PROGRESSION

"FERREIRA PROJECTS is proud to announce its inaugural exhibition titled PROGRESSION; where participating artists Marcela Alejandra, Helen Barff, Helen Elizabeth Cocker, Derek Curtis, Stephen Harwood, Katherine Lubar, Adaesi Ukairo and Lynn Wray, have focused on creating an illustrative journey, highlighting the development of their work, through progressive stages..."

Just back from Hong Kong and environs, of which more shortly, however before that I just wanted to blog 'Progression', a group show at Christian Ferreira's new gallery that I am taking part in.

It was an interesting exercise, deciding what to show for this one. I've never really been asked to stop and think about past efforts before, so I found myself dusting off boxes of ephemera (i've been going eighteen years next year!), pulling out dodgy canvases from the racks and thinking about how best to describe, or at least provide pointers to, how I got to 'Now', and what might be coming next.

As regards the past, if we're lucky we sell the good ones, and are left with the not-quite-made-it's (or if my current fallow period is anything to go by we don't seem to sell anything...is anyone buying any fucking paintings anymore?): so it's a difficult task to be able to describe a developmental process with work for sale from the studio.

We're all showing seven or eight pieces, and I think I managed to say something about the change between my East End involvements of the 1990's and the childhood paintings of the last few years (place segues into autobiography). But it's probably fair to say that the idea of Progression is more obvious in some of the participating artists than others.

Katherine Lubar paints the shadowplay of strong light on walls and surfaces. The story begins with a very well painted domestic environment from around ten-years ago, of light pouring into an attic room, with a suburban landscape visible through the window. The point of the picture is the light seems unnecessarily harsh and although the painting is skillfully made, the shadow cast by the light does not look as natural as the painted landscape outside the window. Initiating our idea of progression, this picture gives way to bold abstractions of light flowing into sometimes harsh man-made environments (factories, prisons, concrete staircases) through industrial windows. The shapes are then distilled into an exploration of pared-down shadow that leaves an impression on the minds eye.

Katherine Lubar's work is particularly successful in this show as there is very definately a beginning, a middle and a current concern, and Katherine is now working on a sequence of studies of domestic lamps in living rooms that, startlingly, have a very figurative feel to them. They look like portraits, and although made from the same stuff as the earlier work there's been a change of gear. They make you want to look out for the next show, and that surely is the point of 'Progression': to get the viewer interested in what an artist is going to be doing in the future, as well as what they have done in the past.

Progession is on until 2nd December.

Lower Ground Floor
23 Charlotte Road
Shoreditch
EC2A 3PB

www.ferreiraprojects.com