On entering the gallery space, a strikingly patterned canvas with black and red-orange tones is an eye catcher. Executed in oil it suggests a sense of order and balance that’s relative to some adjacent works. Yet, challenging this order to the right a rendition in oil examines and questions the use of empty space in buildings.  In the foreground a door to a house appears to be partially boarded up, yet from within a pale, warm, yellow light from the overhead dormer suggests occupants. In contrast the unfinished modular erection beyond is eager for an outer casing and casts no light from within, perhaps a flicker of daring souls who seek solace from ‘yards’. The deep crimson tones foreshadowing both buildings holds connotations of the toil and sweat of builders, as a river of blood running beside the old terraced style brick built home and from the economically wounded, stacked and modular new. 

Even though a framed work is hung in the adjacent gallery space to the far right, the absence of artworks directly ahead (on entering) guides movement in an arc, towards the left. Here an inviting recess opens up, where entry into it is paused by black and white photography. As a voluntary offering to record activity at the arts centre, the photographs lend an air of celebrating successes that both complement and stand apart from other exhibits.

Vivid and bright colours aided and generated by multiple elements are offered to viewers by this artist’s garden flowers. This vivacious rendition in oils offers an allegory for the simplistic flow of nature and the eco-quest to preserve it. Reminiscent of Manet’s blue river and likewise questioning pollution via toxic colour, do the central and upright blue leaves suggest an over indulgence of sodium or waste chemical? Together, this and the previous piece create a contrast, where geometric inclusions and natural observations are akin to the marriage of Science and Nature’.

The two-dimensional interpretation of what could be a church,  vault or chapel, is another eye catcher where architectural construct suggests a refinement of skill. Another rendition in oils, the artist effectively allows a sense of faith to emerge.  Perceived as an inner sanctum this work leads observers to a certain light via the reflective quality of impasto tiles that also suggest a floral relief design. Echoing a theme of the adjacent work (on its left) this ’vault’ can be expressed as a route by which we see light at the end of a proverbial ‘tunnel‘. An overseeing eagle perched on cast ironwork (in the upper right),  glances towards the dark and the light of the art work to the left and away from that which he rises above, coveting the grey within the tabernacle like structure. Meaning can be conditioned by other art works hung adjacent/opposite and also (in this case) the movement of the viewer deeper into a recess of the physical gallery space. 

The Cosmic impression (entitled Muddah Hubbah Passes Purple Ribbons Through the Firmament)  is presented at a right angle to and counter-clockwise  from the vault-like work. Purple ribbons before a direct light coming from beyond the dark of space. With a visual tone of bright white light through a deeper-than-black-hole-void the work is well placed (at the East side of the gallery) with its connotation of a new dawn, even though the central icon was inspired by a recent solar flare. With an intention to question the notion of ‘nothingness’  the audience is invited to stare at the ribbons, in hope that a transparent cuboid appears.

The portrayal of hope in the previous work is enhanced by the impact of the diptych/pair (left side of the recessed space), which hold connotations of radiation infused baby dolls. Is it a subconscious suggestion of a sense of terror via nuclear risk assessment? The two oils on canvas create a stark contrast to the suggested ’faith’ in the work opposite. At the same time this artist successfully raises the question ’why are the dolls coloured that way?’ effectively mirroring the notion of toxicity perceived in the bright blue plant, amongst the vivacious flora that‘s hung diagonally opposite. 

To the left of the recessed space the four representations in oils deploy a delicate paintbrush technique. The individual observations of ‘hand’ and ‘foot’ show an appreciation of tone and form, executed in a fine and confident style. In two of the works in this series the artist has used a two-tone candy stripe mounting of pale teal/cream, creating a sense of a solidity to and detachment from the painted forms. At the same time a state of humbleness regarding mankind’s basic needs comes through in the depictions of access to running water and a safe sleep. As a set the four paintings are grouped horizontally, which creates a balance with the candy stripe vertical lines and a link to the final two pieces in this section of gallery space.

An appreciation of myths, legends and folklore is evident in the small, framed digital print and the piece to its left. The open book signifies a new chapter that’s heralded by a duality in three-dimensional time, thus the title given is Heliacle Rising. To the left and beyond an irregularly shaped orifice a tired and bent death of night is absorbed into the heavens, whilst the birth of dawn appears through another irregular gap, of the drapes. The central figure rests her left hand on the opened pages and the toes of her right foot on earth, with heel raised. Together with the partial colouration this foot signifies a detachment from earthly matters in favour of the cyclical nature of cosmic shifts, with a wink from a distant star that arrives before a certain dawn that’s  known as a ‘heliacle’. 

The final piece along the row of six smaller works has a title Thar Be Dragons. A dragon energy abstract impression, rendered in violet ink and yellow transparent acrylic. Whilst no dragon was consciously drawn into this design by the artist, their presence is suggested and inter-mingled with a trinity of etheric/cloud-like forms. Interesting when viewed the other way up, assured by Wassily Kandinsky that there’s another way to view abstract impressions.

Finally and moving out towards the adjacent gallery space, a solitary glass framed art work. Multiple outline sketches of overlapping nudes interlaced with coloured shapes, the artistic content defies the suggestion that this work is ‘alone‘. With no other works beside it the life drawings speak silently through the glass where reflections of surrounding works insists that the solitary is an illusion. In an abstract sense I see the reflective nature of glass as sealing the collection as well as the image it protects. 

A collective title for the exhibits could easily have been something along the lines of ‘Marks of Inner and Outer Space?’ but I stayed with ‘OPEN Studios Exhibition’ as it allows the viewer to assert their own perception of it. I submitted three works into this exhibition (a first for me) and included an information panel with each, as did the artist of the photographic collection. It's a personal choice, but my preference was to be informative.

On the 2^nd floor (above)  Sean Michael Pearce asks ‘when is the end not the end?’. Perhaps when it’s ‘open ended’. Sean uses this term to describe his separate exhibition, but my synopsis celebrates both the joint exhibition by resident artists on the 1^st floor and the 1^st year of OPEN Ealing Arts Centre in West Ealing, London.

I hope that you take time out to visit both exhibitions.. and to review Sean Michael Pearce’s

Isabella Wesoly agrees that ‘Time = Art’ but she wasn’t the first to say it