Degrees of Separation

22 June - 27 July
From the Press Release

Claiming it is a Modernist conceit to stick to a chosen medium, the young artists in Degrees of Separation resist style and media specificity. Rather than referring back to a specific, linear dialogue, these artists work dispersively, covering a wealth of positions. By considering how mass production and the sourcing of digital material from the internet, speeds up time and relocates space, these artists have chosen to work in multiple mediums and styles. Reflecting an informal idea of what historical and contemporary painting is or could be, they reassemble and reshape the painters’ language of Modernism. For them artworks are not necessarily ‘painted’, as whilst painting is painting, it becomes at the same time something else too.

The purpose of this exhibition is to explore the subtexts and links between the artists’ practices, even though the individual’s work may appear in multiple manifestations. Exploring how an audience might make sense of disparate works by an individual artist, Degrees of Separation questions the persistence of commercial trends, whilst expanding the constraints of stylistic interpretation.

Gabriele Beveridge explores the representational qualities of collaged and printed visual ephemera. Expanding upon this mixed media practice, she includes aleatory mark-making exacted across everyday objects and mineral-rich forms.

James Clarkson’s interests lie in the relationship between artists’ practice and production specifically in the context of the contemporary environment. Clarkson’s work is a series of ideas or investigations into and around commonplace material and art history.

Oliver Osborne’s work includes elements of monochrome abstraction, collage and still life painting. From painting a rubber plant to using found cartoon imagery, he asserts that a change in form does not entail a change in tone.

David Ostrowski’s unplanned studio happenings are his means towards gaining new knowledge; his process is an ongoing struggle to unlearn and rediscover, and in so doing, learning not just about painting but also reframing his understanding of beauty. His painterly vocabulary also develops from accidents of form, taking unforeseen lines that appear in one piece and recreating them in future works.

Max Ruf’s work departs from the operation of the image and its relationship to landscape, transformation and materiality. From these concerns he establishes an array of frameworks. Journeys, picture books, bronze casts, en plein air paintings, toner transfers and slideshows act as placeholders that lend themselves to be re-contextualised within a contingent narrative.

Finally, Chris Succo works with a variety of techniques including photography, silkscreen, sculptural elements and abstract oil paintings. These techniques are modified and reconfigured to achieve a recognisable visual language. With these processes he produces unique pieces, sometimes belonging to a specific series of works. The artist creates rules out of processes, but with failure to stick to these, he is able to create new ideas and images, which widen his practice.