Review: Art probes the psyche – EDITION 2015 – Cameron Fine Art, Hove – 30 Jan – 16 Mar 2015

Iva Troj (hybrid print on canvas)

Alison Bell – Balance

Multi-layered ‘hybrid’ art probes the psyche, and whimsical sculpture delights the eye at Cameron Fine Art’s “EDITION 2015” show in Hove, 30 January—16 March.

Edition 2015 features work in formats most people would recognise as ‘prints’ – screenprints, etchings and editioned art – but the idea of an art print is tested at this show. Large giclee prints on aluminium and back-lit prints on clear plastic jostle with traditional etchings.

Possibly the most challenging medium to define is the ‘hybrid’ print work of Iva Troj. Murky backgrounds that hint at tangled undergrowth or musty archives are combined with archetypal images – elephant, unicorn, imperial horseman, classic nude, pre-Raphaelite portrait, bunch of flowers – painted exquisitely in dense, bright colour onto the canvas. The misty dreamscapes, seamless blending of images and repetition of motifs, recall old oil paintings – and digital art.

Conversation with the artist confirms the role played by digital manipulation. Iva hordes images, memories and icons she has found and drawn and painted herself. She trained as an artist in communist eastern Europe, where she learned the techniques of socialist realism. She then left for the west, joining the corporate world until she returned to art in 2005. She called on her reservoir of images, and recombined them into digital prints. These are the starting point for her art, which involves extensive re-working using pencil, oil paint and acrylic.

When Iva won the NOA (National Open Art) award in 2013, with her work ‘Somebody else’s Eden’ the judges phoned her to ask for clarification about her practice, and the term ‘hybrid’ print has evolved. It’s a powerful medium for playing with archetypes – juxtaposing images of empire, childhood, vulnerability, sensuality and more in a matrix that might be time or memory.

Iva’s works intrigue because they look like old master paintings, contemporary figurative painting, tarot, Narnia, an essay on the ‘male view’ of the nude – all at once. Not only is the medium hybrid, but also the concept.

Other fabulous painters and print makers in this show include Sarah Arnett, Kate Boxer, Helen Fay, Hetty Haxworth, Louise Davies, Annie Mendelow, Kevin Low and Jo Riddell.

Also showing is enchanting sculpture by Alison Bell, Lilia Umana Clarke, Olivia Ferrier and Julie Nelson.