Quid Pro Quo

About

R. Gallego and Wye first met while studying the Printmaking MA at Camberwell College of Art in 2010; their individual art practices both moving beyond print to encompass sculptural and performative elements. Sharing an interest in mysticism and spirituality, the body as site and a light-hearted approach to the metaphysical, they have frequently exhibited together over the past 9 years. 

The curation of this show is inspired by the performance that titles it, Quid pro Quo, 'a favour or advantage granted in return for something', an exchange, a trade-off. The works selected respond in subtle ways to each other, through the artists' joint interests in amalgamating multiple cultural references, as well as their mutual exploration of materials and techniques that relate and depart from printmaking.

https://juliargallego.com/

Julia R. Gallego is a Spanish artist and printmaker based in London. Her practice revolves around the body looking at sex, gender, sexuality and reproduction from a gynocentric point of view. She has embarked on a largely subjective journey of tracing back the historical and cultural meanings ascribed to the female body in Western culture. Religious and medical references have become coagulated into a personal artistic universe centred on a primordial 'opening' of the body, a wound-vagina charged with symbolic meaning. Julia’s recent practice is influenced by Shunga (Japanese erotic prints) and psychoanalysis; immersing and diluting the body within a fantastical natural landscape full of ambiguity, exuberance, playfulness and a touch of eroticism.  
 

https://www.paulwye.co.uk/

Paul Wye is a sculptor and artist educator based in London. His practice connects with the creation of artefacts as both two and three-dimensional objects. He engages with idols, votives and talismans, being drawn to these object’s esoteric psychometry. By taking influence from an assortment of anachronistic and disparate visual cues, ranging from folk and outsider art to character design, each of his sculptural artefacts becomes something that shrugs off its initial reading and demands a second take. 
Paul’s approach employs diverse techniques and processes - using textiles, ceramics and ready-mades; working with printmaking as both a developmental tool for sculptural pieces and as an outcome in its own right. More recently his work has also begun to engage with the development of characters behind this imagined culture through body art, costume and photography.