Tightening The Ties Of His Robe

Small scale, oil on card, June 2010 (approx 30x40cm)
click on the picture for full view

Fishermen, Strawberry and Devil Crab

Michael Ajerman
18 June – 11 July 2010
Transition
London
E8

From out of the depths of Michael Ajerman’s boldly expressionistic brush strokes and dark, velveteen daubs, intriguing scenarios are being played out. In his distinctive settings, clues are scattered around, with everyday objects becoming intensely significant in some unknown psychodrama. His figures, meanwhile, take centre stage and emerge from their painterly backgrounds, appearing to have authentic back-stories and a real life beyond their stretchers. (Transition)

Hot and sticky, darkly magical: some of these paintings conjure feelings of languid evenings in a slightly claustrophobic environment. The application of paint is luxuriant: seemingly applied so slowly. Is it over warm in here?

Paint that’s oozing from the canvas edge: I am struck by how these lush layers of oil are pushing at the edges of the surface and almost spilling over with an unusual amount of intensity. ‘Hanger’ has stayed with me, a small disregarded domestic object that could carry with it undertones of a physical absence yet still holding much of the atmosphere of the larger works.

The title Fishermen, Strawberry and Devil Crab is the name of a track from Porgy and Bess (Ajerman cites the Miles Davis / Evans version). He claims the song has the emotional range that he is aiming for in this body of work and he adds ‘Gerschwin was an American who worked within the range of traditional European and American music and spun it on its head, opening it up to so much more.’ (Transition)

Listen to (don’t watch) ‘Fisherman, Strawberry and devil crab’ by Miles Davis HERE

Read an interview with Micheal Ajerman on Articulated Artists

See more beautifully rendered paintings on Michael Ajerman’s website

EMMA TALBOT
Shop Space

Following Emma Talbot’s successful solo show Pictures from my heart Transition are offering the chance to see more drawings from this intensely beautiful series.

Tiny monuments to memory.

Where Beats This Human Heart

19 June – 23 June 2010
Space In Between
The Bunker at Print House
London
E8

Deep down these exist: Pitch black spaces are inhabited by heart felt constructions using light, colour and a reflection that places me right in the middle of the work.

‘Stay together’: Human like and huddled in a corner, filling it with protective light while the the rest of the space holds only darkness.

Tick-Tick-Tick: Sounds from one end of a pitch black Corridor the darkest depth of which is intermittently illuminated by a stuttering fluorescent light . As much as I am drawn towards it, I am also repelled by the possibilities causing these stutters. Light and mist seep out from the doorway of a barely visible room, I will have to pass it to reach the end of the corridor.

Each dark dank underground room seems full of longing and beckoning.

‘Exploring and challenging the “space in between” the creation and reception of art.. (Space In Between)

Artists
LUKE MONTGOMERY, NELLY BEN HAYOUN, SANDY SMITH, WILL MACKRELL, XAVIER PAULTNEY

I hope as many people as possible get to experience this.

Wallpaper And Mirrors

Lisa Yuskavage

20 April- 30 June 2010
Greengrassi
London
SE11

Bluster, feminist and otherwise, is thick on the ground. Her work has been described as everything from a “critique of prurient sexuality” to a “disingenuous peddling of soft-porn”. Yuskavage herself has been heard to remark: “I only load the gun.” The weapon with the most powerful ammunition though is not the female form, but that of the darkest recesses of the female psyche. The place few of us are prepared, with such honesty at least, to go.(David Zwirner)

Box of delights or something like that: Struck by the size of some of this work in both directions, so very small and so very large and canvas tacked in such an old fashion way, it makes them all the more tactile. Apocalyptic settings and soft sweetness that’s fierce and confronting. A universe created by the artist and at times it feels like its for the artist too. There is a glass wall that seems to exist between me and the paintings, just enough distance to comprehend the make believe and recognize the real.

Questioning is fun: its as much about peeling away the layers of the art work as it is peeling away the layers of ‘I like it, now why?’ There’s a chance that these paintings elicit that kind of reaction from more than just me. I think Yuskavage accepts and confronts the issues that would bring a viewer to regard these works as both grotesque and beautiful and not always simultaneously. I wonder if this reaction has dulled over time?

Lisa Yaskavage interviews/articles

Charlotte Sinclair, Naked Truth. British Vogue HERE
Josephine Breese, Lisa Yuskavage at Greengrassi on ‘This Is Tomorrow’ HERE
Jayson Whitehead, What Kind Of Thing Am I Looking At? HERE

Possibly no longer shocking but just tipping an acceptable level of kitsch.

Blank space (Y)our Space

Together Our Space Gallery
20 May- 2 July 2010
12 Old Street
London
EC1V 1BE

A MULTI – DISCIPLINARY EXHIBITION FEATURING ARTISTS BRINGING TO PASS THEIR SENSE OF THE VOID

All works explore the artist’s impression of blank space through the creation of art set against the pull of the void, encompassing a sense of mind, body and literal space. Together Our Space Gallery will become a creative sensory zone for 6 weeks with works allowing spectators to become a part of the creative space through the visual, touch, sound and creative participation.The exhibition features 13 emerging artists based in the UK and 3 artists who are part of Art Saves Lives an organisation that “empower and rehabilitate people through the medium of art”.(Blank Space)

Touch and interact: I feel invited to do so with all of the works here with a sense that I am being shown private interior spaces, real or imagined. Reminding us to question our perception of the world and those around us.

Simply disorientated: A simple installation and so very effective. Deeply uncomfortable, I am blinded by strips of white paper and a sense of the infinite.(viewers interactions are simultaneously recorded)

ARTISTS
MORGAN BERINGER, SUSAN BOWMAN, LUCY EDKINS, CLAIRE, HAZELTON, VICTORIA KARLSSON, PAUL KINDERSLEY, NICOLA, McCARTNEY, EVE McDOUGALL, CHAR MILLARE, AMANDA MOSS, AXELLE RUSSO, DEAN STALHAM, THEO TAGHOLM, KASSIM BAY, DEANO DE LA VEGA

For online catalog click HERE

TOGETHER: We work alongside people with mental health issues on their journey towards greater wellbeing.
For information on TOGETHER (services and history) click HERE