Samhain

Samhain

In many traditions, time is considered to be cyclical
rather than straight line. Perceived as a perpetual
cycle of growth and retreat tied to the Sun’s annual
death and rebirth. This cycle is also viewed as a
micro and macrocosm of broader life cycles in an
immeasurable series of rotations composing the
Universe. The days that fall on the landmarks of the
yearly cycle traditionally mark the beginnings and
middle-points of the four seasons.
‘Samhain’ is the second in an evolving series of
Anima Mundi online mixed exhibitions following
this rhythm of the seasons, known as ‘the wheel
of the year’. This ‘calendar’ provides a cue for
the duration of each show, and inevitably, albeit
not deliberately, flavours the selection of
works presented.
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“I feel the nights stretching away
thousands long behind the days
till they reach the darkness where
all of me is ancestor.”
Annie Finch, ‘Spells: New and Selected Poems’
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Miles Cleveland Goodwin (b. 1980)
Miles Cleveland Goodwin’s upbringing
in the American South is a recurring
theme in his brooding paintings and
sculptures. Goodwin draws parallels
between the people he portrays, the
rhythm of their rural ways of life, and
the rugged landscapes that they inhabit.
The artist frequently evokes themes of
mortality, decay and solitude with a sense
of phantasmagoric realism combined
with a haunting stillness. Goodwin’s
‘Southern Gothic’ works conjure the
ambivalent beauty of a place that is both
simultaneously desolate yet deeply soulful.
Goodwin lives and works in Georgia, USA.
He graduated from the Pacific Northwest
College of Art in Oregon in 2007 with a
BFA in painting and printmaking. His work
has been featured in group exhibitions
at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, the
Grace Museum and the Amarillo Museum
of Art among others and can be found in
collections worldwide.
Country Church
mixed media on canvas, 76 x 122 cm
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Graveyard
oil on canvas , 76 x 102 cm
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Laurence Edwards (b .1967)
Laurence Edwards’ sculptural practice
has long been concerned with the
physical and metaphysical, orderly and
entropic, entwining of man, nature and
time. Organic matter is often built into
the casting process, perhaps a detritus
of leaves, branches, stone and / or rope.
One of the few sculptors who casts
his own work, he is fascinated by the
metamorphosis of form and matter that
governs the lost-wax process which is
an inherent part of his process. It is a
method of working which also registers
symbolically and conceptually. His
primary working material is bronze, an
alloy that physically and metaphorically
illustrates the natural tendency of
any system in time to tend towards
disorder and chaos. His sculptures
express this raw material potential,
harnessing molten liquid versatility to
achieve solid mass. Each process mark
is both embraced and retained, telling
the story of how and why each work
came to be.
Based in Suffolk, Edwards studied
sculpture at Canterbury College of Art
and bronze casting at the Royal College
of Art with Sir Antony Caro. After
winning a Henry Moore Bursary, the
Angeloni Prize for Bronze Casting and
an Intach Travelling Scholarship, he
studied traditional casting techniques
in India and Nepal, an experience that
not only influenced his treatment of
form and technique, but also gave him
the necessary tools to establish his
own atelier and foundry. In November
2019, ‘Man of Stones’ was unveiled
at the Sainsbury Centre in Norfolk.
In 2018, Edwards was commissioned
by Doncaster Council to create a
sculpture that celebrates the lives of
those who worked in the collieries
around Doncaster. ‘A Rich Seam’
was unveiled in Print Office Street
in 2021. In November 2021, Edwards
installed a 26-foot-high sculpture,
alongside the A12 highway in Suffolk,
called ‘Yoxman’. This colossal figure
embodies his fascination between the
human figure and the environment;
he is part tree, cove, cliff and figure.
‘Gathering of Uncertainties’ opens at
The Orange Regional Gallery NSW
early 2023. Edwards is represented by
Messums Wiltshire.
Lucuna (2022)
bronze (edition variee), 140 x 60 x 30 cm
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David Quinn (b. 1971)
Working on several pieces at once, David
Quinn’s studio is an intimate, white,
rectangular space where small scale, interrelated
yet instinctively painted works, hang
in line or grid. Each piece a self contained
unit, both unique and yet part of a greater
whole, as if individual words as part of
a sentence, notes in a tune or hours in a
day. What at first glance appears simple,
minimal and understated, reveals itself
upon closer inspection to be multilayered
and imbued with quiet complexity, where
a unique history is accumulated, built
like strata in sedimentary rock. A finished
painting is the summary of the process of
its creation: a concentrated form or essence,
containing both purity and imperfection,
each tablet a poetic palimpsest, considered
by Quinn as a marker of time, spent
in contemplation - akin perhaps to a
physical embodiment of meditation or
a prayer.
David Quinn was born in Dublin, Ireland
in 1971 and currently lives and works in
Shillelagh, County Wicklow. His paintings
have been exhibited internationally and
can be found in collections worldwide.
Cloghan (1)
mixed media on panel, 21.5 x 13.5 cm
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Cloghan (2)
mixed media on panel, 21.5 x 13.5 cm
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Cloghan (3)
mixed media on panel, 21.5 x 13.5 cm
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Andrew Litten (b. 1970)
Andrew Litten’s dynamic and gestural
figurative artworks express a strong interest
in the universal complexity of everyday
existence. Dealing with humanistic themes
such as love, sensuality, fear, anger, loss,
nostalgia, mundanity, personal growth
and perceived identity normality or
disturbance. Works are created with an
unguarded, empathetic attitude, like so
many expressionistic artists, a rawness of
approach combined with an often viscous
application of paint is also key to the extreme
experience felt from the work. Gesture and
nuance inspire extreme emotive reading,
perhaps subversive, tender, passionate,
ambivalent, malevolent or compassionate,
our response becomes one of allure
or repulsion.
Andrew Litten is a British artist, born in
Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire in 1970. He
currently works from his studio in Fowey,
Cornwall. He is a self-taught artist leaving
art college as a teenager having found
it to be too restrictive to his aspired
method of working. For a decade he created
mostly small-scale works using humble
domestic or found materials (including
envelopes and assembled furniture parts).
The work made at this time deliberately
challenged ideas of art elitism and art as
commodity. He then moved to Cornwall
in 2001 and chose to begin exhibiting.
Early success came when his work was
included in an exhibition titled ‘Nudes’ in
New York City, (along with Jacob Epstein
and Pierre-Auguste Renoir), where his
work was highlighted and reviewed by the
New York Times. Shortly after he had four
consecutive solo exhibitions at Goldifsh
Fine Arts in Penzance, Cornwall. Other
notable exhibitions included ‘Move’ at Vyner
Street, London, during Frieze Art Week
2007, where his work ‘Dog Breeder’, created
as a twisted and emphatic anti-art statement,
was exhibited. He was also included in ‘No
Soul For Sale’ at Tate Modern Turbine Hall,
London in 2010. In 2012 he held a major
solo exhibition at Millennium in St Ives,
Cornwall and that year was given a guest
solo exhibition at L13 Light Industrial
Workshop, London. He has also held largescale
solo exhibitions at Spike Island and
Motorcade FlashParade in Bristol. ‘Ordinary
Bodies, Ordinary Bones’ was conceived with
support from The Arts Council, UK and
was exhibited at Anima Mundi in 2018.
Works have been included in numerous
international curated mixed exhibitions
in Berlin, Dublin, Siena, Milwaukee and
New York City and in Venice during the
54th Biennale. Most recently paintings have
been exhibited in four major museums in
China. Andrew Litten paintings feature
in numerous international private and
public collections.
Whispering
bronze (edition of 5), 46 x 21 x 20 cm
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Roy Eastland (b. 1963)
“‘Displaced Portrait (fur erinnerung an
mine schulzeit 1939)’ is one of an ongoing
series of silverpoint drawings based on
portrait photographs taken mostly in the
1930s and 1940s, which have found their
way into my hands via a second-hand shop
in my home town of Margate. My drawings
are a kind of meditation on these displaced
traces of lived moments. This particular
drawing is based on a school photograph
dated 1939 which was taken somewhere in
Germany. The piece has been repeatedly
drawn onto with points of silver wire,
drawn into with needles, and scratchedaway
with scalpel blades and sandpaper.
The image goes through a continual process
of repeated loss and re-finding. With each
re-working, certain details change; but
always the repeated point of reference is
the original photographic image. Whatever
it is that I’m trying to see seems always to
be elusive. Each re-working points to the
same thing but each re-working is also a
different drawing adding something new.
I draw in the hope of catching sight of
something which I could not have foreseen
but which feels somehow true. These
drawings are worked on over the course of
many months and often years. Some never
reach an end-point. Hand-made drawings
remind us that there is always another way
of seeing and that there is always another
way to mark those moments of recognition.
I wonder who it is that I have drawn here.” -
Roy Eastland 2022
Roy Eastland lives and works in Thanet,
Kent. He graduated from Edinburgh College
of Art in 1996. Works have been exhibited
in numerous solo and group exhibition
including the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing
Prize, The Jerwood Drawing Prize (on
three occasions), The ING Discerning Eye
Drawing Bursary, The Zoo Art Fair, Miami
Art Fair, The London Art Fair, The BP
Portrait Award, The British Art Fair, The
Hunting Art Prizes, Margate Rocks, the
Turner Contemporary Open, among others.
Displaced Portrait (fur erinnerung an mine schulzeit 1939)
silverpoint on gesso on board, 21 x 15 cm
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Richard Nott (b. 1963)
Richard Nott’s paintings are unique. There
are no oil or acrylic paints in his studio, he
works with industrial materials, bitumen,
emulsions and varnishes, building them
up layer upon layer, often over intimately
drawn or gouged grids, lines or marks, into
a textural palimpsest, before courageously
scraping or burning them back to reveal what
lies underneath. Viewing Richard Nott’s
artwork is witnessing a protracted collision
of creative and destructive processes. An
evolution of matter, exposed, concealed,
exposed, concealed, continuously. His
paintings become the consequence of
protracted time spent where Nott’s history
merges with the history of the elements
used. He has little interest in illusionistic
‘texture’, the work must be its own entity,
have its own story and be its own statement.
His objective is to create an organic object
that evolves like a living thing with truth
and imperfection. His process of working
allows for a contemplation of a cycle of
existence to become imbued in to the work.
Not a beginning with an end but a journey
where genesis leads to dissolution, and on
once again to genesis. Something eternal
akin to alchemy.
Richard Nott is a British artist born in 1963,
who lives and works in west Cornwall. Nott
gained his Fine Art degree at Lancashire
Polytechnic and his MA in fine art at
Reading University. In 1985 he worked as
an assistant to Andy Goldsworthy on sitespecific
sculptures in the Lake District. He
was gallery assistant at the Royal Academy
from 1986-7 and at Oldham Art Gallery from
1991-2. He won the South West Arts Visual
Arts and Photography Award in 1994. He
gained a residency at the 12th International
Weeks of Painting in Slovenia. Exhibitions
have been extensive and international
notable included numerous solo exhibitions
at Anima Mundi over a long and fruitful
working relationship, ‘Art Now Cornwall’ at
the Tate St Ives and Chashama, Avenue of
the America’s, NYC.
Baetylus
mixed media floating panel, 184 x 184 cm
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David Cooper (b. 1972)
David Cooper’s work work is examined
inside out, and outside in, through a series
of unpremeditated and intuitive processes.
The works inquire into a humanity that
feels, fears and confronts restriction and
control; a state of being often conducive
to an abominable sense of desolation
and fettered anxiety. These unknown
(and unknowable) aspects of the human
condition, driven by momentary absences
of restraint, structure and control are
embodied. Broken happenings, motivated
by instinct and random thoughts, naivety
and energy are exploited to sculpt the
identity of these unfathomable aspects of
human experience.
David Cooper was born in Wakefield, West
Yorkshire in 1972. He currently lives and
works in Suffolk. Cooper studied Fashion
at John Moores University followed by an
MA in Fashion Design at Central Saint
Martins where he went on to become
lead designer and head of menswear at
Alexander McQueen. More recently Cooper
attended Fine Art summer school at the
Slade School of Fine Art in 2008. Works
have been exhibited extensively in the UK.
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Hed
bronze (edition of 7), 37 x 21 x 20 cm
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Jamie Mills (b. 1983)
Jamie Mills’ practice is underpinned by an
investigation surrounding the dissemination
of gesture between materiality and
environments – referencing both internal
and external landscapes. These concerns are
reinforced by an interdisciplinary approach
to working and are made manifest through
the renderings of materials often sourced
or retrieved via immersion into nature or
borderlands The term ‘gestalt’ refers to a
concept within psychotherapeutic fields,
inferring that the nature of a whole is
greater than the sum of its parts. Mills’
employment of the mediums of photography,
sound and mark-making can be read in this
sense whereby a reality is constructed
not by the sole surface representation of
any individual element alone, but instead
there is a sense that the artists reality
is presented through the relationships
and the spaces between elements. In other
terms, it is work that requires both on
one hand a stepping away from, and on
the other an immersion into, in order
to extract an empathetic understanding
of the essence of the work that presides
from both a conscious and subconscious
framework of mind. Universally inherent
within his process of rendering, there
is a conscious dialogue between, on one
hand material intent (or ‘essence’) and on
the other, control (or the relinquishing
of control), so as to make work that
negotiates thresholds and occupies at
times a liminal status. In this sense Mills’
“intuitively composed” sound works, and
his images or assemblages become markers
to a series of internal journeys or rituals
informed by an often poetic dialogue
between material, form and environment.
A Space Under Your Tongue (Vestige)
paper, beeswax, cotton, thread, 28.5 x 35 cm
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Evelyn Williams (1929-2012)
Evelyn Williams was born in 1929 and died
in 2012. Her tender, intimate and emotional
paintings are concerned with the subtleties
and complexities of relationships and the
human predicament. Dealing with the
intimate connection and profound solitude
of existence, taking the viewer on a profound
journey from womb to tomb.
Williams trained at St Martin’s School of Art
from the age of 15 and then the Royal College of
Art working alongside the older, largely male
students, many of them soldiers returning
from service in the Second World War.
Despite failing health she continued
painting right up to her death at the age
of 83. Williams proved difficult for some
to categorise during her life time, but is
regarded, along with friends such as Paula
Rego, as having forged a path for female
artists. She later founded a trust in her
name which has done modest but important
work to support artists, particularly women,
and the practice of drawing. As Huon
Mallalieu stated “Her work deserves to be as
well-known as those of her fellow 1961 John
Moores prize-winners, Blake, Blow, Hockney,
Kitaj, Kossoff, McWilliam and Uglow.”
Death and the Maiden (1)
oil on canvas, 122 x 91 cm
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Death and the Maiden (2)
oil on canvas, 122 x 91 cm
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Arthur Lanyon (b. 1985)
Arthur Lanyon paintings combine intuitive
figurative motifs with an emotive, gestural,
abstracted language. His energetic works
are sited on a physical and metaphysical
cross roads, like a belay between numerous
visual and emotional pinnacles. They offer
a progressive link between the outside
world, the inner architecture of the
brain, altered states of consciousness,
memory and the unencumbered essence of
child’s drawing.
Arthur Lanyon is a British artist born
in Leicester, England in 1985. He lives
and works from a studio near Penzance,
Cornwall. Born in to an artistic family, his
father was the painter Matthew Lanyon and
his grandfather the celebrated, influential
and world renowned modernist painter
Peter Lanyon. He won the Hans Brinker
Painting Award in Amsterdam in 2007 and
gained a first class degree in Fine Art
from Cardiff University in 2008. Upon
graduating he was featured in Saatchi’s
‘New Sensations’ exhibition. In 2014,
his work was in the long-list for the
Aesthetica Art Prize and was included in
the award’s published anthology. His debut
Anima Mundi solo exhibition ‘Return
to Whale’ opened in 2016, which was
followed by ‘White Chalk Lines in 2018,
‘Arcade Laundry’ in 2020 and ‘Coda for an
Obol’ in 2022. Works have been exhibited
extensively, notably including Untitled Art
Fair in Miami; Zona Maco, Mexico City;
the Saatchi Gallery London; The House of
St Barnabas, London; CGK, Copenhagen;
Tat Art, Barcelona and Herrick Gallery,
Mayfair. Arthur Lanyon paintings are held
in private collections worldwide.
Mafrash
oil, oil stick, acrylic, charcoal on linen, 190 x 140 cm
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Kate Clark (b. 1972)
Kate Clark’s sculptures invite the viewer to
experience an instinctive and primal reaction,
that encourages further examination of our
own humanity. Stitched over a hand-sculpted
human face, the material quality of her ethically
sourced animal hide brings an authenticity to
the final sculpture, through what the artist
describes as a unique energy and presence.
We identify with animals through both our
connection with and separation from them.
Recognising these contradictions, Clark’s
fusion of human and animal suggests that our
human condition is fully realised only when
we acknowledge and reconcile our current
state and our natural instincts, acknowledging
the animalistic inheritance within the human
condition. She achieves this through emphasis
on the characteristics that differentiate us
from the rest of the animal kingdom, and,
importantly, the ones that unite us.
Kate Clark lives and works in Brooklyn, New
York. She attended Cornell University for her
BFA and Cranbrook Academy of Art for her
MFA and has been awarded fellowships from the
Jentel Artists Residency in Wyoming, The Fine
Arts Work Center Residency in Provincetown,
MA, and the Marie Walsh Sharpe Studio
Program in New York. Clark was nominated
for a USA Fellowship, a Louis Comfort Tiffany
Award and an American Academy of Arts
and Letters award. She was awarded a grant
from The Virginia Groot Foundation in 2013
and a New York Foundation For the Arts
(NYFA) Fellowship Award in 2014. Clark has
exhibited in solo museum exhibitions at the
Mobile Museum of Art, The Newcomb Art
Museum and the Hilliard Museum and in group
museum exhibitions at the Aldrich Museum of
Contemporary Art, The Islip Art Museum, and
The Bellevue Arts Museum, MOFA: Florida
State University, Cranbrook Art Museum, Frist
Center for the Visual Arts, The Winnepeg Art
Gallery, the Glenbow Museum, the Musée de
la Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, The Art Gallery at
Cleveland State University, the Hudson Valley
Center for Contemporary Art, the Nevada
Museum of Art, the David Winton Bell Gallery
at Brown University, the Bemis Center for
Contemporary Arts, the Biggs Museum of
American Art, the Royal Melbourne Institute
of Technology, and the J. Paul Getty Museum.
Her work is collected internationally and is in
public collections such as the JP Morgan Chase
Art Collection, the 21c Collection, the David
Roberts Art Foundation and the C-Collection
in Switzerland. Clark’s sculptures have been
featured in the Wall Street Journal, New
York Times, New York Magazine, Art21:Blog,
The Village Voice, PAPERmag, The Atlantic,
Hyperallergic, NYArts, Huffington Post, Hi
Fructose, the BBC World News Brazil, Hey!
Magazine, Time Out, ID Paris, Cool Hunting,
Wallpaper, Creators Project/VICE, Sculpture
Review and many other publications.
In addition she was filmed by National
Geographic in her studio over a 2 month
period for a short documentary about her work.
The Ghost
greater kudu & black wildebeest hide & horns, foam, clay, thead, pins, rubber eyes, 165 x 66 x 76 cm
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Michael McGrath (b. 1977)
Michael McGrath’s paintings are inspired
by an interest in the history of place and
his natural environment but also embodies
a curiosity in the cults of mysticism,
mythology and religion. An interest in
the esoteric is balanced and presented
alongside the more prosaic aspects of daily
life with a playful sense of naivety. His
painted faces often depict deities or the
deceased, where ghosts and skulls naturally
symbolise death and afterlife, but are
rendered with a fair measure of acceptance
and hope. McGrath imagines that “if there
were gods, ghosts or magic, they would
exist within nature and in the landscape;
not just as beings in the sky, but also in the
ground, in the trees, in the flowers and in
the animals.”
Michael McGrath is an American artist and
painter who lives and works in Rhinebeck,
in New York’s Hudson Valley. He graduated
from Ithaca College in 2000 with a B.F.A. in
Fine Art and has most recently shown work
in Rhinebeck, New York, Germany, Belgium,
and in Beijing, China.
Ghost Town
acrylic, oil pastel, colored pencil and burlap on raw linen, 100 x 153 cm
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Intro To The Theatre : Grouches Lurking
oil and pastel on canvas, 60 x 76 cm
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Simon Averill (b. 1961)
Albert Einstein’s ‘spooky action at a
distance’ theory referred to the subject of
‘quantum entanglement’. This principle
has inspired this ongoing series of paired
paintings by Simon Averill. Quantum
entanglement is a physical phenomenon
which occurs when pairs or groups of
particles are generated, interact, or share
spatial proximity in ways such that the
quantum state of each particle cannot be
described independently of the state of
the other(s), even when the particles are
separated by a large distance—instead, a
quantum state must be described for the
system as a whole. Physicist and feminist
theorist Karen Barad coined the term
‘intra-action’ to describe the concept of
‘entanglement’, (not only of fundamental
particles but of all material, matter, of nature
and of meaning). There is a distinction to be
made between intra-action and interaction;
when bodies interact they retain a degree
of independence, each entity existed before
the encounter. When intra-action occurs
individuals materialise and agency emerges
from within the relationship not outside of
it. These works further enhance Averill’s
reputation for attempting to record elusive,
transitory yet fundamental phenomena.
Produced through a multi layered, process
of glazing where methodical and repetitive
series’ of motifs, are used to describe
intangible potentials.
Simon Averill is a British artist born in
Brighton, England in 1961. He currently
lives and works near Marazion in West
Cornwall. Averill studied Fine Art
at Brighton Polytechnic and graduated
with Honours. In 1986 he established a
Printmaking Workshop near Penzance,
Cornwall, which he ran until 1990. He
has been a member of the Newlyn Society
of Artists since the late 1980s. Averill
has exhibited widely with exhibitions in
the UK, Europe and USA including the
Royal Academy of Arts Summer Show,
The Discerning Eye exhibition at the Mall
Galleries, Royal West of England Academy
in Bristol, Sherborne House, Plymouth
Museum, Plymouth Arts Centre, Truro
Museum, Falmouth Art Gallery, Newlyn Art
Gallery and the Festival Hall in Chicago,
USA. He has had 12 exhibitions and
won the Wells Art Contempory painting
prize in 2020.
Entanglements
acrylic on panel, 40 x 40 cm each
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Paul Benney (b. 1959)
Paul Benney was born in London and
currently lives and works in Suffolk. He
rose to international prominence as a
member of the Soho and East Village
Neo-Expressionist group, whilst living
and working in New York City in the
1980s where he worked and exhibited
alongside peers Marylyn Minter, Jean-
Michel Basquiat and David Wojnarovicz
among the many other others who made
up the exploding NY art scene. Despite
living and working in this extraordinary
creative environment Benney’s painting
maintained a uniquely English sensibility.
Collections including the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York, The Brooklyn
Museum, The National Gallery of Australia
and The National Portrait Gallery in London,
The Royal Collection and The Eli Broad
Foundation own works. He has exhibited
in eight BP Portrait Award Exhibitions
and twice won the BP Visitors’ Choice
Award. Benney’s portrait subjects have
included HM Queen Elizabeth II, Sir Mick
Jagger, John Paul Getty III, 7th Marquess
of Bath, The State Portrait for Israel, Lord
Rothschild, as well as Ben Barnes for the
portrait in the feature film ‘A Portrait of
Dorian Grey’. Benney was invited to be
resident artist at Somerset House in 2010.
During his five year residency he held the
exhibition ‘Night Paintings’ in 2012 and
drew over 15,000 visitors. In 2017 his epic
painting and holosonic sound installation
‘Speaking in Tongues’ was a prominent
feature of the Venice Biennale.
Scrying Mirror
oil and resin on board, 65 x 45 cm
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Carlos Zapata (b. 1963)
Carlos Zapata predominately makes
idiosyncratic carved and painted wooden
sculpture alongside mixed media
installation. His work deals with many
challenging and potent humanist themes
including poverty, conflict, religion
and race, yet perhaps paradoxically, the
overriding characteristics of the work are of
emotive empathy and compassion. Zapata’s
work belongs to and takes inspiration from
folk and tribal artforms from all over the
world but specifically from South America,
from its indigenous populace and the
trade routes and traditions that have fed it
over the centuries. Many of his sculptures
have evolved from personal experience of
living in a foreign land and from his home
country where civil issues continue to
trouble its people.
Carlos Zapata is a Colombian artist who
currently lives and works near Falmouth in
Cornwall, UK. He has exhibited extensively
internationally with works held in numerous
private and museum collections around
the world.
Charon’s Obol
polychromed carved wood, 43 x 33 x 19 cm
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Luke Frost (b. 1976)
Luke Frost is a British abstract painter
living and working in West Cornwall.
Despite his notable heritage, as Son of
the English painter Anthony Frost and
the Grandson of the celebrated Modernist
painter Sir Terry Frost, his paintings could
be seen to instead echo a formality found in
1960s American hard-edge, post-painterly,
abstraction. However Frost has developed
his own means of exploring complex
colour relationships, be they harmonious
or provocative, and their impact on their
surroundings alongside an internal and
more contemplative space.
Frost began exhibiting in 2003 following
studies at Falmouth and Bath Schools
of Art. His work was featured in ‘Art
Now Cornwall’ at Tate St Ives in 2007
and in 2008 he was awarded a Tate St
Ives artist in residency during which
time he worked at Porthmeor Studio No.
5, formerly occupied by Ben Nicholson
and Patrick Heron. His solo exhibition
‘Paintings in Five Dimensions’ was shown
at Tate St Ives in 2009. He has since
exhibited in Cornwall, London and USA,
with essays written on his work by Matthew
Collings, Tony Godfrey and Michael Klein..
Pale Brilliant Blue Volts
acrylic on alumiium, 84 x 84 cm
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Tim Shaw (b. 1964)
Tim Shaw RA’s sculpture is often dualistic,
incorporating current affairs, societal
complexity and human conflict with
ancient, mythical, metaphysical and primal
concerns. Shaw’s powerful oeuvre connects
these elements to create wider, timeless
portraits of humanity. The tension between
ancient past and a prosaic presence,
between solidity and breakdown, becomes
an organic part of his worldview, whether
he’s looking at human transgression or the
enlightenment of primitive ritual.
Shaw is a British artist, born in Belfast, he
currently lives in Cornwall. He was elected
an Academician at The Royal Academy
in 2013 and made a Fellow of The Royal
British Society of Sculptors and a Fellow
of Falmouth University the same year.
Shaw has had a number of significant solo
shows throughout the UK, Ireland and
internationally. Most recently the major
public solo exhibitions ‘What Remains’
and ‘Something is Not Quite Right’ a
collaboration between The Exchange and
Anima-Mundi, ‘Mother the Air is Blue,
The Air is Dangerous’ was held in the F.E
McWilliam Gallery in Northern Ireland,
‘Black Smoke Rising’ toured from Mac
Birmingham to Aberystwyth Arts Centre
and Back From the Front presents: Shock
and Awe – Contemporary Artists at War
and Peace at the Royal West of England
Academy. He has undertaken a number of
public commissions including ‘The Rites
of Dionysus’ for The Eden Project, ‘The
Minotaur’ for The Royal Opera House and
‘The Drummer’ for Lemon Quay, Truro.
A more political side to his work became
evident in a number of sculptures responding
to the issues of terrorism and The Iraq War.
‘Tank on Fire’ was awarded the selectors
prize at the inaugural Threadneedle Prize
in 2008 and the installation ‘Casting a
Dark Democracy’ was reviewed in 2008
by Jackie Wullschlager of The Financial
Times as ‘The most politically charged
yet poetically resonant new work on show
in London’. Shaw has been supported by
the Kappatos Athens Art Residency, The
Kenneth Armitage Foundation, The British
School of Athens,The Delfina Studio Trust
through residencies in Greece, Spain and a
fellowship in London. Most recently as an
Artist Fellow at the Kate Hamburger Centre
for Advance Study in the Humanities of
‘Law and Culture’ In Bonn, Germany where
he began work on ’The Birth of Breakdown
Clown’ an existential sculptural work
utilising sculpture, robotics and AI.
Middle World : Figure with Crown & Mask
bronze (edition of 8), 16 cm high
45

Middle World : Joker Holding the Moon / Juggler with Skull
bronze (edition of 8), 15 cm high / 12 cm high
46

Middle World : Hooded Figure with knife / Devil
bronze (edition of 8), 8 cm high / 15 cm high
47

David Kim Whittaker (b. 1964)
Most of David Kim Whittaker’s paintings are
based upon a metaphysical interpretation
of the human head. These portrait portals,
are often ambiguous, with the aim of
representing the totality of the human
condition - both the universal and the
empathetic alongside personal experience.
The works often juggle dual states of inner
and outer calm and conflict, offering a glimpse
of simultaneous strength and fragility,
conscious and subconscious, masculine and
feminine. The paintings express Whittaker’s
constant focus on an attempt to express
something far greater than oneself. Recent
works depict the artists deep sensitivity
and increasing unease when confronted
with the compounding global tensions of
this particlar moment. A dual reflection of
hope and warning stares back at us from
the frame.
Whittaker is a British artist born in
Cornwall where he still resides. Exhibitions
have been held internationally, notably
including a major solo exhibition at
the prestigious Fondazione Mudima in
Milan in 2017. Works are in numerous
museum collections, art foundations and
international private collections. Whittaker
was further acknowledged in 2011 as the
recipient of the Towry Award (First Prize) at
the National Open Art Competition.
The Sisters : For Who Shall Be Sent
oil on acrylic on panel, 76 x 76 cm
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Henry Hussey (b. 1990)
Henry Hussey’s artworks are often
emotionally and physically raw, yet
contrastingly beautiful and intricate, created
with force through often paradoxically
laboured mediums, including textile,
glass, ceramic, paint and film. Whether
through an expanding vocabulary of quasimythological
symbols, or in embellished
lines of text extracted from performative
situations, Hussey explores personal and
national identity in response to aggravating
relationships and events. Recent
experimentations reveal a deep concern
with control and chaos and the sweet spot
in between these two distinctive states.
Henry Hussey is a British artist born in
London in 1990 where he still resides.
Hussey studied Textiles at Chelsea College
of Art before completing an MA in Textiles
at the Royal College of Art. His work is
widely respected and has been exhibited
in notable exhibitions including The
Textiel Biennale 2017 at Museum Rijswijk
in the Hague, a solo presentation at Art
Central in Hong Kong, the Bloomberg New
Contemporaries in 2014 at the Institute of
Contemporary Art in London, the Royal
Academy London and Volta New York and
the Young Talent Contemporary Prize at
the Ingram Collection in 2016. Hussey has
participated in residencies at La Vallonea,
Tuscany, Italy in 2018 and participated
in a residency at Palazzo Monti, Milan
in 2020. His work is held in collections
worldwide including Simmons & Simmons,
Hogan Lovells, The Groucho Club and
Soho House.
Untitled (Black Herma I)
black glass, 51 x 18 x 19 cm
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Untitled (Black Herma II)
black Glass, 51 x 9 x 15 cm
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54

Gabrielle K Brown (b. 1994)
Embodying a natural and intuitive,
seemingly naive, yet extremely complex
aesthetic, Gabrielle K Brown is a multifaceted,
multi-media artist who eagerly and
energetically seeks new ways to tell stories
through her artworks. Her pieces retain an
object, often shrine-like quality, utilising
materials including wood, various paints,
resin, fabrics and even hair - nothing
is beyond limits. The works dissect the
relationship we have with ourselves, our
companions, our society and our past with
an awe and celebration of nature and
the divine, shedding light on how we
grow and how we suffer as human beings.
Confrontational imagery is often contrasted
with uplifting symbolism, actions and
words - emphasising the extremes of the
human condition and experience, and
yearning within the energetic and fraught
times that we live in.
Born in 1994 on the east coast of Canada in
New Brunswick, Brown grew up along the
riverside and mountains which is where she
connected to art and began painting and
sculpting. She has spent much of her life
traveling the world and moving throughout
Canada which has always reflected in her
work, but has recently moved back home to
St John, the oldest city in Canada.Work has
been exhibited at Art Basel Miami, as well
as Montreal and New York and LA in the
United States.
There’s Balance Between Heavn & Earth
mixed media on wood panel, 30 x 30 cm
55

Greetings From Heaven
mixed media on wood panel, 25 x 20 cm
56

I Feel Lost Without You
mixed media on wood panel, 25 x 20 cm
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58

John Robinson (b. 1981)
John Robinson’s technical prowess could be
seen to be shared with the great pantheon
of masters of the 17th and 18th centuries
including artists such as Diego Velazquez
and Francisco Goya with a developing
unguarded focus on self portraiture adopted
by the likes of Rembrandt Van Rijn or more
recently Frida Kahlo. However Robinson’s
figurative works offer a contemporary
subversion of the rich tradition of self
portraiture. Somber protagonists dominate
the canvas, usually presented in theatrical
situations which barely mask a more
prosaic ‘kitchen sink’ vulnerability. They
are often simultaneously absurdly comic
and psychologically revealing. Robinson’s
process often involves private performance,
where his actions are then exquisitely
rendered, in oil on canvas. For Robinson
these paintings embrace personal concern,
disclosure and catharsis, for the voyeur
the experience appears both elaborately
grandiose and awkwardly revealing.
Robinson was born in Worcester, UK where
he still resides. He studied Fine Art at
Falmouth College of Arts, spending most
of the time whilst there skipping tutorials
to travel to Plymouth to be taught by the
notorious and idiosyncratic painter Robert
Lenkiewicz. Robinson was awarded the
Richard Ford Scholarship by the Royal
Academy of Arts and spent a summer as
artist in residence at the Prado Museum
Madrid absorbing the works of Velazquez
and Goya. He stayed in Madrid for a
further decade broken by a year at Central
Saint Martins on a Masters degree in fine
art. He later developed his duel use of
‘the painting’ as revelation and disguise;
‘self portrait as (other…)’. Robinson has
exhibited internationally. He has won
the Peter Spicer Award for Excellence
in Creative Arts (First Place), Richard
Ford Award for Painting, Royal Academy,
London (First Place), South Square Trust
Scholarship for MA study at Byam Shaw
school of Art, Central Saint Martins,
London, Alfa Romeo Award Art (‘Best of
show nominee’) Madrid, Spain, Premio
de Pintura Focus-Abengoa, Seville, Spain
(Winner) and the Hauser and Wirth Prize,
Hauser and Wirth Somerset UK, (First
Prize). Works are held in notable collections
including University of the Arts London
permanent collection, London, UK, Nicolas
& Maxinne Leslau collection, London,
UK, Focus-Abengoa Foundation, Seville,
Spain, Coldwell Banker, Madrid, Spain,
Falmouth College of Arts Library, Falmouth
UK, Museo del Ferrocarril, Madrid, Spain,
Stedlijk Museum Amsterdam Netherlands,
Wellcome Collection London UK, British
Council Collection UK.
Halowe’en 2022
oil on canvas, 40 x 50 cm
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Halowe’en 2022 with Dutch Landscape Painting
oil on canvas, 100 x 85 cm
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James E Crowther (b. 1974)
James E Crowther has earned his reputation
for painting his idiosyncratic signature ‘cut
out’ portraits, rendered in oil on panel. It is
through his attention to detail and his skill
at ‘capturing’ his subject that the sensitivity
of their inner psyche is revealed.
Crowther is a British figurative painter
living and working in rural Oxfordshire
with his two daughters, three dogs and
partner. He was born in Southampton in
1974 and grew up on the River Hamble
Hampshire where his father ran a boatyard.
He secured a place at Brighton art college
in 1993 where the world opened up for him.
He graduated under principle tutors of
Andrzej Jackowski and Brendan Neiland and
continued to live in Brighton for the next
ten years embracing the rich club scene.
In 2004 he had his first painting accepted
for BP Portrait Prize. The highly acclaimed
writer Blake Morrisson said on seeing
James’ painting at the National Portrait
Gallery, “A good portrait painting does not
merely capture a likeness, but connects with
the inner energy of the sitter, showing the
‘flickers of feeling, shadows of thought, or
what Leonardo da Vinci called The motions
of the Mind”. Crowther has been shortlisted
for the Sequested Art Prize 2021/22 at
Unit Gallery and has had several solo
shows in London and exhibited at the
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, the BP
Portrait Prize, Figurative Art Now at the
Mall Galleries, Lynn Painter Stainers Prize,
The Discerning eye, The Threadneedle
Art Prize and art fairs in London, New
York, Miami, Paris, Switzerland and Greece.
Works are in numerous private collections
internationally.
Love Thyself (front)
oil on bespoke panel, 51 x 25 cm
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Love Thyself (reverse)

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Antony Micaleff (b. 1975)
Antony Micallef is a British contemporary
artist working in London, UK.
He first appeared on the British art
scene after becoming a prize winner of
the BP Portrait Award competition at the
National Portrait Gallery. Since then,
his oevre fused political imagery with
contemporary expressionism winning him
worldwide acclaim. Described as a Modern
Expressionist, Micallef roots his visually
charged figurative paintings in the
fields of social commentary and physical
and metaphysical self-examination in
the search to capture something of the
human condition. In his more recent
works, he builds up a substantial
relief-like surface with extensive paint
mass sited upon a benign background.
By using significant layering, and heavy
impasto, the materiality of his medium
is pushed to its extreme, blurring
the boundaries between painting
and sculpture.
Micaleff was notably taught by the painter
John Virtue, who was in turn taught by
Frank Auerbach. He has been selected
as one of Louis Vuitton’s ‘Visionaries’
and is currently taking part in a world
tour showcasing his work. His paintings
features in private and public collections
across the world, with work exhibited
in exhibitions in institutions including
The National Portrait Gallery, The Royal
Academy, Tate Britain and the ICA.
Constructing Auras, Untitled Head
oil with beeswax on linen, 48 x 40 x 20 cm
67

Julia Soboleva (b. 1990)
Julia Soboleva is a Latvia born, UK based
artist. Her process involves painting and
collage on found photographic imagery.
Meditating on the themes of order and
disorder, Soboleva constructs mysterious
narratives with ominous overtones and
absurd humour. Being born and raised in
a post Soviet era and struggling to find
her own place against the complicated
past of her nation, Soboleva explores the
notions of family, taboo and transgenerational
trauma within her work.
Soboleva obtained a BA at Southampton
Solent University and a Master’s Degree
at Manchester School of Art, winning
the Paul Osborne Drawing Prize during
her studies. Her first monograph ‘I have
found the light in the darkness’, was
published in 2021.
Bury Me Above Your Chest
mixed media on photographic image, 13.5 x 14 cm
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A Circle With Many Centres
mixed media on photographic image, 11 x 9 cm
70

Zero Vector of the Vanishing Point
mixed media on photographic image, 11 x 7.5 cm
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Simon Pellegrini (b. 1972)
Simone Pellegrini’s visionary works appear
as timeless artefacts describing complex
systems of interconnectivity. The works are
made through a process of pressing motifs,
painted on to discarded paper fragments,
on to a rich parchment-like paper, which is
then hand-coloured and distressed with oil
to create a rich and deep patination of age
and wear. Their compositional arrangements
echo an archaic sensibility, depicting
dreamlike symbology and structures where
figures float or wander either lost or found,
consumed or enraptured. Whilst remaining
cryptic Pellegrini’s paintings make tangible,
more elusive philosophical, mystical and
spiritual aspects of universal relatedness.
Simone Pellegrini was born in Ancona,
Italy in 1972, and he is currently based
in Bologna, Italy. His works have been
exhibited internationally and are in
numerous public collections including the
Museum of Modern Art in Bologna; the
Civic Museum in Monza; Volker Feierabend
in Frankfurt; Bologna Fiere; Maramotti
Art Collection, Reggio Emilia; Unicredit
Art Collection, Milan and Museum
Kunstpalast Duesseldorf.
Traviso in fase
mixed media on hand made paper, 71 x 147 cm
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Tessa Farmer (b. 1978)
“As Artist in Residence in the department of
entomology at the Natural History Museum
London, I became interested in the insect
pests threatening the collections. A drawer
of Hymenoptera had been reduced to dust
by carpet beetle larvae, retained as a stark
warning to curators to be ever vigilant.
My intervention in NHM saw my sinister
skeletal fairies as a new species, disrupting
the established order, causing chaos and
cross pollination between the fastidiously
ordered collections. ‘The Intruders’
imagines a neglected, insect damaged
collection of entomology books reduced
to a wasp habitat; wasps have pulverised
the pages to create their intricate nest,
cemented neatly between the books. Now
however, the fairies have usurped the nest,
enslaved the wasps and appropriated the
habitat, disrupting the knowledge within
and wreaking fantastic havoc.”
Farmer is a British contemporary artist
born in Birmingham, England in 1978. She
currently lives and works in London. Her
unique work has attracted global attention.
She received both a BFA and an MFA
from The Ruskin, University of Oxford.
Subsequently, she has been exhibited
and collected widely both nationally and
internationally, including at the Saatchi
Gallery, the David Roberts Collection, the
Museum of 21st Century Art, Kentucky and
The Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania.
In 2007 she was Artist in Residence at the
Natural History Museum, London. Awards
include selection for New Contemporaries
in 2004, and a Royal British Society of
Sculptors Bursary Award in 2005. In 2007
she was nominated for The Times/ The
South Bank Show Breakthrough Award
and in 2011 was awarded a Kindle Project
‘Makers Muse Award.
The Intruders
books, wasp nest, wormshells, insects, arachnids, coral, plant roots, bones, hedgehog
spines,Portuguese man-o-war polyp in wood and glass case, 53 x 30 x 22 cm
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Peter Burns (b. 1975)
Peter Burns lives and works in County
Mayo, Ireland. His enchanting impasto
oil paintings unguardedly address the
plight of the lost soul, the lone wayfarer
and the anti-hero. Expressing the solitary
struggle to comprehend the universe that
looms over us and the magnitude of the
world we inhabit, overpowers us and seals
our fate to be ever a stranger in an ever
stranger land.
Burns’ work has been exhibited
extensively internationally and collected
worldwide, and has featured in Wall
Street International Magazine, The
Sunday Times and ArtForum. He was
also a recipient of the Pollock Krasner
Foundation Grant and was awarded a
BA in Sculpture and MFA in Painting
from The National College of Art &
Design, Dublin.
Nemesis
oil on canvas, 46 x 61 cm
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Woodlander
oil on canvas, 40 x 40 cm
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Jim Carter (b. 1975)
Often uneasy or tragic, irrational or other,
Jim Carter’s work is linked to a real world
of suffering and transcendence: making
sculpture from organic materials as a means
of advocacy, atonement or commemoration;
shifting to story and the written word as
a way to enter emotional and numinous
spaces of memory and dream. What appears
on the surface to be a wilful disturbance of
the remains of organic life in order to fulfil
a creative compulsion is intended to be
part of a transforming and re-sanctifying
process. Taken materials are reconfigured
into new forms to express complex feelings
of grief and loss, love and devotion, fertility
and renewal. Fundamental in this work is a
conviction in an irrepressible spirit for
regeneration in the world, an imperishable
flame that rises most clearly in landscape
and the magic and otherness of animals.
Carter was born in Worcestershire in 1967.
He received an MA with distinction in Art
and Environment from Falmouth University
and an MSc Award in Ecopsychology from
the Centre For Human Ecology, Edinburgh.
His work has appeared in Dark Mountain,
Unpsychology and Earthlines magazine.
Weathercup
Rowan berries, fox and rabbit bone, wood, clay, horse hair, straw,
leaves, graveyard soil, jackdaw, fox and blackbird markss, 15 x 6 x 5 cm
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Altar of Torn Falcon
cow, deer, fox and sheep bone, wood, clay, horse hair, straw, leaves, ash, catkins, rowan berries,
blackbird, gull and crow feathers, jackdaw, goose, fox, sheep and blackbird marks, 22 x 10 x 9 cm
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Judith Nangala Crispin (b. 1970)
Judith Nangala Crispin is an Australian visual
artist, poet and musician, and a descendant of
Bpangerang people of North East Victoria. Her
skin name, Nangala, was given to her by the
Warlpiri people of the remote Tanami Desert
in northern Australia, a place she has lived
for a few months each year for over a decade.
Her work includes themes of displacement
and identity loss, a reflection on her ancestry,
but it is primarily centred on the concept of
connection with the land. This work forms
a part of Crispin’s ongoing series depicting
the transcendent ascending forms of recently
deceased fauna. Crispin’s camera-less method
of photography incorporates a range of
processes. Her own developed alternative
process of ‘lumachrome glass printing’,
combines elements of lumen printing, cliché
verre, chemical alchemy and drawing. She
works within a mobile geodesic dome which
functions as a giant lens where light streams
penetrate its plastic walls. The mobility of
her studio allows her to go to the site of her
subject, prior to respectful burial. The muse,
is raised onto a plastic box, rested on special
photographic paper for up to 50 hours as the
passage of sun and moonlight exposes its
posthumous portrait. Each work is viewed as
a collaboration with nature, where honouring
the subject is a key objective. In each work
the animals are diaphanous where light has
literally passed through their bodies. They
appear drawn in a primitive motion by a
slipstream of spirit, levitating in a space of
brooding luminosity that appears sentient
and wholly focused on the task of enfolding
each creature back into its care. The result
offers a profound sense of what lies beyond.
Nangala Crispin has published a collection of
poetry, The Myrrh-Bearers (Sydney: Puncher
& Wattmann, 2015), and a book of images and
poems made while living with the Warlpiri,
The Lumen Seed (New York: Daylight Books,
2017). She is a member of Oculi collective, one
of the chapter leads of Women Photograph
(Sydney), and was the 2021 Artist in residence
with Music Viva. She is also the Poetry
Editor for The Canberra Times. She has
also directed and worked on two major
social justice research projects – The Julfa
Project, which preserved photographic
records of a destroyed Armenian cemetery
and digitally reconstructed the site from
new and existing images; and Kurdiji 1.0, an
Aboriginal suicide prevention app, which
strengthens resilience in young indigenous
people by reconnecting them with community
and culture. Nangala Crispin work has been
exhibited internationally.
When monsoon floods the Tanami, it fills waterholes and dry creeks, disturbing those who
sleep all summer below the sand – shield shrimp and water-holding frogs, seeds, the dead. Alfy,
buried this last year, wakened by rain, is lifted back into the sky on the shoulders of storm
lumachrome glass print, cliche-verre, chemigram, painting, drowned rakali on fibre paper, twigs,
seeds, vegemite, paint, turmeric and electroplating chemicals: exposed 36 hrs in a geodesic
dome re-printed as a single image, detailed with gold and silver leaf, 200 x 131 cm
85

Katie Sims (b. 1988)
Painting, for Katie Sims, is the closest
thing to an act of communion. Her work
reinforces the complexities of engagement,
of seeing beyond first appearances and
in questioning the origins and absolutes
presented. Constraints are an integral part
of her process, from a conceptual, painterly
and physical stance. These limitations help
her pare back to the essential, towards a
directness of emotional statement and to
silence; the silence the process facilitates
and the silence the work is trying to get
at. It is a simplifying, but not in the sense
as to reduce complexity for it is layered
with complexity and thus demands more
from the viewer. Maintaining a balance
around the transition point requires great
focus akin to any devotional practice. The
repetition and movement between prior
intention and intention-in-action supports
the virtues of listening and humility
as she ‘assists’ something into being.
Her work is a process that leads to a resolve.
She places herself in an in-between space,
between two opposing poles, challenging
what resolve is through the middle ground
until these two states are in a complete
tension. Each resolution is different;
chromatically, compositionally, through
colour or light, yet each involves a circular
dialogue of adding and removing. Thus
her resolve sustains an instability of form,
which manifests as hesitant and uncertain
of itself. Sims sees this liminal space as the
place where distinctions dissolve and the
best opportunity for renewal is found. It is
a fluid, malleable situation that enables new
customs and identities to be unconcealed.
Katie Sims was born in Shropshire, England
in 1988 and currently lives and works on the
small island of Gozo, Malta. Her paintings
have been exhibited internationally and
can be found in collections worldwide.
When It Comes The Landscape Listens - Shadows - Hold Their Breath
oil on panel, 30 x 24 cm
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Eremos
oil on panel, 30 x 24 cm
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It Swallows Then Covers
oil on panel, 30 x 24 cm
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Simon Hitchens (b. 1974)
Casting a Shadow Over The Cambrian is
an uncanny object which references time:
geological time, celestial time and human
time by reflecting a specific moment. It is
the shadow of a paleozoic piece of rock,
precisely at midday, when the sun is at
its zenith. That brief moment in time has
now passed, but is immortalised for ever
as a solid object, quite the opposite to the
ephemerality of its origin. Simon Hitchens
work explores the interconnectedness
between the human and the non-human,
as a means to learning about Mankind’s
relationship with impermanence. The
material backbone of his work is rock in
its raw and natural state. This is not carved
and polished but plucked from the rock
face or quarry floor. He remains acutely
aware of the historical significance that
stone has as the prime material to make
sculpture, and as a sculptor is challenged
to make art that contributes to this
debate. As a climber he maintains an
intimate relationship with rock, and is
acutely aware that geologically it is the
very material that supports us upon the
planet. In the age of the Anthropogenic
it seems pertinent to question how we
comprehend the geological and human
worlds as united, interconnected even.
Hitchens believes there is increasingly
a disconnect between these two worlds
which is harmful not only to the planet but
also our psyche. Consequently, rock is the
conceptual focus of his work and typically
the material backbone within it. His work
questions differences between animate
and inanimate, more specifically rock
and flesh, mountain and body; exploring
themes of transience and transcendence.
Casting a Shadow Over The Cambrian
carbon, wax, crystacal (edition of 3), 17 x 10.5 x 42.5 cm
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Sax Impey (b. 1969)
Sax Impey’s artworks are often large scale,
immersive and elemental, incorporating
intense detail and dexterity and an
expressive, behavioural use of medium.
Since 2005, Impey has produced works
derived predominantly from experiences
at sea. A qualified RYA Yachtmaster he has
sailed many thousands of miles around the
world. His journeys have had a profound
impact and subsequent development as an
artist. Reconnecting with nature through
this powerful element has the almost
inescapable effect of calling to question
many of life’s existential questions. This
epiphanic moment of realisation, of
revelation, is at the core of Impey’s oeuvre.
Reflecting on and capturing personal
moments and making them universal,
Impey’s work reaffirms the importance
of introspection and confrontation, found
specifically when surrounded by the natural
world; “A mind can breathe, and observe,
and reflect, away from the shrill desperation
of a culture that, having forgotten that it is
better to say nothing than something about
nothing, invents ever new ways to fill
every single space with less and less”.
Impey was born in Penzance, Cornwall. He
currently works from one of the prestigious
Porthmeor Studios in St. Ives. From 2005,
he has collaborated with the cross-cultural,
environmental art group Red Earth. In 2007
Impey’s work was selected for the ‘Art Now
Cornwall’ exhibition at Tate St Ives where
he was placed on the cover of the associated
publication. The same year he was heralded
in The Times as one of the ‘New Faces
of Cornish Art’. In 2010 he was featured
in Owen Sheers’s BBC4 Documentary
‘Art of the Sea (In Pictures)’ alongside
Anish Kapoor, J. M. W. Turner, Martin Parr
and Maggi Hambling among others. His
work was selected as a finalist the 2013
Threadneedle Prize and the year before
was elected an Academician at the Royal
West of England Academy. His paintings
are in multiple collections including The
Arts Council, Warwick University and the
Connaught Hotel.
Landfalls
mixed media on paper, 30 x 60 cm
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Night in the Celtic Sea (1)
mixed media on paper, 30 x 60 cm
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Night in the Celtic Sea (2)
mixed media on paper, 30 x 60 cm
95

Luke Hannam (b. 1966)
Luke Hannam describes his work as the
result of an ‘ordered chaos’ where poetic
paintings are made ‘in the eye of the storm’,
where creativity spins wildly, through bursts
of impulse around a silent meditative deep
well of meaning. Ideas emerge out of an
energetic dedication to drawing and a
relentless desire to explore images and
motifs. His work is instantly recognisable
through his strong punch of colour and
definite use of line which weaves its way
sensuously across the surface, denoting both
the delicacy and strength of the form and
spirit of the subject. Hannam’s paintings
expressively offer a singular view on how
what he sees, how he thinks and pivotally
how he feels about the human condition and
what lies beyond our materiality. His work
could be seen to continue the Romantic
tradition, embracing reality and mysticism
with the wonder of experience.
Luke Hannam was born in 1966 and currently
lives in East Sussex, UK. He studied Fine
Art in the 1980s and whilst others of his
generation faithfully chanted the conceptual
mantra of the time, Hannam focussed on
perfecting his expressive drawing skills
seeking inspiration from the earlier masters.
Works have been exhibited and collected
internationally, including the collections
of Stefan Simchowitz and David Kowitz.
Deep Water Drowns Feint Hearts
oil on collaged canvas, 160 x 250 cm
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Claire Curneen (b. 1968)
Claire Curneen’s iconic sculptures are
poignant contemplations on the liminal and
precarious nature of the human condition;
exploring themes around death, rebirth and
the sublime. Universal and profound states
of fear, loss, suffering and sacrifice fuse
with devotion, desire, wonder and mystery
to underlie each intricate, porcelain figure.
Their translucent and fragile qualities offer
potent, metaphoric abstract narratives.
Porcelain, terracotta and black stoneware
create a grounded vulnerability to these
works, with dribbles of glaze and flashes of
gold to embellish denoted sacred qualities.
Claire Curneen was born in Tralee, Co.
Kerry, Ireland in 1968 and currently lives
and works in Wales, UK. Works have been
exhibited internationally and appear in
many notable public collections including
The Crafts Council, London; Shipley
ArGallery, Gateshead; National Museum
& Gallery of Wales, Cardiff; Victoria and
Albert Museum, London; The Fitzwilliam
Museum, Cambridge; Manchester City Art
Gallery, Manchester; National Museum of
Scotland, Edinburgh; Aberystwyth Arts
Centre, Aberystwyth, Wales; Cleveland Craft
Centre, Middlesbrough; Oldham Art Gallery
and Museum, Manchester; York City Art
Gallery, York; Middlesbrough Institute of
Modern Art, Middlesbrough; Crawford Art
Gallery, Cork, Eire; Limerick City Gallery
of Art, Limerick, Eire; Ulster Museum,
Belfast, Northern Ireland; Benaki Museum,
Athens, Greece; Clay Studio, Philadelphia,
USA; Mint Museum of Craft + Design,
Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Icheon
World Ceramic Centre, Gyeonggi-do, Korea;
Taipei Ceramics Museum, Taiwan.
Digging
porcelain and stoneware 70 x 46 x 40 cm
99

Barbara Neil (b. 1953)
“I never paint with narrative in mind
(although that may not be obvious).
Developments in the painting occur along
the way, through working, when it works,
which it doesn’t always. Often I paint out
and overpaint time and time again. I see
the bottom of this painting as a defiance of
death and when looked at from that position
or perspective, I see the life - our human
lives - taking place above the ground. There
is the overground and the underground
struggle in this one. Well, you’ve probably
guessed I dislike interpreting my work…
I mean, if words were going to be enough
why would I paint it at all? My work is an
attempt to snag the worm in me (thank you
Herman Hesse), to delight my eyes and
befuddle my brain. Clarity is a fearsome
thing, hard to find, but worth seeking I
think.” Barbara Neil, 2021.
Barbara Neill was born in Sydney, Australia
in 1953 and has spent most of her adult life
living and working in relative obscurity in
Barcelona, Spain. She describes herself as
an art school dropout, university dropout
and self taught. Anima Mundi are delighted
to present her work in this exhibition.
A Casa
oil on canvas, 195 x 130 cm
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Mat Chivers (b. 1988)
Referencing that all life on Earth, including
our own is carbon-based, ‘Carbon Mirror’ is
one of a series of paired drawings made
using this primary element. The left hand
has been used to make a drawing of the
right hand and the right to draw the left.
The eye observes, sending a signal to the
brain and down through the body into
the hand which makes marks on the paper
in an attempt to describe what the eye
sees - setting up a continual loop between
the interior and the exterior. Physical
engagement with material reality is an
act of extended cognition - of thinking
out into the world. The idea of extended
cognition centres around the way thinking
is something that happens in relationship
with material reality - a network of
processes that radiate back and forth from
the wetware of the brain through the
physiology of the sensorial body and into
the world of animate and inanimate form in
a complex web of reciprocity. The evolution
of our hands has facilitated an evolution of
our minds. The hand enables the mind to
manifest on the three-dimensional plane
and has led us to where we are now.
The work of British artist Mat Chivers looks
at some of the fundamental phenomena
that drive our thoughts and actions. He
explores ideas relating to perception,
evolutionary process, ecology and ethics by
bringing traditional analogue approaches
to making into counterpoint with state of
the art digital technologies. Chivers has
works in numerous private and public
collections including Oxford University
Mathematical Institute, UK and Fondazione
Henraux, Italy. Solo exhibitions include
‘Migrations’ at Arsenal Art Contemporain
Montréal, Canada and Musée d’art de
Joliette, Canada; ‘Harmonic Distortion’
at PM/AM, London, UK, ‘Altered State’s
at Hallmark House, Johannesburg, South
Africa and ‘Syzygy’ at Anima Mundi. Group
exhibitions include The New States of Being
at Centre d’Exposition de l’Université de
Montréal, Canada; A Place In Time at Nirox,
Johannesburg, South Africa; Glasstress:
White Light/White Heat at Pallazzo
Cavalli Franchetti for the 55th Venice
Biennale, Italy and The Knowledge at The
Gervasuti Foundation for the 54th Venice
Biennale, Italy.
Where Do I End and You Begin (Bilateral Gynandromorph)
pencil on paper, 76 x 56 cm
103

Massimo Angei (b. 1962)
Massimo Angèi’s elemental, tempestuous
yet ethereal oil paintings reflect varied
emotional states whilst remaining open to
physical and metaphysical interpretation.
Tableaus and forms are suggested but
never fully established, perhaps evoking
landscape, weather patterns, natural
systems, inner psychology or spiritual
connectedness. Voluptuous cloud-like
billows intersperse with delicate spiralling
marks forming an ecstatic unity reminiscent
of both renaissance grandeur and primitive
automatic drawing.
Massimo Angèi was born in La Spezia, Italy,
he currently lives and works in Sarzana,
near the borderline between Liguria
and Tuscany. Following art school, he
collaborated with various institutions and
museums exhibiting early representational
depictions of flora and fauna. After finishing
his degree at the Fine Arts Academy in
Carrara/Painting (Accademia di Belle
Arti\Pittura), he participated in his first
exhibitions, and the creation of the Idioma
group along with Marco Casentini, Fabio
Linari, Jacopo Bruno, Andrea Geremia.
He then began to work as an independent
freelance photographer working for photo
agencies including Grazia Neri of Milan,
and Bilderberg of Hamburg, publishing his
images in both Italian and international
magazines. A vivid dream in the spring of
2006 made him realise that his destiny was
as a painter, and he vowed to never again
abandon it.
Sapienza ultraterrena (Unearthly Wisdom)
oil on board, 80 x 70 cm
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Joy Wolfenden Brown (b. 1961)
Joy Wolfenden Brown’s intimate oil
paintings feel hauntingly familiar
possessing a raw, emotional, honesty. She
captures fleeting fragments of memory,
moments in time where the inherent
vulnerability of the figures depicted, often
in isolation, is palpable. These are lovingly
yet spontaneously executed reflections
on the human condition, which have an
unnervingly, yet simultaneously comforting,
unguarded quality.
Joy Wolfenden Brown is a British artist born
in Stamford, Lincolnshire. She currently
lives in Bude, North Cornwall. She graduated
from Leeds University then completed a
post-graduate diploma in Art Therapy at
Hertfordshire College of Art & Design
which she worked as an for ten years before
moving to Cornwall in 1999. Since then
she has had numerous solo exhibitions and
was the First Prize Winner in The National
Open Art Competition, 2012. She was also
awarded the Somerville Gallery painting
prize in 2003 and first prize winner at the
Sherborne Open in 2007 and the Revolver
Pricze at The RWA in 2019. Works were
acquired by the Anthony Pettullo Outsider
Art Collection in Milwaukee with further
works held in collections worldwide.
The Good Earth
oil on paper, 136 x 84 cm
107

Youki Hirakawa (b. 1961)
Whilst living in Germany, Youki Hirakawa
visited an artificial lake and former coal
mine, where he collected lumps of coal and
petrified wood. When he unearthed the
bituminous coal from the ground, it was
still wet and the surface was shining like
a thousand stars. From that experience,
Hirakawa produced ‘Coaled Sky’
Hirakawa is a Japanese contemporary artist
born in Nagoya, Japan in 1983. He currently
lives and works in Toyota, Japan, following
a long residency in Berlin, Germany.
He was invited to show at the ‘48th
International Film Festival Rotterdam’ and
‘65th International Short Film Festival
Oberhausen’ in 2019 and has held solo
exhibitions internationally, including Ando
Gallery, Tokyo, Double Square Gallery,
Taipei, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin,
Kunstkraftwerk, Leipzig, Minokamo City
Museum, Japan. Hirakawa has also been
invited to exhibit in international art
festivals including Digital Art Festival
Taipei 2017, International Contemporary
Art Festival Kaunas, Sapporo International
Art Festival and Aichi Triennale. His
inaugural solo exhibition ‘Secret Fire’ at
Anima Mundi was held in 2016 and his
follow up ‘A River Under Water’ in 2018.
In 2017 he was finalist of Sovereign Asian
Art Prize. He was recently included in
‘Spirit & Endeavour’ to celebrate 800 years
of Salisbury Cathedral. alongside Craigie
Aitchison, Sir Tony Cragg, Martin Creed,
Dame Barbara Hepworth, Dame Elisabeth
Frink, Sir Antony Gormley, Bill Woodrow,
Bruce Munro, Grayson Perry, Sir Eduardo
Paolozzi, Mark Wallinger, Henry Moore,
Conrad Shawcross and Lynn Chadwick.
Works are held in numerous public and
private collections.
Coaled Sky
single channel 4K video, 7 min 45 sec, silent
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Lisa Stokes (b. 1967)
Lisa Stokes is a British artist based in
Plymouth, Devon. Her practice draws on
the fundamental themes of motherhood,
psychology and loss. She combines these
emotive elements with the patient use of
contrasting mediums including oil paint,
oil pastel, ink and charcoal, to make
paintings which weave all these elements
together to create significant depth.
Stokes work has been selected for various
notable exhibitions including the BP Portrait
Award at The National Portrait Gallery,
The Hunting Art Prize at The Royal College
of Art, The National Open Art Competition,
The Royal Academy Summer Show, The
London Art Fair, The British Art Fair,
Saatchi Gallery and Spinneri Art Fair,
Leipzig, Germany. The Ruth Borchard
Collection recently purchased two paintings
for ‘Ruth Borchard : The Next Generation
Collection’ which includes works by Maggie
Hambling, Celia Paul, Nicola Hicks, David
Bomberg and John Keane. Her work is
held in many private collections in the UK
and internationally.
Flare
oil, oil pastel, charcoal on canvas board, 51 x 41 cm
111

Roger Thorp (b. 1955)
‘Exposure’ is a video work which was filmed
primarily at the Russian Embassy in London
and the poppy fields of France. The poem
of the same name written by Wilfred Owen
is read by Roger Thorp’s close friend, the
actor David Sibley, who once played Owen
in a BBC2 Playhouse production ‘The Fatal
Spring’ (New York Film and TV Festival
Gold award, Nato Peace prize). Owen’s
great anger and considerable compassion
struck Sibley as being just as relevant
now as ever. Sibley and Thorp entered in
to a dialogue about a visual element to
accompany the reading which resulted
in this pertinent work. The mantra “Lest
We Forget” is metaphorically juxtaposed
against a reminder of the current atrocities
being committed in the Ukraine by Vladimir
Putin and his supporters.
Roger Thorp is a British artist born in
Derbyshire. He currently lives and works
in Cornwall. He previously worked as a
producer on music videos before directing
/ producing programmes for NGO’s such as
WWF, ILO, Greenpeace and the Red Cross,
working in Australia, Mongolia and the
USA. He has also made two feature films.
Other work by Thorp as a writer / director
has been screened in Rome, Barcelona,
Berlin, Oslo, Copenhagen, Istanbul, USA,
Cornwall and London. In 2015 he founded
‘The Olive Network’ a sophisticated web
platform built to foster tolerance and
understanding throughout diverse global
communities by focusing on the positive
long-term contributions of charity, the arts
and humanities. Thorp’s artwork has been
exhibited extensively.
Exposure
single channel video (duration 03:28)
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Jonathan Michael Ray (b. 1984)
Jonathan Michael Ray’s ‘mono no aware’
artworks examine the multilayered
histories, fictions and beliefs assigned
to artefacts, materials and the places he
encounters. A practice comprising of
stained glass, photography, sculpture,
print, drawing, video and installation,
much of his work is deeply connected to
his surroundings. He regularly uses found
objects and images imbued with their
own histories, as well as material direct
from the landscape, appropriating their
symbolism while creating a new context
and meaning. By layering and combining
material, he is interested in looking beyond
the surface of a purely physical existence
and breaking down the institutions by
which we are taught to see and experience
the world. His work alludes to the sublime
power that inanimate material and objects
can contain when we give them space, time
and authority to do so.
Jonathan Michael Ray was born in High
Wycombe, UK and has been based in
West Cornwall since 2018. He studied at
Nottingham Trent in 2007 and at Slade
School of Fine Art in 2016. Earlier this year
Ray was selected to take part in Masterclass
at Zabludowicz Collection, London, he
and Verity Birt organised “Gathering” a
group exhibition at Grays Wharf, Penryn,
and has been shortlisted for the National
Sculpture Prize which is currently on show
at Broomhill Estate in Devon. His work will
be subject of a two person presentation
with Willeminha Barnes Graham at Tate St
Ives in 2022.
Pulvis et Umbra Sumas (We Are But Dust and Shadow)
found glass bottles, fossil, coin, thimble, stereoscopic image, slate, glass, steel, 35 x 20 x 45 cm
115

Rebecca Harper (b. 1989)
Much of Rebecca Harper’s work has revealed
itself through a diasporic consciousness
which can often involve a multiplicity of
belonging and a sense of difference, often
one of ‘otherness’ and displacement. The
identity of the displaced positioning is a
paradox between location and dislocation,
out of place everywhere and not completely
anywhere. Generally, the work frames
expressions of ‘being’ and manifests itself
within an unfolding, wondering, allegoric
commentary on the locations that she
inhabits and those which inhabit her.
Recent work explores a cast of reoccurring
characters that rotate around the outskirts
of the house that she grew up in, where
she also found herself locked down during
Covid. This work is a part of a body of work
that acknowledges the human and worldly
capacity to live at the edge of the precipice.
The characters are never seen as portraits
as such, more like actors that play a role,
filling in for particular people, as they fill
a stage. As Rebecca says of the figure who
resembles herself; “It feels like perhaps this
woman, has almost become a guiding spirit
of myself, one of vulnerability and strength
in the dealings of uncertainty, instability
loss, and grief. She shows up reliably again
and again during terrible turbulence.”
Harper was born in London in 1989,
where she continues to live and work. She
studied at UWE Bristol then The Royal
Drawing School and Turps Art School
(Postgraduate’s). Rebecca was Artist in
Residence at The Santozium Museum,
Santorini, in summer 2019, and Artist in
Residence for the Ryder Project Space at
A.P.T Studios, Deptford in 2018-19 before
becoming a studio and committee Member
in 2019. She was winner of the ACS Studio
Prize in 2018. Chameleon, her debut solo
show at Anima Mundi met with great
acclaim including a review in the FT by
Jackie Wullshlager. Most recently Rebecca
was selected for The John Moore’s Painting
Prize 2021, and previously selected for
Bloomberg New Contemporaries in 2018 at
South London Gallery, Other curated shows
include Huxley Parlour, Public Gallery, The
Royal Academy Summer Show, Christies
London and NYC, Flowers Gallery’, Paul
Stolper Gallery, Turps Art Gallery and
Arusha Gallery. Her work is on long term
display in the Albright Collection at
Maddox Street Club in London curated
by Beth Greenacre and at the Santozeum
Museum in Santorini. Harper is represented
in many public and private collections
internationally including the Ullens and
the Royal Collections.
The Loss of Eros
acrylic on canvas, 180 x 210 cm
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Published by Anima Mundi to coincide with ‘Samhain’
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