- Venue
- The Cynthia Corbett Gallery
- Location
- United Kingdom
The Young Masters exhibition was put on by the Cynthia Corbett gallery housed in two spaces: one in the Old Truman Brewery in East London and one in Sphinx Fine Art in West London. I was fortunate enough to have viewed the half of the exhibition that took place in East London as I only stumbled upon the gallery towards the end of the day on my day trip.
The essence of the work is a response to the debt owed to the great masters, looking at their continuous play in the evolution of contemporary art; the participating artists have created work that could be considered a diverse approach to appreciating art history. The artists dispel the importance of conceptual art and focus on trying to embody the love of creation which once was the soul of art. The work itself contains many a diverse subject matter ranging from psychology and spiritualism to sexuality and icons touching base with humour and drama, while still embracing a high standard of professionalism.
The space itself I felt could have been put to better use. There’s a lack of sense of direction as I bounced around between works not unlike a pinball – although that may have just been me. Some of the works were so close to one another that it might have been hard to disconnect yourself from one of the previous pieces by one artist to the next. However, this being said, even with the melange of atmospheres from each piece, I did find many to rave about.
Valerie Mary’s work, for instance, seems obscure and ambiguous at first glance and could easily be brushed aside, but with a closer look and the allowance to let ones imagination run wild you can see so much in her work. The pieces work as a catalyst for one’s fantasy and allow the viewer to generate a range of different narratives for each piece.
Her work with painting truly carries the sensation of someone who loves the medium and truly understands how to ensnare the viewer in a way that provokes them to think beyond the factual. The ambience in her work is playful and a great tribute to her main inspirer, Jean Antoine Watteau.
Moving away from the work you can still feel her vibrant style like a comforting after taste.
This taste didn’t last long though, as I approached the fantastical yet edgy works by Hector de Gregorio. His work almost acts like an advertisement inviting the viewer to step into the artist’s imagination where there is many a peculiar event taking place, all of which I would be thrilled to attend.
The manipulation of paint and varnish over photographs instil a tone of great substance and the contemporary semi-religious narratives leaves me with the impression that they should be hung in some form of castle or great royal hall.
Each piece cross-examines sexuality, power play and ritual all within the light of a dramatic performance. It reminds me slightly of Manuel Vason’s work with performance artists the connection being in the staging of the photos and the radical narratives.
The piece ‘Absinthe’ was a particular favourite of mine; the silent connection between the two men, seemingly intoxicated to levels of bare consciousness that requires nudity, holds a bland partition between the seduction of non-verbal intimacy and the surreal feeling of being drunk.
Charlotte Bracegirdle’s work was a test of sobriety though and I arrived at describing it as endearing. Perhaps a provocative way to phrase the interaction with a piece of art, but I couldn’t express my emotions for her work in any other manner.
“When a person no longer occupies a space everything appears different, but visually nothing is altered. Everything looks, smells and feels, as it was when the person was there. The picture becomes an empty stage, deserted and uncanny – left only with hints of past activity.” – Bracegirdle
She recreates the composition of old master paintings, but removes characters or essential objects. For example Bracegirdle repaints the composition of the ‘Arnolfini Portrait’ by Jan van Eyck but without the two main characters. She does this with such skill you would think they just decided to leave. It really demonstrates, not only her impeccable ability to represent the old masters compositions, but as a result of the erasure she realizes quite brilliantly (what I would have difficult time arguing against) what would be present with the absences of these figures.
Alas even with all this great appraisal of only a fifth of the very talented artists, I find myself in halves over the exhibition, mainly because I only had the chance to see half of it but also because a couple pieces left me questioning.
The work by Masaka Yada and Antonia Tibble, I wonder, might have been slightly misplaced in keeping tone with the rest of the exhibition.
Antonia Tibbles, inspired by the iconic figure of excess, Marie Antoinette, Tibbles has created three hyperrealist films trying to reform a spoof of the feminine experience. The film is a long line of women (well one woman over and over again) consecutively performing a simple household tasks in a seductive manner. It has mutual style to the music video by Alex Gaudino, ‘Destination Unknown’ and although possibly without intention, screams a passive aggressive feminist battle – the main giveaway being the stereotypical imagery of a 50s housewife. The films to me seem slightly robotic and retain an essence derivative of the Twilight Zone.
Masaka Yada’s work derives of his enthusiasm with the subject of vanitas – in art this is a kind of symbolic still life painting, the word is Latin, meaning “emptiness”. Generically the main subject of these paintings tends to be skulls which act as an emblem for this empty lifelessness.
Yada’s work attempts to strike on a contemporary translation of the subjects popular usage during the 16, 17 hundreds but for myself he has missed the mark and instead generated paintings which seem to appraise a type of perversion. To put it lightly it reminded me of the 1988 film ‘Child’s Play’ and even though fond of the film and Yada’s work, I found it all a bit misplaced with the rest of the exhibition.
Similar with Antonia Tibble’s work I understood and appreciated the ideas, skill and technique, but could not see its entire relevance in time with the rest of the exhibition.
All in all I was delighted with the exhibition and thought even though the execution as a whole could have been improved the ideas and talent were unquestionably a grand gesture to the Old Masters and these artists have certainly proven themselves Young Masters.
