears different meanings in its simplicity.
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Art Number 23 is a London-based organisation, mainly responsible for curating art exhibitions inside the U.K. and overseas. The aim is to create opportunities in order to encourage and support artists from all over the world to exhibit and promote their work.
www.artnumber23.uk info@artnumber23.uk
Previous projects of Art Number 23 include exhibitions in NYC and Philadelphia (USA), Moscow (Russia), Berlin (Germany), Athens (Greece), Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Timisoara (Romania).
‘Nostalgia’ in Athens... The fouth and final part of our exhibition, who travelled to Amsterdam, London and Timisoara the past months. In this exhibition, artists of various mediums and from di erent backgrounds are called to depict their remembrance of people, locations, experiences and feelings through their work. The exhibited artworks, cover subjects that relate to memories and the past, such as childhood and family bonds; experiences in abusing relationships; the exploration of our identities through our traditions; and more. Painters, sculptors, printmakers and photographers are expressing some of the private sides of their past, as they reveal their personal stories, and share them through their art.
Nostalgia
Municipal Art Gallery of Piraeus