ANTHONY GREEN

Everyday Adventures with Anthony, His Family and the Flowers

5- 28th March

Anthony Green RA will be talking about his work on Tuesday 10th March from 6.30pm

Anthony Green is well known for his irregularly shaped, highly eccentric paintings with distorted or conflicting perspectives. His subject matter is often humorous, depicting himself, his wife or other members of his family having everyday adventures in or around his home. 

The Bureau, Afternoon Sun, 163 x 122cm

Many of his works have a dreamlike quality as in ‘The Staircase - Roses’ (left) where the artist is shown in mid air showering flowers onto his wife, with his reflection in the nearby mirror showing a younger version of himself. These scenes are reminiscent of daydreams or visions of an alternative reality, free from the limitations of space and time.
 

Green’s use of the pictorial space in his work reflects the way in which we view space around us, not confined by square edges or a single viewpoint as in traditional painting.

Painted onto board which is sometimes specifically shaped to the work, these paintings occupy a territory on the boundary between painting and sculpture.

Sunflowers on Margaret's Trestle Table, 94 x 109cm

Resembling pieces of a giant jigsaw, they give the viewer a sense of being shown a small piece of a larger ongoing narrative, or a glimpse into the fantastically chaotic world continually playing out inside the artist’s mind.

To see the full online catalogue for the exhibition, visit the gallery website    

Alison Neville: Architectural Etchings

 5 - 28th February

We are  coming to the end of our current exhibition of Alison Neville's etchings. Like all of Alison's shows it has been very succesful and a good deal of her prints have found new homes. 
This exhibition focuses on Alison's architectural etchings, which have a characteristicly eccentric style for which she is now well known for.

Alison Neville, Itmad- ud - Dauhla, etching

Most of the works included in the exhibition are inspired by her experiences travelling. As a body of work the show is a good document of the many different exotic locations she has visited and been stimulated by. For this exhibition we tried to choose a selection of works from her extensive opus that represented the whole, while at the same time looking from a perspective that many of her regular fans may not have seen before.

Alison Neville, Flatiron Building, etching

 Work not seen before, such as Washington Street (below), join old favourites such as Flatiron Building (above) to create a show which includes work from her early career as well as more recent etchings.

Alison Neville, Washington Street, aquatint with chine colle

Alison Neville’s work is in numerous private and public collections.She has been showing her work with Curwen Gallery since our first ever exhibition over 30 years ago.

Alison Neville, Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey, etching

For more information on the exhibition please visit the gallery website.

JULIA BROOKER : ACRYLIC ON ALUMINIUM

5 - 28th February 2015

Showing alongside Clare Bigger in our main space this month is Julia Brooker, an abstract artist specialising in painting directly onto aluminium sheets with acrylic paint. We have been showing her work for many years and furnished a large number of corporate spaces with it.

Detail of Fair Isle, showing the surface of the painting

Julia is interested in the materiality of paint and the way that the aluminium she uses as a canvas reflects light through the veils of transparent paint. The effects produced by the interaction of the intensely coloured paint and reflective surface produce a visceral “hit of colour, ” which can be very effecting.

Julia Brooker, Jungle

Schopenhauer, one of her main theoretical inspirations, calls this feeling the “aesthetic experience,” a momentary “release,” from everyday life which art can provide.  Her work is about the immediate sensorial impression which colour and form can create. A certain type of sensation which is separate from life and transports us to another place.

Julia Brooker, Filligree

Colour is of particular importance to Julia. Her palette is vivid, and in most cases bright. Each painting has a focused use of colour, carefully chosen for maximum impact. Some works, such as Sweet Marie (below) are so intense that they suck all the light in around them, stealing attention from their surrounding paintings.

Julia Brooker, Sweet Marie

When we were hanging the exihibition we often ran into great difficulty with works like this because of their attention stealing nature. It often felt unfair to place one painting which was loud and focused next to another which was more subdued and ethereal because of the habit of the louder works had of overwhelming their quieter neighbors.

Julia Brooker, Syracuse

Julia Brooker is a great believer in the importance of the craft of painting, something which we at Curwen Gallery share. She values traditional notions of beauty in painting which is something that she comments is currently an “unfashionable belief”. These ideas are of great importance to an understanding of her work. There is no particular ‘meaning’, either implicit or explicit. Appreciation of these paintings is confined to the aesthetic experience that is felt by the viewer directly.

For more information on the work included in this exhibition see the gallery website.

CLARE BIGGER'S STEEL SCULPTURE

5 - 28th February 2015

Clare Bigger produces figurative sculpture in stainless steel. Her new body of work, currently showing in our main gallery space, has been produced as a celebration of movement.

Clare Bigger, Oblique

Upon entering the space visitors are confronted by Osprey III - a huge predatory bird swooping down on them, clutching a salmon in it's talons.

Clare Bigger, Osprey III

When installing the exhibition it's sharp beak even sliced the hand of the technician, as if to prove it's vicious nature.

Clare Bigger, Finish Line

In line with her interest in athletics, her new works include a trio of sprinters inspired by London Olympics 2012, as well as a duo of cyclists, inspired by her recent experiences on cycling tracks.

Clare Bigger, Cyclist

The exhibition covers her various subjects of interest, such as birds of prey, dancers and cats to name a few.In recent years she has also begun making  more abstract pieces which explore elemental themes, such as the flow of water and fire. These works compliment her figurative sculptures

Clare Bigger, Fishing

Earlier this year and also inspired by the 2012 Olympic games, she completed a large scale commission (8.5m high) for a major roundabout in Milton Keynes based on the gold medal winning long jump of Greg Rutherford.

Roundabout in Milton Keynes, Sculpture stands at 8.5m high

For more information on the exhibition see the gallery website.