21st December 2007
How is an image, an idea or a material reigned-in and controlled? At what point is that control relinquished and abandoned? And what formal and conceptual residues does this internal challenge leave in the work? This show questions how different artists tackle these opposing aspects and tensions within their work, continually shifting their point of balance and reference.
Describing both the stage in an epidemic when a virus reaches critical mass and the toppling effect of weight added to a balanced object, the term 'tipping point' embodies a sense of impending change, signalling the arrival of a shift or juncture in the fine balance between harmony and disorder, control and chaos. It describes the very moment when a threshold is reached where the existing equilibrium threatens to spiral out of control.
It is where work exists with respect to this threshold and how its boundaries are negotiated, circumvented or challenged head-on that forms the central concern of this show. Lying along a spectrum of experience, Tipping Point looks at the tensions inherent in these varying states of balance and seeks to explore the slippages that occur between them.
The exhibition includes work by both established and emerging artists, and contains a diverse range of media: from collage (Danny Rolph), to sculpture (Jessie Flood-Paddock), drawing (Agnes Martin and Barry Thompson) and painting (Mia Taylor, Estelle Thompson, Sarah Douglas and Mie Olise Kjaergaard).
Purdy Hicks is pleased to announce that we will be starting our 2008 programme with this externally curated exhibition, which aims to bring a new perspective into the gallery.
Exhibiting Artists:
Sarah Douglas's paintings explore the divide between real and metaphysical space, and deliberate but often subtle interventions are worked then re-worked to disrupt any ready distinction between the two. Douglas graduated from the Royal College of Art, London (2005). Her work was selected for the Jerwood Drawing Prize, London (2007). Other shows include Salon 2007, Artwork Productions, London and Tamed & Framed, The Harris Museum, Preston (2007).
Jessie Flood-Paddock reanimates the vernacular through her tenderly rendered sculptures, presenting alternative and failed versions of everyday objects. Flood-Paddock graduated from the Royal College of Art, London (2005). She was selected for New Contemporaries, London (2006). Other group shows include Transformer, Woburn Square, London (2007) and Even a Stopped Clock Tells the Right Time Twice a Day, ICA, London (2005).
Drawn to abandoned places, Mie Olise Kjaergaard's architectural constructions are like strange vessels, contrasting a delicacy of touch with a looming monolithic presence. Having completed her MA at Byam Shaw (2007), Kjaergaard was selected for 4 New Sensations organised by Channel 4 and the Saatchi Gallery (2007) and was a finalist in the Celeste Art Prize 2007. A solo show of her work was held at Roskilde Gasworks, Denmark (2007) and she will be showing at Barbara Davis Gallery, Houston in 2008.
With a career spanning several generations, Agnes Martin (1912 - 2004) is heralded as one of the most important abstract artists of recent times. Martin's exquisite abstractions resonate with a complex emotional charge that lend her sensitively rendered studies on geometry and light a deeply meditative quality. Associated with both the Abstract Expressionist and Minimalist movements, surveys of Martin's work have been presented at numerous important venues including Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, (1991); Whitney Museum, New York, (1992) and DIA: Beacon, New York, (2007). Agnes Martin died in Taos, New Mexico, December 2004.
In his abstract paintings and collages, Danny Rolph uses a highly intuitive relationship to his materials and their composition to disrupt our understanding of the picture plane. Rolph studied at the Royal College of Art, London (1991-93). Solo shows include Happenstance, A R Contemporary, Milan (2007) and Singularity, Barbara Davis Gallery, Houston (2007). Rolph's work is included in the collections of the Tate Gallery and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. He has upcoming shows at Southampton City Art Gallery and Koraalberg Gallery, Antwerp.
Fascinated by the crossover between technology and fiction, Mia Taylor's paintings allude to otherworldly narratives through a focus on notions of time and duration in relation to landscape and ecology. Taylor graduated from an MA at Chelsea College of Art, London (2005). Her work was included in the Jerwood Contemporary Painters exhibition and prize, London (2007). Other shows include: Hygge, Standpoint Gallery, London (2007) and A Moment in Time, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin (2005).
Barry Thompson's meticulously rendered drawings pair a deep sense of melancholy and nostalgia with a rigorous observation of contemporary life and our experience of it. Thompson graduated from the Royal College of Art (2005). He recently had his second solo show at Rachmaninoff's, London (2007). Group shows include Into the Light of Things, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham (2006) and Jerusalem, Dean Clough Gallery, Halifax (2006). Thompson is represented by Rachmaninoff's, London.
Estelle Thompson is one of Britain's most highly regarded abstract painters. She uses basic visual articulations in her work to evoke a sense of space that stretches from the domestic and intimate to the cosmic. Solo shows include Being Here, New Art Gallery, Walsall (2001) and Punctuation Paintings, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham (2000) as well as numerous international group exhibitions. Her work is held in many public collections including, the Arts Council, British Council and the British Museum. Thompson is represented by Purdy Hicks Gallery, London.
Exhibition Dates: 10 January - 2 February 2008
