A Different Sort of Stress, oil on board, 20x15cm, 2022

Gallery Text

This exhibition at Fronteer Gallery in Sheffield is a celebration of picture-making, of painting and its related practices. It is part survey of contemporary art - reflecting its breadth, its vitality and current concerns - part a show of gratitude to the artists who endeavour to make meaningful art that enriches our lives, stirring memories and emotions. Each of the artists included are generous in spirit in loaning such thoughtful artwork, and in supporting each other. These are all works of some significance, emerging from rigorous, robust practices. For all the joys of social media, this is an opportunity to see high quality work in real life, to fully experience the surfaces and textures, and to closely study techniques.

The title comes from a 1987 episode of TV comedy ‘Blackadder’. After Dr Samuel Johnson boasts about his newly completed dictionary containing every word in the English language, Blackadder wishes Dr Johnson his ‘most enthusiastic contrafibularities’ causing him to hurriedly add the alleged word to his manuscript.

Artists: Edwin Aitken, Paul Allender, Jackie Berridge, Stephen Carley, Alison J Carr, Andy Cropper, Bryan Eccleshall, Paul Evans, Mandy Gamsu, Nick Grindrod, Rob Hall, Kate Jacob, Jack Kettlewell, Simon Le Ruez, Graham Lister, Mandy Payne, Georgia Peskett, Katya Robin, April Virgoe, Kate Whateley, Joanna Whittle, Myfanwy Williams, Sean Williams, Siân Williams.

Fronteer Gallery, Unit 4, Orchard Square, Sheffield S1 2FB

Exhibition dates: 1 - 16 April 2023

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Orchestrated by Sheffield-based artist and curator Sean Williams, this exhibition was centred around a diverse group of artists’ interest in the painted surface. Following extensive discussions, I agreed to loan a work titled A Different Sort of Stress for the exhibition. This work, which had been exhibited in another context, is part of investigations into the way that the painted surface draws viewers in toward detailed passages of paint.

Specifically, the abstract work takes cursive writing and looks to blend potential legibility with fragmented glimpses of colour – obscuring and obfuscating the text. Through doing this, an oscillation between that which a viewer feels should be able to be read, and an ensemble of clearly abstracted, aesthetic marks plays out. This work is part of ongoing visual research relating to surface materialities, textures and markmaking within contemporary painting.