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Gerry Smith MEET ME IN A DREAM Featuring artworks by John Swarbrick This exhibition will be available to view throughout summer by appointment only.
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Gerry Smith House
of Compliments 2022
paint on cardboard |
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Private View: Friday 10 June 2
- 8pm Gerry Smith is a London based artist who is
continually inspired by all that is around him. Smith’s current
exhibition, MEET ME IN A DREAM showcases a collection of
recent artworks which reflects the artist’s interactions with
objects and art. The artworks being exhibited include an array of
materials such as feathers and wrappers, sweets and sanding discs,
even dried fruit. These items are impulsively arranged and bound
together by paints of all colours. The colours and forms disguise
the materials in question, acting as a punctum, interrupting the
viewers line of vision. This mimics the way in which Smith himself
has been drawn to these eye-catching items. What someone may
discard, Smith arranges at the centre of a picture – placing it on a
pedestal for visual consumption. The ‘found’ image or object has played a
significant role throughout Smith’s painting, with objects and
landscapes having to compete with the optical effects of being
confronted by vivid colour. Never allowed to wander or seep, the
colour is set confidently onto its surface, no matter what material
is concealed below or sits proudly atop. Smith admires the work of
Belgian artist and poet, Marcel Broodthaers. There are echoes of
Broodthaers’ practice in Smith’s work as he plays around with the
relationship between fine art and the everyday object through these
painted arrangements. The process behind Smith’s work in MEET ME
IN A DREAM verges on automatism as pieces are formed
instinctively. These artworks are physical manifestations of the
artist’s thoughts and reactions to the colours and forms which have
been collected. These collages are often assembled quickly and left
alone, only to be broken up the following morning as the artist’s
vision has altered overnight. This urgency is captured within these
up-tempo artworks which are the products of a fleeting creative
urgency felt by Smith. After a piece is considered whole enough,
Smith moves onto his next arrangement without dwelling on what he
has just created. This pattern of find, arrange, rearrange and
repeat is like playing a game in Smith’s eyes. Like a game each
artwork has an unpredictable outcome as the artist delves into
creation without a plan or end goal. Each work communicates the
obvious pleasure that the artist takes in creating, but they also
transmit his permanent concern to be an artist observing our
society. The art is not a simple exploration of the pictorial
language and theme nor is it a dialogue of forms and colours, it is
an expression of living which draws its substance and energy from
the life lived in the city immersed by materials and colours. Gerry Smith has exhibited both nationally and
internationally. Solo exhibitions have been held at
Atelier d’Argent, Brussels (1993);
Cabinet d’Art Contemporain, Brussels (1994); Danielle Arnaud, London
(1995, 1997, 1999, 2015); Oliver Sixten, Brussels (1997); Stichting
Kunstbevordering, Brussels (1998); Pascale Drion, Brussels (2001)
and Gallery Westland Place, London (2001). Group shows have been
exhibited at Cabinet d’Art Contemporain, Brussels (1994, 1995); Oh!,
Brussels (1995); Sabine
Wachters, Brussels
(1996); Accident, London (1998); Clink Wharf Gallery,
London (1999); Animal Beauty, Danielle Arnaud (1998);
The Glass Border, Danielle Arnaud
(1999); Nicole
Klagsbrun, New York (1999); IAF, London (2000); Gallery Dialogue,
Ostende (2001); FosterArt,
London (2004); Painting is Cruel, Danielle Arnaud
(2005); Pump House Gallery,
London (2005); V22 Contemporary Art Collection, London
(2006); Biennale Austria, Klagenfurt (2006); Annie Gentils, Antwerp
(2008).
Smith has also
curated shows including Sense & Nonsense, Danielle Arnaud
(2003); Outdoors, Danielle Arnaud (2006); Buitendoor,
Ostend (2009); Allow me to present, Munich (2010); War
Rooms, Danielle Arnaud
(2011); Experiment Nr 2, Munich (2014); The Last Princess,
Munich (2021).
For this show, Gerry Smith has invited fellow
London based artist, John Swarbrick, to exhibit a selection of his
artwork. Swarbrick’s paintings are profound meditations on
image-making sedimented within images themselves. On the one hand,
they are the result of a virtuosic grasp of paint's material
possibilities and, on the other, they explore painting's evolving
formal possibilities in the wider context of contemporary image
production. On a visual level, the intersecting, looping lines in
each work evoke a range of associations including eccentric
architectures and ambiguous objects, loosely contoured figures and
puzzle-piece heads, arabesques and scaffolds. Often the drawing
balances between plan and object, as if representing a thing in the
process of being unfolded. Swarbrick's reflection on the relation
between materiality and appearance is apparent in all aspects of the
work - from supports to grounds, from the qualities of line to those
of paint itself. In particular, the ground, no less so than the
drawing inscribed on it, is integral to the image. In some paintings
it may be powdery in imitation of stone or paper, where in others it
is textured like wood. Metaphorically, it is as if the image were
delineated on top of a depiction, with the result that we seem to be
looking at an image of an image. A similar effect is created in
other paintings that present the viewer with an improbably sheer and
glassy surface reminiscent of a digital screen. Not directly
digital, they nonetheless acknowledge the screen as part of their
idiom. Overall, these are paintings that revel in both visual and
formal invention consonant with the medium's recent history, as well
as the new potentials of its evolving material and technical
conditions. Swarbrick’s solo exhibitions and awards
include: Almeida Gallery, London (1983);
Zola Lieberman Gallery, Chicago (1985); Adam Gallery, London
(1986); Unit 7 Gallery (Museum of Installation), London (1987);
Islington Arts Factory, London (1988);
Blenheim gallery, London
(1989); BP Oil Sculpture competition (short listed), Queen Elizabeth
Hall, South Bank, London (1990); Engrain, Jock Colville Hall,
Churchill College, Cambridge (2001); winner in the Ishizumi Fan
Design competition (2012). Group shows include: Showroom Gallery, London
(1984); Name Gallery, Chicago (1985); British Contemporary
Photography, Chester; Patricia Knight Gallery, London (1987);
Whitechapel Open, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; Galleria de
Barranco, Lima, Peru (1989); Ersatz, 10 Martello St. Studios,
London; Pleasures at the table, Exeter University (1991);
Cable & Wireless, London (1996); Tom Blau Gallery, London; E1
Gallery, London (1997); Attlee Foundation, Gulbenkian Gallery, RCA,
London (1998); TheSelectors, Islington Arts Factory, London (2000);
Lost the remote, Mellow Birds Gallery, London (2001); Britart
Gallery, London (2003); Tempest Radford, London (2004); Fosterart,
London (2005); Outdoors,
Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Art, London (2006); Buiten Door,
Andromeda, Kursaal Westhelling, Oostende (2009); Smith & Williamson,
Moorgate, London; Exhibition at Brunei Gallery, University of
London, SOAS (2012).
Click HERE to view a PDF of the works
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