3 – 5 November 2017 Vernissage (upon invitation): 2 November 2017
Opening Hours: 12 – 8pm
Workplace Gallery is excited to exhibit a group presentation of Jo Coupe, Jennifer Douglas and Laura Lancaster, three artists based in the Northeast of England who explore alchemical processes of transformation and entropy within a context informed by art history, gender politics and feminism.
Jo Coupe Vermicular, 2014, Cutout and rearranged botanical prints from 'Wayside and Woodland Blossoms (vol 3)' by Edward Step (1933 edition), archival tape, dissection pins, 81 x 81 x 8 cm (JCP0105)
Jo Coupe’s interest in science as well as religion, the paranormal, and witchcraft has led to periods of research in diverse environments ranging from the industrial to the domestic. For Artissima we will show a new series of floral collages created from antique botanical copper plate illustrations. Painstakingly cut out by scalpel and separated into constituent parts (leaves, stems, fruit, flowers, roots etc) before being reassembled into a new and complete hybrid and pinned delicately against the wall with dissection pins, Coupe’s work refers to archetypal narratives of cutting and healing, and to the oppositional forces of destruction and renewal intrinsic in processes of transformation.
Jennifer Douglas A Tacit Understanding (Silver / Slate), 2017, Silver leaf, floor paint on linen, 150 x 120 cm (JD0165)
Jennifer Douglas’ recent paintings reference the working environments of heavy and light industry in Northern Britain and find painterly equivalents within the history of modern and contemporary art. Using proletarian materials such as industrial floor paint, Douglas uses gold and silver leaf to cover her industrial grey monochromatic surfaces, allowing natural chemical reactions to destabilise and tarnish the surfaces to create minimal paintings that resist the symbolism of wealth and point back, earth-bound, to the elemental properties of materials and their inevitable, yet beautiful decline.
Laura Lancaster, Untitled, 2017, Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80 cm (LL0783)
Laura Lancaster's recent portraits of women in silhouette are based upon found anonymous analogue photographs collected by the artist. Selected from badly shot holiday snaps and family pics, Lancaster purposefully restates these rescued images as potent, provocative inversions of the male gaze. In her Shadow series, figures are abstracted towards base matter, indivisible from the pictorial surroundings. Faces dissolve into meaty swathes of colour while blackened socket like eyes stare impassively and powerfully, confronting the viewer with truths of time.
For further information on the works shown click here or contact:miles@workplacegallery.co.uk
