An exhibition of works by Daniel Barnard, David Baldwin, Jim McElvaney, Kymberly O‘Carroll-Fitzpatrick, Lynsey Storer

Private View: Friday 3rd of September 2010 - 6.00 pm to 11.00 pm
Exhibition runs from: Friday 3rd of September - Thursday 16th of September 2010
Gallery Opening Hours: Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri: 11.00 am to 6.30 pm
Sat: 12.30pm - 5.00 pm
Last day of Exhibition: Thursday 16th of Sept: 10.00am to 5.00pm

This forthcoming exhibition of works by five artists with very strong and idiosyncratic styles confronts the viewer literally with art you don’t see every day.

Curated by Kymberly O‘Carroll-Fitzpatrick, the pieces on display delve into a world of the weird and wonderful at a first glance, yet on closer inspection reveal solid conceptual foundations addressing issues of gender, social acceptance and belonging. The works on display take the viewer on a journey from Pop Art to the baconesque, the abstract, lost and found objects and to the politics of cross-gender. This is a bold choice of works that will throw up a lot of questions on how the contemporary artist evaluates and sees our world.

Daniel Barnard: “Next to his house was a piece of broken board which had: “TRESPASSERS W…” on it. When Christopher Robin asked the Piglet what it meant, he said it was his grandfather’s name, and had been in the family for a long time. Christopher Robin said you couldn’t be called Trespassers W, and Piglet said yes, you could, because his grandfather was, and it was short for Trespassers Will, which was short for Trespassers William. And his grandfather had had two names in case he lost one. Trespassers after an uncle, and William after Trespassers.” (Winnie the Pooh)

This one small paragraph from a children’s book, epitomizes the beauty of using found objects, their strength and their power.

When Piglet so adamantly maintained that the found remains of a ‘Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted’ sign next to his house had once belonged to his grandfather, he ascribed this found object with a complex invented past with which to convince both himself and his audience. At first it is just Piglet’s innocence and the humour that strikes you. But this really belies the hidden sadness, the sadness of a small knitted piglet who feels so alone and insignificant in the Hundred Acre Wood, that he feels to combat those feelings, he has to create an entire bogus ancestry to give him credence and a feeling of belonging and a reason to be taken seriously among his peers.
I am not that little knitted piglet. I am merely a kindred spirit of his. For further info: www.danielbarnard.com

David Baldwin: Does the gender of this artist make certain meanings of the work inevitable?
Baldwin’s interests lie in the politics of representation, image making, and the application of paint, primarily focusing on woman as a motif. His concepts are formed through the continuing pictorial development, interrogation and assessment of modern females, responding to a frame of reference that encompasses femininity and modernity - his context. Thomas Laqueur stated (in Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud) that his particular Archimedean point, was not in the real trans-cultural body, but rather in the space between it and its representation. The actual female body and its representation understood as a ’space between’ would suggest concepts of that body which can only be negotiated within specific historical, societal, and economic circumstances.
View more at: www.baldwinartist.com

Jim McElvaney is a Brighton based Painter whose subjects are chosen not on the basis of recognition but on personal visual appeal, the work is expressive, often unplanned and spontaneous. The non-descript backgrounds remove his subjects from their original context and stops them from becoming a literal rendition of their original source. McElvaney merges an array of materials including oils, spray paint, charcoal and oil pastel, each bringing their own individual characteristic to the work. www.jimmcelvaney.com/

Kymberly O‘Carroll-Fitzpatrick is a self-proclaimed pop artist. Influenced by Lichtenstein and Warhol, dominated by humour her art has no apparent meaning than to entertain the viewer.

O‘Carroll-Fitzpatrick’s art practice is inspired by different aspects of 60’s and 70’s pop culture. She borrows and appropriates images from sources that include comics, magazines and other old books. O‘Carroll-Fitzpatrick chooses images because they are aesthetically pleasing and can be easily changed and manipulated. Mirroring the style of comic books, her paintings consist of flat areas of bright colours and thick black outlines. She mainly works with acrylics on canvas.

Lynsey Storer’s paintings have evolved from a strong interest in light and attempts to recreate this through the use of colour and pattern; allowing reverberation of the picture plane. Storer is interested in the hand-made; this means that each original painting is a unique statement. Her recent work, which follows her ten-year studies into optical art, is based mainly on experimental processes but still looking at capturing light on the canvas. For further info, visit: www.lynseystorer.co.uk/

An exhibition of works by Cecília Guimarães, Conceição Lacerda, Helena Paz and Conceição Rhodes

Private View: Friday 17th of September 2010 - 6.00pm to 11.00pm
Exhibition runs from: Friday 17th of September - Thursday 30th of September 2010
Gallery Opening Hours: Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri: 11.00am to 6.30pm
Sat: 12.30pm - 5.00pm
Last day of Exhibition: Thursday 30th of Sept: 10.00am to 5.00pm

Red Gate Gallery presents abstract paintings by four Portuguese artists; an exhibition of diverse works ranging from the semi-figurative to the gestural, and from intense colour to delicate hues.

Conceição Rhodes
Conceição Rhodes’ works exploring crowds and their surroundings truly live without limits; they breathe and flow freely and express themselves in bold and vibrant hues. Rhodes feels and finds figures that appear as a result of a game of colours; a game which spontaneously constructs different backgrounds and atmospheres which then grow to suggest real life scenarios.

Conceição Lacerda
‘Man extracts from nature the materials needed to make it liveable. Our aim is to recreate and transform that which was given to us, into form, texture and art.’ (Conceição Lacerda 2010)
Lacerda’s paintings, full of beautiful and intense colour, use abstract horizontal and vertical planes to echo the landscapes and natural vistas that inspire her.

Cecilia Guimaraes
Cecilia Guimaraes’ work is art without premeditation, fruit of the moment, and an unconscious organization. Her pale and delicate abstractions are a vision of nature that is subtle and cosmic; her paintings present the instant fleeting of memory or seduction, the day and the night, the earth and the sky, the universe and the transient.

Helena Paz
“What I demand in all things is life, the potentiality of existence, and that’s that; we need not then ask whether it be beautiful or ugly, the feeling that whatever’s been created possesses life outweighs these two and should be the sole criterion in matters of art” (From Lenz by Georg Buchner)
It is Helena Paz’s belief that when a painting is created it assumes a life of its own - a conviction clearly evident in her paintings which, through their more figurative nature, are brimming with life and movement.

An exhibition of photographic works by Paulette McKoy

Private View: Friday 1st of October 2010 - 6.00 pm to 11.00 pm
Exhibition runs from: Friday 1st of October 2010 - Thursday 7th of October 2010
Gallery Opening Hours: Mon, Tues, Wed, Fri: 11.00 am to 6.30 pm
Sat: 12.30pm - 5.00 pm
Last day of Exhibition: Thursday 7th of October: 10.00am to 5.00pm

“In life we experience many and varied relationships; people come into our lives for a reason, a season or a lifetime”(Paulette McKoy 2010)

One of the deepest desires of any normal human being is to be harmonised, and unified with others, as brother, sister, husband, wife, father, mother, neighbour, colleague, or friend. It is this unity that creates synergetic energy, which underpins powerful, invigorating relationships, be they marriages, families, teams, communities, alliances, and nations.

In her first solo exhibition entitled ‘The Power of Synergy’. Paulette McKoy captivates the changing moods and feelings that we as humans experience in relationships, through her subconscious creating a series of abstract paintings, expressed by vibrant yet soothing subtle lines and brush strokes, drawn from her spirit and mixed with the external sources surrounding her. McKoy’s aim is to generate a spiritual connection with the viewer transmitting joy, peace and tranquillity.

Paulette McKoy grew up in Manchester and now lives in London. During the late 90’s, She enrolled on a BTEC Arts Foundation where throughout the course, the Fine Art Lecturer at the college became increasingly impressed in her use of colour and her delicate brush strokes and tried to encourage the artist to continue her studies in Fine Art, however Paulette McKoy was determined to pursue a career in the fashion industry and went on to study at University. She then returned to the arts in 2001 and truly appreciated rediscovering her love and passion for painting, which gives her completeness and fulfilment. Paulette McKoy has been told that her work has touched people’s hearts and minds, with her selection of warm fluid colours, vibrant yet soothing subtle lines. McKoy’s work has been exhibited locally in South East London and regularly exhibited at art fairs around the country.

“Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life.” ~ Pablo Picasso

Artist retains all copyrights to paintings images are not to be copied or otherwise used without artist’s written permission.

An exhibition of photographic works by Iranian artist Noushin Ourmazd

Private View: Friday 8th of October 2010 - 6.00 pm to 11.00 pm
Exhibition runs from: Friday 8th of October 2010 - Thursday 14th of October 2010
Gallery Opening Hours: Mon, Tues, Wed, Fri: 11.00 am to 6.30 pm
Sat: 12.30pm - 5.00 pm
Last day of Exhibition: Thursday 14th of October: 10.00am to 5.00pm

Khanom is a Farsi (Persian) word. It is commonly used and it applies to; Mrs., Miss, Ms, Wife, Lady, Woman, Mistress, Mother, Female and obedient.

This exhibition touches down on identity crises for Iranian women due to socio/economical and political/cultural pressures. Who are we? The rebellious inside has been suppressed. We are not what we wanted to be and we are not what they want us to be. All these suppressions and restriction have caused women to seek their identity in material comforts as well as being influenced by the global material loving preferences.

The difference is that the existence of choice in Western society does not apply to Iranian society. They have to sacrifice their truth for the need of financial and emotional security.
The lack of economical independence plays a major role in women’s submission to the machismo culture and dominance. The artist tries to show this dominance in her work in a subtle way. There might not be the physical presence of a male in the photograph but the signs of his power are present through those materials he has provided for the woman.
It’s interesting to point out that as any other society in order to change the oppressive behaviour there must be fundamental changes in the structure of the society.

Noushin Ourmazd was born in and lived in Iran until the revolution took place. As an Iranian woman she has lived these experiences and has observed and researched the changes in Iranian women status through years and she has developed a thorough outlook of Iranian women mentality and life, which she has portrayed in her work.
The exhibition aims to raise the awareness of the visitors about the conflict Iranian women are experiencing in their identity after the revolution.