About
Antlers and Curious Duke are proud to present Kindred, a collaborative exhibition showcasing the most exciting artists handpicked from the stables of two young and fast-growing independent galleries.
Kindred grew out of a meeting between Curious Duke founder Eleni Duke and Antlers Director Jack Gibbon at last year's Affordable Art Fair. The two gallerists recognised a natural connection in their approach and a mutual interest in supporting artists who bring contemporary interpretations to traditional, skill-based practices.
The large-scale pencil dreamscapes of Antlers' Matthieu Leger, for instance, seem natural bedfellows of the surrealist etchings of Curious Duke's Otto D'Ambra, whilst both galleries showcase artists that focus on the natural world and a sense of the uncanny. It is the recurring theme of the curious and uncanny that acts as one of the most prominent thematic links between Antlers and Curious Duke.
A focus on interesting and unusual practices also characterises the approach of these two galleries. Antlers' Jessica Bartlett, for example, makes images of ephemeral natural objects such as leaves using a soldering iron to mark canvasses prepared in white or muted colours. Similarly, Curious Duke's Ben Gooding uses a scoring technique on aluminium sheets to create his methodical, mechanistic work with lines and geometric shapes. Both artists will exhibit their work as part of Kindred, showcasing the distinctive methods that allow them to stand out amongst their contemporaries.
Kindred will also feature work by Charles Emerson, whose finely constructed, painterly photography was lauded by Affordable Art Fair Founder Will Ramsay earlier this year and recently graced the cover of international indie-rock act Editors' latest LP. Alongside these will be Jonny Byles' retro-futuristic graphite drawings which garnered much attention from the art blogosphere when they emerged as part of Antlers' summer exhibition in August.
By using unique and unconventional exhibition spaces, discovering new and highly original talent and working closely with their artists, each gallery occupies a similar space in the art landscape of their respective cities, London and Bristol. The exhibition title, Kindred, therefore denotes the shared spirit in which these innovative galleries operate, and the common ground they find in each other's practices.
Exhibiting Artists [Subject to change]:
Antlers: Charles Emerson, Alexander Korzer Robinson, Jessica Bartlett, Helen Jones, Tim Lane, Matthieu Leger, Jonny Byles, Kate Evans, Amy Timms
Curious Duke: Kate Knight, Simone Webb, Dan Rawlings, Mark Powell, Sue Young Lee, Kareena Zerefos, Vikram Kushwah, Otto D'Ambra, Richard Goold, Beth Nicholas, Ben Gooding
Antlers was founded by Jack Gibbon in Bristol in 2010 as a nomadic gallery, producing temporary exhibitions in interesting locations around the city and working closely with its artists. In October 2013 the gallery will take up residence in its first permanent home on Christmas Steps, continuing its commitment to showcasing a burgeoning collection of artists working across the mediums who explore natural history, narrative and folklore through compelling and impeccably executed work.
Curious Duke was founded by Eleni Duke in London in 2011, setting up in a 300 year old gallery space in Whitecross Street. It represents a rising scene of surrealist and urban artists in the UK working in a variety of mediums from mixed media to sculpture.
