Art of England - November 2008
When the Belgravia Gallery, London, brings together the work of artist Dion Salvador Lloyd, Ben Dearnley, Kathryn Dunlevie, Claire Durbridge and Paul Chizik we are assured of a wonderful variety of beautifully produced, original artwork. Art of England takes a look at some of the artists and their work.
Kathryn Dunlevie uses photography and painting to create contemporary photo-collages. each with its own angular complexity. In these photographic collages, everyday, familiar images are transformed into compositions that hint at invisible, underlying structures. Kathryn explains, "Individual photographs are fractured and then reassembled to symbolise the building blocks of matter. Integrating these photographic shards with intact images, I created recognisable but dynamically altered scenes."
Dion Salvador Lloyd's exquisite abstract seascapes simply encapsulate the movement and colours of the sea. While Paul Chizik, a Canadian landscape painter and professor of fine art, is renowned for his mastery of texture and light, with each painting telling the story of a place and time of day. Paul's philosophy is simple, "Life is short. Art is long! Art should move you; it should not bore the audience or yourself. You paint for yourself and if it moves someone else, great!"
To describe Claire Burbridge's style of work is as difficult as trying to define the ocean. Her art has a spontaneity that comes straight from the heart and yet is equally concerned with the minutiae of intricate detail. Claire has an unmistakable style and visual language that is completely her own.
Beth Wintgens is fast becoming a significant abstract artist in her own right with her signature gestural style of brushwork and poetic use of colour. She comments, "My experience of the landscape is the source of my work. I aim to describe a space, what it is to move through, round, over a landscape, touching and being touched by the elements. My painting is to try and understand this vast thing of which we are a part, where spectator becomes an active participant in my reaction to place.
Through gesture and colour I describe the elements and the physical encounters they create; the tug of the brushstrokes becoming currents and waves, the fall of the paint reflecting the weight and history of the land beneath us. The making of the paintings echoes a sense of nature as process and it is through these captured moments that I hope to stir the senses and conjure the rhythms and beauty of the natural world."
The exhibition will also feature contemporary by classically inspired sculpture by Ben Dearnley, Michael Hipkins and Claire Burbridge.
Rising Stars runs from 18 September - 10 October at Belgravia Gallery, 45 Albemarle Street, London, Tel: +44 (0)20 7495 1010 www.belgraviagallery.com
