Distilled: sheOne, OTwo, Will Barras, Phil Ashcroft

About

Thames-Side Studios is delighted to present Distilled, a project bringing together four artists with shared interests, common drivers, and a collective past.

sheOne (James Choules) is a multi-media artist working across various platforms, from large-scale murals and gallery exhibitions to hand-made fashion items. His first artistic interventions were graffiti - he was a first-generation British graffiti artist in 1984 - and today he is recognised internationally for his abstract language. For this exhibition, sheOne has produced a series of new large-scale paintings on raw and unstretched canvas. He is a founding member of RockgroupTM, and his studio practice BLACKATELIER is based in Barcelona.

OTwo’s (James Carey) first paintings were large-scale murals and site-specific paintings illegally spray-painted at various locations, but he has since developed a more sophisticated process which brings together abstracted colour fields and gestural mark-making with traditional typography, appropriated slogans, and what he calls, corrupted language. "It’s always been difficult to step beyond the old habits acquired writing graffiti - concealing one’s identity while deliberately, actively pursuing notoriety. To be known anonymously." He is a founding member of RockgroupTM.

Will Barras is a painter, illustrator and animation director. One of many young artists who emerged from Bristol's underground art scene in the late 1990s, he has travelled extensively to make paintings worldwide, and has developed a fast, fluid and playful practice; he is a visionary freestyler and storyteller unafraid of risk. For Distilled Will is showing large-format figurative watercolour paintings, and an installation of smaller work.

Painter and graphic artist Phil Ashcroft is based at Thames-Side Studios. His gestural, emotive paintings combine a flattened out 1980s style art deco and graffiti influences, with references to American abstraction which often threaten to overwhelm the upper sections of his canvases. Distilled will include a previously unseen large-scale work alongside brand new work.