This is obviously a very commercially focused show, there’s nothing really avant-garde or ‘challenging’ here. Much of what caught my eye initially left me a bit cold after a closer look. That’s not to say there’s nothing of value. On the contrary, I chatted to several artists who had something interesting to say. The ones I chatted with were at varying stages of their career, some doing their first show and some well established. They were all keen to talk not only about their work, but how they managed to make a living and the work involved in managing a professional practice. A theme developed from taking to a number of them; – in order to become credible and accepted as a ‘proper’ serious artists, (in certain parts of the art market at least) you need to have a body of work with a clearly identifiable style, and then be able to meet the demand to produce more similar work. I’ve kind of always known this, but this show really highlighted the danger of being constrained and driven into a cul de sac by ‘success’ in this kind of environment.
One artist I chatted with at some length was Richard Heys. He described his paintings as visual poems, using colour and light to reflect different moods. I like the idea of painting as analogous to poetry. I also like the way that light seems to emanate from his work. We talked about this and he mentioned Ian McKeever as a key influence. He pointed me at some video interviews in which McKeever talked about light in paintings in a very interesting and insightful way. I’d not come across Ian McKeever before but I’ll definitely follow this up.
https://www.richardianheys.co.uk/rh-paintings.php
Another artist, Ben Parker was an amazingly generous chap. He answered loads of questions to talk about his work and also about how he goes about managing his practice. This octopus is printed with it’s own ink, and the writing and sketching relates to our, (human) experiments and investigations to understand and get closer to, whilst at the same time distinguish and distance ourselves from the natural world. There’s something elemental and timeless about his prints. I particularly like the integrity of the connection between the concept and the execution.
https://byclopsfineart.com/2019/03/12/martyr-with-explanation-series-2018-2019/
I left the show with some research leads to follow up, but also something else to think about; – just what sort of artist am I? I know I couldn’t get any satisfaction from turning out lots of similar work to meet a demand, even if I were able to. I guess I just need to get on with making work and trust the process of the MA course to help answer this question. Eek! but I really do feel like I’ve left familiar territory…