Opening | A Sense of Things

​As might have been anticipated, this move towards abstraction did not hail the death knell of figuration in painting and drawing, particularly in those artists who strive to challenge and conceptualize a figurative practice.​ The Sense of Things, therefore, attempts to represent a group of contemporary artists, whose work has emerged through the 20th century rhetoric that sought the death of realism swiftly followed by painting. In no way is this exhibition anti-abstraction; instead the work presented here has developed from the symbiotic dialogue of abstraction and figuration in contemporary painting. These artists are adept at shifting between the two poles of abstraction and figuration as they seek to find their own language within painting and drawing, whilst simultaneously providing a commentary on the society in which they live and work. ​

This exhibition also comes out of a dialogue between the USA and the UK and Ireland. Never before have the populations of these two countries become more polarized. In a climate of openly hostile, far right extremism, now more than ever is there a need for artists to speak out. Within the work of these artists is a desperate need to voice their concerns. Yet there is no sloganeering, each artist has subtly embedded their concerns within the surreal, the abstract. They challenge the audience to seek out their meaning and engage in dialogue. These are dreadful times, yet there is a spark of hope below the surface of things, a sense of things in motion and transition. ​

The Sense of Things showcases the work of established, mid-career and emerging artists, all of whom believe passionately in the capacity of painting and drawing to offer a purposeful means of examining the world and our relationships, our exteriority and interiority, and meaning beneath and beyond the sense of things.