Improv
11 - 14 August 2022
Thurs to Sun, 12-5pm
Private View :
Thursday 11 August 6-8pm
Improvisational Drawing Workshop:
Saturday 13 August 2-4pm
An exhibition of recent work by Karolina Albricht, Gabriela Giroletti, Scott McCracken, Laura Porter, Henry Tyrrell and Adia Wahid that considers the theme of Improvisation; how impulse, deletion and changes of plan play an important role in the making process.
Improv
The gut feeling to rearrange or to push a gesture to an unexpected place, is often born out of the struggle to bring a visual tension to the work. This tension can manifest itself in different ways- a surprising colour combination, a burst of energy in the brushstrokes, or when grids or rhythms get pulled or disrupted.
The works in this show have a relationship to this idea in different ways. Karolina Albricht’s paintings contain forms that seem to expand, taking up space not originally designated for them, cutting across the painting layers below. Gabriela Giroletti’s work relies on layers of textural underwork and you can see scars from the shifts and changes of thought process. Scott McCraken’s work contains a careful sense of balance, achieved by processes of fine-tuning colour, shade and line. Laura Porter’s work responds to the sites it is exhibited in and settles itself in accordingly. Henry Tyrrell’s work involves reacting to and echoes early gestural encounters in the process. And Adia Wahid’s paintings consist of grids that are often disrupted by more bodily forms and gestures.
Artist Introductions
Karolina Albricht is a London based artist and curator. Albricht was born in Krakow, Poland in 1983. She graduated with an MA from The Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow in 2008. Prior to that she completed Socrates-Erasmus at ArtEZ Institute of Fine Arts in Arnhem, the Netherlands in 2007. In 2020 she finished Turps Studio Programme in London. Her recent exhibitions include 16 Branches High a solo show at Studio West Gallery, 21 Fathoms at ASC Gallery, London, Your Foot in my Face at Kingsgate Projects, London, OFF-BEAT, a solo show at JGM Gallery, London, London and Dear Painting at Nordic Art Agency, Malmo. Her awards include Tyson Award (selected by Liz Gilmore), ArtGemini Award and she was shortlisted for Contemporary British Painting Prize, RA Summer Exhibition, Threadneedle Prize and APT & Fenton Arts Trust Award, amongst others.
@karolinaalbricht
Gabriela Giroletti is a Brazilian painter living and working in London. Gabriela received an MFA in Painting from The Slade School of Fine Art in 2018 and a BA in Fine Art from Middlesex University in 2015. Giroletti was awarded several awards including the Desiree Painting Prize in 2018. In the same year, she was the runner up for the Chadwell Award and was shortlisted for the Elephant x Griffin Prize and the Young Contemporary Talent Purchase Prize by the Ingram Collection of Modern British Art. Giroletti is a 2019 Bloomberg New Contemporaries artist and in 2019/2020 she held a position of a Research Associate at the Slade School of Fine Art.
@gabrielagiroletti
Scott McCracken is a painter and occasional writer and curator living and working in London. McCracken was born in Falkirk in 1987. He received his BA and MFA from Edinburgh College of Art and studied at Turps Art School. His work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions at Borough Road Gallery, London and Bargain Spot Project Space, Edinburgh. Group shows include Hastings Contemporary, Kingsgate Project Space London, Thames-Side Studios Gallery, London; Terrace Gallery, London; Universität der Künste Berlin, Berlin; Bankley Studios & Gallery, Manchester. In 2017 he was awarded the Darbyshire Prize for Emerging Art and in 2019 he was shortlisted for the Contemporary British Painting Prize. He is Correspondence Course Leader and Mentor at Turps Art School, an independent artist-run educational organisation that focuses specifically on painting.
@scottmccracken
Laura Porter is a sculpture and installation artist based between London and North Devon. She has been shortlisted for the Broomhill National Sculpture prize and the Collyer Bristol graduate award, and has exhibited across the country including Left Bank Leeds, Sunny Bank Mills and Kaleidoscope Gallery, and in 2021 she was awarded a British Council Connections Through Culture grant to lead a virtual residency with Malaysian artist Lee Mok Yee. Laura is also the director and curator of artist-led space Studio KIND. and is a trustee of The Plough Arts Centre, in Devon.
@lauraporter
Henry Tyrrell is a painter who lives and works in London. Tyrrell received an MA in Painting from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2018 and a BA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art in 2012. He has done residencies at the Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop, London (2019) at ColArt, London (2017). Tyrrell won the Almacantar Award, 2018 and the Artist’s Collecting Society Award, 2017. He was shortlisted for the Denton’s Prize in 2018. He had a solo exhibition called Purkinje Flying at GlaxoSmithKline in Brentford, 2014. His group shows include Imagen Vibratoria at the Nahim Isaias Museum, Ecuador in 2017, The Politics of Too Many Rubbish Dinner Parties at the Charlton Gallery, London, 2017, Rubber-chew/Clink, adieu at the Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop, London, 2018, Catamaran at Thames Side Studios Gallery, 2019, Dreamlands at OHSH Projects, London 2021, New Forces Knocking at Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, 2021
@henrytyrrellart
Adia Wahid is a painter who lives and works in London. Wahid was born in Karachi, Pakistan. She received an MA from the Royal College of Art in 2018 and a BA from Chelsea College of Arts and Design in 2012. She had a solo show at Alice Black Art in 2017 and has participated in various group exhibitions including Grit at Freelands Foundation in 2020, Grid Collective at Milton Gallery, 2020, Modern Finance at Thames Side Studios, 2019, A Raw Garden at Fitzrocia Gallery, 2019, Barry Bliss: 30 Women Painters at The Palace of Westminster, 2019, Grid::Prest at Blyth Gallery, 2019, Intercontinental Line 2 at Abstract Project, 2018 and The Abstraction of Continents and Continents of Abstraction at Lychee One, 2016. She has also appeared in publications including FAD Magazine, 2018, Wall Street International, 2017 and Abstract Critical, 2012.
@adiawahid