- Venue
- Nottingham Society of Artist's Gallery
- Location
- East Midlands
This October at Nottingham Society of Artist’s Gallery saw, Edward Sellman’s first solo exhibition, Transitions: Figures in Space. In this exhibition Sellman presented a selection of recent paintings made within the past few years. The exhibition explored three main groups of Sellman’s paintings: portraiture, his Ascension paintings, and a group of paintings exploring relationships with language and symbols. Sellman draws upon art history and literature within his paintings and explores issues of identity and the modern world. He seems to successfully capture a sense of emotion and reality, and also a strange sense of familiarity within his paintings that evokes interaction between viewer and art.
Sellman’s talent for painting can be seen immediately in his portraits. Each portrait feels individual and seems to capture the sitter in a natural and real way, a certain expression or pose can leave more to the viewer’s imagination. One portrait that grabbed my attention during visiting the exhibition is At the ‘curb’. This painting captures a moment that feels somewhat familiar, almost as if it could be one of our own childhood memories. Unconventional in portraiture style we watch from above, a small boy standing on the edge of a road. The perimeters of the canvas act as a frame in which the scene is contained and it feels up the viewer’s imagination what is beyond. At the same time, the child in the image would have be given a sense of perimeters, probably warned not to go further than the road in which he is now teetering upon. This idea of social parameters seems to be evident as a theme and is explored throughout the exhibition. Another of Sellman’s portraits on display is of famous local novelist Alan Sillitoe. In Portrait of Alan Sillitoe 1, the subject is painted larger than life, with his head just exceeding the edges of the canvas. This is very much the opposite of the little boy in At the ‘curb’ who is a small figure within a larger space. Sellman’s play with figure and space in this exhibition is both explorative and interesting. The larger than life aspect makes Sillitoe somehow feel more powerful, the detail within his face is precise and overwhelming, and his slightly oversized stance overlooks the viewer.
Sellman’s other paintings move away from direct portraiture towards more figurative works and seem to explore further the figure within the space and the balance between the two. In the trio of paintings on display titled Ascension (1, 2 and 3), Sellman explores the space of the underground where escalators are the setting in which the figure resides. Within these paintings again there is a strong feeling of spatial awareness. Ascension 2 and Ascension 3 feel like vignettes of a larger scene, as viewer I felt almost voyeuristic, as I watched the girl who seems somewhat trapped within the perimeters of the canvas. Within these paintings an exploration of modernity and spiritually also seems evident, with escalators of course having quite spiritual connotations and the title of ‘ascension’ itself gives the feeling of these figures moving to another place. Ascension 1 really seems to set this scene with the strong contrast between light and darkness making the image quite striking. Light floods into the dark underground as solitary figures make their way into and out of the scene. The balance between space and figure is very much in favour of space in this image, and the figures at first can go unnoticed in the darkness. I feel that because of this composition, the painting perhaps becomes a space in which the viewer can project him or herself onto, and also manages to draw the viewer’s attention and imagination to what may be happening outside of the picture.
Waiting Room, Lifts and Megaumbrella II, Sellman’s last group of paintings, explore text and symbols within painting. These three, although different to the others in terms of style of content, still feel very much in sync with the rest of the exhibition. In some ways they feel like a development of the portraits and Ascension paintings. Themes of social perimeters, figure and space, and modernity and spirituality are still very much evident and even perhaps more so in these images. The paintings themselves are quite striking, colourful and bold with styles of realism and metaphor intertwining. The spaces, in which the very real feeling figures dwell, are fabrications, yet the image as a whole manages to convey a sense of familiarity. This familiarity perhaps resides in issues of identity and the modern world that Sellman draws upon, such as consumer culture and mental illness. He does this through play with language and symbol; the paintings, made up of layering and photo collage, seem to build up a sense of scene. Unlike Sellman’s other paintings, which feature single figures, these three focus on groups. Yet there remains the feeling of solidarity, although sitting together in a waiting room or standing together in the same lift, there is a sense of individuality about the characters and feeling of tension. In particular Waiting Room seems to perfectly capture this sense of emotion. The figures sit in a space that conjures up the feeling of a waiting room. The space surrounding them is subtly built up of layered words, taken from the International classification of Diseases, a transparent cube shape stands in the centre of the space and giant circular pill shapes collate neatly in the background. The figures themselves portray a sense of realism, and their expressions feel so exact. All these elements together seem to balance out the composition of the image. I think it is perhaps the combination of these things that makes the image both unusual and successful.
Transitions: Figures in Space as a whole fits together nicely whist presenting a collection of various and individual works. The paintings themselves transcend between themes smoothly in what seems to be a well-curated exhibition space in which Sellman’s overall interests and explorations are evident throughout. As a first solo show I look forward to the next transition, and I am interested to see how Sellman’s paintings and style might now continue and develop over the next few years.
