[RE]Configured | Contemporary Figurative Art

[RE]Configured Contemporary Figurative Art Thomas Allen, Phoebe Boddy, Zara Matthews

[RE]Configured Contemporary Figurative Art 27 July 2022 to 6 August 2022, 10am to 5pm Late night opening until 8pm on Wednesday 3 August Mall Galleries, The Mall, London SW1 An exhibition of award winning artists

Works are available to browse & buy at www.mallgalleries.org.uk 020 7930 6844 | info@mallgalleries.com | www.mallgalleries.org.uk

Introduction In [RE]Configured, figurative artists Thomas Allen, Phoebe Boddy and Zara Matthews present a selection of recent work, showcasing the breadth of figurative painting in Britain today. Allen, Boddy and Matthews were awarded the top prize at Figurative Art Now, the gallery’s major open submission competition in the summer of 2021.

Zara Matthews’ new body of work has as its starting point a process in painting known as Pentimenti, an alteration in a painting evidenced by traces of previous work. Using layered photographs and video stills of found objects, the works in the series emerge from digital sketches before being developed into paintings.

For this exhibition, Thomas Allen has created an ambitious series of charcoal and sanguine works on paper. Some are immersive in scale, befitting the depth and breadth of the topics tackled, from online privacy to Christian mythology, romantic love to our relationship with the natural world. All are brought together, though, through the artist’s signature dreamlike style – rich in pattern and organic forms – and united by his underlying fascination with the unconscious.

The most recent collection of paintings by Phoebe Boddy have been stimulated by how other artists have referenced food in their work and what messages they portray, she also draws inspiration from little sayings or bits of terminology referring to food that she finds entertaining. Her largescale paintings are playful and often humorous, comprised of energised brushstrokes and infused with a bold use of colour and form.

Thomas Allen

Thomas Allen is known for his signature drawings in charcoal and sanguine, a blood-red chalk.

Allen describes his work as exploring internal landscapes: “I see the creative process as one in which the human is decentred. That is to say, the artist is not in complete control of the work but rather engages in a dance of agency with various other actors: the materials, the image, the imagination, and indeed the viewer. So my work is open-ended, using visual ambiguity and poetic hints to provoke dialogue. Each image acts as a sort of selective mirror in which the viewer sees aspects of themselves reflected as meanings and associations.”

This is not the first time Allen has exhibited at Mall Galleries, nor won an award here; he has twice been a prize-winner at exhibitions by the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, in 2013 and 2014, and was selected for the prestigious Threadneedle Prize in 2014.

Thomas Allen Born Forsaken Pencil & Charcoal 34 x 43 cm £1,500

Thomas Allen Caught Up Pencil & Charcoal 95 x 43 cm £2,500

Thomas Allen Clickbait Pencil & Charcoal 60 x 27 cm (72 x 39 cm framed) £1,800

Thomas Allen Clickbait, Acid-Dipped Oil Pastel 60 x 27 cm (72 x 39 cm framed) £1,800

Thomas Allen Disconnect Pencil & Charcoal 70 x 51 cm £2,500

Thomas Allen Encrypted End-to-End Pencil & Charcoal 150 x 270 cm £8,500

Thomas Allen Just to Love Pencil & Charcoal 180 x 85 cm £5,300

Thomas Allen Lucid Dreamer (diptych) Pencil & Charcoal 70 x 100 cm £3,400

Thomas Allen Man Made Pencil & Charcoal 55 x 50 cm £2,200

Thomas Allen Phases Pencil & Charcoal 72 x 250 cm £7,000

Thomas Allen Pickers Oil Pastel 40 x 80 cm (52 x 92 cm framed) £2,500

Thomas Allen Snatched from Beneath Spring’s Willow Pencil & Charcoal 150 x 90 cm £4,800

Thomas Allen Study for Doctrine of Signatures Pencil & Charcoal 83 x 65 cm £2,800

Thomas Allen Us and Them Pencil & Charcoal 35 x 60 cm £1,800

Phoebe Boddy

Phoebe Boddy’s practice is stimulated by food and flavour.

She uses the process of painting to explore the connections between the two creative fields of Food and Art, storing personal recollections and experiences that she has encountered with food, and recreating these memories in the studio through interpretative painting.

Boddy’s paintings are often titled after, or related to, food and are comprised of energised brushstrokes, infused with bold use of colour and form. Boddy interprets flavour as a colour, envisions texture as a mark and translates forms onto canvas.

Phoebe Boddy Banana Bread Acrylic 170 x 160 cm £5,000

Phoebe Boddy Big Fish, Little Fish Acrylic 150 x 120 cm £3,000

Phoebe Boddy Buy my Bananas Acrylic 180 x 160 cm £6,000

Phoebe Boddy Floor Burger Acrylic 160 x 160 cm £4,800

Phoebe Boddy How d’ya like them Apples Acrylic 180 x 160 cm £6,000

Phoebe Boddy Leopards Milk Acrylic 127 x 127 cm £2,600

Phoebe Boddy Limoncello Acrylic 150 x 150 cm £4,000

Phoebe Boddy Slice of Full English Acrylic 160 x 160 cm £4,800

Phoebe Boddy Two Pints of Lager (diptych) Acrylic 170 x 260 cm £6,800

Zara Matthews

Zara Matthews’ new body of work has as its starting point a process in painting known as Pentimenti. Derived from the Italian ‘pentirsi’, and meaning ‘to change your mind’, a pentimento is an alteration in a painting evidenced by traces of previous work.

These pentimenti show the artist’s change of mind during the painting process, and are usually hidden beneath paint layers. In some instances these only become visible as the painted layer above becomes transparent with time.

Using photographs and layered video stills of abandoned and found objects, the works in this series emerge from digital sketches before being developed into paintings. Through this process of layering and change, the presence of the underlying images, transparent forms and marks seem to reference the objects’ aura, presence and residual memories.

Matthews has been exhibiting regularly since 1991 and her work can be found in a number of major collections including The British Museum and the V&A. Her work has previously been exhibited at Mall Galleries, in the 2013 Threadneedle Prize.

Zara Matthews Archive Oil 55 x 60 cm £4,650

Zara Matthews Album Oil 55 x 70 cm £5,200

Zara Matthews Collection Oil 40 x 50 cm £3,850

Zara Matthews High Tide Oil 125 x 165 cm £13,200

Zara Matthews Ledge Oil 35 x 45 cm £3,550

Zara Matthews Night Mirror Oil 91 x 121 cm £8,200

Zara Matthews Painters Block Oil 91 x 121 cm £8,200

Zara Matthews Palimpsest Oil 78 x 102 cm £6,850

Zara Matthews Pentimenti Oil 120 x 170 cm £13,200

Zara Matthews The Poetry of Things Oil 115 x 170 cm £13,200