Art In Mind Exhibition

1st – 12th September
Private view: 1st September 6pm – 8:30pm

Brick Lane Gallery 216 Brick Lane | London | E1 6SA

Artists:

RUSSELL D PULFORD @russelldpulford

(Online only)

Russell was born and educated in England, since 1984 he has lived in Australia and has traveled extensively. Inspiration for his work is found in our landscapes and many natural wonders. He usually works with acrylic paints mainly using palette knives.

VIRGINIA VAN GAALEN @virginiavangaalen

Virginia is an Australian artist and has exhibited in Australia, Philippines, Malaysia and recently in the Tekne exhibition at the Azure gallery in Madrid, the Fusion Arts Fair in Bucharest and the Contemporary Art Fair in Monaco.

As someone who lives internationally my artwork is quite diverse and influenced by the country in which I live. I immerse myself in the environment, walking, taking photos, collecting things and drawing before I begin. I call this my ‘incubation period’. I seek an emotional and metaphysical attachment to my surroundings and I like to find it’s nuances.

The ‘Small Details’ series was inspired by my many years in Asia and the beautiful yet often decaying chinese shophouses. Their architecture and life within I have always found fascinating as there is a pulse and energy surrounding them. I have attempted to capture their subtle nuances by simplifying their elements to highlight their spirit, using colours, textures and lines that best represent these subtleties. I endeavour to capture the essence of life around me; connecting or transporting my audience to a moment, time or place.

ANTHONY JOHN GRAY @anthonyjohngray

Although Saatchi considers his work very interesting and Tate Britain stated him as very driven with concepts, ideas and powerful images it is best left to Michael Robinson an art biographer who researched and interviewed the artist to best describe his place in modern art…

Like the previous generations of surrealists, Grays paintings are based on a methodology of collage and montage, and still has the ability to disturb and pacify at one and the same time, through strange juxtapositions. There are subtle differences that set Gray’s work apart from his antecedent, including the empowered women who populate his world. A forceful reminder of how male artists of his generation have transcended the notion of woman merely as muse. His work is a fusion of surrealism and geometrical abstraction. As enigmatic as his surrealism is, his images are imbued with a sense of order and rationale.

Gray is an optimist, his images imbued with a luxurious sense of colour that eschews negativity – an art he calls Spiritual Logic. It is in effect a very positive surrealism for the 21^st Century.

PACO @who_paco_who

Jewellery as an artform is the connection that binds craftmanship with the alchemy of materials together…

I’m Paco and I was born in Ecuador, although since I was a child, I have been traveling often to different Latin- American countries which open my mind to different art forms and points of view about culture. My first contact with art was in Panamá where I studied Graphic design, and then move out to Chile where we founded a Mosaic workshop with Mané Valencia. Now I live in Germany and study jewellery and where I also created an art collective directed to jewellery and other forms of art including ceramics, photography and painting. In this place we find Thomas Sterzer @ich.bin.raum a great friend and artist I admire.

With my work I try to embrace the connection between the individuum and the society, separating this thin red line from originality and masses. “Not everything that glitters is gold” is a little collection where the pieces hide a little a message that has to be revealed, sometimes a little stone is hidden or the colours has to be wear out in order to see the complete object by itself, this way I look forward to create a sense of being in contact with yourself and to “wear it in” The pieces are all unique bespoke pieces. Bronze in this case is the best experimentation material.

EMILY MCILROY @emilymcilroy_art

I am a multi-disciplinary artist, using collage, print and ceramics to augment my central discipline of painting. I work in these mediums for their playfulness, energy and colour. My work often stems from a personal context; the narrative exaggerated sometimes through the inclusion of symbols or comparative figures in Greek mythology for a comedic or serious purpose. The ‘frame’ is particularly interesting to me in my new series ‘Don’t Touch The Wet Paint’, as it acts as a portal for the audience to be welcomed into the subject’s world. At the same time, it cuts the audience off, as a glass frame i.e. window separates the outside from the inside, a phone selfie frame displays a private moment between the subjects, or a mirror frame blurs the boundaries of reality. Interestingly, ‘separation’ and ‘boundaries’ are rather accurate words to describe the pandemic.

SHANI BLUMENFELD-AROUETTY @shani_blumenfeld_arouetty

Shani Blumenfeld-Arouetty, an Israeli artist and designer, graduated from Shenkar College of Engineering and Design (Bachelor of Fashion Design), resides and creates in Tel Aviv.

Since my early years I have dealt in a variety of art and design forms. Following my studies and years of practice in the field of fashion, which involved close familiarity with numerous fabrics, threads and textile design methods, I have mastered the technique of art embroidery. In my work I especially like to focus on simple, everyday moments, capturing an expression or emotion.

There is great appeal, to my mind, in the contrast between the peaceful image of the characters I create and the laborious technique of their creation, revealed upon close encounter with the works. The textile element lends a special texture to my art, as well as the background on which it is executed, giving it an appearance which is either opaque and dense or translucent and floating.

MAGDALENA KLYS @magdalenaklys.art

Magdalena Kłys is a painter from Poznań. She was born and lives in Poland.

The colors are like music, like the notes with which the Soul expresses its most beautiful melody. When I paint, I am happy, it is a special state of mind, joy of soul, state of grace.

And, the very act of painting is a prayer for me.

I use traditional materials, acrylic paint, charcoal, pastels, ink. I experiment with them to find what suprising final effect can be achieved. I love structures and I often create them, I am fascinated by the surprising effects and possibilities they offer.  It’s a great fun adventure.

My proces involves working on several pieces at the time to create dialogue between them, moving from one to another allows me develop the ideas and pushing the boundries.

My goal is to inspire those, who see my work to look more carefully at the world around them, to discover beauty in unusual.

ROHAAM ARDESHIRZADEH @rohaamardeshirzadeh

Rohaam Ardeshirzadeh, 26 years old from Iran studied fine art at Leeds Beckett University and graduated in 2019.

The artist seeks to take the idea of having something simple and structured like a geometric shape and to start to implant it as a free-standing structure while incorporating architectural designs, spanning inspiration from Islamic tessellation and mosaic patterns. This idea takes the core tile work designs on ceilings, walls and incorporates them into a free-standing sculpture.

As the core, platonic solids are a series of 5 solids Tetrahedron (four faces), cube (six faces), Octahedron (Eight faces), Dodecahedron (Twelve faces) and Icosahedron (Twenty faces) these are the fundamental shapes the Artist has worked towards as 3D sculptural objects, while creating hollows and solids of them in connections as identical pieces as these shapes are the main symbol for any basic architectural or interior of buildings or any religious building that uses geometry in response to the platonic solids in the work.

JOEL CHIDI SYDENHAM @chidi3s_art

Joel Sydenham aka chidi3s is a visual artist, Poet and drawing tutor – he creates vibrant works of art inspired by existential philosophy from several different cultures and traditions. Joel believes deeply in and underlying connection between all things in existence, his work is very much a reflection is his personal journey and lessons he has learnt along the way. Joel is constantly looking for new cultural lenses to view the world through.

As a poet he draws a lot of inspiration from story telling and often find ways to weave stories into his pieces through the use of colour, abstraction, and symbolism. Joel also performs poetry around London, designs and customises clothing, creates graffiti murals (legally), and organises community art workshops in collaboration with various charities and local council’s. The aim with everything he practices is to uplift people around him, build social bridges, and remind people that there is endless beauty around and within them.

LAUSEN @lausen_____

Lausen works in the realm of abstract photography, and underpinning her work is the attempt to capture the subjective reality of situations and objects. She transforms the image into a medium for the exchange of realities. Her work shows scenes from her encounters; spontaneous snapshots.

The image is developed to bring together visual representation and sensory impression. Using a subtractive process, Lausen reveals and explores her personal experience of seeing and observing. Lausen focuses on the architecture of the motif. By concentrating on an object’s structure and contours, she gives expression to its force and urgency.

The main aspects of Lausen’s work reflect how she seeks to make the invisible visible and the visible transparent. Black and white in her photography creates distance and generates space; contrast creates abstraction, and gives clarity. The interplay and tension between light and dark produces intensity.