Exhibition
Still Looking, a group show curated by Julie Caves
22 Sep 2022 – 2 Oct 2022
Regular hours
- Thursday
- 10:00 – 16:00
- Friday
- 10:00 – 16:00
- Saturday
- 10:00 – 16:00
Free admission
Address
- 2 Ethelbert Terrace
- Margate
England - CT9 1RX
- United Kingdom
Travel Information
- Thanet Loop
- Margate
Still Looking- Kate Bland, Claudia Carr, Julie Caves, Daniel Shadbolt, and Lisa Takahashi
The Lido Stores are pleased to present Still Looking, a group exhibition of paintings curated by Margate-based artist Julie Caves.
About
Still Looking is a group exhibition of five painters whose work focuses on still life. The artists each approach still life from different angles, some preferring set-ups and others the accidental discovery of a subject that interests them.
In some cases, the still life is a microcosm, containing within itself a whole world. In others, it is a side glance of the quiet and every day which becomes cameoed by the artist.
The content of a still life set-up can be the subject, it can be a metaphor or it can be a prop for an exploration of colour, light, form or composition. Or it can be a combination of all of these things.
What unites all of these is the time taken to look. In an age where we are bombarded with imagery to an unprecedented degree, looking and understanding have become disjointed. Looking is discursive, analytical, and explorative. Prolonged observation opens up meaning and layers of understanding. In truly seeing a subject, we should also know something about it.
Kate Bland’s paintings have a sense of domesticity to them, where the routine and everyday is explored through colour and stylised form. Bowls of fruit, rubber gloves, and house plants combine in compositions with reduced perspective, giving each equal value. Simplicity and vibrancy speak of the happy everyday quality of home life.
Conversely, Claudia Carr constructs compositions from found objects and the detritus of studio life. Her still lives border on landscapes as the objects themselves become signposts indicating the space between them.
While Carr’s preoccupation can be said to be with space, Julie Cave’s is more to do with light. Light in its mutability changes what we see and how we think about a subject; the ‘enchantment’ of moonlight and the ‘harsh light of day’.
While Julie’s subject matter is often uncertain that Daniel Shadbolt and Lisa Takahashi are often classical, featuring plants and flower arrangements. Both Daniel and Lisa’s paintings are a dance of mark making and colour. The use of the word ‘still’, in describing them as still life is somewhat misleading. The human eye in observing is constantly moving, and in both Daniel and Lisa’s paintings this sense of movement is transferred onto the subject.