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Graft
Verdict: Lively
Art Exhibition - ES40 Collective - Free
London - La Viande Gallery - 25-30 Nov 05 - 12:00 noon - 18:00 daily
INDEX: Artists of ES40 Collective exhibiting in GRAFT: (alpha order): Derek Atherton - Licia Bronzin - Patrick Coleman - Peter Higgins - Philip Huntley - Britta Jager - Mariko Kondo - Rosa Sepulveda - Credits.
The exhibition takes place on the ground floor and basement of the gallery. Artists are listed roughly in the order of walking around the space - starting from the front door and finishing at the rear of the basement. Sizes (width/height, in cm) and quantities of works are approximate, in the absence of a gallery list.
Ground Floor
DEREK ATHERTON. 6 exquisitely precise drawings of African wildlife - including Mackinder's Eagle Owl, Rhinosceros, Hadada Ibis - and one small landscape: Mount Kenya And Crowned Crane. Shaded in delicate, very soft pastel shades, often greens and yellows. There's a strong illustrative quality.
BRITTA JAGER. Work includes projector beaming across street (not working during this review), and one wall-mounted print titled vonpuppenkurzenleinenundgrossenabneigungen. It is circular (120cm diameter), a soft-focus semi-representational picture of a woman offering a book that's inscribed 'art is...'. It's sensual, delicate and evocative with a hint of mystique.
LICIA BRONZIN. 6 large wall hangings, 2 are approx 130 x 110, 4 approx 100 x 250. Format is a backing of sacking supported on a bamboo rod and weighted at the bottom with small suspended stones. Painted prints are stitched to the backing with wool. Some are covered with a coarse gauze, and collage materials such as felt lettering are applied. Subject matter includes architectural, portrait and figurative material, and a blending and contrast of these to form individual statements. There's a punchy, earthy and passionate feel to each of the works.
ROSA SEPULVEDA. 5 stunning painted canvases that alone would make visiting the exhibition worthwhile - from an artist of great originality and perception. Sizes vary from approx 80 x 80 to 110 x 110. Colours are strong primaries and bright pastels. There are studies of women and men, individually, and in one case together - often just their faces surrounded by leaves. A naked woman and man stare out, obviously arguing - there's a remarkable evocation of their thoughts, as clear as being told. A woman in a white wrap puts her feet in bright blue water in a field, lost in contemplation. The people are caught in introspection - contemplative, passionate. It's as if their emotions and thoughts - their moods - are being painted. Wonderful, astonishing.
Basement
MARIKO KONDO. Half-reliefs in white, mainly sensual interpretations of the female face and body. There are 10 approx A4 glass-framed works and 2 larger reliefs ('Angel' and 'The Leg'). Some are decorated with gold detail. There's a feeling of softness to the touch in the work, and an elegant capturing of gesture and facial expression.
PETER HIGGINS. 6 large wall-hangings, one of which is on the ground floor. Sizes vary - approx 150 x 200. Colours include bold green, green and red, red, dark green and black, royal blue and red. There's complex interlocking and distorted 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional geometry. Some of the works blend into or incorporate human features. Some are neutral, several suggest forbidding labyrinths and masks, with a brooding, disturbing, sinister quality.
PHILIP HUNTLEY. A single large photograph (Untitled) approx 150 x 120. A bleak landscape of gravel and sand. There's a subtly unpleasant quality and an unsettling feeling evoked of desolation and some despair.
PATRICK COLEMAN. A diverse and eclectic installation in 3 parts bright with active imagination. There's a prose poem in red type displayed in 6 black-framed wall-mounted A4 cases titled 'Cafétina'. A structure of 500 or so red Dunhill International 20-pack cigarette packets is made to form a broken wall enclosing children's toys. There are sketches, photos and tracings in vivid primary colours and soft tones. They explore and develop religious iconography and gay sexual rituals. By the look of it there are a lot of these (some quite enterprising). If it can be sucked, fucked, or prayed to, it's probably here.
CREDITS: Artists of ES40 Collective exhibiting in GRAFT: (alpha order): Derek Atherton. Licia Bronzin. Patrick Coleman. Peter Higgins. Philip Huntley. Britta Jager. Mariko Kondo. Rosa Sepulveda. (Organisers – alpha order): Pavlina Sheikh, Robert Spread.
END
John Park
reviewed Thursday 24 November 05 / La Viande
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2010
