The Lost Soul & Stranger Service Station – Revolver

Revolver : Hamish MacDonald
20 August – 1 September 2009
The Lost Soul and Stranger Service station@The Bluecoat Old Barber Shop
In Revolver, painter James Quin brings together four artists for whom painting remains a prime concern, for whom the notion that painting has had its day has not registered on their collective radar.  Whilst all four artists concentrate on disparate painterly concerns and narratives, what they appear to have in common is a fascination with the materiality of paint and the modes of image making.

James Quin:
6 – 19 August                 
Private View: THURS 6 August, 18:00 – 20.00

Hamish MacDonald:
20 August – 1 September  
Private View: THURS 20 August, 18.00 – 20.00 

Gareth Kemp:
3 – 15 September             
Private View: THURS 3 September, 18.00 – 20.00

Bernadette O’Toole:
17 – 29 September           
Private View: THURS 17 September, 18.00 – 20.00

Where Gareth Kemp employs a careful assembling of photographic elements prior to his quasi photographic and barren paintings populated by isolated figures, Bernadette O’Toole’s work is founded on a keen awareness of the spaces, landscapes and architecture she encounters. O’Toole’s meticulously constructed lattice work of lines do not describe these encounters literally but rather present an irregular matrix of shifting and colliding planes.

James Quin’s small scale paintings are executed in a hurry, exploiting the plasticity of paint, attempting to convey the most through an economical approach with an emphasis on tonality and subdued use of colour. His work celebrates oddness and ‘otherness’, the worlds of Paul Auster and Haruki Murakami. Hamish MacDonald’s work displays a lightness of touch and wry humour that does not detract from the serious nature of his practice. His work is paired down, at the same time both cryptic and poetic.

What seems to connect these four artists is an inherent sense of unease in their work. The clock is ticking and the outcome is uncertain.  We are confronted by images of civil unrest, figures isolated in bleak landscapes, surfaces once solid dissolve and buckle, humans morph into animals and dead painters stare blankly from their canvasses. Put simply Revolver reflects the sense that something is not quite right with the world.

Venue:
The Lost Souls and Stranger Service station @ the Bluecoat
Old Barber shop, School Lane
Open: Thursday 4 August – Tues 29 September
Opening Times : 10.00 – 18.00  Tuesday – Sat or by appointment
Contact:  qjames@tiscali.co.uk

Hamish MacDonald