Finding Form
curated by Sara Breinlinger & Stephen Keane
No Format Gallery
Casting House, Moulding Lane
London SE14 6BN
Private view: Wednesday 25 September, 6 - 9 PM
Exhibition dates: 24 - 29 September 2024
Opening times: Tuesday - Sunday, 12 - 6 PM
Gesture has always been present in painting as an inevitable consequence of the process of painting itself. Paint placed on a surface retains evidence of the method of its application. Paint placed on a surface retains evidence of the method of its application. With the advert of non-representational or "abstract" painting, artists began to understand that the mark and the gesture could carry meaning in its own right and, in so doing, become its own subject matter.
This raises other issues, of course. Perhaps now cliche, notion of the abstract expressionist gesture as emotion, passion, or expression now seems like only one possibility, and one to which we may no longer aspire. Contemporary abstract painting often takes a more provisional, less absolute, negotiated position between intention and chance, improvisation and planning, and even success and failure. It is this dichotomy that we wish to explore in this exhibition.
The show reflects ongoing conversations about these issues and explores possibilities in abstraction related to the ways in which gestures or marks become meaning. To this end, the artists, through expressive gestural abstraction or more hard-edged works, playfully subvert traditional conventions and explore the dynamic interplay between the intuitive/spontaneous and the planned/designed. Individual works might arise from a spontaneous interaction with materials and surface, only to develop intention as they evolve, or the exact opposite might be the case, where a plan is subverted by impulse and instinct. Often, a painting will iterate between both of these.
Exhibiting artists:
Sara Breinlinger, Dan Broughton, Katya Derksen, Stephen Keane, Johanna Melvin, Julian Scott
No Format Gallery
curated by Sara Breinlinger & Stephen Keane
No Format Gallery
Casting House, Moulding Lane
London SE14 6BN
Private view: Wednesday 25 September, 6 - 9 PM
Exhibition dates: 24 - 29 September 2024
Opening times: Tuesday - Sunday, 12 - 6 PM
Gesture has always been present in painting as an inevitable consequence of the process of painting itself. Paint placed on a surface retains evidence of the method of its application. Paint placed on a surface retains evidence of the method of its application. With the advert of non-representational or "abstract" painting, artists began to understand that the mark and the gesture could carry meaning in its own right and, in so doing, become its own subject matter.
This raises other issues, of course. Perhaps now cliche, notion of the abstract expressionist gesture as emotion, passion, or expression now seems like only one possibility, and one to which we may no longer aspire. Contemporary abstract painting often takes a more provisional, less absolute, negotiated position between intention and chance, improvisation and planning, and even success and failure. It is this dichotomy that we wish to explore in this exhibition.
The show reflects ongoing conversations about these issues and explores possibilities in abstraction related to the ways in which gestures or marks become meaning. To this end, the artists, through expressive gestural abstraction or more hard-edged works, playfully subvert traditional conventions and explore the dynamic interplay between the intuitive/spontaneous and the planned/designed. Individual works might arise from a spontaneous interaction with materials and surface, only to develop intention as they evolve, or the exact opposite might be the case, where a plan is subverted by impulse and instinct. Often, a painting will iterate between both of these.
Exhibiting artists:
Sara Breinlinger, Dan Broughton, Katya Derksen, Stephen Keane, Johanna Melvin, Julian Scott
No Format Gallery
Dancing About Architecture
curated by Lee Johnson
HYPHA STUDIOS
50 Celebration Avenue
London E20 1DB
Private view: Friday 19 July, 6 - 9 PM
Exhibition dates: 20 July - 17 August 2024
Opening times: Thursday - Sunday, 12 - 6 PM
Dancing About Architecture is an exhibition designed to engage the audience in a physical confrontation with art objects in a way that isn't simply 'a show', but more akin to walking down a back alley and stumbling across evidence of recent human activity - including elements of intrigue, delight, repulsion, fear and beauty.
The title refers to the oft-quoted maxim that "writing about music is like dancing about architecture". The origin of the quip has never been verified but is often attributed to Frank Zappa, who despised music journalists writing about his music. But this show focuses on music critic Robert Christgau's criticism of the phrase when he said "one of the many foolish things about the fools who compare writing about music to dancing about architecture is that dancing usually is about architecture. When bodies move in relation to a designed space, be it stage or ballroom or living room or gymnasium, they comment on that space whether they mean to or not."
Dancing About Architecture brings together 27 artists who's work brings the physicality of the space into their work, and the physicality of their work, and the physicality of their work into the space "whether they mean to or not". Some protest, some lurk in a corner, some confront, while others may elicit ideals of what could have been. Dancing Architecture demonstrates that is ever in isolation, that everything is connected in some way, and everything will influence - or be influenced by - its environment.
Exhibiting artists:
Karolina Albricht, Karl Bielik, Scarlett Bowman, Benjamin Arthur Brown, Julie Campbell, Paul Cole, Katya Derksen, Lloyd Durling, Grant Foster, Phil Frankland, Luke Hannam, Mark Jackson, Lee Johnson, Peter Lamb, Emma Lily, Enzo Marra, Scott McCracken, Rosie Mullan, Lisa Penny, Katie Pratt, Jon Ridge, Christina Straight, Dave Turley, Pepe Vives, Grant Watson, Poppy Whatmore, Verity Woolley
Hypha Studios
curated by Lee Johnson
HYPHA STUDIOS
50 Celebration Avenue
London E20 1DB
Private view: Friday 19 July, 6 - 9 PM
Exhibition dates: 20 July - 17 August 2024
Opening times: Thursday - Sunday, 12 - 6 PM
Dancing About Architecture is an exhibition designed to engage the audience in a physical confrontation with art objects in a way that isn't simply 'a show', but more akin to walking down a back alley and stumbling across evidence of recent human activity - including elements of intrigue, delight, repulsion, fear and beauty.
The title refers to the oft-quoted maxim that "writing about music is like dancing about architecture". The origin of the quip has never been verified but is often attributed to Frank Zappa, who despised music journalists writing about his music. But this show focuses on music critic Robert Christgau's criticism of the phrase when he said "one of the many foolish things about the fools who compare writing about music to dancing about architecture is that dancing usually is about architecture. When bodies move in relation to a designed space, be it stage or ballroom or living room or gymnasium, they comment on that space whether they mean to or not."
Dancing About Architecture brings together 27 artists who's work brings the physicality of the space into their work, and the physicality of their work, and the physicality of their work into the space "whether they mean to or not". Some protest, some lurk in a corner, some confront, while others may elicit ideals of what could have been. Dancing Architecture demonstrates that is ever in isolation, that everything is connected in some way, and everything will influence - or be influenced by - its environment.
Exhibiting artists:
Karolina Albricht, Karl Bielik, Scarlett Bowman, Benjamin Arthur Brown, Julie Campbell, Paul Cole, Katya Derksen, Lloyd Durling, Grant Foster, Phil Frankland, Luke Hannam, Mark Jackson, Lee Johnson, Peter Lamb, Emma Lily, Enzo Marra, Scott McCracken, Rosie Mullan, Lisa Penny, Katie Pratt, Jon Ridge, Christina Straight, Dave Turley, Pepe Vives, Grant Watson, Poppy Whatmore, Verity Woolley
Hypha Studios
DEBUNK
curated by Amanda Houchen
Terrace Gallery
Lea Bridge Rd Library
London E10 7HU
Private view: Wednesday 13 March, 6 - 8 PM
Exhibition dates: 14 March - 07 April 2024
Opening times: Monday - Friday, 12 - 6 PM / Saturday - Sunday, 12 - 4 PM
Artists consider what is true or untrue, reality versus fiction, what is authentic. Can we trust in what is presented to us, or can we strip the image back and examine something in the light, facing things as they truly are? As artists we get to choose what we show and what we don't show, how true we are to our natural expression, or what we decide to conceal.
Carl Jung referred to the "shadow self", the things that people repress, or do not like to acknowledge, the primitive side of our nature - in contrast to the persona, the self that people present to others.
"Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious like, the blacker and denser it is".
Considering this contrast of appearance and deception, truth and viscerality - these artists play with masking and unmasking through the material process - facing what's uncomfortable, revealing truth in beauty. Or playfully inviting us to take a new perspective, through focusing on tricks of design and the power of the image itself, and questioning what lies behind the surface.
Exhibiting artists:
Anthony Daley, Katya Derksen, Alexander Gilmour, Vincent Hawkins, Amanda Houchen, Lee Johnson, Henrietta Macphee, Vanessa Mitter, Susan Pembridge, Alix Philippe, Philip Reeves, Jon Ridge, Sharon Swaine, Rupert Whale
Terrace Gallery
curated by Amanda Houchen
Terrace Gallery
Lea Bridge Rd Library
London E10 7HU
Private view: Wednesday 13 March, 6 - 8 PM
Exhibition dates: 14 March - 07 April 2024
Opening times: Monday - Friday, 12 - 6 PM / Saturday - Sunday, 12 - 4 PM
Artists consider what is true or untrue, reality versus fiction, what is authentic. Can we trust in what is presented to us, or can we strip the image back and examine something in the light, facing things as they truly are? As artists we get to choose what we show and what we don't show, how true we are to our natural expression, or what we decide to conceal.
Carl Jung referred to the "shadow self", the things that people repress, or do not like to acknowledge, the primitive side of our nature - in contrast to the persona, the self that people present to others.
"Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious like, the blacker and denser it is".
Considering this contrast of appearance and deception, truth and viscerality - these artists play with masking and unmasking through the material process - facing what's uncomfortable, revealing truth in beauty. Or playfully inviting us to take a new perspective, through focusing on tricks of design and the power of the image itself, and questioning what lies behind the surface.
Exhibiting artists:
Anthony Daley, Katya Derksen, Alexander Gilmour, Vincent Hawkins, Amanda Houchen, Lee Johnson, Henrietta Macphee, Vanessa Mitter, Susan Pembridge, Alix Philippe, Philip Reeves, Jon Ridge, Sharon Swaine, Rupert Whale
Terrace Gallery