Flesh, with particular reference to the face is the main angle of critique throughout Oliver Jones’ work, acting as a social commentary and aiming to question notions of identity whilst scrutinising the subtle variations, colours, structures and complexities of its surface. His current work examines the way the media and industry advertise, manipulate and exploit the image of…
The influence of the Old Masters is readily apparent in Nick Cuthell’s work. His working methods are based on traditions that stretch back centuries, reflecting a deep engagement with the qualities of oil paint. With commissioned portraiture forming a large part of his practice Cuthell inhabits a role defined by some of the greatest Old Masters as well…
Juergen Wolf’s work takes an ironic look at icons, taboos and the menaces of the civilized world, moments of luck, of sadness, impressions of historical and political reality, sporting events and fragments of mental abyss. These painted stories are compiled from all walks of human experience, assembled without hierarchy and thus grant a special importance to each singular moment.…
Elise Ansel makes paintings derived from Renaissance and Baroque depictions of bacchanals and figures in the landscape. She uses paint as a vehicle for feeling or sensation rather than as a means of illustration. This method is inspired by Cézanne’s idea of ‘la petite sensation’, of using each brush stroke to communicate a sensation that is…
Eleanor Watson reflects on found photographs of manmade spaces and re-tells them in paint; hoarding aspirational domestic interiors and gardens which are part of a collective imagery of common desires. What is immediately familiar and recognisable is left uncertain by the flattened rendering of the objects and the incongruous use of colour. The inhabitants are absent; neither anticipated nor…
Using the painterly techniques of the Old Masters to create a collaged effect, Dene Leigh’s paintings attempt to imagine life through the eyes of his grandfather, who after suffering a major stroke, lived the rest of his life with impaired facial recognition, impaired object perception and impaired language. Despite this, his sense of touch and vision were unaffected;…
Christopher Stacey attended Chelsea School of Art, alongside Mariko Mori and Chris Ofili. There began his fascination with the raw, violent, muddy nature the world around him and sought means of showing its beauty. He wanted to make beautiful things, and as the YBA movement established itself, he realised he would have to wait. Later, Christopher settled on…
