Comme Ca Art presents

Art and Artists

The Lowry Hotel 5th March – 14th April 2009

PREVIEW EVENING, Thurs 5th March, 6pm – 8pm The Lowry Hotel, 50 Dearmans Place, Chapel Wharf Salford, M3 5LH

The exhibition continues until 14th April 2009

Click on the above for a 360 degree Virtual Tour of the Art and Artist exhibtion.

“Paintings can act as ciphers for the imagination, and in this we can identify a common desire from the artists to paint the world as they encounter it, which appears to be the modern artist’s main driving force.”
Clair Watkin, Comme Ca Art

‘Art and Artists’ is a group exhibition of some of Comme Ca Art’s most promising and innovative artists. All those selected to exhibit are primarily painters-and the diversity of their chosen works allows the viewer to examine contemporary art through one medium.

In recent years artists have rediscovered painting on an international scale. However, artists are using painting as a means to fashion an individual worldview rather than aiming for a common artistic direction. Rather than stylistic traits, the common trends are driven by the idea to create a singular painted mythology. Whether abstract or figurative- artists share the common purpose of painting to translate their experiences.

 Each artist has provided a text that outlines their purpose as a painter  to accompany their works. The inclusion of the texts aims to introduce contemporary painting in an informed way; engaging the spectator with the artist to give insight into their work.

When you read each of the artists’ statements you can recognise themes that reoccur amongst them; Rebecca Davy and Martin Nash share a focus on the play of light amongst the paint and visceral nature of the material itself. When you look at their work however, it is easy to see the difference in the way each artist deems to explore this with their painting.

Looking at the paintings, you can see the different ways in which these artists have appropriated the painted medium. Gareth Morgan depicts simple and bold block-colour and lines that aim to animate a sense of modern experience and emotion; figures recognisable as everyday people that are disguised by their self-made masks. Simon Naish thwarts the recognisable with his use of grotesque figuration. His amalgamation of the real and the fantastic gives life to a mythological world that draws references from a wealth of art history. .

John Hamilton and Simon Taylor each lend more variance to the show. Hamilton’s subdued studies of people and animals in a story-like setting have a playful and witty tone.  He draws inspiration from the visual stimuli we come across in our daily lives, like Taylor whose works are often based on photographs or film-stills. But Taylor’s concerns with our processing of this information lead to an exploration of the image that results in semi-permanent, impressionistic  vistas that you see more of the longer you look.

Seeing these artists together offers a chance to take in a wealth of contemporary painting, and is an introduction to the theories and ideas behind the work, from the artist’s point of view. 

Art and Artists:

Rebecca Davy

‘Flood’
Oil paint on canvas                                
30cm x 40cm               
£295

My earlier paintings had been landscapes, while more recently they have been still lives, and in a way my current work is a marriage between the two genres. One of the inspirations behind these paintings is the Grimm fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel with its sweet but sinister gingerbread cottage, but i'm also interested in the process of painting itself; the seductiveness and sensuousness of pushing paint on canvas, and constructing a painting that has strong elements of light and colour. These sweet confections: that can flow and drip; be sticky and colourful, share these characteristics with paint itself.



John Hamilton

‘The Lone Stag’
Mixed media on paper
100cm x 70cm              
£800

My work is influenced by everything around us. It may be images in newspapers and magazines, places I have visited, films I have seen, books I have read, or lines from a song. Anything that gives me an idea or a visual image. Very often an image or story will give me a starting point, then I will develop a series of drawings based on this. As the drawings develop the story may change or even become irrelevant.

I paint in two different ways. My main media is oil on canvas which can be a long and slow process. I also work with acrylic on paper which is a much quicker and more spontaneous way of working. These have recently involved collage and other media such as pastels, charcoal, varnish and fabric. I also produce large scale drawings and prints.

Simon Naish

‘The Starmen Go In Search Of The Mothers’
Oil & acrylic paint & on canvas               
152cm x 137cm            
£1,600

The formal or aesthetic aspect of my work is characterised by a vibrant palette and super-flat backdrops composed of abstract patterns, achieved by carefully layering paint to eliminate evidence of the artist’s brush. My intention is to create a heightened feeling of artificiality, which serves to undercut any recognition the viewer may experience with the figurative element in my work and exaggerate the unreal. The compositions are often constructed by juxtaposing found photographic images with my own imaginings in a form of painted collage. It is often these found images and the ideas that they suggest which forward the narrative element, which advances from painting to painting through its own pictorial logic.

Martin Nash

‘Dark Heart’
Acrylic paint on canvas
153cm x 122cm 
£1,200

My work is primarily abstract and about the procces of painting.

My objective is to make paintings that have an emotional and sensual content.

Form is allowed to evolve through the activity of experimentation with paint; this process is often dictated by the factors such as relative solubility of different thicknesses of paint and the effect of gravity, the quality of a painting often being revealed through the removal of, rather than the accumulation of paint.

Gareth Morgan


‘Boxman Portrait’
Hand painted acrylic paint on Perspex    
56cm x 50cm               
£1,100

My most recent work uses the mask as a theme. The characters in my recent paintings wear homemade masks, and crude cardboard and parcel tape bodies, as if to inhabit a kind of imaginary space whilst in the safety of their own home. These things could be going on behind any closed front door.

My life is quite ordinary, but I believe there’s enough subject matter in normal everyday life to make interesting work. I look in on myself for inspiration, to try to find inner truths, rather than directly responding to outside stimuli.

I am always collecting ideas for paintings. Sometimes they are images, sometimes they are more abstract concepts or emotions.

Simon Taylor

‘Generic Holiday Image (River)’                     
Acrylic paint on aluminum                      
49cm x 36cm               
£550

Whilst the finished works are paintings if feel they sit somewhere between a photographic and painted image. Studying Fine Art Painting and then becoming a fine art photographer for many years after graduating means my work is heavily influenced by the photographic image.

All the works I produce are created from a photographic starting point; this may be a film still, a reproduction, a postcard or an original image. The starting image is digitally manipulated using traditional photographic and cinematic techniques depending on my personal response to the original image then translated into paint to create a finished work.

If you would like to attend the preview or would like further information about this exhibition or about the featured artists please contact: info@commecaart.com.

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