Know Hope: The Abstract and The Very Real

 Lazarides Gallery

Current Exhibition
Know Hope: The Abstract And The Very Real

2nd August 2013 to 29th August 2013

Featuring Know Hope

This August, Tel Aviv-based artist Know Hope makes his solo debut at Lazarides Rathbone with a new exhibition, The Abstract and The Very Real. Addressing the human condition and its collective social existence through a series of unique works and a site-specific installation, the exhibition questions the ubiquitous notion of the '"abstract and the very real", the weight and and burden of which though universally apparent is often unidentifiable to most.
Appropriating found objects, vintage frames and old papers, Know Hope will fill the exhibition with assemblages that visually embody abstract concepts of memory and temporality. Reclaimed materials will come together breaking free from the confines of canvas or frame, his archetypal character crawling from one to the next with the frames representing the empty spaces in our lives and our undying struggle to fill them.
Continuing his examination of the various things that stand between us – the borders, fences, flags and walls that dictate our lives – the artist draws parallels with the collective human condition, interpreting them as an emotional mechanism. The political implications of these objects are intended to trigger feelings of separation and our begrudging acceptance of such universally experienced forces of segregation within quotidian existence.

Exhibition Dates

The exhibition runs from 2nd Aug 2013 to 29th Aug 2013

Opening Hours

Gallery : Tuesday–Saturday 11am–7pm. Admission is free
Office : Monday–Friday 10am–6pm

Lazarides Rathbone

11 Rathbone Place, London, W1T 1HR
                                         

 

Ben Nathan: Structure @ 43 Inverness Street

On Now

14 JUNE - 13 JULY 2013

Ben Nathan

Structure

PV : Thursday 13 June 6-9 pm

43 Inverness Street is pleased to announce Structure, a solo exhibition of Ben Nathan’s paintings. Known for his exploration of urban infrastructures and his reflection of past and present human technologies, Nathan’s latest series continues his exploration into painted abstraction of the vernacular built environment. With large areas of unmodulated saturated colour, the images flatten the familiar, remaking and rendering these sites – the seawall, the water tower, and the bridge — in a manner which brazenly treads between abstraction and figuration.

Seascape, 2012 is an image of a seawall. The sea itself is not present in the image, yet oceanic force and power is communicated through scraped arcs of contrasting colours surging upwards and out of the picture. The painting is a study of stasis and motion. The scraped areas are contrasted with rectilinear forms of hard-edged stripes and craggy shapes of bold red, black and white. These dynamic forms and colours combine to create a landscape of permanence and upheaval. The show also features another image of almost indeterminate source on first inspection, Gateway, 2013, is a simple composition which hides a complexity of spatial and social architectural constructs. Composed from an image taken of a part of a bridge in New York City, Gateway presents an imposing, almost threatening array of spikes and gnashing bars, but is paradoxically seductive because of the unfamiliar perspective and abstracted flatness. Chateau d’Eau, 2012, a painting whose original inspiration was a water tower nestled in a rocky French landscape, is constructed in two parts. The tower itself and the surrounding space are separated structurally, by means of a specially mated set of supports onto which the canvas is stretched.

The boldness of colour and line are only superseded by this renting of figure and ground. Beacon-like, this water tower has achieved iconic status through aesthetic decision making. These and other recent works, presented over two floors display a depth of commitment to the painted surface and its ability to shift between sensuous depth and representational allusion.

Ben Nathan, a graduate of The Slade School of Fine Art, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem and The Prince’s Drawing School. He lives and works in London. In 2012, he was awarded the International Jewish Artist of the Year award, The Ben Uri Gallery.

please visit http://www.bnathan.co.uk

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