fleeting affiliations

About

Associations can be found with each piece yet these connections rapidly fade and transform. Line and form will fill the space adhering to the playfulness of fantasy, whilst not quite manifesting reality. The 5 artists exhibiting each share aesthetic connections between their pieces that call into question the reliability of our perception - the certainty of our reality. Despite each artist considering their own conceptual queries the fanciful aesthetic provides a chance to consider how much truth lies with our perception.

Family, memory and nostalgia have taken root and permeated throughout Freya Goodwin’s work. Despite the recognisable subject matter, she was nevertheless surprised at how the concept of nostalgia might be manipulated through a series of tactile processes, as if it had lain dormant, patiently awaiting reanimation. Reductive, pared down strategies became appropriate in the development stages, an example being drawings from memory, inspired by the absurd elements noted in Freud’s “Condensation Theory”. The drawn outcomes have insinuated themselves into the patterns within the fabric, resulting in an alternative take on traditional ornamentation. The steel pieces have become dialogues with her drawings, they support the fabric, as both are tentative and fragile. In addition, the steel can bend in a linear manner analogous to drawing.

Nick Kidd makes playful work that interacts with the space and teases the viewer. He is greatly inspired by the natural landscape, combining organic forms with garish colours and pattern. He has a spontaneous approach to making, exploring physical properties and maintaining a truth to materials. Nick is interested in questioning the relationship between different objects, using placement to create a humorous dialogue and animate stationary work.

Helena Lacy is a London based Sculptor, ceramicist and installation artist who creates abstract sculptures out of clay usually based on the female body. Helena creates abstract sculptures usually based on the female body as a form, she likes to take separate aspects of the body that are traditionally feminine such as the curves of breasts and hips, these parts are then put back together, creating an abstracted expression of the female body. The themes behind her installations are often about audience interaction and engaging the senses.

Hannah Luxton makes drawings and paintings and site-specific interventions inspired by the Romantic notion that the divine is located within raw nature. Combining the ephemeral qualities of the natural world with the authority of geometry and symmetry, she is building a visual language of motifs with her minimalist, reductive approach. Each object has a value, and when they co-exist their significance is compounded. The works have an emotive core that is elemental, yet fragile and fleeting. Luxton seeks to activate imagination, and in doing so her work abides to an elongated, slower sense of time. Paradoxically, the textures of her painted surfaces bring an immediacy to the work and reposition the paintings as objects.

Jack Sutherland’s work is currently exploring themes of muted isolation and juxtaposition. Formal notions of composition run against particular processes to create an environment that engages with illusionistic depth and the limits of optical space within a surface. Reactions to fizzing digitalisation are interpreted through specific colour choices and considered arrangement of free- 

floating forms. These acidic fizzes become subdued by attempting to address and accept materiality within the work; the use of spray paint and charcoal has incorporated a level of sabotage that struggles to undermine control and allow unpredictability to emerge. Foundations rooted in the idea of dictated drawing and visual pacing have arisen; small actions translate into large actions, dichotomous relationships appear, and the hand is a slave to previous “indecisions”. The images have moved away from associations with figurative representation, although ties still exist in the use of the brushstroke and the oscillation that exists between recognition and abstraction.

Biographies

Freya Goodwin (b. Manchester 1993) lives in Teignmouth. Falmouth University, Fine Art BA (2016). Featured in ‘grad week' on ArtFinder online (2016). London showcase Underdog Gallery, London (2016). Writing featured in Oneiroi zine, Issue one (2016). Work & writing featured in Vague Magazine, Issue one (2016).

Nick Kidd (b. Blackpool 1992) is currently based in Leeds, working as an Art Technician at a High School/Sixth Form, and as an Artist Educator at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Leeds College of Art, Fine Art BA (2014).

Helena Lacy (b. London 1991) lives and works in London. Wimbledon College of Art, Technical Arts and Special Effects for Stage and Screen. Since graduating she has gone on to exhibit work subsequently receiving gallery representation from Degree Art and Brink Gallery.

Hannah Luxton (b. London 1986) lives in London and works from her Tannery Arts studio. Slade School of Fine Art MA (2012). Kingston University, Fine Art BA (2008). Exhibited widely in London in independent solo and group exhibitions, and internationally including India and Iceland. Exhibitions include Spectrum, PS Mirabel, Manchester (2016), Schichtwechsel, APT, London (2015), All S-he Wanted to Be, Galleria M, India (2015), So Many Constellations, Mayors Parlor Gallery, London (2015), The Trouble with Painting Today, Pumphouse Gallery (2014), One of the Forgotten, Frameless Gallery, London (2013), Veiled Infinity (solo), Barbican Arts Group Trust, London (2013). Residency awards include The Fljotstunga Travel Farm, Iceland (2015) and the Trelex Residency, Switzerland (2013).

Jack Sutherland (b. Essex 1989) University for the Creatives Arts, Canterbury, Fine Art BA (2011). Exhibitions include The Bin Bag Variations, Back Room Gallery, London (2016), Out of Hours, Mall Galleries, London (2015),  Summer Salon, Luborimov/Angus Hughes, London (2015), Space//Squared, White Walls Gallery, San Francisco (2014), Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London (2013).