Eleven artists exhibit work ranging from painting and sculpture to installation, drawing inspiration from nature, Japanese design, and the Middle Easet
Islington Art Gallery No 20 Arts is hosting a summer group show featuring work by 11 artists.
Arthur Lanyon, Augustine Carr, Jhonatan Pulido, Jim Threapleton, Keith Roberts, Max Maxwell, Nick de León, Paolo Staccioli, Rosie Snell, Shaun Fraser and Steve Caplin. exhibit in various media from painting and sculpture to installation.
Roberts is inspired by the physical and political geography of the Middle East - often described as ‘the crucible of history’ - to produce his contemplation of “silenced voices” depicting fearful populations seeking safety amid upheaval and chaos, pushed from one horizon to another.
British artist Maxwell started his career as a creative assistant to Brian Eno, working on stage designs for live events. He later became a set and lighting designer for Roger Waters of Pink Floyd and has since created concepts for music videos, contemporary dance and site specific installations.
A Fellow of the Royal College of Art and the Royal Society of Arts, de León currently heads up industry and academic partnerships at the Royal College of Art.
His work sits at the intersection between art and science and reflects on the nature of perception: what we choose to see and what we overlook.
Staccioli began his career as a painter in the 1970s but moved to Faenza in the early 1990s and began to experiment with ceramics, before translating his ideas into monumental bronzes.
Frequently depicting warriors, travellers and horses, his sculptures exude a fairytale aura, with idealised shapes taking inspiration from pre-Roman Etruscan sculptures.
For Snell, research trips to Switzerland and Greenland offered inspiration for a series of experiments with paint, pushing the boundaries of its ability to represent nature to explore the often complex and contradictory relationship between humanity and the natural world; the eulogizing and destruction, the aestheticizing and ultimately, our longing for control.
Working with glass, peat and soil, Fraser’s work comments upon notions of identity and connections with place. He works between Amsterdam and the Scottish Highlands - a region which is a constant source of inspiration for him. His sculptures exude a raw and emotive sense of belonging, working in local soil to create an innate link to landscape and sense of place.
Inspired by the Japanese design principles of Wabi-Sabi and Kintsugi, Caplin’s work celebrates damaged, modified and imperfect objects in his Curieaux series which join together artefacts collected from a range of sources to form harmonious new creations.
Film-maker and artist Jim Threapleton, whose credits include Extraordinary Rendition and Hideous Kinky, creates abstract oils which show his work as an emerging process. His paintings are artefacts or memories of the process, capturing a moment of potential.
Pulido’s paintings are influenced by the graffiti from illegal armed groups in rural areas of his native Columbia, and the subsequent covering of these messages by inhabitants.
Carr’s hand-modelled plasticine sculptures, enlarged and reproduced by detailed CNC milling, and Lanyon’s figurative motifs complete the show.
Opened in January 2017, No 20 Arts is a centre for contemporary arts hosting a
programme of exhibitions, performances and events that support emerging and established artists. Further details at info@no20arts.com
Until September 8 at No 20 Arts, 20 Cross Street, N1.
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