Wilson Gallery
Ian Byers
I think the link between us is in the way we work and rework imagery. We recycle, repurpose destruct and recreate to make new presentations from what we know and are familiar with. Both of us produce open-ended work, which invites the viewer to experience work in a non-literal way.
I intend to show a group of works mainly in clay, but possibly including found objects or materials. The group of work, started a few years ago, will continue and develop (see website “Making “movie and recent picture file Sculpture in a time of Covid.)
I see this exhibition as a chance to make a cohesive but visually playful interactive show of sculpture and 2D works on paper. The sculptures invite feelings of tension, chaos and the possibility of a new sort of aesthetic which recycles through destruction and remaking. The paper works combine cyanotypes, ink drawing painting and photography to produce rich vibrant colour.
Steve Owen
Starting points for the paintings are quite often the faded graphics in 50’s and 60’s magazines and often there is a fair amount of ‘pop’ ephemera buried in the resulting imagery. Paintings start fairly chaotic but are gradually ‘tamed’ however the temptation to reach a finished outcome too quickly is often difficult to resist. Initial shapes and collage material lie half concealed under washes of colour-half eroded and scratched away, and what may appear spontaneous in the work often requires destruction, obliteration, reworking and refining.
I am drawn to the use of collage material and enjoy the playful juxtaposition of fragments of coloured paper often building a piece without any predetermined plan or outcome. I enjoy the use of bold typography and often utilise type for its visual impact, all the time trying to avoid any hidden message which could be construed . A lot of the time I try to let the work reach it’s own natural conclusion. It goes without saying that I seldom set out with any kind of fixed or planned outcome.
I have always liked the work of Kurt Schwitters and Hannah Hoch. It seems with Schwitters in particular that the work has a formal structure and balance, and the interplay of colour, texture and shape lead to inexplicably beautiful compositions which communicate directly with the viewer without the need of words of explanation.
Some of the works in the show are the result of printmaking combinations – monoprinting, screenprinting, collage and drawing .
Steve Owen studied Fine Art Painting at Wimbledon School of Art before embarking on a career teaching Art in secondary schools and FE colleges. He has exhibited in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and the Bankside National Print Exhibition, as well as participating in various mixed gallery shows in London over the years..