Gallery – Delphian Gallery

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‘Commixture’ at The Koppel Project – Hector Campbell’s Top Five

Commixture at The Koppel Project

Curated by Sally Gorham.

The Koppel Project in Central London plays host to Commixture, curated by Sally Gorham, a group exhibition that presents a snapshot of the current London emerging art scene through the lens of materiality and a diversity of mediums and methods. Each of the exhibited artists display continued exploration and experimentation within their practice, particularly in the context of their experience of media, material and physical making. The variety on show in Commixture highlights the innumerous ways in which artists approach creating, and how these approaches alter and change in relation to their navigation of the contemporary art world. The careful curation of Sally Gorham guides the audience through the exhibition, creating dialogues between not only the individual artworks but also the many disparate mediums and movements they encompass.

If you can’t make it to the exhibition, which runs until July 13th, here is a rundown of my top five artists with work on display in ‘Commixture’, (in no particular order).

ByHector Campbell

Nathaniel Faulkner

Nathaniel Faulkner, Maze Painting, MDF, spray paint, flock, 2019

Nathaniel graduated with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins, UAL (London), having previously completed his Foundation in Art and Design at Bath College.

Nataniel’s work regularly references popular culture, cinematic history and invented architecture, and in Maza Painting he turns his attention to Stanley Kubricks 1980 masterpiece The Shining by reinterpreting The Overlook Hotel’s arhitectural maze model as a sculptural relief. Painstakingly crafted from MDF, the work could easily be interpreted as a work of pure geometric abstraction for those uninitiated with Kubrick’s adaptation of the Stephen King classic, the addition of green flock however another nod to the creative process used in architectural and landscape model building.

Nathaniel’s work has featured in group exhibitions at Subsidiary Projects, London (‘Extended Call pt.3’, curated by Billy Frazer, 2018) Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix Gallery, London (‘Megalopolis’, 2017) and with Kristian Day (‘arc.’ at Herrick Gallery, London, 2018). Recent duo exhibitions included 2019’s ‘Italian For Beginners’ with Joe Richardson at Apthorp Gallery, London, and ‘showerthoughts’ with Gillies Adamson Semple at San Mei Gallery, London.

Website/Instagram

Elliot Jack Stew

Elliot Jack Stew, Hand Job I, Oil on canvas, 2019

Elliot recently graduated with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins, UAL (London).

Elliot’s work explores the boundaries that exist between the public and the private, evidenced in this new ‘Hand Job’ series of works by the use of forced point of view, placing the audience in the position of the protagonist. Intimacy is again implied not only by the works tongue-in-cheek title but also the hand suggestive placing atop the assumed bed sheets. The depiction of hands as well as the works autobiographical context invokes the art historical tradition of ‘The Artist Hand’ and the ways in which artists try to hide, or in Elliot’s case embrace, their mark making.

Elliot had his debut UK solo exhibition earlier this year at Cass Art, London (‘Poster Boy’), and has featured in 2018’s East Wing Biennial (‘SURGE’) at The Courtauld, London. Elliot is also the co-founder of the ‘Collective Cuba Project’ residency programme in Havana, Cuba.

Website/Instagram

Helen Waldburger

Helen Waldburger, Slippery Fingers, Watercolour, oil and oil pastel on cotton, 2019

Helen recently graduated with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins, UAL (London), having previously completed her Diploma in Art and Design at Camberwell College of Arts.

Helen’s work combines memories, thoughts, dreams and feelings to create scenes that are neither fact nor fiction but incorporate aspects of both to create a rich visual narrative. This layered approach to narrative composition is mirrored in the artist’s use of cotton canvases, which through their translucence expose the wooden support beneath, allowing for the expansion and extension of the works’ surface.

Helen’s work has featured in group exhibitions at Leyden Gallery, London (‘Platform For Emerging Arts 21’, Feb/March 2019), Stour Space, London (‘Sketchy London’, Aug 2018) and the Rag Factory, London (‘Sacred Blue’, 2016 & ‘Mother Russia’, 2015)

Website/Instagram

Cybi Williams

Cybi Williams, Gyn, Oil on canvas, 2019

Cybi recently graduated with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins, UAL (London).

Cybi’s practice exists at the intersection of digital and analogue, and questions their relationship while exploring ways to marry the two creatively. His new series of work started life as daily digital sketches, an ongoing creative routine that provides him with ample visual material from which he edits and selects images that will become larger works. ‘Gyn’ exists both as Cybi’s original digital rendering of the work, as well as this physical oil on canvas piece that retains all the hallmarks of its nascent digital beginnings, a trompe l’oeil for the technological age.

Cybi had his debut UK solo exhibition at BLANK 100, London (‘Cybi Williams’, Aug/Sept 2018), followed by ‘Mundane!’ at Roper Gallery, Bath in January of this year. He was also the winner of the 2018 Clyde & Co Art Award.

Website/Instagram

Rupert Whale

Rupert Whale, Remnant, Acrylic on canvas, 2019

Rupert recently graduated with an MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins, UAL (London), having previously completed his BA (Hons) at Middlesex University, London, and his Diploma in Art and Design at Exeter College of Art.

Taken from Rupert’s latest series ‘The Incomplete’, 2019’s ‘Remnant’ displays the artist’s mastery of, and experimentation with, many painterly techniques as he approaches abstraction as device to investigate mark making and question the limits of the picture plane. The pastoral colours recall traditional landscape painting whilst the diverse range of expressive lines and brushstrokes evoke digital composition and avant-garde art movements such as graffiti, punk and abstract expressionism.

Rupert’s recent solo exhibitions include ‘Critical Mass’ at Cloisters Temple, London (2018) and ‘Rupert Whale’ at The Stonespace Gallery, London (2018). Rupert’s work is featured in collections including the University of the Arts London Collection and the Tim Sayer Collection (bequeathed to The Hepworth Museum, Wakefield).

Website/Instagram

For more of Hector Campbell’s Top Fives

Drawing Biennial at The Drawing Room

Subversive Stitch at TJ Boulting

ANTIHERO – Benjamin Murphy in Helsinki

ANTIHERO is British artist Benjamin Murphy‘s 6th solo exhibition, and his 2nd in Helsinki following 2016’s ‘Vile Oblivion’.

To enquire about available works, please click HERE

Black electrical tape on glass (encased in clear resin) FRAMED

ANTIHERO, however, marks a stark departure from what we already know, or think we know, of Benjamin and his work. Having spent much of his artistic career occupying a rare and liminal position within the conventional art world at large, his work bearing the hallmarks of many artistic movements and trends and yet never being fully identified or categorized within them, Benjamin has decided to eschew all preconceived expectations and assumptions about his work. The unconventional nature of Benjamin’s chosen medium (black electrical tape on glass) defies easy classification by being neither drawing, painting, nor sculpture has often seen him the outlier of many a group exhibition. But not dissimilar to the journey of maturity experienced by the titular character of Hans Christian Anderson’s 19th-century morality tale, it is after many years of honing his skill and singular vision in the artistic wilderness that Benjamin is able to thrive when given the platform of a solo exhibition. ANTIHERO, therefore, is Benjamin’s most earnest attempt at encapsulating his work and presenting it to the audience in exactly the way he deems fit, away from any outside influence.

ANTIHERO also marks an arrival, as, after many years with a sole focus on depicting predominantly female forms, Benjamin is presenting works portraying other genders for the first time. This change is due in part to growing frustration with the subject matter of his work, as well as an increased awareness that he’d had ended up operating from within his comfort-zone, and in part Benjamin’s realisation that he was representing only one type of beauty. By creating artworks that were popular and yet artistically safe, Benjamin was not only struggling to evolve as an artist but also neglecting the aesthetic beauty of other body-types ANTIHERO, therefore, can also be seen as a creative course correction for Murphy, away from his comfort zone and towards more challenging and rewarding lines of artistic enquiry.

Benjamin carries this anti-establishment and individuality through into his other artistic endeavors, principally among them Delphian Gallery, which he co-founded with friend and fellow artist Nick JS Thompson in 2017. Delphian manages to circumvent the traditional gallery model by operating as a nomadic curatorial practice, presenting the most exciting and innovative emerging and early-career artists on a national and increasingly international stage. They are also pioneers in harnessing the creative potential of social media, and their most recent annual open call competition garnered over 10,000 submissions from a global community of artists.

Benjamin’s prolific lust for learning, achieved through both a BA, MA and multiple online higher education courses, as well as his own personal autodidactism, not only sees his work imbued with many literary, art historical and philosophical references, but also sees him occupy the position of Associate Lecturer at University of the Arts London. Benjamin also writes extensively on art theory for a number of periodicals and publications.
ANTIHERO, finally, should be seen less as the presentation of a new body of work and more as the culmination of Benjamin’s last 7 years navigating the pearls and pitfalls of maintaining an artistic life, continuously experimenting and innovating whilst enriching his solo practice through a pervasive programme of reading, writing, curating, creating, lecturing, and most importantly, learning.
– Hector Campbell, Art Historian, Writer and Curator

Private View – 18:00-22:00 03/07/19

Korkeavuorenkatu 7, 00140 Helsinki

The show then runs until the 11th.

To join us for the private view, please click HERE

For more by Benjamin Murphy, go HERE

Exhibition graciously supported by Paja&Bureau and Creat.

Ocean Wrestler Cowboy Bruise – Will Ballantyne-Reid

Ocean Wrestler Cowboy Bruise is a debut solo exhibition of work by Will Ballantyne-Reid curated by Helen Neven.

ocean wrestler cowboy bruise

First of all, this is not an unbiased review. The artist has been a dear friend for some time and I write about this deeply personal exhibition from this perspective. Will once told me a few years ago that if he were to change his name, it would be to ‘Ocean’. He wanted to embody the soft flux of the waves and the infinite sublime of fluidity.

This ‘shoebox’ exhibition reveals a personal archival process as a collection of imagery and objects tied to anecdotes and experiences. It demonstrates the formation of queer knowledge, the preservation of memory, and the wrestling of identity itself. Most prominent is the imagery of extreme masculine idealised bodies, which are stretched, strained, and sometimes stained with watercolour. These visceral images come together with historical artistic references to tragedy. Egon Schiele’s erotically-charged grotesque male nudes of contorting, androgynous limbs make an appearance, as well as, a Renaissance painting of St. Sebastian’s beautiful body penetrated by arrows at the moment of death.

ocean wrestler cowboy bruise

Alongside contemplative photos of sunsets, we see images of cuts, bruises, and wet tongues. The exhibition does not shy away from a sensual aggression that tells us adventurous tales of love-bruised queer trauma. Pills are fastened to the wall. Healing crystals are laid out next to torn pages from a magazine. Lighters become relics.

Indeed, ritualistic objects are laid out in the exhibition like shrines that unite within a single temple. The artist’s flirtation with the occult comes as no surprise considering associations to the manifestation of queer self-hood through magic. Here you might find refuge or escape, but most strikingly—a commitment to care and intention.

In the midst of current protests in Birmingham around the implementation of LGBT+ inclusive education programs in British primary schools, Will Ballantyne-Reid opens an exhibition that looks at his own self-education. What is ultimately presented is a tender celebration of queer identity in all its complicated and individualised forms—boundless as the sea.

ocean wrestler cowboy bruise

Ocean Wrestler Cowboy Bruise can be seen at Harlesden Job Centre (aka Harlesden High Street studios) 10/11 Stephen Mews, London, W1T 1AQ by appointment until 23rd May.
Please email hyph4e@gmail.com

Text by Wingshan Smith

For more

Making Bad Decisions – Richie Culver

The Psychology of Value – Andy Dixon

Bertrand Fournier Prints

Bertrand Fournier – UPO BW-P1

Bertrand Fournier – UPO BW-P2

We are extremely excited to present these stunning Bertrand Fournier prints. He has created 2 very-limited edition linoprints for us as part of his debut UK exhibition “Some Pieces Of Mind”. The prints show his trademark symbolism and bold graphic style rendered beautifully in monochrome.

Print Specifications

Limited edition print run of 10 pieces.
Signed and numbered by the artist.
Embossed with the Delphian seal of approval to ensure authenticity.
Supplied with certificate of authenticity to provide limited edition provenance.
Size 60 x 55 cm including a small white border for easy framing.
Presented on premium Norfolk 210gsm cartridge paper.
Hand drawn and cut by the artist.
Hand printed with archival ink in the UK.
As each print is hand printed, every one is slightly different and unique.
Global shipping available.

UPO BW-P2 now only has TWO prints remaining!

CLICK HERE TO BUY

For more about Bertrand, click HERE

bertrand fournier prints

Andy Dixon – The Psychology of Value

andy dixon

You appear the embodiment of your work, does art imitate life or does life imitate art?

I think my concern for aesthetics simply bleeds into every facet of my life. I’m interested in beauty and surrounding myself in it, be it in the studio, in my apartment, or in my wardrobe. I guess, in a way, it’s neither art imitating life or vice versa so much as all things imitating my love for visual stimuli.

How much has being a designer affected the aesthetics of your paintings?

A lot. I see my life as a designer to be a kind of visual training. It’s much easier to play around with colour, composition, and form in photoshop then on a canvas, so, at least in regards to the aesthetic aspect of my work, I had a lot of practice.

Andy’s collaboration with Versace

Is there any crossover between your music and your painting, and how do they cross-pollinate?

I think one could argue that I’ve been on a specific trajectory for my whole artistic career thus far, in music, design, and painting. All three have used some form of sampling, for instance: in music as samples, in design as found and scanned images from things like text books, and in painting as reinterpretations of various tropes from the cannon of art history. In a way, I see my true medium being culture to which I use various ways to play with it.

How important is it for artists to have other avenues of creation?

I don’t think it’s important at all to diversify if it’s not something that one wants to do. I’ve done nothing but paint almost every day for the past seven or eight years now and, honestly, it feels amazing. I feel focussed and sturdy from it.

Out of music and painting, which medium do you feel is the closest expression of your creativity?

Painting, definitely. I haven’t made music in years and honestly don’t miss it.

Your paintings share a lot of similarities with the themes and imagery of the old masters, but recontextualised. Is this an intentional device and if so what are you saying when you use such themes?

Yeah, that’s definitely intentional. There are a few things at play when I’m recontextualizing art history tropes. Firstly, I’m playing with the psychology of value. Since my versions of these paintings don’t contain any of the properties that the art market would say give the piece its value, such as antiquity, provenance, or even technical mastery, I’m asking the question of what gives my version its value. I’m not trying to shit on art’s price tag, I’m simply trying to point to the magic of art in a kind of Duchampian way, except using money as the measuring stick. Secondly, I’m exploring the way that the subject of the original painting, say a flemish still life, works in tandem with the subject of my painting, which is a painting of a flemish still life. In a way they’re the same thing – a depiction of luxury.

How do you reconcile the lavish and the glamorous on your work with your punk sensibilities?

I think my history in punk led me to the lavish themes in my work. I grew up in a culture where “selling out” was the ultimate sin so the bands who were successful had to enjoy their success in a kind of shameful secrecy and I see the same thing happening in the art world. Thus, the punk kid in me sees addressing making money as the final taboo.

The show Alchemy at Beers Contemporary was predominantly paintings of rooms in which other paintings of yours sit. Is this a very meta-comment on the artist being affected philosophically by the people who collect their work?

I see it more of an exploration of that same taboo mentioned above. To me, it’s a play on the classic theme of an artist depicting his or her own work in new works, traditionally done through studio paintings like Matisse’s Red Studio, which focusses on the creative side of painting, while mine are done through paintings of my patron’s homes which shifts the focus from the creative to the commercial.

Do you think that the commercialism of art should have this much power?

It’s not a matter of thinking commercialism should or shouldn’t have that much power, it’s about reconciling with the fact that it does have that much power whether one likes it or not.

andy dixon

How did your collaboration with Versace come about, and what has it been like working with the fashion brand?

Versace contacted me totally out of the blue. Believe it or not I was in the midst of making the giant Versace sculpture when they reached out and they hadn’t heard about it yet so the timing felt very serendipitous. Working with them has been great – they definitely use a different language than I do (I mean designer-ese not Italian) which takes some getting used to but their team is full of extremely creative people who have been a pleasure to work with.

For more interviews

Creative Restlessness: an interview with Kevin Perkins

Charley Peters in conversation with Remi Rough

For more about Andy, see his website

The Jaunt – Travel as a Source of Inspiration

The Jaunt is a really exciting project in which an artist embarks on a trip to a place they have never visited, and collects ideas and inspiration for a print. These prints are sold, and this funds the trip, and so buyers of the prints know that they have supported the artist on this journey of discovery. We interviewed The Jaunt’s founder Jeroen Smeets about why he decided to launch this groundbreaking project, and what they have planned for the future.

Why did you decide to start The Jaunt?

I used to work as an editior-in-chief of a Dutch magazine, around this time I used to be interviewing a lot of different artists. One of the things that always came up was traveling as the main source of inspiration. Everybody wanted to travel. Then a good friend of mine, the artist Hedof, really wanted to travel to Helsinki, just to go there and experience it, and I started to figure out a way to make this happen. How can I send artists on trips to make them find inspiration from their new surroundings, and at the same time take it to a level where we can share all of that with a bigger audience? It still took about a year before we actually organized the first trip. But eventually in April 2013 we sent Hedof to Helsinki, and we’ve been running ever since. By now we send out 10 artists a year and have organized over 50 trips in the last 6 years.

Cody Hudson at the Finca Bellavista in Costa Rica, November 2018.

What makes The Jaunt different from other print releases?

As far as I know there is no other art project out there at the moment, that works the same way we do. There are several great projects out there where artists are invited to come and work with a certain printer and a certain print studio. But in our project the travel is an essential part of the experience. It is an art residence which is always on the road. And I think that for the artists it is also a different project, because for which other project can they travel to a place and have absolutely no agenda or briefing. While they are traveling, there is nothing that they need to work on, so they can fully immerse themselves in their new surroundings

Screenprint studio of our printer, Joris Diks in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

How does the trip that the artists undertake affect their work?

This is obviously different for each artist. Which also keeps our project so exciting and interesting. Some of the artists work directly on location and translate their inspiration directly. Others work on their print once they come back to their studio. There have been artists who have found a new medium to work with, just because they found new materials during their trip. Other artists have been inspired by their immediate surroundings or a certain experience that they endured during their trip. In the end each print is an honest and direct reaction from the artists.

Silkscreen print by Atelier Bingo, trip #046 to Folegandros, Greece.

How do you decide where to send each artist?

Our most important rule is that we send an artist to a destination where they have never been to before. It could be on the other side of the world or more closer to home. At times I ask the artist if they have some bucket-list destinations, and at other times I suggest a destination to an artist, because I see an interesting connection between the destination and the artist.

Jordy van den Nieuwendijk on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, USA, April 2014

What you think is gained by this method of creation?

Any time you take an artist out of their comfort zone they become more aware of their surroundings and their experiences. That is exactly what we hope to achieve by sending artists on our trips. They might find something beautiful in nature that directs their work into a certain direction, or they might find a new tool or medium in a local art supply shop that they will start trying out. It only takes one little spark to ignite creativity.

Jordy van den Nieuwendijk on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, USA, April 2014

What are your plans for The Jaunt in the future?

It’s going to be a busy year for us. A little over a month ago, we have relaunched our website, we are working on a second book, which will hopefully come out by the end of 2019. Then we have a few more trips coming up that I’m really excited about and will send our project into some new directions. Good stuff!

For more from The Jaunt – see their website HERE
For more interviews, read Rowan Newton’s interview with Robin Footitt HERE

Bertrand Fournier Interview

Some of the works in Bertrand’s studio

We are very excited to be hosting Bertrand Fournier’s debut UK solo show this month, and decided to ask him a few questions about his work during the run up to what is an amazingly accomplished show for such an early-career artist.

Why and when did you start painting?

It was in November 2016, I started painting with my daughter. My mother had given me an old frame with no canvas, so I have buy a canvas for my daughter and one for me, just for try.

How did you teach yourself?

I immediately began to paint with oil because my wife had in her childhood belongings some old oil paint tubes, she explained me that it was necessary to mix a medium with the oil, after there is not much more to know, I had to try all the mediums and all the possible techniques, trade canvases, raw canvas, glued canvases, stretched or glued on wooden panel, it is by trying we learn.

The title of your exhibition “Some Pieces of Mind” seems to refer to your work as a nurse in a psychiatric ward. What parts of your daily life affect your art?

I am inspired by what surrounds me, my daily life and also my job as a nurse in psychiatry emergency has strongly influenced me. Certainly it is a very hard work where we see a lot of human and social misery but the fact of being permanently confronted with this madness, necessarily opens the spirit. Where the common man is limited to decency, the people who work in this environment know that the human mind knows no limit. That’s what I try to apply in my work, to refuse to lock my mind.

Have you found a community online?

Yes, we are quite numerous to have started at the same time to post our paintings on Instagram, I think it’s a bit like school, we are part of the same class, we will grow together I hope, I think they will recognize but if you want some names I will give you @christine_liebich @umutyasat @wmlachance @d_a_n_i_e_l_j_e_n_s_e_n @jordykerwick @philip_geraldo @jean_baptiste_besançon @jenny_brosnski @mateusz.sarzynski @benjaminmurphy_ @clement.mancini @mariehazard @jessietaylorart @yvonnerobert_ @gabriele_herzog @richieculver @sorensejr @jonathanryanstorm

Do you have an art community near you?

Where do you find inspiration?

All I hear and all I see.

What are the living living painters you admire?

Gunther Forg.

What advice on social networks would you give to emerging artists?

No special advices, just be yourself ! But personally i think the Social networks can become like a prison, it was very good for me because without Instagram no one could have discovered my work. I’m trying now to take some distances from this little by little.

What would you like to know about the art world when you started?

I have no artistic training, I started in the process to decorate my house not in the process of becoming an artist so I can not say what at the beginning I really wanted to know about this world. Now I have discovered enough, the other side of this world is not very glorious, I’m happy to surround myself with good people with real good intentions because there is a lot of fuck as well in artists than in galleries in this world. It’s not the Care Bears’ world.

We are very happy to be releasing lino PRINTS alongside the show, which can be viewed by clicking this link.

For more by Bertrand, click this link.

Open Call 2019 Install Photos

Thank you so much to the 520 people who came to the private view of our Open Call 2019 exhibition, and to the hundreds more who have viewed it during its two-week run.

For those of you who couldn’t make it, here are some photos of the install, and of the private view.

open call install

As always, we’d like to say a HUGE thank you to theprintspace for supporting the show, as well as another huge thanks to Crate Brewery and Jarr Kombucha for providing the drinks for the opening.

Photos of all the individual works can be seen by clicking this link

Delphian Open Call 2019 Winners

We are very pleased to announce the five Open Call winners from our 2019 show. Each of the five judges was allowed one Judges Pick, the list of these is below.

Prints of all of these, as well as the rest of the show, are available on our website. Click HERE for more.

Rhiannon Salisbury

Benjamin Murphy‘s Judges Pick, as well as being the Overall Winner

Rhiannon Salisbury – UHH

Vojtech Kovarik

Nick JS Thompson‘s Judges Pick

Vojtech Kovarik – Self Portrait With A Snake

Valerie Savchits

Wingshan Smith’s Judges Pick

Valerie Savchits – Dissolved Into Nothingness

Nettle Grellier

Hector Campbell‘s Judges Pick

Nettle Grellier – Daybed

Jukka Virkkunen

Florence Hutching‘s Judges Pick

Jukka Virkkunen – Flowers III

Radical Residency III at Unit 1 Gallery by Hector Campbell

My Top Five – ‘Radical Residency III’ at Unit 1 Gallery

Unit 1 Gallery and Workshop’s Radical residency returns for a third time following two success instalments last year, this time opening its doors to ten international artists, from the UK, France, Germany, South Korea and Switzerland. The month-long residency programme tackles the ever-pressing issue of studio costs in the capital by not only transforming the gallery into a large studio space but also a chance to exhibit during the resulting three-week-long group show.

By providing a communal space within with to work and develop their individual practices, a dialogue also arises among the residential artists, allowing for an artistic and creative exchange common at art schools but often lost as artists are forced apart by rising studio prices and a dearth of available spaces in general. Whilst this rich conversation no doubt contributes to each artist’s independent output, it also results in an exciting and cohesive group exhibition.

Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop founder and director Stacie McCormick states that “there are so many benefits to the artists working together in such an intense way, but the one that I did not anticipate, that seems to be the strongest, is the mutual respect and support”.

If you can’t make it to the exhibition, which runs until April 25th, here is a rundown of my top five artists with work on display in ‘Radical Residency III’, (in no particular order).

By Hector Campbell

Sooyoung Chung

Sooyoung Chung, DYNAMIC SINGLE, 2019, Acrylic on linen. Image Courtesy Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop

Sooyoung Chung recently graduated with an MA in painting from the Royal College of Art (London), having previously completed both a BFA and MFA from Ewha Womans University in her native Seoul, South Korea.

Sooyoung continues to document her daily life through her ‘Biographical Object’ series of paintings depicting individual everyday items, a process she began after moving to the UK from South Korea and finding herself having to buy and accrue the household items she’d previously taken for granted when living with her parents. Additions presented in the Unit 1 exhibition include a pencil sharpener, champagne flute, avocado and the instantly recognisable orange TFL ticket. Alongside the 18 small linen canvases, Sooyoung also exhibits one of her larger narrative works, in which she explores ideas of personal choice and taste by creating a portrait purely from the objects one surrounds oneself with.

Sooyoung’s work has featured in group exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Art (Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2018, June/Aug 2018) and the Saatchi Gallery (The Auction Collective & Presenza’s ‘Abstract: Reality’, Dec 2018), she has an upcoming residency withElephant Labin June (Open Studios June 27th)

Website/Instagram

Hun Kyu Kim

Hun Kyu Kim, Table no.1, 2019, Traditional pigment on silk. Image Courtesy Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop

Hun Kyu Kim recently graduated with an MA in painting from the Royal College of Art (London), where he received the 2017 Chadwell Award, having previously completed both a BA in Oriental Painting at the Seoul National University in South Korea.

Having adopted the traditional silk painting technique common in his native South Korea, Hun Kyu subverts the conventional art form by applying it to critique the current political situation of his home country. Anthropomorphised animals inhabit his allegorical paintings that reference anachronistic art history, folkloric fairy tales and polemic political commentary, creating dark, imagined vignettes where the conventionally cute creatures are rendered riotous and violent.

Hun Kyu had his debut UK solo exhibition at The approach in 2018 (‘Eight Universes and The Machine’), and has featured in group exhibitions at The Nunnery (‘Invitation to a Rave’, curated by Mark Titchner, July/Aug 2018) and HIX Art (‘Painting Now’, July/Sept 2018)

Website/Instagram

Lucille Uhlrich

Lucille Uhlrich, it was about the brexit but maybe we can forget about it, 2019, Wood, cardboard, terracotta, superglue, string. Image Courtesy Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop

Lucille Uhlrich graduated with an MA in Fine Art the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Lyon, France having previously studied Modern Literature at the Université de Strasbourg. She also writes art criticism and essays for French publications and galleries.

Lucille’s miniature assemblages, crafted out of quotidian materials such as ceramics, cardboard and wood and held together with string and superglue, exist within a transient dreamlike domain where her symbols and structures imply language. The intricate constructions are delicately produced and carefully considered, with Lucille adding and subtracting elements until a satisfactory balance is found between not only the constituent materials but also the envisioned elucidation.

Lucille’s recent solo exhibitions include ‘Starting from Scratch’ at Néon (Lyon) in 2018, ‘Instant d’après gammes’ at Galerie Arnaud Deschin (Paris) in 2017 and ‘Le Grand Malentendu’ at CEEAC (Strasbourg) in 2014.

Website/Instagram

Jean-Baptiste Lagadec

Jean-Baptiste Lagadec, Mother’s day / Ariane VII, 2019, Acrylic and ink on wood. Image Courtesy Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop

Jean Baptiste Lagadec received his BA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins (London) in 2016, having previously studied at the Atelier de Sèvres (Paris).

Jean Baptiste weighs the importance of process against the resultant artwork within his paintings, seeking to make visually the intangible, technological codes that underpin and assemble digital images, a hangover from the artist’s previous life as a purely digital artist. He, therefore, sees his adoption of abstract painting as his primary artistic medium as a rebellion against the increasing proliferation of and reliance upon technology, and the threat that poses to intrinsically physical activities such as artmaking.

Jean-Baptiste had a solo presentation as part ofThe AIR Programat Youkobo Art Space, Tokyo in 2017, and his work recently featured in the group exhibition ‘We Are The Ones Vol. 1’ at Carlsberg Byens Galleri (Copenhagen, Sept 2017) curated by Jordy Kerwick, Galina Munroe and Simon Ganshorn.

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Henry Tyrrell

Henry Tyrrell, Dubrovnik, 2019, Acrylic on linen. Image Courtesy Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop

Henry Tyrrell recently graduated with an MA in Painting from the Slade School of Fine Art (London), having previously completed his Ba in Fine Art at the Chelsea College of Art (London).

Within his acrylic on linen works Henry plays with colour, tone and form as ambiguous forms emerge within the shadowed canvas in various shades of grey, reminiscent of the frustration at a foggy memory or the annoying attempts to recall a dream. As well as walking a tonal fine line throughout his examination of grey, Henry also approaches the margin between abstraction and representation, as the shapes and symbols are left for the audience to offer an interpretation.

Henry’s work has featured in group exhibitions at the Cello Factory (‘Defining Structure’, Sept/Oct 2018), the OXO Tower Wharf (‘Orbit UK Art Graduate Show’, Aug 2018) and Chalton Gallery (‘The Politics of Too Many Rubbish Dinner Parties’, May/June 2017). His debut solo exhibition ‘Purkinje Flying’ was at GlaxoSmithKline, Brentford in 2014.

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For more by Hector

Drawing Biennial 2019 at Drawing Room

Subversive Stitch at TJ Boulting

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