Art Exhibition Review: SEVEN Local Artists ** Clarendon Centre, Brighton
On 28th June 2014 at Clarendon Centre in Brighton a range of artwork was showcased by seven local artists, featuring: Scott Patience, Mitch Hall, Annie Elliot, Alfie Dwyer, Archie Greene-Bell, Adam Clark, Milan Tarascas.
One of the most striking themes the exhibition ‘Seven’ conveyed was a blend of elegance in the paintings, crafted with such precision, in contrast to the abstract designs placed around the room, as a sort of modern supplement to the traditional canvas displays.
Scott Patience’s large paintings, primarily oil on canvas, stand to remind us of how much we rely on statues and buildings in our constructed concrete world. One painting depicts the Saltdean Lido, once standing tall as the focal point of a small seaside town and proud of its purpose: now derelict and abandoned. This is emphasised by the foggy, dismal backdrop which the building simply blends into from every angle. The brushwork employed to create this effect is extremely precise and accompanies the spray-painted typeface on the front of the building very well.
A painting by Archie Bell, hanging majestically in the room was a modern take on Rembrandt’s iconic piece, ‘The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp’. It frames a group of men looking with intrigue at the body of a young man. Tulp is presumably teaching these students with a mobile phone, a creative and unique take on a painting from a bygone era.
In addition, several deconstructed concrete hands stood upright on a table in the middle of the room, which complimented the themes shown in Patience’s work, who crafted the exhibition with Mitch Hall.
Milan Tarascas displayed A human-shaped Sellotape statue dangled precariously in the room, while a series of photos by Hall gave the showcase added flare. A saturated Sussex sunset with the silhouette of a tree took pride of place while another resembled a stratospheric shot from the NASA space-station.
The combination of unique art forms from up-and-coming painters, sculptures and photographers shows that Brighton remains a thriving scene for abstract and authentic designs.
Sussex ArtBeat 