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Saturday 12 December 2009

Arts round up






Yesterday I visited Lorenzo Quinn's Equilibrium exhibition at the Halcyon Gallery:

"Having been exhibited on all five continents, Quinn’s works are widely sought after. Major commissions include the United Nations, the Vatican and a sculpture for Bacardi to honour the hometown of its founder in Sitges, Spain. His cultural influence has been recognised in an iconic advert for Absolut Vodka, entitled Absolut Lorenzo, part of a campaign featuring celebrated international artists. Truly international in his outlook and reach he has received wide success in the highly regarded Middle Eastern art market. Highlights include his iconic sculpture Rise Through Education in Doha, Qatar (2005) and a new commission to create an Olympic Tower, to be unveiled in Doha in 2010.

For Equilibrium, Quinn has created 30 new pieces including What Came First?, Love and Home Sweet Home. What Came First? depicts male and female forms, each within an egg-shaped marble hemisphere, displaying the sculptor’s rich figurative symbolism at its finest. The Love series of kinetic sculptures features paired hands, a recurring theme in Quinn’s work, representing the four stages of a relationship. Hypnotic and graceful, the works evoke the hands of strolling lovers. Considered the greatest challenge for an artist depicting the human form, for Quinn hands convey the intimacy of human interaction in a simple, powerful way. In Home Sweet Home, he uses the female form cocooned in barbed wire to represent the claustrophobia and isolation of victims of domestic abuse. Quinn and his wife are active in their work for charities supporting victims of domestic abuse.

Accompanied by his most popular works such as Adam and Eve, Force of Nature and the colossal Hand of God, 'Equilibrium' presents an oeuvre of work mature in style and demonstrative of Quinn’s visceral empathy and technical accomplishment."

Quinn's Give & Take III (see above) is on public display in Berkley Square.

At the Air Gallery I met Paul Hobbs and saw his 'Jubilate!' exhibition. The semi-abstract acrylic paintings in this exhibition are "inspired by natural and architectural forms, and the spaces in between, in creating a visual feast of pattern, colour and movement."

I first came across Paul and his work through an exhibition of his conceptual pieces at the Christian Resources Exhibition and then saw some of the same works at an exhibition in Cambridge. Paul explained that he aims to alternate between these more interactive works and his abstract pieces in terms of the focus of his work and his exhibitions.

Paul also leads workshops in schools, conference centres and churches which are planned to suit a group’s interests, and usually involve a practical exploration of materials and themes used in his own work.

I had arranged to meet another artist, Ally Clarke, at the exhibition; one of several meetings recently with artists as a result of commission4mission. Ally studied Sculpture at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee and is inclined to create installation works complimented by photography, drawing, collage and print. Enjoying creative collaborations, she has recently worked with a Sculptor/Performance Artist producing film and performance works. It was to apply her visual art skills within a Physical Theatre Company that initially brought Ally to South East London in ’98 and she has been based in Peckham and Camberwell ever since, currently working as Artist in Residence at the Bradfield Club in Peckham.

Rosheen Browning is an artist that works to visualise text with spiritual depth. This could be poetry, quotes or bible. She uses found (and hoarded!) papers and fabrics alongside traditional drawing tools such as pen or pencil. Colour and texture are very important to her and says that she "paints with paper, if you like." She has a background in Graphic Design and is a qualified Art Teacher.

The Henningham Family Press are David and Ping Henningham who have an ongoing programme of performance events and books that they publish and distribute. They collaborate with artists and writers they know to make small editions of books made to last in every sense. They also run seminars and events from their home and other places. Their books have been acquired by several important collections, including University College London, Chelsea College of Art, and the Tate.

Jonathan Bentall aims to paint the numinous. He writes that his aim is:

"a hinted sense of otherness expressed through perceptual imagery. It’s an outcome of meditative/contemplative experience rather than pre-conceived form, and the endeavour is leaning toward the creation of work which seeks to reference the interconnectedness between spiritual and physical dimensions. In terms of pictorial language I’m fascinated by what has been termed the inward and the outward aesthetic. Through the outer manipulation of paint I’m looking for an inner weight to begin to establish its presence; a weight which does not completely abandon reference to our sensual experience of space/time, yet also points elsewhere. I am interested in exploring the invisible, inner core of a painting in the tradition of the mystics."

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Thea Gilmore - Red, White and Black.

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