Derek Ogbourne Sarah Neale Simone Russell
Uncertainty, anxiety, fear, separation, isolation and loss dominated the once in a lifetime events of 2020/21. As the year unfolded, three local artists mitigated the impact of confinement through the use of physical mark making and expressive painting. Working independently they produced a collection of large scale dynamic paintings exploring what it is to be human. This exhibition is a celebration of the lexicon of abstract gestural paintings created by these artists over the course of Lockdown.
The artists:
Derek Ogbourne studied at Slade School of Fine Art in London (1981-89). He teaches at Hampstead School of Art and occasionally at the Slade. He has lectured at Goldsmiths and the Royal Academy. His exhilarating, sometimes violently physical works across multiple art forms centre around the big themes of physical life: vision, violence, death; landscape, beauty and the sublime. Derek’s almost obsessive preoccupation with the strength and frailty of the human condition result in deeply complex, emotionally engaging artworks. Abstract and figurative, these paintings are a series of gestures awaiting interpretation. www.derekogbourne.net
Sarah Neale studied Fine Art at Camberwell University of the Arts and subsequently completed a PGCE at the University of London. Music, movement and immediacy are central to her practice as she strives to capture the essence of what it is to be alive in the here and now. Created spontaneously, what emerges are unplanned, free fall abstractions of line and rhythm. There is an intense physicality to Sarah’s work. Colours and marks interact as splashes of neon acrylic paint sit next to daubs of thick oil, often applied by finger and smeared into the canvas. At other times, loaded brushes are smashed across a surface and knuckles dragged through the paint. This detonating energy has yielded a series of paintings that are striking in mood and an evocation of the moments that comprise a fleeting life. www.sarahnealeriddick.com
Simone Russell trained at Glasgow School of Art and has forged a successful career in fashion and interiors. Her abstract paintings explore how her influences, experiences and development have shaped her emotional response to life. Above all, Simone’s paintings are about the healing of the self through the creative process. Simone uses colour and texture to create light and depth that entices the viewer to look and then to keep looking at what lies beneath. Each work is built up in layers, sometimes over days, sometimes months, and is only completed when a sense of stillness is achieved. Each layer represents a snapshot in time which captures elements of past and present.