KIND OF BLUE – 20+ BRITISH ARTISTS
Richard Caldicott, Stephen Chambers RA, Cedric Christie, Carina Ciscato, Eileen Cooper RA, Rosie Emerson, Derya Erdem, Nicole Farhi, Tom Hammick, Adrian Heath, Roger Hilton, Jeremy Houghton, Carol Robertson, Willow Legge, Kate Montgomery, Gina Parr, Keith Purser, Ceri Richards, Karin Schosser, Andy Waite, John Wells.
An exhibition to celebrate coming to the end of the year, involving many of our artists, working in different disciplines, but with a common theme; blue. Not necessarily the blue made famous in the 1960s by Yves Kline or the Lapis Lasuli of the Renaissance, but all shades and variations. Thus inspired, we are delighted to bring you the work of 20 British artists and the common cohesive factor is a 'kind of blue' after the 1959 Jazz Album by Miles Davis. One of Britain’s greatest painters, Roger Hilton had an extraordinary command of the colour blue, we are exceptionally lucky to be able to show two examples in this exhibition.
Blue is the colour of the sky and sea. It is often associated with depth and stability. It is said to be beneficial to the mind and body. It symbolises truth, loyalty and in so doing produces a calming effect on us. In fact, research indicates that it is our favourite primary colour.
The work of these artists is as varied as the price their work commands- in other words something for everyone. An investment piece or something to put in the Christmas stocking to surprise a loved one!
One of the artists we are privileged to bring to you is Nicole Farhi - yes, the same highly successful fashion designer Nicole Farhi! After years of teaching from the great Eduardo Paolozzi, Nicole decided to finally put down her pen and take up the knife full time. She is a sculptor and has been making portraits in bronze and other materials for many years.
Artists shown have either worked for us in the past or will be in the coming months. Some have made work especially for this exhibition, such as Kate Montgomery, whose exquisite domestic scenes always tease us with a subtle deeper meaning than the first impression belies. Carina Ciscato, a ceramicist born in Brazil now working in London, makes delicate sophisticated porcelain pieces. Sculpture portraits in bronze, marble, stone and plaster from Nicole Farhi, Willow Legge and Kristina Furniss will doubtless impress.
Painters Derya Erdem, born in Istanbul and now living in Brighton, paints oils with free-flowing thought without conscious censorship. Gina Parr explores the line between abstraction and figurative recognition and between chance and control. Jeremy Houghton paints birds in flight, working as always in the negative, shaping the spaces between things rather than the things themselves. Carol Robertson creates beautiful reductive abstract oils - an informal relationship with landscape architecture, nature, and the environment. Rosie Emerson who makes hauntingly seductive cyanotypes shows her new work. Cedric Christie, a conceptual artist whose work is a critical appraisal of colour and modernism as well as the exploration of the journey to form and meaning. Richard Caldicott whose photograms are created by aligning the photographic negative with the positive prints are hugely collectable - ask Elton John!
Following a hugely successful solo show at Flowers Gallery we are delighted to be showing Tom Hammick for the first time with a range of astonishing woodcuts. Keith Purser also shows for the first time, whose work has a lightness of touch through which he expresses the essence of time, sea and weather. We are delighted to welcome back to the gallery our two Royal Academicians, Stephen Chambers and Eileen Cooper, Eileen has kindly made a new drawing specially for this show.