H_A_R_D_P_A_P_E_R will take place in the main gallery at Phoenix Art Space from 2nd March – 14th April (The gallery is open from Wed – Sun. 11am - 5pm)

The Preview evening will be Friday 1st March (6pm – 8pm)

H_A_R_D_P_A_P_E_R is the third in a series of exhibitions at Phoenix Art Space that highlight work by contemporary abstract painters. H_A_R_D_P_A_P_E_R does not dictate an aesthetic. Nor does it imply a preference for one process over another. Rather it concerns itself with the elusive and critical nature of contemporary non-objective painting today; the complexities, the overlooked simplicities and the ‘wonder’ it can engender.

This iteration focusses on works on paper, from preparatory studies to finished paintings, acknowledging the different qualities of surface that can influence mark making. For this exhibition artists from the previous two have been asked to select a piece of their own work, and invite another artist to be involved.

Join us this spring for an exhibition exploring space, colour, line and edge.

H_A_R_D_P_A_P_E_R

Phoenix Art Space, Brighton 2 March - 14 April 2024, Wednesday – Sunday, 11.00 – 17.00 Private View: Friday 1 March, 18.00 – 20.00

For more information please see https://www.phoenixbrighton.org/Events/h_a_r_d_p_a_p_e_r/

The artists exhibiting in H_A_R_D_P_A_P_E_R are:

Mohammad Ali Talpur_Richard Bell_Biggs and Collings_Helen G Blake_Katrina Blannin_Isabelle Borges_Ian Boutell_John Bunker_Matthew Burrows_Belinda Cadbury_John Carter_Cedric Christie_Nina Chua_Philip Cole_Deb Covell_Gina Cross_Matt Dennis_EC_Henrik Eiben_Stig Evans_Catherine Ferguson_Martina Geccelli_Della Gooden_Richard Graville_Dom Gray_Charlotte Winifred Guerard_Alexis Harding_Rupert Hartley_Pete Hoida_Zarah Hussain_Ditty Ketting_Roman Lang_Jo McGonigal_Matthew Meadows_Johanna Melvin_Mali Morris_Morrissey and Hancock_Jost Münster_James William Murray_Patrick O'Donnell_Tim Renshaw_Giulia Ricci_Carol Robertson_Sonia Stanyard_Daniel Sturgis_Trevor Sutton_G R Thomson_David Webb_Lars Wolter_Eleanor Wood_Mary Yacoob_Jessie Yates.

A Preview of H_A_R_D_P_A_P_E_R by Sam Cornish

Abstract art has been around for a little over a century or is many millennia old. It depends on how, and what, you count. Either timespan puts into perspective recent market-led claims of the return of abstraction or its demise at the hands of figuration. Abstraction is a fact of the artistic landscape, continuing whether or not institutional curators, art journalists, blue-chip galleries or wealthy collectors are paying attention.

The current show is a broad and egalitarian view of current activity. It is the third in a series of exhibitions and the first to concentrate on works on paper. Participants in the previous iterations were asked to nominate another artist to join them. Each exhibiting artist chose what work of theirs would be shown.  More than fifty artists are included, ranged from their mid-twenties to their mid-eighties, with most probably somewhere in the middle. Amongst them are two who have recently passed away – Jane Harris and Pete Hoida.

The work presented in H_A_R_D_P_A_P_E_R is diverse enough that there are exceptions to all general statements about it. I would be surprised if the curators agreed on a definition of abstract art (or as they prefer non-objective art) and completely amazed if anywhere near a consensus could be reached amongst the exhibiting artists. The point is not to advance a particular position but to show something of the range of approaches that abstraction sustains. The development of abstract art in the twentieth century was fuelled and enriched by frequent and often intense polemics. Ironically this succession of narrow views revealed abstraction’s openness, the impossibility of tying it down to a single definition. Abstract art is a matter of family resemblance rather than essence.

All that being said, some dominant, if never exclusive, themes can be drawn out of the work chosen for H_A_R_D_P_A_P_E_R. This is a natural consequence of the taste of the four curators, and the artistic-social circles they move in. There is a tendency toward geometry and correspondingly less self-expressive or “painterly” painting. Geometry tends to be home-spun and improvised rather than mathematical or idealised. Brevity is preferred to complexity, concision and clarity to extravagance and overt drama. There is a concern for painting as an object, a particular material brought into a particular order, rather than painting as a screen or window where illusions are created. Colour is correspondingly simple and direct.

What is ‘hard’ about this? For me the exhibition promises pleasure rather than difficulty. Yet perhaps our pleasure will increase if we approach the exhibition as a challenge, one where we attempt to be as open as possible to each work as an individual thing, and to the myriad surprises on offer as these individuals meet for the first time.

Sam Cornish February 2024