About
During Chris Burdens's seminal work "Shoot" in 1971 a friend was asked to shoot him in the arm from 15 feet away with a 22 rifle. The shot was actually meant to graze his arm, but his friend may not have been such a great friend as he missed slightly and the bullet penetrated the flesh. Still, he was luckier than William Burrough's wife Joan, who was accidentally shot in the head during a drunken game of William Tell in Mexico City in 1951.
As in Peter Sellers second Pink Panther film "A shot in the Dark " 1964, there is tragedy in the comedy, because all the best comedy is founded on tragedy and all the best tragedy is littered with comic moments.
A shot in the arm may make one think of injections and the many innoculations we receive as children and adults, or conversely Heroin abuse and self inflicted pain.
A shot in the arm, may be a little painful, but it isn't half as bad as a shot in the arse, or for that matter as brutal as a shot in the head. There is even a hint of gentility at only being shot in the arm with wounds you can show off to your friends, rolling down your sleeve in a bar to offer them a peek at.
These young artists are doing just that, offering us a glimpse at their work which explores observance and reality and often mixing them up to be indistinguishable.
Hannah Wooll's penetrating observances of accepted notions of beauty and deep seated desires, Brian Reed's anthropological collection of discarded lives and Jonathan Gent's insights of a life and lives lived in transit.
JONATHAN GENT
Born in 1976 Jonathan Gent studied at Cheshire and Edinburgh School's of Art respectively, Gent moved to Glasgow then Aberdeenshire to forge his practice. Since that time he has been an artist in transit, constantly moving between The USA, Latin America, Europe, The Milddle East and England. He has had solo shows at XVA Gallery Dubai 2008, GLU Gallery Los Angeles 2004 and 2005 and Hotel London 2004. Jonathan Gent will be having a solo show at Carter presents in 2009.
Gent's paintings and drawings explore a perceptive and wry observation on human complexity. Humorous, wry, and acutely tuned his work is punchy and fast. Sometimes strikingly minimal, they can often be deceptively simple. Gent's obsession is with the line and the expansion of ideas through its limitless possibilities. His observations on close examination feel painfully insightful and true to life. They are visual poems keenly observed teetering on the brink of pathos and comedy. Jonathan Gent has work in numerous private and public collections around the world.
BRIAN REED
Brian Reed's found photos represent an ongoing obsession with the discarded and wasted. Portraiture and anthropology. Collected over many years from litter bins around stations and shopping centres, the anonymity and personal histories become prevalent. Found fragments of torn photographs are re photographed and reconstructed, blown up including the dirt and the tears. and re-presented. The photographs singled out to create new meanings becomes the image and object in its own right.
Brian Reed has exhibited extensively in the UK and Europe, and he haswork in the collections of the Nicholas Logsdail [Lisson Gallery], University of the Arts London as well as various private collection.
HANNAH WOOLL
Hannah Wooll was born in 1977 in Norfolk, England. In 2000 she graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University with a 1st Class BA (hons) Degree in Fine Art, Painting. Wooll then went on to study at the Royal Academy Schools, London, graduating in 2003, receiving the May Cristea Award for Fine Art.
Since graduating Hannah Wooll has been living and working in London, Newcastle, and East Anglia, England, and has shown both nationally and internationally."Radical Art", Jerwood Space, London, 2005; "New London Kicks", Wooster Projects, New York, 2005; "Jerusalem", Dean Clough, Halifax, 2006; "I'll be Your Mirror", Primo Alonso, London, 2007; "Fastest with the Mostest", Carter and Gallagher, London, 2007; and "The Future Can Wait" Atlantis Gallery, London 2007.
