Gary Colclough | Neither From Nor Towards

Art Seen is delighted to announce Gary Colclough's first solo exhibition in Cyprus. The exhibition will comprise a new body of works consisting of painting, drawing and sculptures and is curated by Maria Stathi. The opening of the exhibition is on Friday the 29th of September at 19:30. The exhibition is supported using public funding by Arts Council England and British Council, U.K.

'Colclough’s artworks are closely finished geometric assemblages. They have the beauty of crafted objects, appearing self-contained and complete. Scrutiny reveals an equally engaging counter direction of things incomplete. Sides of framing have been taken away, structures returned to component parts, images have been sliced up, colours mixed out. Contradictory forces are at play, a flux of real and illusion, is it sculpture or picture? The artworks are made of hi-tech materials but mix in old world imagery. They look like functional objects in the way a sign does, but they don’t instruct. Quickly one notices how they resist revealing narratives that perhaps they seemed to offer, instead they exude a knowing silence. [...]
Using sculptural assemblages is a strategic move by Colclough to make sense of our human condition, through it he can collage contrary thoughts together and remake a working model of the world. It also means he can contain the beguiling illusory power of the image, because the image is housed by his sculptural structures.[...]
Colclough’s painstaking painting technique frees the images from the factual ties of photographic reportage turning them into archetypes of place. The analogy now is to panels of illustrated stained glass held by heavy lead margins, fitting the shapes made for them and working in relation to their context. Colclough’s painted panels appear to absorb and emit light just like a painted window. There is a common exchange between the image and its supporting structure and one suspects these images have created niche constructions for themselves; like immigrant animals each inducing specific environmental conditions and bringing simulacra of habitat with them.[...]' To read the full text please click here.

Excerpt from essay 'Signposts and Terror' by Jeremy Akerman, freelance curator and co-director of the organisation Akerman Daly.

Gary Colclough b. 1977, Exeter, UK. Lives and works in London. Colclough studied at The Chelsea College of Art & Design 1996-1999 and Central Saint Martins 2008-2009 where he also currently teaches. Recent solo exhibitions include: Choreography of Fragments, La Galerie Particuliére, Paris (2017); Material Symmetry, William Benington Gallery, London (2015); Other Worldly, dalla Rosa Gallery, London, (2014). In 2013, he was shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize which coincided with a show at The Jerwood Space, London.

Opening Hours: Wednesday to Friday 15.30 – 19.00. The exhibition can also be viewed by appointment outside opening hours.