Images of Selfhood: Group Show

16 August - 2 September 2017 London
Overview

Portrait: Images of Selfhood brings together a selection of artists exploring faces and facets of character.

 

A new artist to the gallery, Dutch-born Carla Kranendonk's portraits are informed by her travels to West Africa and combine vivid brushwork with fabric and hand-embroidered collage, as well as photographic elements. As disparate textiles and patterns are juxtaposed with screen-printed textures, her mixed media works come to represent a travelogue of collected images and memories, reinforced by the frequent use of photographs of the artist and her family members.

 

Spanish artist Maria Torroba draws on the traditions of portraiture from the Spanish Golden Age, the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, incorporating Spanish and Belgian linens, antique lace embroidered by her grandmother, ribbons, hessians and shells collected on her travels. She combines these elements with found papers which reference both the motifs of the Renaissance age and hint at contemporary media.

 

The display will also include found paper collage by Texan artist Jerry Jeanmard and graphite on paper drawings by Melbourne draughtsman Jackie Case. Dr Phil Shaw will be represented by a new bookshelf work inspired by the Californian 'self help' book - except that in a humorous twist, these titles teach you the opposite qualities to those you would wish to learn. A Basic Course in Smugness by Wayne Smirk is one such example.

 

New works by Kansas artist John Holcomb will also be on exhibition. Redolent of 19th Century Middle America, fauvism meets American Regionalism in his use of bright colour and pastel line. In contrast, London artist Ashley Amery will present new gouache on paper works muted in tone and minimal in composition.

 

 

Works