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Summer Exhibition Opening - A Review

Thank you to everyone who came along and enjoyed a lovely evening with us! A big thank you goes to Cllr Simon King who kindly took charge of drawing the raffle (we are all wimps who didn’t dare to do it!), Mesh 29 who provided beautiful music for us (check out www.mesh29.com because they are very good!), Ann Stromanis and the Angles Theatre crew for providing yummy food, service with a smile and a great venue, all you lovely people who made a donation to Macmillan for the ‘Big Picnic’ and/or bought a raffle ticket (did you see the Strawberry cake?!) and, Yasmin Bradley who wrote this lovely review… (oh, I hope I haven’t missed anyone out!)

The year turns around again and Atelier East is staging its 4th Summer Exhibition. This year, curator Karen Harvey has been more discriminating in her choice of work and has included only 35 pieces for exhibition. All 35 have, nevertheless, been hung with careful attention by the two Karens around the bar area and a room at the back of the theatre.

At the special opening reception held today there is a buzz of excitement in the air as artists, friends and families gather to view the exhibits, tuck into smoked salmon sandwiches, feta and salami on sticks and enormous crimson Wisbech strawberries, and vote for their best in show. In the bar, Adam Mezzatesta and Antony Shiels of Mesh 29 play a melodic acoustic set largely taken from their album “Secret Traffic” available – oh, delight of delights on vinyl as well as CD. Not a whiff of pretentiousness permeates the air– the company is eclectic and eager to exchange lively opinion; I have come later in the evening hoping to scribble my notes undisturbed with no jostling for view. Not a hope!

The chosen pieces are as eclectic as their beholders. In the back room Janet Payne’s abstract “Vision” in mixed media shines out in its strong vibrant “sixties” colours and textiles. Purple, green, white and orange plastic are gloriously interwoven with a yellow fretwork. I have no idea how the artist achieves this effect.

Next to it, Neville Palmer’s digital print “Raindown” mirrors the pallet but in softer tones of pink, yellow and green and with the luminosity of a church window. Yet there is a curious sense of someone or something imprisoned behind the panels, of seeing through a glass darkly. The panels are computerised and as precise as Bridget O’Reilly stripes but somehow - for me - with none of the emotional neutrality.

To the right, Philip Barff’s “Protesters” and “Two Portraits” grapple for attention. They do not please my fellow viewer, who longs for “something pretty” to put on her wall. I like the Expressionistic, distorted faces and the down- at- heels restricted colour scheme of blues and yellow - but maybe not, I must admit, in my bedroom. The portraits give rise to the question of what art is for: should art be pretty?

With so many big images in this room, don’t miss Karen Fevyer’s black and white photo of “Beach Hut”. She has masked off the colour so that only a single hut appears in pink and thus references but avoids the colourful cliché of painted beach huts as in Southwold. In the bar area, Karen has another black and white photo, this time of a boat. The cut-off view of the upturned vessel resembles the skeleton of a beached whale but it is also almost architectural in quality; the texture of the grass contrasting with that of the exposed dark grain of the wood.

Not far away, Jenny Furlong once again presents a textile offering. I love the lack of straight line or even a smooth plane in her work. If Tracey Emin has done nothing else, she has made textiles and embroidery unrespectable and cutting edge; here we have embroidered varieties of fruit, however, rather than sleeping companions in “The Name of the Apple”, and apples emerging from the plane in a kind of two and a half dimensionality.

Another joy is Amber Hsu’s photograph “Water Lilies”, which cast a huge, heavy shadow over the work and contrast with the delicateness of the water weed and the lily leaves bejewelled with shining drops of water. I may be reading too much into the artist’s name, but the clean lines and blacks, greys and whites have the purity of form of Japanese calligraphy or flower arrangement.

Karen Radenkova, fresh from her spring exhibition presents “Stay” and even if the proportions of the figure seem slightly out, she evokes with her depiction of light the excitement of a summer holiday on the beach, and what she does best, the tender friendship between dog and owner. For a portrayal of a relationship devoid of any trace of sentimentality, see Edward Humphrey’s “Mother” on the opposite wall. Shades of brown depict the heavy features of a woman in an off-centre composition; idealised it is not. Is Mum here?

In contrast Jack Groat’s “The Town Bridge, Wisbech” is a classic watercolour with a neat sense of perspective in soft, muted colours and the much vaunted Fen sky is painted without fuss as is the architecture. Nicholas Palmer’s photograph too “Preening Circles” simplifies and synthesises form, the head and neck of a swan, into a near abstract circular form. Of the two delicate bird images by Dave Nurney, I preferred the “Roosting Mallards” as this too had an abstract quality to it.

Tucked into the far side of the wall Rebecca Wombell’s “Towards the Pyewipe” is probably the most original piece in the exhibition. Unafraid to use the most unsophisticated of media, the artist presents us with an unusually titled but controlled and sophisticated drawing precariously positioned with unfinished edges as if it had been torn out of a scrapbook. It is beautiful. As is Veronica Haldane’s sumptuous “Flower Cascade” – my favourite artist from last year.

My best for 2009? Well, I think I was already smitten before I had even arrived; on opening an attachment of Simon Edward’s photograph of Derwent Water, I immediately downloaded it as the backdrop to my desktop and the photo looks even more stunning “in the flesh”.  It took Simon two weeks of returning to the same spot in the Lake District, he tells me, at the unearthly hour of 4 in the morning before he captured this perfect image. “Photography is all about seeing,” he says. I am in good company as Karen informs me that Simon Edwards won last year’s viewers’ vote for best in show – (of course!). Maybe you don’t agree? Well, there is only one way to find out!

Yasmin Bradley

Vote for your BEST IN SHOW here…
http://www.fenlandcitizen.co.uk/leisure/Vote-now-for-your-favourite.5427604.jp

Posted on Monday, July 6th, 2009. RSS 2.0

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