January Exhibition 2014

contemp.jan14-Jacket.v2.qxd:Layout 1

2/1/14

14:49

Page 2

Louis Laprise Avec un peu de Jaune Mixed media 36 x 48 inches (front cover)

594 Kings Road, London. SW6 2DX

Tel: +44 (0) 020 7731 8222

Email: enquiries@thompsonscontemporary.co.uk

15 New Cavendish Street, London. W1G 9UB Tel: +44 (0)20 7935 3595 Email: enquiries@thompsonsgallery.co.uk 175 High Street, Aldeburgh, Suffolk. IP15 5AN

Tel: +44 (0)1728 453 743

Email: john@thompsonsgallery.co.uk

www.thompsonscontemporary.co.uk

JANUARY EXHIBITION 31st January – 23rd February 2014 Please join us for the Private View, Thursday 30th January 2014, 6 - 8.30pm 594 King’s Road London SW6 2DX 0207 731 8222 enquiries@thompsonscontemporary.co.uk

P l e a s e R S V P t o e n q u i ri e s @ t h o m p s o n s c o n t e m p o ra r y. c o. u k

www.thompsonscontemporary.co.uk

P l e a s e v i s i t o u r we b s i t e t o v i ew t h e e n t i re ex h i b i t i o n A l l p a i n t i n g s a re fo r s a l e o n re c e i p t o f t h i s c a t a l og u e

Monday to Friday: 10am-6pm Saturday: 10.30am-4.30pm

w w w. t h o m p s o n s c o n t e m p o ra r y. c o. u k

CAROL PEACE

Thompson's Contemporary's is proud to announce our January Exhibition 2014. We will be showcasing the most exciting work from a range of emerging and established contemporary artists that we have had the pleasure of meeting over the last year.

The show will include some familiar names to Thompson's Galleries such as Paul Wright, Carl Melegari and Jo Taylor.

The show will also feature some of the most talked about names in Contemporary art including; Ben Lowe, whose work was recently recommended by The Independent, and Chris Stevens, winner of the BP Portrait award and award winner in last month's Saatchi exhibition 'Painted Faces'.

Carol Peace studied sculpture at Winchester School of Art and drawing at The Prince’s Drawing School.

She has obtained numerous commissions both public and private, as well as exhibiting in London, Athens, Zurich, France, Spain and Holland. These galleries include Beaux Arts, Gallery 27, Apple Europe HQ and the Northcote Gallery to name a few. In 2007 she co-founded the Bristol Drawing School and is currently the artistic director there.

She is a sculptor who could not work without drawing. The process of drawing, that intuitive response, is what she aims for in her work. While some of the sculptures are layered with meaning, a direct and honest response is often present. She sculpts in clay, which like charcoal is quick to make marks with, once finished it is cast into resin or bronze when those fluid marks of the making are then fixed.

Reading Figure Ed. 3 of 25 Bronze Resin

16 x 4 x 9 inches (above right)

Conversation Ed. 7 of 25 Bronze Resin on wood base

8 x 6 x 4 inches (right)

3

CHRIS STEVENS

Chris Stevens studied Fine Art at University of Reading and currently lectures in the same subject. The underlying idea of society’s stereotyping and its bigotry is a constant theme in Stevens’s work, with other social issues that affect him making their appearances along the way. Some of his work tackles the subject of war – evolving from the artists’ studies of Wilfred Owen’s poetry and contemporary war artists such as Steve McQueen.

Stevens is currently curating and appearing in a show ‘A Harsh Reality, Modern & Contemporary British Painting’, at the Sainsbury Centre, Norwich showing his own work alongside that of Francis Bacon, David Hockney, Richard Hamilton, Lucien Freud, Walter Sickert, LS Lowry, George Shaw and Jock McFadyan.

For Queen & Country Oil on canvas 20 x 22 inches

4

JAMES FULLARTON

James Fullarton is a Scottish neo-colourist painter who studied at the Glasgow School of Art under Donaldson, Goudie and Shanks. Today, Fullarton is regarded as one of Scotland's leading contemporary painters, uncompromising in his standard of practice. Vibrant colour, bold compositions and expressive handling of thick impasto paint are typical features of this prolific artist. Working directly from the subject matter, Fullarton draws inspiration from the ever-changing light and its effects on everyday objects, allowing him to develop his ideas quickly on canvas.

He is a regular exhibitor with the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts and has exhibited with the Royal Scottish Academy and lectured for the Scottish Arts Council. He has also won several prizes throughout his career including the David Cargill Award and the Britoil Award. His work is sold in a number of galleries across Scotland and England and has been acquired for many public, corporate and private collections worldwide.

Cattle at Hedge Oil on canvas 36 x 42 inches

6

7

BEN LOWE

Ben Lowe is a contemporary painter currently living and working in the heart of the Gloucestershire countryside. Lowe’s artwork explores the depth of human emotion and experiences through painting.

Using a combination of the figurative and abstract, Lowe creates a world that is more experiential than actual. At their most reduced, his works convey shared experiences without any literal expression of such content.

Lowe is perhaps most recently known for his Candles for Sandy series, based on the artist’s time living in New York City during Hurricane Sandy. Through the darkness and melee that followed, Lowe painted abstractions of the eerie figures that skulked in the shadows throughout New York’s suburbs. Consequently, Lowe sees the places he creates as being at once mythical and real - almost abstract, they remain familiar.

Flight So Fancy Oil on canvas 59 x 59 inches

8

9

PETER VAILLANT

Peter Vaillant is a British Abstract painter, with a dramatic vision for use of colour within his abstract paintings and has been recognised by the BBC and Citroen. Experimenting with alternate painting surfaces Vaillant decided to paint a car that would be stylish, appealing to the eye and be totally individualistic. In May 2013 a Citroen DS3 became a 'Peter Vaillant' moving piece of art. Citroen UK were overwhelmed at its striking transformation and invited Peter and the affectionately titled 'DSart3' to exhibit at Citroen events.

This September Vaillant exhibited a painting alongside David Hockney at the Pump House Gallery London.

Vaillant accepted an invitation from the BBC to officially record the Queens Diamond Jubilee Pageant in his unique abstract style. He exhibits internationally.

Midnight Mass Acrylic 48 x 72 inches

10

11

ANNE CIVARDI

Anne Civardi was born and educated in Africa, but has spent the majority of her life in London. She studied art in both Colorado, USA, and London, where she received a sculpture diploma at Heatherley’s School of Fine Art. Civardi works mainly in alabaster as its translucence gives the sculptures depth and unforeseen variations in colour. Once polished, light floods through the finely carved areas of her sculptures highlighting new, subtle, qualities. Her inspiration comes from the endless hours she spent collecting and searching for shells on the beaches of Kenya during her childhood. “I choose a shell, or fragment of a shell as my starting point – often just a few centimetres in size. Then I pick out on whichever part captures my imagination most, either for its fragility, its hollows, curves, contours, points or spirals. From here I select a piece of alabaster to compliment the shape and size of my final piece.”

Alabaster Shell on Stone I 20 x 15 x 10 inches (above and right)

12

13

LOUIS LAPRISE

Thompson’s Contemporary met Louis Laprise at Art Toronto 2012 and have since enjoyed a burgeoning working relationship. Both contemporary and decidedly ornamental, Louis Laprise's art demonstrates a mastery of the other-worldly. An amazing colourist, his universe consists of organic forms whose lively gestures originate in the grain of the wood. It is through this kind of abstraction that his brand of figurative illusion arises, allowing the viewer to channel his own imagination and to see himself reflected in the highly polished, mirror-like surface of the work.

The recurrence of the wood motif in the different compositions accentuates the multiple references to nature and the living, all-the-while emphasizing the uncertainty and infinite malleability of the Real. In this case the medium is both the subject and the signifier.

Accidents and imperfections on the surface intrigue us, imitating nature and, in turn, mimicking its origins.

From this surface emerge motifs and textures from an unlikely mix of techniques that arrive from multiple disciplines.

Le Bleu avec Le Brun Mixed media 48 x 48 inches (right) Avec un peu de Jaune Mixed media 36 x 48 inches (front cover)

14

15

MICHAEL JOHN ASHCROFT Michael John Ashcroft was born in 1969 in the small picturesque town of Croston in the heart of Lancashire.

Ashcroft first gained artistic recognition at the International Artist exhibition where his entry was a top ten finalist by a handful of galleries who wanted to sell his work. Further successful exhibitions have followed including many awards including winner of the famous Harris Open Exhibition and his first solo exhibition in 2009. In 2011 he was elected as a member of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts following in the footsteps of L.S Lowry who was also a member of this prestigious group of artists.

The Italian Job Oil on canvas 10 x 10 inches Neon Lights, Piccadilly Circus Oil on canvas 24 x 24 inches (right)

16

17

JO TAYLOR

Jo Taylor lives in Lancashire and studied at Leeds Metropolitan University from 1989-1991. Taylor works in ink, watercolour, acrylic, wax and oil, which she frequently mixes to create rich, luscious, often textural and collaged surfaces. Sculptors, such as Rodin and Marini have been great inspirations to the artist - all her works being drawn from life and much time spent watching and drawing the horse at rest and in action.

Taylor's work has the sense of immediacy and physicality that comes from a deep understanding of her subject. Her residency at Liverpool veterinary clinic gave her, literally, knowledge of the animal inside and out.

Taylor’s work is shown in exhibitions including Christies, and RA Summer Exhibition, as well as having her work in private collections including the Duke of Windsor and the Marquis and Marchioness of Tavistock.

Taylor has recently been awarded the coveted acceptance to the Jockey Club – the first woman artist to do so.

Blood Horse Mixed media 31 x 29 inches

18

19

LESLEY TAYLOR Lesley Taylor is an artist living in West Sussex. Her work is a combination of sculpture and painting which can put a smile on anyone’s face. Taylor starts by sketching her ideas on long pieces of brown wrapping paper, layering these to simulate what the 3-D piece will look like, then sculpting the figures using Chavant clay. The figures are then cast in resin and the final piece is painted. All of Taylor’s work contains a striking splash of colour against the brilliant white background. Each piece tells a story but the artist only starts this story, leaving the viewer to complete the narrative in their own way.

Drip Series - Slip Sliding Away with Yellow Drip 47.5 x 20 inches (left) Shades of London Mixed Media Boxed Sculpture 22 x 47 x 4 inches (above)

20

21

SCHOONY

Schoony is a contemporary sculptor with a background in film prosthetics and special effects, with a career spanning over twenty years. His extensive knowledge of casting and moulding has seen his work has featured in movies including Rambo, Troy, Harry Potter, Saving Private Ryan & Gladiator - the perfect springboard to launch a career as a fine artist.

Schoony attracted national press in March 2011 when he unveiled 'Boy Soldier' on the Peace Plinth outside the Houses of Parliament. Made from a cast of his nephew, it was a statement on the UK's involvement in the war in Afghanistan. Schoony's fibreglass statues have gone from strength to strength, being shown alongside contemporary artists such as Banksy, Damien Hirst, Marc Quinn and Mat Collishaw.

Boy Soldier Panel Union Jack Fibreglass 55 x 28 x 5 inches (far left) Boy Soldier Panel Stars and Stripes Fibreglass 55 x 28 x 5 inches (left) Boy Soldier Union Jack Fibreglass 48 x 24 x 21 inches (right)

22

23

CARL MELEGARI Carl Melegari is British artist with Italian heritage, living and working in Wales. Melegari primarily focuses on the semi-abstraction within the figure and has become increasingly fascinated by the versatility of oil paint.

Often working from life, Melegari explores how the physicality of the paint combined with the density of pigment can give a sense of life radiating from the canvas: as if to evoke the vitality of the human form, focusing just as much on the medium of paint, and how it reacts with the surface, as they do on the subject of the painting. Through the veils of layers, achieved by continuously accumulating and scraping back the paint, a figure emerges as if to suggest how the sitter itself has become enveloped and partly obscured by the energy of the paint.

Carla Oil on canvas 8 x 6 inches Amaranta Oil on canvas 36 x 36 inches

24

25

OONA CAMPBELL

Oona Campbell was born in Nottingham and graduated in 1989 from Brighton College of Art & Design with a degree in Visual and Performing Arts. She became a full-time painter in 2000 after two exhibitions at the V&A. Campbell’s majestic paintings are of atmospheric landscapes where sky, land and rivers combine in a celebration of seasonal colours. In her work, Campbell confidently tips horizon lines and plays with the elements of earth, water and air, creating canvasses that are both arresting and sublime.

October Mist (Isle of Skye) Oil on Linen 48 x 72 inches

26

RICHARD CHAPMAN

Richard Chapman is a sculptor from Norfolk who specialises in using wood as his primary medium. His many private commissions include a rose bowl presented to the Queen Mother on her hundredth birthday by the staff of the Sandringham Estate and more recently a piece given as a prize at the Sandringham Flower Show.

In keeping with his art, Chapman is also passionate about the correct management of trees and forests and supports organisations such as the Royal Forestry Society and Woodland Heritage. For his work he specialises in using salvaged wood that is destined to be burnt. Trees, like all living things he believes have a finite existence but, through his creative process, Chapman saves age old wood for eternity. In his old farm-smithy workshop in the depths of rural Norfolk he is busy turning nature into art.

Coved Ash Vessel with Walnut Lid Wood 14 x 9 x 9 inches (left) Wet Turned Apple Burr Bowl Wood 8 x 8 x 8 inches (right) Yew Wassail Bowl Wood 6 x 5 x 5 inches (centre)

28

29

ED HASLAM

Ed Haslam is a young contemporary painter who studied Art History at the University of Manchester where he developed a clinical sense of painting the human subject. In June 2013, Haslam took part in a three man show at Thompson's Marylebone. The resounding response was both encouraging and deservedly well praised. He is one of the most exiting young talents we have seen in a long time!

Haslam’s work is dominated by depictions of the male figure. Drawn to the concepts of phenomenology, Haslam uses the subject of the nude as a platform with which to explore the relationship between the represented image and what the human eye actually perceives. Not content to simply portray the visible, his work attempts to extend beyond what the eye sees to reflect something more experiential.

Lone Figure Oil on canvas 40 x 30 inches

30

MICHAEL ADAMSON Michael Adamson is a Canadian artist and Toronto-born graduate of the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, who also trained at Ryerson University and the esteemed Gesamkunst Hochschule in Germany. His work sits between conceptualism and expressionism leaving it pleasantly challenging to categorise.

Adamson’s vibrant and tactile works are littered with art historical references combined with the artist’s humour making every viewing of his work a different experience. He is internationally recognised and exhibits around the world, having successful shows in London, Tokyo New York and Canada. Adamson’s work has been acquired for many public and corporate collections including, Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto Metro Convention Centre and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. Thompson’s Galleries met Michael Adamson in Canada at the Toronto Art Fair and have had a blossoming partnership ever since.

Turks Oil on canvas 30 x 27 inches The Magicians Oil on canvas 36 x 48 inches

32

33

Michael Adamson

Island School Oil on canvas 54 x 74 inches

34

KATE GILES Kate Giles is a contemporary Impressionist artist whose work is rooted in classical English and Dutch landscape painting. Her work is fuelled by an emotional and visceral response to the natural world and the quality of light. She sketches out her work plein-air, painting it back in the studio. Through her work she aims to evoke a sense of the particular spirit of place. Whilst still retaining the distinctive palettes of artists such as Constable and Goya, the artist renders the English landscape with a fresh light and eye. Canvasses are built up in layers of translucent colour and brush marks are unashamedly left exposed to the naked eye. The overall effect gives the viewer a unique tension between colour and form.

Giles received a BA Hons Fine Art at Falmouth School on Art and Design. She exhibits across the country and at many international art fairs. Two of her works were accepted to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2011.

Butley Creek (February Raw Umber) Oil on board 23 x 25 inches

36

37

JAMES MYLNE

James Mylne is a contemporary British artist known for his drawings in ballpoint pen. attended the Camberwell College of Art, where he received his BA in drawing in 2005 and his MA in 2006. His technical abilities with this unorthodox art medium have earned Mylne recognition in Europe and the UK, where he's considered among the leaders of the genre.

Mylne creates mixed-media works adding spray paint and magic markers to his ballpoint originals, sometimes masking off the silhouette of a figure he'll be drawing, and apply a flat field of background colour using spray paint.

Facial details, hair and skin tones are achieved by controlled spacing of parallel ballpoint lines mixing media, using paint pens to fill large areas of black such as dresses or even more intricate details such as sunglasses. His astonishing works are at once arresting and thought-provoking.

Hepburn Window Handfinished print 35 x 26 inches Chinwaggin’ Samurai Ball Point Pen and Mixed Media 40 x 40 inches (right)

38

CHRIS BUCK

Chris Buck was born in 1956 and studied at Redruth School of Art. Son of a toolmaker, he returned to his industrial roots and worked in several foundries, which provided an invaluable knowledge of casting techniques and general metal and woodwork. Buck has found inspiration from the St Ives abstract artists such as, Dame Barbara Hepworth and Dennis Mitchell. Chris Buck is a member of the Penwith Society of Arts.

Since 1986 Chris Buck has lived in Twelveheads, Cornwall with his family and works from his studio which is a converted byre. Producing sculpture in wood, stone and bronze, he personally finds greatest satisfaction from working in bronze.

Chris Buck sculptures can be found in collections in the UK, Europe, Canada, Kuwait and USA. AWARDS INCLUDE: Morris Singer Founders Prize, RWA Autumn Exhibition 2001 COMMISSIONS & CORPORATE CLIENTS INCLUDE: Unilever, 2001 & 2002 Unilever IT Awards, 2002 & 2004 TechMARK Mediscience Awards, 2002 The Chartered Insurance Institute, 2003 HSBC & Natwest Banks

We Brightly Shine, Artist Proof 1 Bronze on slate base 11 x 5 x 3 inches (left) The Gate of Dreams II

Bronze on slate base Ed. No. III/IX

15 x 13 x 4 inches

40

GILES DELAMARE Giles Delamare is a contemporary Abstract artist, living and working in London. In his work he is primarily concerned with forming a romantic discourse between the post industrial materials of today and the rich history of abstract painting – drawing upon allegorical references; highlighting seemingly every day plastic objects and celebrating the design and detail of modern manufactured products. These painterly constructs aim to replicate the memory and feelings of man-made items.

The physicality of the work is driven by the gratuitous amount of paint applied.

This is a deliberate up scaling of the surface results in a more object-like or mass produced appearance. Much of his work has a deliberate reflective quality; this is in part due to the aesthetic makeup of the material used and the functional ability to physically reflect or capture the viewer’s image within the work.

Condo Acrylic and household paint on MDF and pespex 20 x 20 inches A Positive Thought Acrylic, enamel and cellulose paint on polycarbonate 23 x 31 inches (right)

42

43

CLAIRE BREWSTER Claire Brewster is an artist from Lincolnshire and has been living and working in London for over 20 years. Brewster uses old maps and atlases as fabric to create intricate, delicate and detailed paper-cut sculptures. Her work is about retrieving the discarded, celebrating the unwanted and giving new life to the archaic. The sculptures are either pinned directly onto the wall as a large scale installation or captured in box frames.

Her work has been exhibited widely and can be seen in public and private collections all over the world, including Australia and the US, as well as being featured on the pages of Vogue and Marie-Claire magazines.

This is Our Place Hand cut paper collage

12 x 16 inches

We are the Sun Birds Hand cut paper collage

24 x 28 inches

44

EMMA GREEN Being immersed in this landscape of marshy saltings, its scents and sounds, the muddy estuaries and beaches of shell and shingle provide an endless source of inspiration.

The work of artists who explore and push the possibilities of paint are a endless influence, from Callum Innes' lush monochrome works where turpentine dilutes whole panels of colour to leave only a whisper of it's original brilliance, to the mesmerising texture of Joan Mitchell's abstracts with their thick impasto surface and flicks and spatters of paint.

With landscape painters it's the artists who really immersed themselves in their subject that she identifies with, among them Joan Eardley (her Catterline paintings), Peter Lanyon - the Cornish landscape intersected and seen from all angles, even from the air, and Constable, his meticulous studies of the Suffolk sky.

Following Foundation Art & Design at Ipswich Art School, Emma went on to a Fine Art Degree in Hull. After graduating in 2001, she returned to Suffolk where she now lives by the river Deben and works from a studio nearby.

February Light: The Deben Oil on board 11 x 11 inches Silver Tide: The Deben Oil on linen 32 x 38 inches

46

SARA BAMFORD

Sara studied at Farnham School of Art 1963-66 and then sculpture at The Slade School of Art 1966–1969 exhibiting with The Young contemporaries in 1968; won a scholarship to study sculpture in La Jolla San Diego 1969 but travelled instead in the Middle East, Morocco, America and Canada for the next few years before settling down to marriage, two children and building a carpet repair business on the Welsh borders.

In the last few years Sara has been greatly influenced by acrobats, after seeing The Cirque de Soliel and Olympic athletes, her aim is to catch a moment of movement and balance.

Cherub Piper Welded Mild Steel and Mesh 48 x 24 inches

48