Kilmorack Gallery, By Beauly, 2006

Across Sanna Bay to Eigg and Rum by Sarah Carrington.

THIS LATEST SHOW from Kilmorack Gallery is true to form, with regular artists such as James Hawkins, Leonie Gibbs, Helen Denerley, Robert McAulay, Ingeborg Smith, Angus Clyne, James McCallum and Kirsty Cohen side-by-side with a selection of new talent.

What makes this gallery a pleasure to visit is the ability of its director, Tony Davidson, to uncover new work and yield a few surprises, a quality not often present in many commercial galleries. This current group exhibition is no exception.

Ronald Rae, best known for his monumental granite sculptures, is represented here with a variety of work which draws upon the most basic need for human beings to create art. Stylistically it has a timeless simplicity that alludes to ancient monumental sculpture.

‘Broken Fish’ (Granite, 88cm x 55cm) is a simply incised form divided by a break in the stone. For me the eyes of the animal recall the cup markings of Bronze Age sculpture and it exudes the same kind of mystery and hidden ritual that is present in looking at Pictish art.

Similarly ‘Viking Head’ (Russian granite, 88cm x 55cm) recalls early Celtic sculpture in the form of the head. The same kind of form is found in Irish female “sheela-nagig” figures, although here the nose and mouth can be read as symbolically male.

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Overall the exhibition successfully mixes the work of established and emerging artists in a space which invites the viewer to stop, pause and spend time enjoying individual works.

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Rae’s ‘Sun Drawings On Laurel Leaves’ were created quite literally with rays of the sun directed through a magnifying glass to form patterns across and through the surface of the leaves. Like trying to read the dot paintings in Australian Aboriginal art, Rae’s creation of marks on a naturally found surface is equally captivating, the real meaning of the act known symbolically only to its maker.

Also new to the gallery, Holly Frean has exhibited a series of oils on board that cleverly explore the idea of looking at art in a gallery setting. ‘Look At Me’ depicts a silhouetted figure cropped at the edge of the piece looking at the form of a painting in muted greys with loosely handled ochre under painting.

The work is characterised by freshness in the style of brushwork, a subdued palette and a cool intellectual stance in exploring the relationship between the audience and a work of art.

‘Up On Pedestals’ is a small but largely ironic painting showing two clearly male spectators in silhouette. Between them two busts are displayed on the plinths of a typical gallery white space. One gets the feeling that the stature of these two men according to their gender (because no details define them personally) is all artifice.

‘The Strayed Sheep’ also made me smile. Painted in a similar fashion, a schoolgirl has strayed from the group and stares into the sparse texture of a single painting. Here as in the other two pieces the figures are only painted loosely and in silhouette but are still capable of giving the painting a wry narrative.

Sculptor David Williams Ellis’s smaller works in bronze more than make up for the loin clothed 19th century cliché of his large bronze ‘Aphrodite’.

‘Tumbler I, II and III’ are a dynamic series of figures at different stages of movement. These are beautifully displayed in relation to each other so that the flow of the body in space is uninterrupted. Also on display are more static but expressive squatting figures, ‘Watcher III and IV’ in a green bronze patina, and ‘WE 9’ and ‘W12’.

While these sculptures in blue patina have the feel of small studies, they are sensitively rendered in a way which suggests their potential as larger scale works. ‘WE9’, a female figure with head downcast, and ‘W12’, a contemplative male figure, are both equally expressive. His larger scale bronze ‘Louise II’, legs drawn up and head bowed into an inwardly crouched pose is slightly smaller than life but far greater in stature than his upright goddess ‘Aphrodite’.

A series of mixed media pieces on board by Sarah Carrington reward the viewer with closer inspection. Carrington displays a remarkably light touch and a range of mark that evokes land and sea.

‘Chalbha Bay, Iona’, a small rectangular drawing, is an excellent example, perfectly in tune with the spirit of place. Here the barest line is wonderfully descriptive. There is a lightness of touch synonymous with mood.

‘Across Sanna Bay to Eigg and Rum’ displays a more layered approach, with various media creating contrast and depth in the scene. The white sand and turquoise blue of the ocean together with the light and varied drawn marks in the foreground create a feeling of ease and peace.

‘Storm Approaching, Isle Of Gigha’ conveys a different mood, a darker low-banded landscape of oppressive blue, still with a sensitive range of mark. There is nothing heavy handed in the artist’s approach to her subject.

‘Leaded Skies, West Coast, Iona Study III’, a larger mixed media triptych, depicts a carefully sloping diagonal sky weighted down into ultramarine in the darkest right hand panel. The gradation of colour from light to dark, left to right is subtly balanced and again the foreground is delicately defined.

A former student of the Glasgow School of Art, Marj Bond has contributed a series of square oils on canvas. The two most accomplished in terms of composition are ‘Diwali’, a complex arrangement in blue, and ‘Marakesh Window’, which recalls the work of Paul Klee.

Here abstracted flattened planes of colour in warm tones of orange, ochre and umber are successfully balanced. The painting is successful as an evocation of the subject but also as an abstract arrangement of form and colour.

Overall the exhibition successfully mixes the work of established and emerging artists in a space which invites the viewer to stop, pause and spend time enjoying individual works.

A catalogue of current work on show can be requested from the gallery.

This show is open Thursday-Sunday, 11am-5.30pm and by arrangement (01463 783230).

© Georgina Coburn, 2006

Link

• Kilmorack Gallery