Shades of Grey 2016

Wednesday 18 May - Sunday 5 June 2016

Curated by Emma Langridge

  

Of her work, curator of Shades of Grey 2016, Emma Langridge, states:
Even in the most mechanical of processes, if the hand is employed there will be a degree of unintentional mark making which makes its way through to the final work. Over time, I have become drawn into exploring the schism between the deliberate and preconceived concept and that which occurs randomly due to material considerations: the minute changes in pressure and imprecision of the hand, the quality of the support, the viscosity of the paint -the extrinsic factors are myriad. By adhering to a rigid process, that which is unintentional becomes the variable and therefore the focus.

It's this process-driven evolution that interests T J Bateson and work that explores the reposition of labour via the transmission and modification of force and motion of mark generation. For Bateson, an important aspect of the work is to envelop the viewer in a quiet meditation of a field of marks, drawing the viewer into a contemplation of its construction and connectedness to the maker and time spent in construction.

Wendy Kelly and her work is also very much process based as she continues to research into non-objective abstraction and its relevance in contemporary visual language. The stimulation of a conversation is Kelly's aim, non-objective abstraction has a freedom of material interpretation, an ability to incorporate an emotional expression and can provide a focus for quiet contemplation and engagement.

Louise Blyton talks of her work being committed to and informed by reductive art and its histories, leading to the demarcating of solid shapes and a resultant concentration on the materials I was using. The reduction of these materials revealed a purity and simplicity that mirrored the minimalist forms and compositions.

And, like all of the artists in Shades of Grey 2016, Blyton identifies that the reductive nature allows simplicity of their form, colour and composition to become central, creating works that evoke a sense of quiet…creating a discursive relationship between the viewer, the works and the subtleties of surrounding light and shadow.

Light and edge are the basic ingredients of Magda Cebokli's subject matter - issues of changing luminosity, the visual function of edge, the movement between light and dark and the structure of space. For her, this analysis of visual experience means I work with small differences, simplified form, repetition and a restricted palette. Reduction to the essential remains an aim.

Repetition of mark and meditative motion underlies Terri Brooks' work, fascinated as she is by the forces of nature and the patterns produced by natural phenomena. Non-objective abstraction is there result as as the work express my feelings of being in harmony with nature…rather than a representation

Shades of Grey 2016 is an annual exhibition celebrating abstract minimalism, the process of creativity and innovation. It is a contemplative experience: stoic, meditative and silent, the works are a time for reflection.

Participating artists: TJ Bateson, Louise Blyton, Terri Brooks, Magda Cebokli, Wendy Kelly, Emma Langridge