The exhibition is dedicated to artist, Judith Tucker, who suddenly passed away on Monday, 13 November.
For its debut show at Cromwell Place, Cavaliero Finn will present a selection of mixed media work that have a direct link to the timing of the show; winter, when the nights close in and the days are crisp and dry and, in the words of Thomas Hardy, 'The tangled bine-stems scored the sky like strings of broken lyres'.
There is a beauty in the starkness of a winter landscape, as we see the world in outline against a white sky, abstracted almost, reduced to a palette of monochrome beauty. As decay and hibernation sets in, so too does a sense of hope as the winter solstice approaches and nature starts its cycle of renewal. Bruegel, Raeburn, Picasso, Cezanne, Monet, Twombly and Doig, to name but a few, have all painted winter scenes and this season of dormancy continues to fascinate and beguile artists to this day.
Cavaliero Finn has selected a group of artists who seek to evoke winter in different ways, whether it’s capturing the essence of it through light and colour, the sense of decay through texture and material, or the sense of beauty hope and renewal through composition and context.
Judith Tucker paints the Dark Marshes, as the dark, waterlogged land is rendered in acute detail, the bleakness infiltrated with pops of red from the samphire, whose appearance changes to a wondrous carpet of red in the winter.
Helen Carnac works in copper and vitreous enamel to create delicately textured sculptural forms capturing the glistening ice on grass, leaf and stone when freeze fast follows thaw.
Ruth Stage and Gill Rocca bring an otherworldly quality to their winter scenes evoking the misty, almost ethereal beauty of winter.
Sara Brennan’s monochrome handwoven tapestries combine intricate details with abstraction to convey the passing of time, the marking of history and of place.
Nature’s cycle, solstice rebirth and rejuvenation are explored through the work of ceramicists, Jaejun Lee, Björk Haraldsdóttir and Mimi Joung, and sculptor, Craig Bamford.
Artists, Mia Cavaliero and Lavinia Gaillie, convey the stark landscape of winter through abstraction, layering and mixed media.
Painters, Catherine Knight, Helen Ballardie and Kate Sherman, capture the beauty of the landscape in winter, with its distinctive light.
Decay and weathering is explored through the ceramic works of Alice Foxen, Annie Turner, and Rowena Brown.
Winter will also feature paintings by Tony Beaver, Trevor Burgess, David Edmond and ceramics by Matthew Chambers, Hannah Tounsend and Gaby Guz.