Open: Tue-Sat 12-6pm
12 Blandford Square, NE1 4HZ, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Open: Tue-Sat 12-6pm
Visit
Artists: Cristian Avram - Eric Bainbridge - Simeon Barclay - Sooim Jeong - Rachel Lancaster - Miko Veldkamp
Opening reception: Friday 21 April, 5pm-8pm
In an era characterized by tumult and flux, where boundaries between reality and simulation blur, the works of Cristian Avram, Eric Bainbridge, Simeon Barclay, Sooim Jeong, Rachel Lancaster and Miko Veldkamp emerge as poignant explorations of the hidden self, fluid identities, and the deceptive nature of the world. As we adapt to a rapidly changing environment dominated by social media, AI, surveillance, and an increasing loss of privacy, these artists employ various strategies to negotiate an increasingly hostile environment, including camouflage, mimesis, masquerade, and evasion, to reveal fragments of truth beneath our constructed existence.
Simeon Barclay navigates complex cultural histories and the intricacies of identity, combining appropriated imagery, text, and sculpture. Drawing from his experiences in Northern England's manufacturing industry, he contrasts industrial life's stark realities with aspirational glamour from sources such as Vogue to address class, masculinity, race and identity.
Eric Bainbridge's playful assemblages of found objects and everyday materials subvert conventional hierarchies. By dismantling traditional sculpture foundations, Bainbridge exposes our need for order and coherence in the absurdity of an inherently chaotic world. The exhibition presents two works from Bainbridge's seminal 1980s large-scale faux-fur sculpture series.
Miko Veldkamp's lush botanical dreamscapes represent the ever-shifting boundaries between self and other, the familiar and the foreign. Drawing from his experiences of cultural dislocation and displacement, Veldkamp's paintings function as ‘pseudo self-portraits’ that weave together enigmatic cultural references through fluid, translucent layers to explore identity, memory and the multiplicity of self.
Cristian Avram's timeless compositions invite us to grapple with the paradoxes of existence: the merging of past and present and the duality of progress as both an illusion and a catalyst. His paintings capture desolate landscapes and domestic interiors, where human presence is felt through the shadows and reflections of people and the seemingly insignificant objects they have left behind. Avram's scenes, influenced by his experience living in a nation where remnants of the Soviet past coexist with a burgeoning capitalist society, allow them to coexist in dynamic tension.
Sooim Jeong's minimal oil paintings point to the ephemeral nature of memory and the delicate balance between preservation and obliteration. Jeong’s attempts at reconstructing a combination of past memories into the quotidian places around her are contrasted against significant events from her past, sometimes of a brutal or traumatic nature. Through the abstraction of human figures and the use of metaphoric imagery, Jeong captures the essence of our own fragmented experiences, echoing the dialectical relationship between past and present.
Rachel Lancaster's cinematic paintings embody the inherent tension between the familiar and the uncanny. Lancaster's paintings represent detailed fragments of a greater narrative. The process of remaking these images in paint is used to draw out the uncanny and the potential psychological charge within source imagery. By transforming photographic 'stills' into enigmatic oil paintings, Lancaster invites the viewer to confront the constructed nature of reality and the elusive nature of truth.
Cristian Avram (b. 1994, Alba-Iulia, Romania) currently lives and works in Cluj-Napoca. He obtained his BFA and MFA in painting from the University of Art and Design in Cluj Napoca, Romania in 2019. He was the recipient of Zorzini Gallery Prize and Plan-B Foundation Prize in 2017. Avram has participated in group exhibitions at Fondazione Videoinsight®, Torino, Italy; Museo di Palazzo Doebbing, Viterbo, Italy; and Plan B gallery, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Solo presentation by the artist have taken place at Workplace, London, UK; Zonamaco 2020 and Boccanera Gallery, Trento and Milan.
Eric Bainbridge (b. 1955, Consett, UK) studied at Newcastle Polytechnic and completed a Masters in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art, London in 1981. Solo exhibitions include: Workplace, London (2023), Monitor, Rome (2017), The New Art Gallery Walsall, Walsall (2012), Camden Arts Centre, London (2012), MIMA, Middlesbrough (2008), Salvatore Ala, New York and Milan (2004), Pittsburg Centre for the Arts, Pittsburg (1992), The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1989), ICA, Boston (1987) and Walker Art Centre, Minnieapolis (1986). Group exhibitions include: Yoshimi Arts, Tokyo (2019), Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham Museums (2018), Haus Modrath - Raume fur Kunst, Kerzen (2017), The Royal Academy of Arts, London (2015), Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield (2015), Venice Biennale, Venice (1986 and 1990). Bainbridge’s work is held in Tate Collection, UK; New Art Gallery Walsall Collection, UK; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, NL; Arts Council Collection amongst others.
Simeon Barclay (b.1975, Huddersfield, UK) lives and works in West Yorkshire, UK. Barclay received his BA from Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds in 2010 and his MFA from Goldsmiths College, London in 2014. In 2022 Barclay received the Ares Art Award; in 2021 he was appointed to the Arts Council Collection Acquisitions Committee, and received an Art Fund Commission as part of BAS9. Barclay was awarded the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Visual Artists and a Henry Moore Foundation award in 2020. He has exhibited both nationally and internationally with major exhibitions at South London Gallery, London, UK (2022); Workplace, London, UK (2021); and TATE Britain, London, UK (2017). He has participated in group exhibitions at Victoria Miro, London (2022), Somerset House, London (2021), British Art Show 9, (2021).
Sooim Jeong (b.1983, Seoul, South Korea) is a London based artist who completed her MA in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts in 2010 and a BA in Fine Art at Kookmin University, Seoul in 2007. She has exhibited widely including Unit 1 Gallery (2021), Royal Academy in London (2020), Mostyn in Llandudno (2019), Phoenix Gallery in Exeter (2017), SIḾ Gallery in Reykjaviḱ (2017), and Highlanes Gallery in Drogheda (2016). Her work has been included in public and private collections worldwide. She was shortlisted for Mostyn Open 21, 2019; Exeter Contemporary Open, 2017 and Marmite Prize for Painting V, 2016. Recent residencies include Radical Residency at Unit1 Gallery Workshop, London (2019) and Sirius Art Centre Artist in Residence Programme, Cork (2018).
Rachel Lancaster (b.1979, Hartlepool, UK) lives and works in Newcastle upon Tyne. She has exhibited widely and taken part in numerous projects, performances and artist residencies both nationally and internationally. In 2015, she was invited to be Artist- in-Residence at Alewive Brook Road in New York, the former residence and studio of Elaine De Kooning. In 2020, Lancaster was granted a CVAN Creative Spaces Residency. She was shortlisted for the Contemporary British Painting Prize in 2018, and the Beep Painting Prize in 2020. In 2022 Lancaster was the joint winner of the Beep Painting Prize and winner of the Ares Mosaic Art Award. In 2021, she was invited to become a member of Contemporary British Painting.
Miko Veldkamp (b.1982, Suriname) grew up in The Netherlands and currently lives and works in NYC. He was a resident at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam and a recipient of the Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University, and in 2021 he graduated from the Hunter College MFA painting program. Solo show includes Off-White Columns, NY and Galerie Rianne Groen, Rotterdam. His work has been included in group exhibition at Workplace, London; New Wight Biennial, UCLA, LA; Museum van Bommel van Dam, Venlo, NL and Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton, NJ, amongst others. In 2016 Veldkamp was nominated for the van Bommel van Dam Prize and in 2020 his work was selected to be featured in The New American Paintings publication and in ArtMaze magazine.
