The Labyrinth Inside | Angela Smith & Katrine Roberts

About

Using strong painterly techniques and bold colours to draw in the viewer, Angela and Katrine express notions of the body as well as the inner-psyche, producing a textured and animated surface on their paintings. The works could be interpreted as having aspects of internal turmoil, coiled like a labyrinth, waiting to be explored.  With ageless forms and complex, swirling pathways this exhibition will take viewers on a journey through the Labyrinth, inviting playful interaction, as well as soulful contemplation.

‘The tangled web of internal dilemmas and external bravado is central to my latest paintings in The Labyrinth Inside.The Women featured are silently contemplating personal quandaries, concerned with concealing innermost thoughts. In contrast, the Creatures are happy to wear their heart on their sleeve, strong and confident, proud to expose The Labyrinth Inside.’ Angela Smith

Angela Smith completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Brighton, graduating in 2008 with a BA(Hons) in Fine Art Painting. In 2014 she was shortlisted for The Tribe Prize, and the IR11 Painting Prize, Edinburgh. In 2012 she was shortlisted for stage 2 of the prestigious John Moores Painting Prize. Her work has a strong focus on colour and surface texture, using gloss and enamel to create a shiny intriguing tactile finish.

“Awkward lines and colours coalesce creating quivering organic forms. Between the edges of these forms a tension builds, there is a feeling of something bubbling underneath, something that is about to erupt and explode. Hallucinogenic forms are eccentric and loud, far from passive they express themselves through colour and movement writhing around inside the frame of the boards, feeling constricted by the physical boundaries given to them. The sickly sweet a veneer that is quickly shattered as the paintings squirm and vie to assert their identities.” Katrine Roberts

Katrine Roberts recent graduate from the Royal College of Art with her Masters in Fine Art Painting, was also awarded a first class degree in painting from City and Guilds of London Art School, 2011. This year she was shortlisted as one of 10 artists for the Griffin Art Prize, London. She has also been shortlisted for the Bloomberg New Contemporaries (2014) and the Catlin Art Prize (2012). Her practice stems across painting, installation and sculpture, and strongly engages abstract shapes, bold colours and pattern, as well as flowing and interlocking lines to suggest bodily fluidity.