Hurvin Anderson | Nick Goss | Norbert Schwontkowski | Ryan Mosley

OPENING TONIGHT

Josh Lilley Gallery4 Artists 10 WorksHurvin Anderson | Nick Goss | Norbert Schwontkowski | Ryan Mosley


6th June - 4th July 2014

Josh Lilley is thrilled to present the grouping of 4 Painters 10 Works;  featuring Hurvin Anderson, Nick Goss, Norbert Schwontkowski, and Ryan Mosley. 

Developed out of conversations with some of the artists involved, the exhibition aims not to be thematically prescriptive.  Instead it offers a small but focused slice from a strata of painting today, providing an unashamedly emotional antidote to the often formulaic style in which the medium has been associated in recent times.

4 Painters 10 Works proposes a presentation of four artists who have determined styles uniquely their own;  the way in which Anderson’s surfaces evoke a psychological state of mind in his paintings, dealing with the possibilities of paint - but also with the intermingling of memory, colonialism and immigration;  of how Nick Goss plays with the absence of resolution in his work - providing the implication that they may once have had considerably more visual information - which has subsequently been removed, washed or scraped away;  the way Schwontkowski imbues the figures and simple representational elements in his paintings with a sort of infinity, allowing them to survive in a melancholy existence that reflects our everyday hostile world;  and finally Mosley’s transgressive characters that allow for escapism to be totally indulged.  A potent and theatrical painting style that manages to evade a sense of time - as well as the boundaries between real and imagined space.

Yet all four artists have moments where their works converge and come together;  where their sensibilities, layering of information, and projected displacement find relevance in each other’s company.  Meandering through the paintings on display one sees floral elements and foliage in both the works of Goss and Mosley upstairs.  The pale and paired back tone of Goss is countered by the heat and vivid colours in Mosley - where the temperature is turned up dramatically.  This pulsing energy is shared by Anderson, while the interest in interior spaces, or exploring the inside and outside - is taken up by all four artists.  Residual traces of human presence, or the implication of post-event, are also apparent throughout the works;  where screening devices to create barriers join veiling and layering techniques - creating images between images between images.

A bird cage in a Turkish barber shop  was the inspiration for Goss’s silkscreen pattern that runs down most of his works in the show.  It becomes a textured division - much more subtle than in some of Anderson’s earlier fence or grille paintings.  Anderson’s own stylised closeup of one of his barber shop walls takes the form of geometric abstraction in the exhibition, while the more lyrical elements in Mosley and Schwontkowski ask the same question of the viewer as the other two; determining one’s own role, position and importance in unravelling the information in front of you.

Hurvin Anderson - Born 1965 in Birmingham, UK, lives and works in London.

Anderson completed his MA at the Royal College of Art in 1998  Previous solo exhibitions include Hurvin Anderson: New Works, Thomas Dane Gallery, London, 2013,  Hurvin Anderson: reporting back, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, 2013 and Art Now, Tate Modern, London, 2009.  Selected group exhibitions include Homebodies, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 2013, Flowers for Summer, Michael Werner, New York, 2011, Sometimes I Wish I Could Just Disappear, David Risley Gallery, Denmark, 2011 and Newspeak, Saatchi Gallery, London, 2010.

Nick Goss - Born 1981 in Bristol, UK, lives and works in London.

Goss completed his MFA at the Royal Academy Schools in 2009.  Previous solo exhibitions include Like Pineapples In A Greenhouse, Simon Preston Gallery, New York, 2013, Tin Drum, Josh Lilley, London, 2012,  Herz Man Sky, Simon Preston Gallery, New York, 2011 and Veverka, Josh Lilley, London, 2010.  Selected group exhibitions include Beyond The Process, Sammlung Lenikus, Kunstraum Innsbruck, Austria, 2014, Chapter, Austin Forum, London, 2013, Beastly Hall, Hall Place and Gardens, Kent, 2013, Never Ever Ever Land, Anna Kustera, New York, 2012, Gifted, Josh Lilley, London, 2011 and Newspeak: British Art Now, Saatchi Gallery, London, 2010.

Norbert Schwontkowski – Born 1949- 2013, Bremen, Germany.

Schwontkowski began exhibiting in the late 1970’s. Previous solo exhibitions include Norbert Schwontkowski:Blind man’s faith, Der Kunstverein ,Hamburg, 2013, Papierarbeiten,Schwarz Contemporary, Berlin, 2012, Norbert Schwontkowski, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, 2011 and Dirty, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, 2010.  In 2005 a major retrospective exhibition of his work, ‘Kino’ was presented at the Kunsthalle, Bremen, the Brandenburg Kunstsammlungen Cottbus and the Kunsthalle Erfurt.

Ryan Mosley – Born 1980 in Chesterfield, UK  lives and works in London and Sheffield.

Mosley completed his MA at the Royal College of Art in 2007.  Previous solo exhibitions include Susanne Vielmetter Projects, Los Angeles (Forthcoming, September 2014), Thoughts of Man, Tierney Gardarin, New York, 2013,  Reversed Limbo, Eigen + Art, Berlin, 2012, and Alison Jacques Gallery, London, 2011 & 2010.  Selected group exhibitions include  Zero Hours, S1 Artspace, Sheffield, 2013, Nightfall, Modem Museum, Hungary, 2012,  Merging Bridges, Museum of Modern Art, Baku, 2012, Newspeak: British Art Now, Saatchi Gallery, London, 2010, and Daily Miracles, Josh Lilley Gallery, London, 2009.