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'A Hardcore Symphony' is an exhibition of visual work by Johny Brown, the opening takes place on October 19th from 6pm onwards.
A HARDCORE SYMPHONY
This new sound rises and rises day by night in my ears
The notes don’t make sense and the rhythm is all out of step
The melody is absent chords clash the tone is all wrong
And yet the hardcore symphony just builds and builds
Filling the city with adrenaline and my heart with unstoppable wonder
I can’t stop listening, trying to make sense, hoping I will tune in
And out on the streets all previous imagery crumbles
Advertising hoardings disintegrate, street signs disappear
As if we all know you can’t depend on words and logos no more
Now the great lie is being seen through a hardcore symphony rises
Filling the city with adrenaline and my heart with unstoppable wonder
I can’t stop looking, trying to make sense, hoping I will decipher soon
And through the gnarled surface new forms take shape
Hints of a cosmos, clues to worlds we might inhabit now this one is done
It is everywhere this dirty brutal unformed hardcore symphony
Forcing through the decay rising up out of capitalism’s death throes
Filling the city with adrenaline and my heart with unstoppable wonder
I can’t stop touching, trying to feel something, hoping I will make sense soon
www.johny.co.uk
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'Mothlight' is an exhibition by Jb Hanak a French artist of Kabyle and Czechoslovak origin that lives and works in Paris.
His visual work shares several aspects with his musical universe: highly saturated, it encompasses numerous disparate influences that coexist through intense compression. From his first exhibitions in 2014, he received encouragement from several artists such as Oscar Tuazon, Jean-Luc Verna, and David Lynch. His works quickly gained recognition from notable figures in the art world, including Agnès b, the French Institute, Maison du Papier, Hey!, Halle Saint-Pierre, and Mitsubishi Pencil in Japan. He is represented in France by Galerie Anne de Villepoix.
www.jb-hanak.com
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'Through the Veils' is an exhibition by Evgeniy Kazannik
a visual artist working predominately with analogue printing techniques and synthesised sound. Born in Homel, he studied photography at the London College of Communication (University of the Arts London) and worked as a commercial photographer for over 15 years,
with work published in the Guardian, FT, Wire, Wax Poetics, NME, XLR8R and others. He moved away from working with traditional camera techniques in 2019 and started developing a new analogue process instrumenting Lumen Printing and Photogram among others. He has been awarded with a year of Music Grant form British Council and a number of scholarships. Kazannik has participated in artist residencies at BKN / Sweden in 2021, Arteles Creative Centre / Finland in 2022 and at GlogauAiR / Berlin in 2023.
www.kazannik.com
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'Domestic Heave' is an exhibition by
Oliver Baggott,
exploring the multifaceted concept of domestication, encompassing both the taming of sentient beings and the internal struggle of self-domestication.
Acting out through painting, drawing, and printing, the sometimes turbulent essence of process and material can be construed as though reflecting on challenges in conforming to societal norms and expectations. The 'heaving' physical and emotional labour involved, symbolizes the push and pull between freedom and control.
Each piece, a simulation of this, documenting the uneasy balance and constant motion inherent in domesticity while embodying a narrative of resistance and at times hopeful adaptation.
With honing and refinement sometimes making way for accepting botches and abandon, eerie displacement emerges.. with this abnegation, an almost episodic style has emerged and has a part to play in this fixture of efforts.
Ensuing metaphors are numerous enough to provoke a heaving of some sort. I've set out to emulate a British resort-style gallery as though transposed onto this domestic and crucially public-facing inner-city space.
The reclaimed materials that feature are fit for a dream kitchen refurbishment and are its own found driftwood.
All set to be constructed on time and in time for the Tory vacation.
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'Farm Security Administrative Photography' is an exhibition of digital prints by
Miklos Kemecsi
is a London based artist with a Swedish/Hungarian heritage. He's known for his work as a founding member of the avant garde band Agaskodo Teliverek and his contributions to the studio of Bridget Riley.
As an artist engaged with the intersection of technology and creativity, he explores the realm of artificial intelligence and its impact on human expression, delving into the intricate dynamics of human-machine communication and the nuanced semantics of neural networks.
In this exploration, the lines between abstraction and figuration become blurred, mirroring the intricate dance between human perception and machine cognition.
'While humans imbue abstract forms with personal significance and cultural context, neural networks approach them as clusters of data points to be categorized and analyzed. Artists like myself navigate the complexities of this dual perception.'
Opening takes place on May 25th from 6pm onwards.
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Sarah Boris
is a multi-disciplinary artist with works spanning across sculpture, drawing, painting and artists’ books. Over the last years she has been developing a body of modular artworks titled ‘After the Rain’ which have taken the form of a series of colour pencil drawings and modular sculptures in painted wood and steel. The series was inspired by her artist book ‘Rainbow’ published in 2023 and the visual dialogue discovered when joining up two of the books one with the other. The modular drawings presented at Surgery Gallery are a conversation between shapes, colour and rhythm and a continuation of her ongoing series.
Other recent works have included her public art commission “The Heart Bench” series (2022) which demonstrates how she deploys a universal symbol into a functional sculpture. One of her most notable artworks is the Fragile UK Flag (2015). Responding to political, social and economical events in the UK, the artist echoed her feeling in the looming loss of freedom of movement (pre Brexit), access to education (rising university fees) and access to health (defunding of the NHS) by visualising the Union Jack flag with Fragile tape applied onto a blue paper.
Her work has been exhibited at the Design Museum, London and is part of the collection of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the New York Centre of Book Arts; FRAC Normandie; MAK Vienna; the artothèque du Bel Ordinaire and Jan Michalski Foundation.
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www.sarahboris.com
Ismini Sigala
has worked in the VFX industry for years but has always been a real artist at heart. Recently she has discovered that she has a neurodiverse brain (ADHD). It all suddenly made clear sense why she
was always drawn to many disciplinaries in the arts. Her work has had many forms from pastels and pencils to
digital. During lockdown she has also discovered a newfound love in sonic explorations with ambient drone
sounds that she combines with her video/vfx art online.
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Ellen Wilkinson makes textiles that can be hung on a wall or draped around the body. Sitting between abstract art and functional design, her work questions the traditional notion that quilting and hand sewing belong only in domestic space.
In Ellen's practice, modernist influences are made softer: lines are wavy, grids are loose, geometry ripples. Collaging together cottons and linens she collects and repurposes, including picked-apart clothing, Ellen's quilts contain their materials’ histories, and through their laborious making, draw parallels with women's often hidden labours.
ellenwilkinson.co.uk
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Christos Fanaras
had the first show at Surgery.Gallery when it opened three years ago. We are excited to announce that he will be doing a second exhibition of new drawings showcasing his style of therapeutic doodling.
Christos Fanaras is also a practicing musician, currently a member of the psychedelic drone duo
Elephant House, and bass guitaist with
Tim Burgess.
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This September we have an exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Rupert Cole,
showing a small selection of works from his archive.
They are the product of his ongoing ‘art apparatus’ concept.
Within the apparatus, the works are subject to various uncontrolled
external ‘political’ interventions, human, plant, animal, chemical
etc. The apparatus then generates ‘quasi-art’ outputs. The results
can be haphazard as is the extrapolation of any feeling or meaning.
These experiments can sometimes appear garbled whilst also
inferring the possibility of something profound.
Opening takes place on September 23rd from 6pm onwards.
www.rupertcole.com
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This August we will be showing an installation called 'Rufus's Workshop' by artist Matt Macdonald,
taking the form of a large scale detailed drawing of the interior of a silversmith's workshop in East London belonging to his friend
Rufus White.
Inspiration has been drawn from his fascination with creative tools and machines, their form and function and their role in the production of culture.
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In July we are displaying an installation called 'Suture' by Siobhán McAuley, which opens on Saturday the 1st.
I come from Ireland, a nation of storytellers; my work revolves around the retelling of memories, adventures, haphazard predicaments or failed attempts at doing nonsensical things. I create narratives void of a conventional beginning, middle and end - mapping micro-histories as a form of resistance against the homogenous mediated narratives encountered in today’s media-saturated world.
This site-specific installation is an exercise in accessing a memory that crosses thresholds between the domestic and the workspace, the personal and the professional, the father/daughter relationship. Growing up in West Cork, my father’s veterinary surgery was conveniently located adjacent to our sitting room, so if ever he needed a second pair of hands, help was always nearby.
This piece explores such memories, while also contemplating support in its various guises: What holds? What gives? How does one draw things together? What does support look and feel like? What merges? What emerges?
I graduated with a BA in Printmaking from Limerick School of Art and Design, and hold an MA from St. Martin’s School of Art. I recently completed the Turps Studio Painting Programme. I have participated in residencies at Cyprus College of Art (2021) and Cill Rialaig Residency Programme (2022). I was awarded an Arts Council Travel Award to West Africa in 1998.
www.siobhanmcauley.com
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In June we have an exhibition called ‘Haram' by artist Marcin Filip Cybulski, which opens on Saturday the 3rd.
'Haram' meaning forbidden transaction, unlawful activity
War
What I'm trying to convey is the contradiction between what is allowed and what is not; I'm exploring how we read the juxtaposition of flowers and a gun, and the formal arrangement of the image against the meaning of the objects in it. There is something terribly wrong with the image: something impermissible is happening. What is the dynamic between these irreconcilable objects?
Think of the bigger picture, of the world and its wars. We are disgusted by violence in all its forms; and yet we hear on the news that Ukraine will get more western weapons, and rightly or wrongly, one could feel a surge of secret relief. We abhor and we allow, within a single thought...
My installation “Haram” is based on five different images, containing symbols of both terrible wrong-doings and peace. I have mentioned Ukraine, however I don’t want to support one side of any conflict, I want a viewer to recognise the subject of war as something forbidden, that should not be allowed in any form…Haram.
Marcin Filip Cybulski was born in Poland Katowice in 1976 and has resided in London since 2006. Marcin originally trained and worked as a stained glass and glass maker for over 17 years. He was a studio assistant to artists such as Tomasz Tuszko and Danny Lane, until 2011, when he chose to study and become and independent artist. After a three year degree in Fine Art, he went on to complete an MA in Printmaking at Middlesex University in 2017. He then set up his own studio in 2018 in Willesden Green, London.
www.marcinfilipcybulski.com
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In April we will be showing an exhibition of paintings called ‘Five Variations for a Public Window' by Andrew Gordon Smith.
These paintings, though they may appear highly wrought and complicated at first sight are in fact very simple in their intention. They are constructed from the interplay of basic forms - curves, circles and vertical and horizontal lines - with a limited group of colours. These are elements I have been working with now for a number of years, so I have acquired a certain familiarity with the ways in which they may interact to make a composition.
The circles are held in place by the verticals and horizontals, while the curves are pulled into spiral formations by the circles, creating varying tensions across the surface.
By this means various impressions of solids and spaces come about, emphasised by colour.
These works have no real meaning beyond their appearance, yet it may seem that some recognisable subjects are being suggested. This comes about in the perception of the viewer, rather than being a specific intention. One of the characteristics of visual art is that unlike music it always tends towards depiction. To try and negate this tendency, which is natural to human perception, would be to limit the range of pictorial possibilities too much for my liking. Therefore any interpretation is welcome and is part of the experience. Of course really unwelcome or distracting associations need to be avoided!
If my main reference for these works is musical, that is still only an analogy. Still less is it a specific reference to any particular style. The term 'Variations' in the overall title is found in relation to many different types of music. If I have in mind Baroque or Classical that is merely a preference of my own, jazz and other forms of modern music are equally relevant.
Lastly I would say that the connections between these five paintings are not narrative. Although they do explore certain visual themes, the way in which these are developed is basically self-contained within each composition. Each painting can stand on its own and there are in fact more paintings in this group than I am showing here.
They cannot be said to tell a story, and in that sense may properly be called 'variations'.
www.andrewgordonsmith.com
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In February we will be showing an installation called ‘Discharging Materials' by Rebekah Dean,
whose recent artworks explore the combined materials of hay, flour, and water, questioning representations of the abject, and the body as site for transgenerational memory.
‘Discharging Materials’ presents a grid-like formation of a 164 recyclable paper plates each containing a mixture of dried hay, flour, and water. When wet, the mixture’s decaying properties are temporarily suspended, and the co-mingling of elements become like a living body, attracting flies and insects as it dries.
The installation acknowledges the relationship to the site’s previous history, as a Doctor’s Surgery, a location that laboured in the act and care of sustaining the living human body, and in its history of being the site of one of London’s largest plague pits dating back to the Black Death
Rebekah Dean is also the curator of the sculpture trail ‘The Sky is Moving Sideways’ previously funded by Arts Council England, and co-curator of ‘Mother’s Ruin’, an exhibition installed on the site of the World’s largest tidal mill at the House Mill Gallery in Bromley by Bow, East London.
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In December the gallery is being turned into a conceptual launderette with an installation by
Bjørn Hatleskog called 'Five get into Washing Machines' featuring some infrared actuated spinning shoelages.
Shoelage is an invented term describing a collage process using only pictures of footwear.
In this instance all the shoes featured originate from a 1968 Freemans catalogue, coincidentally 1968 was also the year of Enid Blyton's death.
www.bjorn-hatleskog.com
This October we will be showing an exhibition of work by Lisa Ramirez McKendrick a multidisciplinary artist working as a painter, musician and synth creator. Her recent body of work SAINTS OF THE MACHINE explores the fascinating and perplexing interplay between distant landscapes, car parts and saint-like portraits which incorporate elements of weirdness. Using these elements she can catch the painting while it isn’t looking allowing an uncanny narrative to emerge.
Recently she exhibited her work at Gallery46, Red Door Studios and Stratosphere Beijing. She was awarded an artist commission as part of Nine Elms Advent Calendar Art Trail and was selected for ArtHelix - Life Interrupted. Previously her work was selected for Jerwood Contemporary Painters and Bow Arts Open. A collection of her paintings is currently on exhibition with Little Van Gogh in corporate spaces. Lisa is a London based artist of New Zealand and Mexican heritage.
www.lisamckendrick.co.uk
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This August we have an exhibition of hairy paintings by Jon Purnell showcasing his hair on canvas works made with 100% human hair. Jon has also worked in video, performance, painting and drawing.
He studied at St Martins School of Art and the University of East London.
He has exhibited in a number of galleries including the Milton Keynes gallery, the Arnolfini in Bristol as well as London's Whitechapel art gallery. He has also made performances at the Tate Modern and the Royal Academy.
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In July we have an exhibition by Inga Tillere a visual artist based in London working with photography, film and alternative photographic processes. Her recent work explores the way chemical processes occurring in plants interact with photographic emulsion, bringing together the medium of photography and her appreciation of the significance of the plant kingdom to human life, mythology and spirituality.
Attached is the image representative of my work and a portrait (though I struggled with that one as I usually prefer to be on the other side of the camera!).
www.ingatillere.com
cargo collective
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In May we have an exhibition opening by Hungarian painter Petra Kovács.
May I Introduce Mafdet?
The paintings in Petra KOVÁCS' series depict the possibilities of the existences of a person known as Mafdet.
Mafdet was conceived as created as a moveable puppet by KOVÁCS at the University of Hertfordshire during her Erasmus
scholarship program in the fall semester of 2021–2022. Made completely of recycled materials, with the exception of her hair crown
(hair extensions) and glass eyes. She gets her clothes from charity stores. Mafdet has a distinct personality and is called after
the Egyptian goddess Mafdet, who was an early goddess of justice who delivered fast judgment and punishment.
Her project, which is continually expanding and growing, tries to examine and depict many elements of Mafdet's life, past, present,
and not-so-distant future, via the use of diverse media. As a result, Mafdet's age is unknown, always changing, and its proper character
depiction is difficult. Mafdet has the same issues as everyone else: traumas, desires, and challanges as you and me.
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mafdet's instagram
On February 26th we have an opening for an exhibition of neo-expressionist painting by Jaime Valtierra called 'Sunrise Weaver' showcasing his vivid and bold brushwork.
SUNRISE WEAVER
It does interlock, not willingly, it is a desire, not that you can make a picture of it. It is a quiet murmur, but the sound is not related to anything, it is a wave here and an error there. Then the error is the only thing that stands, the wave goes against a wall and dissolves and then there is nothing. It all begins again. The only thing to do is to remain open, to recognise something tumbling away from you, perhaps it is far away, just a dot in the distance. When you get there it might just be a speckle of dust, or a mirror, or a thing you can’t describe.
The thing to remember is to keep moving. Here or there. It is the same place. Listen, those two lines in the sky never actually meet. You think they do. But they don’t. They keep getting closer and closer but not even at the end they meet. There is possibly no end, not in this case. Still they do interlock, it must be a temporary mirage, an error of the eyes, a misfiring brain. Whatever it is, it takes place at intervals, when you work towards not getting there, when you forget it was even possible.
You must forget everything without forgetting to move, towards the thing without the meaning of the thing. Where is it? If I think about it, it is never there. If I don’t, it is nowhere to be found. If it was a little bell around a cat’s neck it would be easier. Unfortunately most things are not attached to a bell. A face has a voice, if I listen closely perhaps I could draw you in your sleep.
I was meant to be talking about painting here. Every time I sit to write I do about painting. A whole life dedicated to painting. Sometimes it does get a bit pointless. But it is the least pointless of all of the other things available. Oh yes, let me go back to the beginning of this text, towards nothing, towards a nest. The nest is something. You see, what I mean is: towards forgetting the idea of the nest. All ideas must be forgotten.
www.jaimevaltierra.com
aleph contemporary
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For November, we have an exhibition by John Franklin Higgins whose work traverses sculpture painting and photography, emerging from an attention to the relationship between production, and the consumptive norms through which we process our information environment. His studio process embraces chance and humour, playing with the idea of artist as agent through which desire and meaning are materialised.
www.johnfranklinhiggins.com
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This September, we host a new installation by Mary Yacoob - metallic vinyl artworks inspired by diagrams of surgical instruments from the Wellcome Collection. Mysterious and biomorphic abstractions emerge from the visual legacy of the history of medicine.
www.mary-yacoob.com
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This August we are exhibiting a series of drawings by E.L Campbell.
The work in the show is drawn from both the observation of natural forms and growth combined with intuitive drawing to create hybrid ambiguous images reflecting on light, space, fragility, movement and change.
www.elcam.weebly.com
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In June we have an exhibition of Wojciech Rusin's 3D printed pipes. 3D printing technology reflects the surface of the mind, as in an alchemical laboratory the processes of chemicals, of material transmutation, reflect the processes of the alchemist’s mind. The spools of plastic are full of endless potential and can be transformed into ‘buckets’ or ‘jewels’ at any point. 3D printed plastic fuels the Deleuzian ‘desiring machine’.
www.wojciechrusin.com
pipe shoppe
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In April we have a new exhibition called 'Managing Expectations: Lockdown Easel', which will take the form of a collection of Oliver Baggott's small-scale anthropomorphic faux naïf abstractions and death stare-down phantascapes.
All the paintings were created in a subterranean studio in the basement of a church on top of the Penton mound close to the rumoured location of Merlin's cave.
www.oliverbaggott.com
www.craterpress.co.uk
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The inaugural show at SURGERY.GALLERY will take place early December 2020 featuring an installation by Christos Fanaras called
Wall (Disturbed Meditation). It started out as some therapeutic doodling on his kitchen wall which over a number of years grew to encompass a very large area. Recently during renovations builders tore the wall down, fortunately however Christos was able to rescue parts of the demolished wall. What we have on display are the surviving pieces of plasterboard, with the accompanying doodles.
Christos Fanaras is also a accomplished musician; currently a member of the psychedelic drone duo
Elephant House, as well as the bassist in
Tim Burgess and
Daniel O'Sullivan's groups.
elephant house
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SURGERY.GALLERY
is a pandemic friendly display window art gallery located in a former Doctor's Surgery on Pitfield Street in Hoxton, which is itself nestled atop one of London's largest plague pits dating back to the Black Death (1665-1666).
All enquires should be sent to Bjørn Hatleskog.
SURGERY.GALLERY
79A Pitfield Street, London, N1 6BT, UK.
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