For their respective exhibitions, both Henry Walsh and Lee Sellers made a window display employing their respective motifs, which both have the versatility to work not just within a painting. For the display Walsh created a flock of birds, a scene common in his more recent work. The birds imply movement, flying across the window pane and upwards. Their journey, however, starts from inside the gallery, from the painting on the wall nearest the window (See Fig.1: After the Rain I), and they continue their flight across the window, then up and away from the gallery, migrating perhaps? Or maybe they're making their way back to another canvas in Walsh's studio up in Derbyshire.
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| Walsh's window birds |
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| Fig.1, Henry Walsh, After the Rain I |
Sellers' signature little figures interact with the letters that spell out his name on the window; sitting in the curve of an 'S', dangling from the corner of an 'L', walking between letters as if they could be stepping stones, or balancing atop them on one leg. Together these little figures create a literal, and joyful, play on words.
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| Please click on the image to see in full |
Sellers also makes great use of the architecture of the gallery space; figures ski down the side of the stairs, or appear to leap off the edge where the banister meets the wall, as if jumping off a coastal cliff into deep water twenty feet below. The construction of the gallery space allows these little figures to come to life, whilst Sellers' offbeat humour allows the gallery to come to life. The banister, for instance, functions as a stage for these little doodles to become narrative scenes, and a dialogue between object and image becomes clear.
These two artists, who are both good friends, complement each other's work delightfully, and the two exhibitions work very well accompanying each other. As you come to the end of Walsh's work there is a piece, titled 'Steady II' (see Fig.2) depicting workers standing on ladders, reaching out to paint a wall. The painting works wonderfully as an introduction to Sellers' exhibition in the upper gallery. The addition of a plane of colour in the work introduces what is to come upstairs, and the ladders, by their functional purpose, suggest climbing. So up you go to the upper gallery, greeted by little characters along the way.
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| Fig.2: Henry Walsh, Steady II |
Henry Walsh, 'After the Rain', (in the main gallery) and Lee Sellers, 'The Bright Side of Life', (in the upper gallery) run until October 28th 2015.
