Artificia

The four artists in this exhibition approach the artificial from varied positions exploring different visual terrains, critiquing consciously or unconsciously an ever expanding synthetic environment - technical, ecological, material and digital - in which we are all increasingly immersed.

Sean Dawson’s paintings exhibit a photographic dexterity while alluding to visual fields and objects that constantly evade description. Expressive, gestural brushstrokes are constantly flattened – simultaneously graphic and material. Alicia Paz’s work is similarly evasive in addressing skill and ‘the hand of the artist’. The paintings contain humour and wit; a kind of visual manifestation of the Theatre of the Absurd combined with the characteristic humour of Vaudeville. Humans morph into plant or mountain forms with a rich and positive visual presence that arrests any existential nihilism we might otherwise feel.

The nascent humour is continued in the poised and balanced responsive installations of Chihiro Yoshikura (or Kurara). Celebrating ersatz plastic materiality found in mass-produced goods from Pound Shops, these works counterpoise Dayglo consumer ‘binability’ with a subtle ecological aftertaste: Erwin Würm celebrating Friends of the Earth.

Yu-Chen Wang’s work like the others’ establishes an ecology of forms where the finely drawn and pencilled hybridised anatomies of plant and machine snake over surfaces with fluid and indeterminate rococo flourishes, sometimes manifested on a surface but often ‘through’ a space combined with object supports.

All the participating artists will be present for a symposium, 2pm to 5pm on Thursday 14 January in the Herbert Read Gallery, Canterbury. All students and staff are welcome to the symposium, followed by refreshments in the gallery.