Christmas Group Show

About

Darren Baker Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of its Christmas show, which will include contributions from Wychwood Art. Running between the 11th November and 20rd December, this group show unites an eclectic mix of styles and media to showcase works by both established and emerging artistic talent.

Royal artist Darren Baker will be exhibiting from his limited edition series. Inspired by the detail found in the works of the Great Masters, he creates spell-binding images of the world around him that both captivate the viewer and draw us in.

London based artist Benjamin Buckley creates eye-catching original edition prints mounted on di-bond or acrylic reverse, which are then float framed.  Inspired by the Japanese woodblock prints of artists such Hokusai, Buckley’s works often concentrate on the theme of water, one of the five essential elements for life in Japanese philosophy. He adds a modern twist with the insertion of fast food and take-away joints, which evoke the sense of a collision between the new and the old, and suggest Consumerism as a new fundamental element in modern life.

Yorkshire born painter Gemma Nelson creates works that delve into a mystical, fairy-tale like world. Her rich palette of psychedelic colours and obsessive patterns address themes such as female sexuality and the organic growth of webbing and nets.  Reminiscent of Kaleidoscope images, these paintings are jewels of detail to which the viewer can continually return assured in the fact that each viewing  will reveal an intriguing new perspective.  The works are created using Indian inks and mixed media on what are often sizable canvases, which serves to juxtapose the intricate minuteness of the patterning.

Abby Hope Skinner is an emerging talent, whose artistic career is the subject of much acclaim. At twenty years old she has already created an impressive body of work in a range of media from ink to digital. The works demonstrate a playful fascination with the styles and compositions of other artists, which she incorporates with a personal twist, often by focusing on self-portraiture. The subject of fairy-tales is another recurring theme although Skinner’s approach is more brothers Grimm than Disney.

Claire Johnson draws upon her experiences whilst travelling to create works inspired by the natural beauty of nature.  Working in mixed media, she often incorporates recycled materials in order to encapsulate the idea of alchemy, whereby something valueless is transformed into a thing of beauty. Although her inspiration is the real world, her paintings encapsulate an idea of the ethereal, drawing out the hidden beauty that so often goes unobserved. A sense of serene solitude pervades the works and inspires tranquil reflection in a world that so often seems to lacks these qualities in daily life.

Inspired by her academic studies in Fashion and Textiles, Michelle Fielding’s sculptures and paintings address a range of social issues through recycled media. With a focus on detail and pattern, the works are aesthetically pleasing. They often incorporate an array of jewel-like colours, which serves as a contrast to the solemnity of the themes of ‘War, Remembrance, death, memory, home, disorders, issues of the body and identity in society’.

Hyper-realist painter Chris Morgan creates contemporary scenes with the attention to detail of fine art portraiture. His works elevate the ordinary to the realms of extraordinary, turning everyday objects into ‘something of high impact’. Having received no formal training Morgan is completely self-taught, which is an astounding fact given the realism of his subjects. He works in oil paint, as it provides a greater freedom and the ability to reproduce colour more precisely.  

Born in Luanshya, Zambia in 1975, Nick Jeffrey has created original art forms born out of a fascination with the natural world. Working with butterflies, insects, flowers and fish, Nick celebrates the colours, textures and patterns found in the fleeting brilliance of nature. Increasingly well-known for his spectacular butterfly artworks, Nick combines raw and modern materials such as Perspex, resin and mirrors with real butterflies from the sustainable farming industry, helping to protect the species with the conservation of their habitats. Using light, reflections and shadows to replicate movement, Nick has pioneered and adapted new techniques to capture the transient beauty of the species in life and art. Most recently Nick has also taken inspiration from ancient techniques such as 15th century fresco painting and traditional Japanese art forms, including Shinto shrine screen paintings and gyotaku fish prints, combining art with natural science and entomology.

Olivier Marc Thomas Leger creates fantastic creatures and animals fabricated into worlds that contain their own ecosystems and habitats. Leger likes to think of the works as living planets, perhaps inhabiting other worlds or existing as a single life sustaining entity moving through space. He aims to make drawings of such intense details that they give the impression of an unlimited degree of visual exploration and discovery.

Juliana Manara works with photographs as her main tool using different cameras from small format to large format (4x5), mixing between digital and analogue. Manara creates scenarios in the studio or finds landscapes with mysterious informations or manipulates the spaces.   The creative process comes after it has been printed as a “sketch print” . 

Darren Baker Gallery in collaboration with Wychwood Art invites you to join us on the 18th November for the opening of this exciting exhibition that encapsulates a diverse synthesis of the contemporary art world.