- Venue
- General Office Gallery/Studios, 12 Hagley Road, Stourbridge DY8 1RS Tel: 07976935413
- Location
- West Midlands
An exhibition of ‘Recent Works’ by GO studio artist Louise Blakeway explores a fascination for identity through portraiture, the figure and colour.
A sophisticated collection of self-portraits boldly infuses a conscious and unflinching gaze with a contemporary reverie. Close up and angular, the introductory artist’s portrait, half way up the gallery stairwell, looks at you as a fish does from a glass bowl. A distortion of size and seeing; setting the tone of the exhibition gazing into a world of figures half known, often blank of face, almost formed, consistently energised.
The figure appears to act as a canvas less for a depiction of the subject or body but as an investigation of colour and its construction through paint. Vibrancy sets the pace and lingers from image to image through a swiftness and collaboration of brush marks. The links made through the exhibition are often through this lift of colour and investigation of form.
One gallery wall has a set of four charcoal drawings – these appear as a ribbon dance – with an effortless sweep of a long stick of graphite – at once marking the form and in the same breath navigating the strength and curve of the back. One senses a rich and instinctive practice with a swiftness of approach and a sophisticated application of embodied knowledge.
A small group of objects sit on a shelf – appearing perhaps as a taster for something to come! Boldly lined up they reveal potential information – numbers lifted from a cast – blocks of colour – a wrapped plaster cast of a small figure. An introduction and offer to sense and see again the life and person in the images and constructions of the exhibition.
Please contact Louise Blakeway [email protected] for further information or General Office on [email protected]
