JOSIE COCKRAM: DRAW/FLEX/DRAW - 22 SEPTEMBER - 13 OCTOBER 2012

22 September – 13 October 2012

Private View: Friday 28th September, 6.30 – 8.30pm
(In association with SLAM Fridays)

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BEARSPACE presents DRAW/FLEX/DRAW/, an installation by Josie Cockram in association with Acme Studios’ Residency, Awards & Community Programme. This solo show is the climax of Cockram’s year long residency, showcasing the development of her practice during this time since her graduation from Camberwell College of Art in 2011.

DRAW/FLEX/DRAW/ examines and reveals all the mechanics of image production  which are typically invisible in the final piece. The installation takes over the whole gallery space and is comprised of several parts: two moving image projections, several drawings on acetate, a still on transparent film, and an internal reflection. The installation is self sufficient, providing it’s own light and reconfiguring its own making for the viewer to immerse themselves within. 

Anastasia Shin: Against the Plane 

21 June 2012 - 23 July 2012

Anastasia Shin: Against the Plane

  

Private View: Friday 29th June, 6.30pm - 8.30pm

(in association with SLAM Fridays)

Saturday 23 June - Saturday 21 July 2012

Gallery open: Wednesday - Saturday, 10am - 6pm

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BEARSPACE presents Anastasia Shin: Against the Plane, the first solo exhibition of British artist Anastasia Shin, premièring her new body of work.

In her painted and video work Shin embraces the notion of the pictorial realm as an unreachable space, inserting sculptural forms into a two dimensional world. Here objects hover in gravity defying space whilst constantly referencing their gridded linen and screen confines. Shin's work is influenced by the ritual of circumambulation(the act of walking around a sacred object), which is set in contrast to the static formations within her work whilst also commenting on the way the viewer interacts with the pieces themselves, tying spatial awareness to a specific location.

ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW: EXHIBIT B 

25 May 2012 - 23 June 2012

Private View: Friday 25th May, 6.30-8.30pm

(in association with SLAM Fridays) 

Saturday 19th May - Saturday 17th June 2012
Gallery open: Wednesday - Saturday 10am-6pm

BEARSPACE presents EXHIBIT B, the second instalment of the ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW series, introducing artists Rachel Alliston, Priya Chohan, Matthew Gee, Tatiana May, Beth Shapeero and Anya Smith.

‘Wildness challenges the unity of the symbol, the transcendent totalisation binding the image to that which it represents. Wildness pries open this unity and in its place creates slippage...Wildness is the death space of signification.’

- Michael Taussig Shamanism, Colonialism, and the Wild Man

EXHIBIT B takes inspiration from anthropologist Michael Taussig’s work on shamanism - interpreting it to look at art and a relationship with material, magic and ritual. Artists evoke a sense of slippage - the wild infiltrating the urban, through the symbols and scenes in their practices: the multi-sensual, the dream, the wild, the relic, the ritual.

ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW

EXHIBIT A

Private View: Friday 13th April, 6.30-8.30pm

Friday 13 April - Saturday 12 May 2012

Gallery open: Wednesday - Saturday 10am-6pm

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ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW is a platform of four exhibitions drawing together some of the most innovative and exciting artistic talent in the UK exclusively throughout 2012. Taking its name from Robert Wise’s classic 1959 Film Noir, ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW is curated by Julia Alvarez and Katherine Hawker who assume the role of detectives. Alvarez and Hawker unveil underground artists and arrange them into artists gangs, by identifying trends and talent for 2012 and tomorrow, compiling a snapshot artists anthology.

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BEARSPACE presents EXHIBIT A, the first installment of the ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW series, introducing artists Rebecca Ackroyd, Thomas Adam, Talar Aghbashian, Dermott Punnet, Jayne A Smith and Gabo Guzzo.

‘I’m just going outside & I may be some time’ were the fateful last words spoken by Captain Lawrence Oates, who perished during the Terra Nova Arctic Expedition to collect Emperor Penguin eggs of 1910–1913. Dubbed the ‘Worst Journey In The World’, the party of six Englishmen were stranded for 21 months as ships could not reach them, and forced them to shelter from the brutal Antarctic winter in a cave dug into the snow.

EXHIBIT A takes this phrase as a jumping point - artists imagine desolate landscapes, isolation, and futuristic visions after the apocalypse through their individual practices.

Dermott Punnet and Jayne A Smith paint lush, neo-modernist scenes which span between the utopic and distopic, while Talar Aghbashian’s sci-fi inspired paintings com found imagery with painterly intimacy spanning optimism and pessimism.

Rebecca Ackroyd and Thomas Adam utilise graphite and traditional drawing skills to enact the suspense and terror of the last living man, and Gabo Guzzo’s sound piece sets a score to the scene: the quiet murmur of an abandoned vista.

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Full artist biographies and statements available at www.bearspace.co.uk

EXHIBIT A is selected and curated by BEARSPACE as part of

the ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW series.

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WANDERLUST: New work by Reginald S. Aloysius & Jane Ward

02 March 2012 - 31 March 2012

WANDERLUST: Reginald S Aloysius & Jane Ward

WANDERLUST

New work by

Reginald S. Aloysius & Jane Ward

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Friday 2nd March - 31st March 2012

Private View: Friday 2nd March, 6.30-8.30pm

Gallery open: Wednesday - Saturday, 10am-6pm

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BEARSPACE is pleased to present Wanderlust: the new work of Reginald Aloysius and Jane Ward, after the success of their work in Brave New World at London Art Fair 2012. Aloysius and Ward take us on a journey through vast, imagined landscapes in digital print (Ward) and graphite drawing (Aloysius), combining intricate technical skill in their respective mediums with conceptual and aesthetic inventiveness.

‘You get lost out of a desire to be lost. But in the place called lost strange things are found...’

- Rebecca Solnit

Travel is inherent to the practice of both Aloysius and Ward, to whom traveling provides an infinite resource to be drawn upon in their London studios. Wanderlust[early 20th c. German: a strong desire to travel] showcases travel as creative endeavor in the strikingly different and similarly provocative results of both artists’ far flung fieldwork.

Aloysius’ preoccupation with travel stems from his Tamal routes, notions of transnationality and the loss of tradition in multinational communities. This is enforced through his meticulous graphite pieces, fearlessly etched into. Aloysius completed his MA at Kingston University and has since been selected for the Jerwood Drawing Prize and the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition, and continues to exhibit widely internationally.

Ward’s dreamlike pieces are borne of her process of layering digital prints, then carefully removing the top ink to reveal under layers. Ward has amassed a huge image library, juxtaposing places and scenes in her work, enacting processes of remembering and forgetting. Ward completed her MA at the RCA and has since been awarded the Terence Conran Foundation Award and the Tim Mara Prize, and has exhibited widely.

Both Aloysius and Ward live and work in London.

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FORM vs FORM: Abbi Torrance and Paul Ridyard

BEARSPACE is pleased to present Abbi Torrance and Paul Ridyard in FORM vs FORM: an exhibition bringing together their unique practices to investigate the construction of perception through social and romantic ideologies and formations.

27 January 2012 - 25 February 2012

Private View: 27th January, 6.30-9pm @ BEARSPACE Gallery, 152 Deptford High Street.

Both Torrance and Ridyard show new work: large scale figurative drawings inspired by synchronised swimming formations by Torrance on graph paper, and deeply intricate knarled tree roots and natural phenomenon drawn and mounted by Ridyard.

FORM vs FORM triumphs drawing as a revelatory and relatable medium, exposing the tension between the organic and the highly controlled aspects of contemporary society. Torrance and Ridyard create a paired down and clean aesthetic, instigating a rebirth for drawing in an image and media heavy world.

Drawing is used to tackle questions of heterogeneity and connectivity in a diverse world where plants and even people can be ‘reduced to a pattern’ (Torrance). Deleuze and Guattari write in A Thousand Platteaus, ‘Make a map, not a tracing...what distinguishes the map from the tracing is that it is entirely oriented toward an experimentation in contact with the real’ (D&G, 1987). It is in this way that both artists engage with their subjects, not through mimicry but by constructing specific viewing experiences of real situations and phenomenon.

Torrance’s work examines how society puts ideologies into action which influence and determine the independence of individuals. Torrance uses the way that large corporations see individuals as data and demographics to transform groups of people into choreographed formations, highlighting the current social landscape. Torrance is a previous prize winner of the Teddy Smith National Art Competition, has been featured by Dazed and Confused, has been exhibited in Hung, Drawn and Altered curated by Baylors & Diamond and has been awarded the Commissions East Grant for intervention projects.

Ridyard’s practice explores what constitutes the natural and the manmade, creating drawings which challenge our existing encounters with landscapes. Ridyard seeks out specific sights such as exposed roots and work from photographs constructing pieces which simultaneously allow and obscure the viewers’s perception, demonstrating an inability to fully comprehend our surroundings. Ridyard has shown work in a number of group exhibitions in London, at The London Art Fair and Affordable Art Fair, and has undertaken several research trips throughout Europe and America.

Both artists recently completed their MA at Wimbledon College of Art and live and work in London.

BEARSPACE is open Wednesday to Saturday, 10am - 5pm.

PRINT & DESIGN NOW! 2011

Exhibition Dates: 4 November – 17 December, 2011

Preview: Friday, 25 November, 6.30-8.30 pm in assos. With SLAM Fridays

Open: Wed-Sat, 10-6 pm

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Link to catalogue site:
http://www.bearspace.co.uk/index.php?orderby=product_name&DescOrderBy=ASC&Itemid=7&option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=23&manufacturer_id=0&keyword=&keyword1=&keyword2=&limit=1000&limitstart=0

Following a fantastic exhibition at the SW1 Gallery in August, BEARSPACE is pleased to present PRINT & DESIGN NOW! 2011, a pioneering open- submission exhibition set to feature over 150 works by emerging artists and designers who specialise in the mediums of print and design.

Artworks have been selected by a panel of arts professionals ensuring the very best quality of work on show. These include, Julia Alvarez, Director of BEARSPACE, Owen Ward, SW1 Gallery Manager and Mary-Alice Stack, Director of the Own Art Scheme at Arts Council England.

This exhibition showcases the very best in contemporary art and design at prices that are affordable to the younger collector and great examples of limited edition print and design objects by up and coming artists from all over the country. Take this opportunity to invest in artists of the future as selected by some of the UK’s most distinguished authorities on art and design.

Prices range from £25 - £1000 for editioned prints and one off works.
"Printmaking is a fascinating and versatile medium,” says Mary-Alice Stack, Director of the Own Art Scheme" and provides an excellent way for people who are developing an interest in collecting contemporary art to acquire works by both well established and emerging artists."

This exhibition is presented in partnership with Land Securities and the Arts Council England's Own Art scheme, which provides interest free loans of up to £2,000 for buyers of contemporary art.


PRINT & DESIGN NOW, initially showed at the SW1 Gallery, and will then go on to tour at venues in London and the UK, including BEARSPACE and Art Fairs in 2011.