STATE OF FLUX

About

“Architecture is the simplest means of articulating time and space, of modulating reality, of engendering dreams” - Ivan Chtcheglov

Working from observation on the streets day after day, George Colley stands witness to the changing city, recording both the transient life of the pavement and the larger architectural alterations that occur over longer spans of time. Hurried street traffic flashes past, leaving traces, broken outlines and vague forms which populate and animate the space. Fleeting moments of beauty are suggested by glorious light and atmospheric perspective created with watercolour pencil; at times delicate washes complement line drawings, in other pieces the page is worked at, scrubbed and rained-on and redrawn, resulting in an altered page as physical record of experience.  New buildings gradually thrust upward attended by flitting cranes, marketplaces spring up in a bloom of striped canopies and steel framework, rows of brick buildings curve and receive the current of people and vehicles which flow through the images. All is enlivened by fluid markmaking and the ability to create an atmospheric quality of light which is faithful to the observed moment yet condensed and made resonant with feeling. 

George Colley studied Fine Art Painting at the University of Brighton before attending The Drawing Year 2012-13 at The Royal Drawing School and was awarded a residency at Dumfries House in Ayreshire at the end of 2014.

Mercer Chance gallery is open at weekends 11am-6pm or by appointment 07715816779