James Rigler and Nao Matsunaga, 18 & over

About

Marsden Woo’s programme of solo and joint exhibitions at our new Belgravia premises starts in September with a captivating show by gallery artists Nao Matsunaga and James Rigler. They are contemporaries and friends and have been showing work together since meeting at university. This joint display acts as a conversation between both makers, demonstrating their differing, yet intuitive connection with their respective materials. Both Matsunaga and Rigler have taken this opportunity to practice in a more improvisational manner and incorporate new elements into their new work. Nao control-drips homemade paints onto a series of wooden pieces, adjusting the fluidity of the paint, guiding and channelling marks that at times mimic ceramic glaze. James strips back his customary fully-formed objects to create skeletal frameworks while introducing components such as gold-leaf and perspex - his ceramic sculptures play with our perceptions of industrial surfaces and structures. Personal exploration of their environs and human concerns is further teased out in this forthcoming show, James’ interest in language, sign and symbols and Nao’s fascination with gravity and primal elements. These themes weave throughout the exhibition in a visual expression of the two artists’ symbiotic relationship.