State of Affairs

The curatorial and editorial project for systems, non-objective and reductive artists working in the UK

STATE OF AFFAIRS #2

Gallery 19a, Hollingdean Terrace, Brighton, 7 to 21 September 2024

A review by Geoff Hands

Many visual artists operate from within Brighton and Hove, and seeing the vast range of outcomes pop up throughout the year at different venues (although nowhere near enough), fills the diaries of the practitioners and the local art aficionados alike. Most especially this is the case when the annual Brighton Festival operates during the month of May, fortified by the Phoenix Art Space opening its studios to reveal the works of close to a hundred artists. In fact, the first STATE OF AFFAIRS exhibition was held at the Phoenix in 2023, with works presented by James William Murray and Richard Graville. So now it is a huge pleasure to see a development of that first initiative, as six more artists from Norway, the Netherlands, Latvia and Japan enlarge and develop the international context of this abstract, non-objective and very reductive work.

The venue on this occasion is the developing Gallery 19a, situated on the outskirts of the city. Post-Covid, and with a name change and increased wall space, I have noticed that the private view attendances have increased considerably over the past few years as the organisation establishes a reputation for both good quality, and suitable variety, in its exhibition programme. With a community focus the gallery is perhaps more of a ‘project space’ than a commercial enterprise, which frees it up from the sometimes questionable demands and gatekeepers of the art marketplace.

Each of the eight artists in STATE OF AFFAIRS #2 has one work to represent their practice, which works out at just nine pieces (one is a diptych of sorts from Erris Huigens). The visitor might, initially at least, see this exhibition as a taster, offering an example from each artist. But it’s much more than this, of course. I left the exhibition after my return visit feeling that this developing State of Affairs project was an assertion of intent, an object/image-based manifesto, for an aspect of postmodernist painting that is far from exhausted. A fascinating fusion of the material/object/image invites quiet contemplation, whereby apparent visual simplicity could lead on to deeply subjective readings, depending on the viewer’s predilections.

The installation is certainly commendable. Initially, I wondered why a few more works had not been added, particularly with three spaces feeling a little vacant, or rather, potentially available. But first impressions deceive, sometimes. It was this second visit that enabled me to see that the display was just right, as there was more than enough content to hold a viewer’s attention, and that the occasional gap in the sequencing was a little breathing space of sorts, setting the viewer up for the next disclosing of a minimalist nature. Thus, any potentially overt enthusiasm by the installation team was tempered appropriately by concentrating on each artwork, giving it breathing space but with a viable connection, including contrast, by simple placement next to or adjacent to other works. Any notion of overt display possibilities to max it out was deliberately avoided.

In a nutshell, as one enters the gallery one first sees Richard Graville’s Firm to the left of Anders Sletvold Moe’s Shape Drifter, then a small gap leads the eye to a closed door on the right. From this corner there’s a twist clockwise to the pairing of Takashi Suzuki’s Text No.1202 (flash red), which placed next to Cecilia Vissers’ Curve No.4. Turning left, around the corner, is Jan van der Ploeg’s Untitled placed alone, visually flamboyant in this company, opposite Reinis Lismanis’ T8000x 255, 140,0 and James William Murray’s Shroud – then through 90 degrees adjacent, beyond another of those gaps, to the two-part Sample Painting by Erris Huigens.

There is a lot of content here - visual, formal and material. The chosen display is full of variety. There is hardness and soft subtlety; curves and straight edges; simplicity and complexity; geometry and pattern; plus stillness and movement. At times reduction might imply a latent beginning of implied developments towards the complex. This sense of building and development as well as reduction and simplicity provides an overall dynamic, the organic possibilities inferred in the measured structures seen in all of the works. If one quality dominates it may be the monochrome, which of course has the potential to be challenged if there is to be a future, third, STATE OF AFFAIRS.

Links:

Richard Graville - https://www.richardgraville.net/

Erris Huigens - https://deconstructie.com/

Reinis Lismanis - https://reinis.es/work

Anders Sletvold Moe - https://www.anderssletvoldmoe.com/

James William Murray - https://www.jameswilliammurray.com/

Jan Van Der Ploeg - https://www.janvanderploeg.com/

Takashi Suzuki - https://www.gallerynine.nl/gallery/Takashi_Suzuki_werk.html

Cecilia Vissers - https://ceciliavissers.com/work

Gallery 19a - https://19a.org/exhibitions

Geoff Hands is an art writer and a painter. He is based at the Phoenix Art Space in Brighton, UK. He is currently engaged in collaborating on a psychogeographic image/sound project with composer/musician, Tobias Wheal.

L: Richard Graville,Firm (2023),Flashe & acrylic on canvas. R: Anders Sletvold Moe, Shape Drifter (2019-24), acrylic and oil on black Perspex.

L: Takashi Suzuki, Text No.1202 (flash red) (2018), acrylic on canvas, R: Cecilia Vissers, Curve No.4 (2020) Hot rolled steel, patina, wax

Jan Van Der Ploeg, Untitled (2019), acrylic on canvas

Reinis Lismanis, T8000 x 255, 140,0 (2024), pigment ink and print on canvas

Erris Huigens, Sample painting 55x40 - 01 and Sample 01 (2023), Transparent gesso and spray paint on Claessens linen with reclaimed wood object

James William Murray, Shroud (2024), linen on pine stretcher