SHIFT
Eleven artists pursue a sense of uncertainty in the stripped- back space of the Hanmi Gallery

 

Hanmi Gallery is pleased to announce the 19th interim exhibition ‘SHIFT’ by a group of artists who share a sensibility of fragility and openness in their practice.  Motivation driving the work of individuals within the group is diverse, but what draws these artists together is a belief that many readings of a work should be possible, that it should attempt to describe an open-ended world.

 

The title ‘SHIFT’ itself shifts around between meanings, the earth’s plates moving beneath our feet, a measure of time, a garment, the moving of objects, a change of pace.  The premise of this show is embodied already within the fabric of the gallery.  Stripped back in its pre-refurbishment state, the gallery shows us the bones of a building.  It is in itself an open work.  The artists’ work hangs together loosely, as if in the process of being placed, describing the nature of the interim and using the gallery space to intensify this sense of uncertainty.

 

Ten of these eleven artists are at an emerging state in their careers, the quality of uncertainty in their work recognised by established artist Neal Tait in conversations with Rebecca Byrne and Liz Elton, who have curated the show.

 

Hanmi Gallery is due to undergo major refurbishment but is currently open to the public with a program of interim exhibitions, of which ‘SHIFT’ is the 19th edition. The grand opening will take place in Autumn 2013.

 

NOTE : A full price list and high res images of works available upon request to:  info@hanmigallery.co.uk

 

ARTISTS

 

Katriona Beales uses moving image, sculpture and installation to respond to the overload of the information age. Her current work explores notions of the digital gaze and the ‘post-cinematic’. Recent exhibitions include ‘On Site Lab 6’ Tokyo Wonder Site, Japan and ‘All the words have run out’ group exhibition at KunstRaum, Goethestrasse xtd, part of NEXTCOMIC festival 2012, Austria.

 

Painter Rebecca Byrne explores a space between personal narrative and the uncanny in a quest to balance truth with fiction. Her work begins with a desire to inspire a feeling of familiarity followed closely by a sense that this place cannot actually be known; the images of a fractured reality present a series of clues to a particular story but provide no answer. Her work has been shown recently in the Dianich Gallery, Vermont, USA, The Griffin Art Prize 2012, The Griffin Gallery, London and The Art Cabin, Group Show with George Little and Soo Eun Baik, London.

 

Nick Dedics sees his work as being produced by a fictional, neo-medieval future with a dim-witted society who occupy an island they call ‘Gr8 Britan’. In an attempt to recreate their lost heritage through the filter of corrupted search engine/Wikipedia results, newly created historic artifacts become objects of everyday use, fulfilling the needs and wants of these imaginary people.  Nick’s work featured recently in the Saatchi Gallery – New Sensations 2012, London and solo show ‘An End to All That’, Dean Clough Galleries, Halifax, West Yorkshire.

 

Liz Elton tracks the lifecycle of a painting removed from its support and flung out into the world to be treated as any other type of matter.  Final documentation prompts a double-take as detailed images capture a sense of the veracity that photography promises, undermined by uncertainty as to what and where the painted image is.  Recent shows include the John Moores Painting Competition, 2012-13, Walker Art Gallery Liverpool and Dianich Gallery, Vermont, USA.

 

Rebecca Hooper explores a human response to environment and place, engaging with ideas of value, security, home, belonging, identity, mapping and the relationship between the familiar and unknown.  Human absence and presence within the environment is the principle stimulus and offers numerous revelations towards what emotional relationship we can have with a place we territorialise.  Her work featured in ‘The Carpet, the Quilt and the Candyman’, Old Fire Station, Oxford, ‘Without Boats, Dreams Dry Up’, Triangle Gallery, London, and is installed on Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail.

 

What may travel as a skeleton that requires fleshing out, James Lander’s living archive offers a unique context in which to encounter ideas of the primitive, a form of shamanistic material engagement and power in relation to subcultural activity. This press release forms part of living archive.  Recent exhibitions include Inside Out: Staff Art Show, Phillips de Pury & Company, London, Dalston Underground Ten Years, Old Boys Hall, London and the Space Between Surrounds Our Desire, The Event, Mona Casey Projects, Birmingham.

 

William Lawlor’s work addresses the artificiality of how the natural world is represented in the media juxtaposed against his perception of an aggressive and intrusive reality.  This perception is realised through scans of collages sourced from National Geographic.  These are augmented by his sculptural works (using various materials from bronze to Blu-Tack) which, like the collages, seduce and repulse.  Recent exhibitions include The Metaflux Platform, The Worshipful Company of Founders/Royal Academy of Arts Bronze Exhibition and The Royal College of Art Iron Pour 2012.

 

Lana Locke works with found and natural objects, cast metal and photography. Interested in the so-called ‘feral’ nature of human beings, against the constraints of contemporary society she explores themes of mortality, procreation, abjection and transgression, seeking to make connections between human biology and natural and manmade structures; packaging and waste.  She has exhibited widely in London, including the RA Summer Exhibition 2012.  Her work can be seen in the grounds of Harefield Hospital, Middlesex, The Ivy Club, London, and in Nicolas Roeg’s film, Puffball.

 

Neal Tait makes paintings and drawings that create parallel universes, where people and objects seem to multiply and metamorphose into ever more strange visions.  Starting with found material and photographs, or themes from newspaper stories, his strange, circuitous works possess an absurd logic.  Recent solo shows include Galleria Marabini, Bologna, The Battle for Middle You, Simon Oldfield, London, and Les Toits de Parise, White Cube, London.

 

Sarah Pager’s sculpture subverts the domestic realm, imbuing items familiar from daily life with anthropomorphic attributes, and unexpected material qualities giving a disquieting extra dimension to the experience of the physical space we inhabit and our relationship to it.  Recent shows include ‘academy noW 2012’, Oriel Davies Open in Wales, Re-Strike at Poppy Sebire, Creekside Open selected by Phyllida Barlow, and RAW Art Fair in Rotterdam, (GaleriE8 booth). Publications include the Catlin Guide 2011.

 

Lucy Whitford’s work combines raw and natural materials with the man made. Working with fired and unfired clay, wood and ink, as well as plaster, concrete, steel and fabric, she displays an acute sensitivity to the way in which these materials can function as their own language while also maintaining points of contact with the everyday world.  Her work embodies a sense of melancholy and contradiction, exploring organic forms and patterns, physical forces such as entropy and gravity, and qualities such as light and weight.  Lucy Whitford’s solo show launched The ‘Zabludowicz Collection Invites’ series for 2013′.