Past Exhibitions & Projects
Painting Rituals
Jill Mulleady | Maria Thurn und Taxis | Lindsey Bull
Coldharbour London Gallery presents an exhibition of new work by Jill Mulleady, Lindsey Bull and Maria Thurn und Taxis, exploring the processes and application of marks within painting. Whilst working in disparate mediums, scale and through a variety of procedures the artists are connected by a commonality of decision- making and a search for a level of tension within a moment in time.
Rituals performed by applying paint to a surface create marks that resemble a language, which is simultaneously familiar and unreal. Looking to the physicality of mark making that we might find in a work by Pollock, or the translation of the senses in a painting by Kandinsky; each of these outline the ritual within a work; the unseen process. In addition to this, the works of the three exhibited painters illustrate ritual in their content, be it literal or nuanced.
The Inception of Line
Keke Vilabelda and Kate Terry
"The line is more important than the points along its length"
Nicolas Bourriaud Altermodern '09
The work of art exists within a trajectory or line, marking a point of communication between viewer and work that refuses to repeat itself. Both Vilabelda and Terry's practices highlight this line, never reaching a point of stasis; rather they are constantly re-aligned and re-configured within the spaces they temporarily inhabit.
Keke Vilabelda's heavily textured paintings reveal landscapes both urban and bleak, seemingly caught in movement or change and cut through by unrelated forms, exploring the possibilities of the intrusion of a geometric shape in landscape. The spaces captured by Vilabelda, though often initially the product of digital media, exist somewhere between the mental and the physical, within a diffused reality, highlighting our experience of the inhabitation of space.
Kate Terry's site-specific thread installations engage with the nature of a given space, creating subtle adjustments to our perception. Her forms are delicate and temporary; intricate geometric patterns that at once utilise and subvert the architecture of their environment.
Coldharbour London, based in a former print factory in South East London, now houses multiple artists studios and a 3,500 sq ft exhibition space. The nature of this warehouse like gallery allows for its repeated transformation; in this instance it becomes the apparatus for the work displayed, a key element in its realisation.
In order to engage more critically with the concepts that Vilabelda and Terry present, a talk will be held in which the art theorist Christopher Kul-Want will be in conversation with the artists. Kul-Want is course director of MA Fine Art at Byam Shaw, Central St Martins and his writing spans art theory and philosophy, art history and criticism. His most recent publication is titled ‘Philosophers on Art: From Kant to the Postmodernists’.
Eight Days
Venetia Dearden
This November, Coldharbour London is proud to present Eight Days a photographic journey by Venetia Dearden, in collaboration with Joie. This new body of work takes us on a journey through the eyes of her lense into America’s Burning Man Festival. This exhibition offers a glimpse of the diversity and character of the vpeople who converge on this festival juxtaposed against the breath-taking backdrop of this wild American landscape. From the awe - inspiring Ansel Adams-esque mountain ranges to raw and unfaffected beauty of the Nevada desert, Dearden offers a unique take on the American dream.
“…There is no time on the road, you are just on the road, moving. Maybe this means there is a sense of doing, so its ok to do nothing. And its lovely to do nothing but watch the land race by and know you are moving somewhere and at some point you will arrive… “ Venetia Dearden.
Dearden, born in 1975, has spent most of her life in Somerset. In 1990, she took her first black-and-white photography course, before setting off to East Africa, in 1994, on work placements. 2008 saw the publication of Venetia’s first book by Kehrer Verlag, “Somerset Stories, Fivepenny Dreams”. Dearden’s second book, “Glastonbury, Another Stage”, was published in April 2010, and exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London for five months.
This year Venetia’s two-year collaboration with Mulberry has just culminated in a book to celebrate their 40th anniversary - a snapshot of Mulberry lifestyle and an exciting new body of work to be seen this year. Dearden, was mentored by Medford Taylor and received the Vic Odden Award for British photography in 2011. Her work continues to be published worldwide: Vogue, Wallpaper, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Saturday Telegraph Magazine, W Magazine, Harpers Bazaar, Stern Magazine, Vanidad, Vogue Bambini, 125 Mag