You are cordially invited to the opening of an exhibition of new works by Thom Gorst and Enya Lachman-Curl at The Coach House Studio and Gallery from the 20th to the 22nd of June.
Opening Event: Friday 20th June 5-8pm
Thom Gorst's work brings an abstract vitality to maritime surfaces.Through the medium of acrylic on canvas, Thom's careful use of colour and texture draws on a maritime palette of funnels, decks and hulls, which is then overlaid with marks of corrosion, degradation, abrasion, overpainting and abandonment.
Thom has worked as a qualified architect and as a professor of architecture, and he brings an architect's sensibility to his subject, using conventions of pictorial composition, and deliberately avoiding perspective. He started painting in 2007 as part of his doctoral research into the aesthetics of the ruins of modernity at the Glasgow School of Art, and he has already had four solo exhibitions, most recently at the Anise Gallery in Bermondsey.
Thom joins other contemporary artists, writers, and urban explorers in finding beauty in the remains of industry and trade which still occupy the edgelands of Britain.For him, this is the collapsed modernity of the ships and docks that were so much part of his own upbringing in Merseyside in the 1960s. This new collection of works on canvas develops themes of ruination and nostalgia.Through their stillness they evoke the dynamism of decay in dangerous places, and through their suggestion of erasure they demonstrate how futile are our attempts to paint over the ravages of decay.
"I feel that the surfaces I am representing are metallic, and I feel the action of the corrosion upon them.My work is situated in some harsh place, and I have captured that harshness and I have varnished it, and tamed it”.
Enya Lachman-Curl's work examines society’s attitude towards craft, commodities and consumerism, and brings attention to our self-destructive nature. Having graduated in Fine Art degree at Central Saint Martins in London, Enya has exhibited in the UK and USA.
Enya's work draws inspiration from J G Ballard's writing, especially his vision in Drowned World, in which the remains of cities lie beneath the ocean and the world is plunged into a second Triassic era.Here, once-utopian high rise buildings barely pierce the surface of vast lagoons, and tropical vegetation flourishes beneath the baking sun.
Enya’s paintings focus on dissolving elements of architecture and nature into sublime landscapes, and they offer a critique of past and present forms of production.These concerns are reflected in her technique, and her interest in the science and tradition of mixing paints from raw pigment, which challenges the erosion of craft values in contemporary society.
“In a consumer society where there is a prevailing apathy towards commodities I think it is important to consider the origins of the materials we use and craftsmanship that is often overlooked.”
“I would like my paintings to consider a world in a not too distant future where our drive for progress has surrendered to entropy.”
Her meticulously ordered compositions recall the work of Mondriaan, and her organic brush work and loose washes of colour eat away at the minimalistic structures creating tranquil landscapes where the remains of the highly ordered composition are over-run by the proliferating vegetation.
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