Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
Oriel Davies, Newtown
8 November – 3 January
Reviewed by: Richard Noyce
The fascination of the box has attracted artists for many years, and this exhibition demonstrates clearly that it continues unabated. The renovation programme at Oriel Davies is only half complete, but this exhibition – in the first of the new galleries – is a masterful demonstration of the vitality and variety of the work of twenty-five contemporary artists of all generations for whom the presence of the box in their work is essential.
For the visitor there is a rich experience, and a succession of spaces within the gallery in which are displayed a dazzling array of works, ranging from the light-hearted to the profound. The gallery space itself becomes a box in which other boxes are to be found: something like a multi-media Russian doll within which the unexpected becomes commonplace.
Arthur Giardelli (born1911 and still very active) shows in delicately emotive works from 1970 and 1985 a link with Cornell and with Dadaism that establishes the continuum in which the work of the younger artists in the exhibition can be placed. Will McLean's work demonstrates his continuing skill in creating powerful and silent poetic reflections on Scottish history, whilst Charles Oakley makes intricate and perfectionist, but not pastiche, tributes to Magritte and De Chirico. Ian Killen demonstrates an idiosyncratic ironic humour in Stanley Knives accidentally acquired from landlords 1980-91. Amanda Ralph uses found objects to poetic effect, as in Brush Off with its tiny children's clogs and shoe-brushes, while Marged Pendrell presents a beautifully created archive of remnants in Honour thy Father. Richard Cox deals with the problem of the accumulation of material common to so many people, artists included, in a determined fashion, and also presents the three volumes of 'Das Kapital' in a tight-fitting custom box, with the title Unfinished Business.
Writer detail:
Richard Noyce
richard.noyce@virgin.net |
www.artwriter.co.uk
Venue detail:
Oriel Davies Gallery
The Park, Powys, Newtown SY16 2NZ
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