Expression Martini

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Press Release

A Collaborative exhibition at Hoxton Arches showcasing new works of varied mediums by eight local emerging artists - Vikki Chin, Louise McQuillan, Claudia Minchella, Lewis Mitchell, Zachariah Riley, Alexandra Sakharova, Mitchell Winthorpe and Evelina Zakharov. Expression Martini boasts works including Painting, Sculpture, Performance, Film, Photography, Installation and Sound. This will be the first ever collaboration with this selection of artists and it is already screaming the beginnings of new ideas and attitudes in contemporary art. The show will open in the evening of the 28th November 2016 18:00 until 21:00 and will only be open the following day meaning this is a whirlwind one night, one day event at Hoxton Arches Gallery.

Expression Martini is a metaphor of mixture and experimentation, where the variety of different mediums blur the boundaries of conventional ideas of material. In ‘Feel Free to Place your Glass on the Table’, on display, Vikki Chin forces the viewer to question the boundaries between painting, sculpture and installation, allowing the piece to be about the experience rather than the aesthetic by inventing unrealistic angular spaces. Mitchell Winthorpe’s performance-activated sculptures and videos explore the ethereal nature of performance and the decontextualizing of its ‘aftermath’ through documentation and the absurdity of re-enactment. In ‘Male Form with Witches Hat & Cone’ which will be carried out in 30 minute performances on the hour at Expression Martini, Winthorpe challenges the relationship between performance, sculpture and documentation while demonstrating a light-hearted and humorous touch which runs through all the works in the show.

Hoxton Arches Gallery transforms into a playful and honest group show in which all eight artists explore their contemporary practice through instinct and natural feeling. In today’s modern world we are constantly being summoned to believe that we must earn the reward of understanding conceptual art today, forgetting the main purpose of art in doing so. Expression Martini invites you to enjoy the experience of a series of relationships between work of thought out compulsion and fun and welcomes visitors to be uplifted and feel embraced by the show rather than intimidated. Expression Martini does not answer questions but reveals and responds to today’s technological and immediate generation in which people demand instantaneous answers and attention in seconds.

Even though this is the first exhibition with this selection of eight artists, British-Chinese artist Vikki Chin, British-Italian artist Claudia Minchella and Mitchell Winthorpe have exhibited together in 2013 in a collaborative Pop-up show at the Stephenson Works in 2013, in their home town in Newcastle upon Tyne before moving the London. Since 2013, Vikki Chin, Claudia Minchella and Mitchell Winthorpe have not shown together. To reunite along with five other artists including London based Russian filmmaker Evelina Zakharov, and Finnish painter, Alexandra Sakharova, the works from this international collective is going to bounce contemporary ideas like never before.