... freshly as if my eye was still growing
20 - 30 July 2023
Thurs to Sun, 12-5pm
Private View
Thursday 20th July, 6-8pm
Workshop: Deptford Drawing Walk - ‘Towery city and branchy between towers’
2pm - 4pm Saturday 22nd July 2023
APT Gallery, London. With Anna Brass & Paul Fenner
A free drawing workshop open to all ages, no drawing experience required. The workshop will expand upon an exhibition at APT Gallery, Deptford called ‘Freshly as if my eye was still growing’.
We will lead the group along an accessible route starting from the gallery. As we walk along participants will be encouraged to look up at the roof-line of the buildings, at the trees, birdlife, people, street furniture, objects, weeds and paving-slabs. We will make an ‘inventory’ drawing, picking out the different types of objects we see as we go along.
All materials will be provided. Places limited to 20 people so please sign up via the Eventbrite link.
Taking its title from a quote by Gerard Manley Hopkins, this exhibition takes Hopkin’s idea of the ‘inscape’ as a jumping off point to explore the distillation of form and cartoon compression of a subject into painted and sculpted images. The exhibition will consist of paintings and sculptures both wall and floor based and seek to create an environment which hovers between the urban and rural, cerebral and bodily.
Hopkins defined Inscape as the ‘The outward reflection of an inner nature of a thing. Whether it is through the exaggerated cartoon line, the dismantled figure or the compression of motif there is a move to push through to something closer to the experience of that thing. The artists are less concerned with trying to create an accurate facsimile of a body, jug or scene, instead there is a shared irreverent yet sincere approach to making works that sit both within yet beyond our daily experience.
The exhibition brings together artists from Norfolk, London, Sweden and Iceland in a regional and international exchange of ideas and work. These artists’ works are joined by the work of the British figurative painter Ken Kiff (1935-2001), who’s work provides a link in a chain of influence and inspiration as well as joyful expression of the poetry of the everyday.
Artists Exhibiting
Anna Brass (b.1988) is an artist living and working in Norwich. Brass graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Newcastle University in 2011 and an MA in Experimental Film from Kingston University in 2012. Selected exhibitions include, On Surface, Messums London, London, 2022, studioUS, PRIMEYARC, Great Yarmouth, 2022 and Patternicity (curated by Christina Niederberger and John Walter), ASC Gallery, London + Exeter Phoenix, Exeter, 2022.
Laura Bygrave (b.1984) is an artist living and working in Norwich. Bygrave graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Camberwell College of Art in 2006 and graduated with an MA in Painting from the RCA in 2010. Selected exhibitions include Eye Hole, The Assembly House, Norwich, 2023, Bankley Open: Bankley Gallery, Manchester, 2022, Gertrude Presents: The Truman Brewery, London, 2022 and Les Animaux Modelés: Royal Over Seas League, London, 2022.
Alex Crocker (b.1981) is an artist living and working in Norwich. Crocker graduated with a BA in Painting from Brighton University in 2005 and a MA in Painting from the RCA in 2009. Selected exhibitions include, Cuckoo, Freelands Foundation, London, 2023, Windowpane, Oceans Apart Gallery, Manchester, 2022 and Exeter Open, Phoenix Gallery, Exeter, 2022.
Paul Fenner (b.1989) is an artist living and working in Norwich. He graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Newcastle University in 2011 and The Drawing Year at The Princes Drawing School in 2012. Selected exhibitions include, As it Was, Fitzrovia Gallery, London, 2022, Provisions, Outpost Project Space, Norwich, 2022 and Take a Lesson from the Ground, Mandells Gallery, Norwich, 2020.
Grant Foster (b.1982) is a London based artist who graduated with a BA in Painting from Brighton university in 2004 and a MA in Painting from the RCA in 2012. Selected exhibitions include, Open To You, Art Lacuna, London, 2022, I can't go on, I'll go on, Safehouse One, London, 2022 and I'm Not Being Funny, Lychee One, London, 2019.
Mary Furniss (b.1993) is an artist currently working in Stockholm, Sweden. She graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Wimbledon School of Art in 2015 and an MFA in Fine Art form the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm in 2021. Selected exhibitions include, The Slaughtered Lamb, Crumb Heaven, Stockholm, 2023, I wish I knew how to quit you, Elk Galde Ranch, Colorado, 2023 and Hagazussa, Kruger, Stockholm, 2022.
Sara Gillies (b.1982) is an artist based in Stykkishólmur, Iceland. Gillies graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Winchester School of Art in 2006 and an MA in Painting from the RCA in 2007. Selected exhibitions include, Is it inside my body~or is it outside, Regional Museum of Snaefellsnes, Iceland, 2022, Wonky, Warped, Wavy, Skaftfell Art Center, Iceland, 2021 and Several Options, Horse and Pony, Berlin, 2017.
Lee Grandjean (b.1949) is an artist living and working in Norfolk. He graduated from Winchester School of Art in 1971 and was Deputy Head of Sculpture at the RCA until 2010. Selected exhibitions include, Body Language, Atlas House, Ipswich, 2019, Clyde Hopkins And Friends, Linden Hall Studio Gallery, Deal, 2019 and Let's Go. They Do Not Move, Outpost Gallery, Norwich, 2016.
Ken Kiff (1935 -2001), was an internationally known figurative artist. He trained at Hornsey School of Art 1955-1961. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1991 and became Associate Artist at the National Gallery 1991-1993. His thirty-year teaching career at Chelsea School of Art and the Royal College of Art influenced a generation of students. Selected exhibitions include, Ken Kiff 'Man, Bird and Tree’, Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate, 2023, Ken Kiff: The Sequence, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, 2019, Ken tiff at The National Gallery, London, 1993 and Ken Kiff: Paintings 1965-85, Serpentine Gallery, London, 1986. We will be showing two works by Kiff in the exhibition, including one work previously un-shown before.
Holly Mills (b.1990) is a London based artist who graduated with a BA in Illustration from Camberwell College of Art in 2012 and The Drawing Year at The Princes Drawing School in 2018. Selected exhibitions include Folding Thresholds, Payne’s Wharf, London, 2022, Two Spoke, hARTslane, London, 2022, Hope is the thing with feathers, South Parade, London, 2021.
James Metsoja (b.1984) is an artist living and working in Norfolk. Metsoja graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Norwich University of The Arts in 2012 and a MA in Painting from the RCA in 2015. Selected exhibitions include, From Another Carriage, Quench Gallery, 2023, ING Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, 2022, Provisions, Outpost Project Space, 2022.
Ross Taylor (b.1982) is an artist working in London. He graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Winchester School of Art in 2005 and a MA in Painting from the RCA in 2008. Selected exhibitions include, By The Skin of Our Teeth, Brooke Bennington Gallery, London, 2022, The Rumbling Tum, Galerie Russi Klenner, Berlin, 2022, Shoulder pipe forgiveness claw, Larsen Warner, Stockholm, 2021.
Tom Woolner (b.1979) is an artist working in London. He graduated with a BFA in Fine Art from the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford in 2001 and a MA in Sculpture from the RCA in 2003. Selected exhibitions include Naming a Cloud, 303 Projects, Lowestoft, 2021, A Sofa Speaks, West Dean College of Arts and Conservation, 2019, More Soup and Tart, Barbican, London, 2011, An Evening with Archimboldo, Site Gallery Sheffield, 2011.