This exhibition is receptive towards post-modern Art. Through mining Artists from various sources, I found many that use appropriation, quotation and pastiche of vernacular cultures such as Philosophy. The borrowing in many of the Art works on show, have led to parodies of particular subjects matters and important Artists. Each of the selected Artists has their own statements here which describe the source pools. The exhibition is showing how parodying in general can lift an Artist head above water in the context of maturity. All Artists on show have been personally selected by Lloyd Gill, for there deep understanding of post – modern techniques and application through traditional and non – tradition mediums.
Katie Elder recently graduated at Oxford Brookes University in Fine Art with a BA hons. Katie studied at Byam School of Art for a foundation diploma after successfully completing A’ levels at Channing School – London. Katie 'inspiration often comes from what other artists are doing. Antony Micallef, for example, for his technique and the way he controls the charcoal. His work has led Katie to embark on her third year project while on her degree. Looking at Greek myths, in particular the creation and Pegasus stories. I have spent time collecting imagery to create my own mythical creatures, to put across the dramatic, violent, excruciating pain of birth (‘Creation’, fig. 1). These works also show that however intelligent and sophisticated the human race is, birth unites all female mammals in this animalistic, uncontrollable, ferocious act. The artists who, over the years, have inspired me to pursue a career as an artist are Edward Hopper, Lucian Freud and Eric Fischl. I admire their work for their varied styles, context, composition and wide range of colours. All three are especially united for me because they so often tackle the challenge of the human figure.’
Zoë Crosse recently graduated with a B.A. Fine Art First Class Honours Degree in Painting., at the London Metropolitan University 2008. Zoë has a previous degree in B.ED. Hons. Degree. Education. Middlesex University 1987, which enabled her to do teaching full time. It has been written that Post modern parodies occur when elements of one work are lifted and reused, though not necessarily ridiculed. For a Post-Modern artist such as Zoë Crosse, parody is a means of connecting with a past ousted by enlightenment and mediated by modernity; of course the differences inspired by modernity have to be registered. Parody is inherent in Zoë’s process on a very physical level, as Zoë experiment’s with the techniques of illusion used by the old masters, though Zoë may juxtapose the art of illusion with reference to the process and to the idea of surface. Thus far, all her work has evolved from and been driven by an intrigue with identity. Zoë has studied fragments of philosophy, researching the ideas of self and of reality. A myriad of philosophical ideas now inspire and infect my work, not only by providing subject matter, but also by providing a means of understanding and creating an effective process. Though Zoë admits to being a fledgling in the area of philosophy I have parodied the basics of my possibly basic understanding of philosophers such as Foucault, Nietzsche, Baudrillard, Derrida and Sartre, in my painting process. Her projects produce sets of works which have a unity, but projects differ from each other in style, form and content. She responds to each project with different techniques and aims, working at times with only a few basic under painting colours, then at other times using a far more Baroque or painterly approach. More than anyone or anything, Zoë feel’s that listening to Francis Bacon speak about his process helped me overcome her fear of her own process. Zoë would have to say, at this point in time, that if I could link my work in any way, to notions of parody then would have to be in identifying with a statement he made and making it into a philosophy which she parody daily.
Sue Mclachlan graduated with a BA Hons degree and MA in Fine Art at Winchester University. In 2008. Her MA Fine Art Project is titled ‘Knowing, Not Knowing’ and explores the idea of an internal space. Internal spaces, that we can’t see and displacement from the difficulties of gaining knowledge through sound. The concept of Displacement is about an embodied experience, Sue wanted to encompass experiences of being taken somewhere else by not being able to see what can be heard, hearing something you don’t understand, uncertainty, frustration and not knowing. Influences include the film ‘Innocence’ by Lucile Hadzihalilovic with her strange and arresting visual experience of displacement. Sue has used grids to prevent access, negate visuals and their heavy, weighty appearance gives a feeling of an internal and blocked experience. Sue has misplaced these materials to give a visual displacement. The drawing on the floor are her interpretation of sound, its inner starting point to its blockage and the need to penetrate as does sound arrest me constantly and can do for the blind also. The sounds displace by confusing and make us aware of an internal space. Both sound and visual experiences are completely out of character within a white walled space. This improvisation of placing and replacing their position is like a Jazz performance, not knowing what the result will be. The not knowing and the unexpected moments of experience have always been part of the work. This scary but exciting prospect is the concept and the practice. As an artist Sue has really enjoyed using her experiences and that of those Sue has been interested in through sound in response to the architecture of a space.
Angharad Redman received a degree in Fine Art (specialising in Print Making) at Cardiff School of Art and Design, University of Wales Institute Cardiff, 2008. She will be studying for a Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, Byam Shaw School of Art, London, from 2008-2009. Recent exhibitions have included ‘New Wave Exhibition’, Bute Space Gallery, Cardiff Bay; and ‘Degree Show 2008’, Howard Gardens, Cardiff School of Art and Design, both 2008. Her work is intended to reflect “my ‘hands on’ creative nature and my equal loves of both art and music. The work depicts her own hands whilst playing the violin. She wanted to show her hands in a range of positions throughout the course of a piece of music, in this instance the piece of her choice was Vaughan Williams ‘The Lark Ascending’. Angharad wanted the work to really reflect the concentration and focus involved in playing the violin. Finding that the level of concentration involved in producing these drawings is, She believes equal to that when playing my violin. She hopes the work reflects the level of studied concentration involved in these two very different art forms; both of which are so dear to Angharad.
Rosie Lesso completed her MA in Contemporary Art Theory at Edinburgh College of Art in 2004 and received a BA (hons) Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art in 2002. Rosie works as a free lance writer for important Art journal such as AN magazine and Art monthly. Rosie Lesso has exhibited extensively through out Scotland and London. Her work is collected by important institutions in Edinburgh and She has won and been Short listed for numerous awards including The Paisley Drawing Prize, Paisley Museums and Galleries, Glasgow in 2007. New Writing Scotland Prize, The Collective Gallery, Edinburgh 2005Andrew Grant Drawing Prize, Edinburgh College of Art 2001. Negotiating and hybridizing a vast array of imagery is central to my work. These drawings are created via an evolving and layering process which brings together a range of references from art history books, newspaper images and found objects to create disorderly open ended images. They are partially inspired by the complex dynamism of Jacopo Bassano’s 16th century figure compositions and their rich and varied colour schemes. They also look towards Hieronymus Bosch’s surreal Renaissance panel paintings and his chiaroscuro effects to suggest form, life and narrative. Along with these influences Rosie is inspired by more accessible, illustrative styles from botanical drawings to newspaper illustrations and the choice to use pen and ink reflects this interest in readily available visual imagery and advertising culture. They also combine fragments from domestic or studio objects, such as old canvases, furniture and kitchen utensils. The encyclopedic sources are united to create surreal landscapes which suggest an event or happening is taking place across the minimal white ground, however the direct meaning is abstracted to create ambiguity, leaving piled up or fragmented forms suggesting movement and division.
Samantha Willoughby has recently graduated with a Painting, Fine Art Ba(Hons) from the University of Wales Institute Cardiff in 2002. Before going to Cardiff, Samantha succeeded in gaining her Foundation Art and Design National Diploma from the University College Falmouth. My passion for painting really began when I was shown paintings from the masters such as Monet and Cézanne whilst still in primary school. Then when I moved to secondary school I was introduced to my favourite painting of all, “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Vermeer. To Samantha, this was art. This was something that She wanted to aspire to achieve in her own art work. The detail, the smoothness of her face and the concentration of light on the pearl and other points of the painting, all fascinated Samantha. Once She started her degree She went to Amsterdam and from there She went to see the actual painting itself. Samantha felt so lucky to stand in front of the Vermeer painting and look at the work properly for the first time. Throughout all of her art work, Vermeer’s painting has been constantly in the back of my head, and it wasn’t until my final year that She found a way of bringing out this wonderful reference and using it to its potential. For my final show I wanted to combine my love for big cats with the human form. It was an experiment to say the least, but it also brought about some interesting questions about who we are as humans. For the smaller paintings, Samantha concentrated on just the head, making tight little brush marks that blended the colours together almost seamlessly. Blacking out the background and putting in one focal light source, just as Vermeer had done in his pieces all those centuries ago, made the pieces powerful and thought provoking.
Chris King graduated at Bath Spa University College Located in Bath. Studied Fine Art Sculpture from 1999 – 2001, Studied Fine Art Painting and Photography 2001 – 2003. BA (Hons) Fine Art Chris King studied at Weston Super-Mare College. Located in Weston Super-Mare Hans Price Art and Science Studied 1 Year Fine Art Foundation from 1998 – 1999. Contemporary Art 2007 August 24th - September 21st The Lloyd Gill Gallery, Weston - Super - Mare. One of Chris’s main influences was the artist Gary Hume. Chris found it interesting the way that he radically simplified the components and form of an image down to their bare essentials. Chris found the particular work of Humes, 'Kate' from 1996, and 'Water Painting' from 1999 very absorbing. As part of the curation of this exhibition, Lloyd asked Chris to recall a few quotations relating to his work.
"Simplicity is not an objective in art, but one achieves simplicity despite one's self by entering into the real sense of things. " CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI
"All you get from me is surface." GARY HUME
The artwork ‘Alley’, Chris Kings own work, was made from an image from a fashion magazine in a broadsheet newspaper. Then Chris scanned it into the computer and played around with the image, hacking away the unessential detail in the photo. So his paintings are almost always planned meticulously on computer before he even get to the painting process itself. Chris has in the last 12 months become very inspired by the new wave of Japanese artists. The collective term is 'J ART', which is an abbreviation of Japanese Pop Art. Chris’s favourite artists are the Tokyo based Takashi Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara.
James Telford studied for a Foundation University of Hertfordshire and completed in 2004 and gained a Distinction. James studied for a BA Hons/ Fine Art at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff and gained a 1st class hons completed in 2008 The Spanish school of painters, in particular Joan Miro, have always held a fascination for James in the development of my art. However, it was during his third year of study at Cardiff University of Wales Institute Cardiff that Joan Miro became a major influence in the shaping and direction of his Art. In developing his own style Miro claimed that his inner landscape was just as important as the “real” world, and that at times he neglected physical surroundings, instead depending on his inner reality, spirit and imagination. This approach fascinates James, how he reflects his world with his iconic style, through painting that becomes a mythic expression. This value was very important to Miro and he rejected the notion that his work merely represented pure “abstraction”. James was lucky enough to win a department prize that allowed me to visit Barcelona in January 2008 and once again enjoy the outstanding works of this great artist. It is the playful use of line and form and the way shapes take on a lyrical role within his compositions, and the fact that he never appears to lose his humour in presenting the absurd that has drawn James to Miro’s work. In his own work James has tried to include the use of invention and construction from the most simplistic forms and shapes. In particular, he tries to play with just pure forms floating in a space. Having no specific grounding, these objects are in a playground of James imagination. Within this context, Miro helps James to understand the importance of poetry and freedom in painting, and in having fun creating a composition out of the most simplistic imagery. James paintings tend to become more complex as his is inclined to work on a much wider scale and these objects become more in a grounded world and portray a more specific notion but still carry the lyrical banter of his sketches. Whatever the form of my work the inspiration of Miro is always evident.
