Patterna
Pio Abad
Cathy Ward & Eric Wright
Amie Bolissian
Alex Noble
CATHY WARD (UK) and ERIC WRIGHT (USA), met on the international residency programme at The Banff Centre, Alberta, Canada and afterward formed a collaborative practice while continuing individual work. They have developed a unique body of work that operates in a classic mode of Romanticism contrasted with a broad range of historical and popular cultural languages. They work with materials and forms often considered out-moded or kitsch. For this exhibition they will present 3 large sculptures, two of which are their latest works. These pieces entitled ‘The Brazen Standard’ and ‘Brazen Vice’ tackle the duplicity of authenticity in it’s role of arbiter of value when applied to the antique. Authentic folk-inspired sentiment creating cultural value on par with authenticated antiquity. Together they have shown extensively in the UK, Europe and North America including Track 16, Los Angeles; P.S.1 MoMA, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee; Mercer Union, Toronto; Showroom MAMA, Rotterdam; Café Gallery Projects, London; recent winners of Emergency3 biennale at Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth, and awarded a solo exhibition in 2009. Cathy Ward has exhibited at Jerwood Space, London; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; Drawing Centre, New York; Kunsthalle Basel, Basel; Whitechapel Gallery, London. Eric Wright has exhibited at City Racing, London; Stephen Friedman Gallery, London; Limner Gallery, New York and Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
The young painter AMIE BOLISSIAN studied Fine Art (Painting)at Chelsea College of Art. She will exhibit her large sinister canvasses which remind us of mysterious neverending stories told for decades; narrative stories which often warn us about fear, desire and vulnerability. In her works she creates a magical world were shadows and light walk hand in hand through the large painted surface which often is covered with imprinted stamp marks. Amie Bolissian showed recently at Transition Gallery and has had residencies in France, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Scotland Ireland, Japan and Korea.
The Manila-born artist PIO ABAD graduated in 2007 with a Distinction in Historical and Critical Studies from the Glasgow School Of Art (Painting and Printmaking). Through his work he explores the relationships between excess and collapse, ornament and excrement, decadence and delusion. For this exhibition Pio Abad will show a series of finely detailed works on paper plus 2 sculptures made of costume wigs, fake fur,satin, pearls. They depict a dystopian universe inhabited by monstrosities of obscene ornaments called ‘Dogeaters’.
ALEX NOBLE is a fashion illustrator and stylist whose style combines a brash in-your-face sensibility with a languid elegance that harks back to Art Nouveau and the nineteenth century Golden Age of illustration. He honed his talents as an illustrator at The London College of fashion where he trained in the design and manufacture of women’s wear. Alex Noble will present works on paper with evocative names like ‘Nouveau Ghetto’ and ‘Circus Freaks’. Noble’s elegant lines always pull it back to a stylish chic, but never sanitise the truthful edge of the underbelly.