Pertwee Anderson & Gold Gallery, in association with Adam Waymouth Art is pleased to announce Paul Fryer’s first solo show with the gallery The Electric Sky.

“My wish is that we might progressively lose our confidence in what we think we believe and the things we consider stable and secure, in order to remind ourselves of the infinite number of things still waiting to be discovered.”

ANTONI TAPIES

“Electronic Sources come from the sun...”

GENERAL SAINT AND CLINT EASTWOOD

Paul Fryer is noted for working with electricity in all its forms; from lightning machines propagating millions of volts to particle accelerators generating tiny superheated plasma stars with temperatures measured in the millions of degrees. His recent sculpture, Revelation (rain), is a machine which permits the casual viewing of cosmic rays arriving on earth as flashes of lightning in a glass box and Fryer has even recreated the environment necessary to produce the subtle patterns of an earth-bound Aurora Vitralis in a bell jar.

In his latest show The Electric Sky Fryer investigates the connections between life on earth and astronomical phenomena through the motif of lightning, creating multiple images and representations of this dynamic electrical energy in both two and three dimensions, exploring both existing and new theories of the fabric of the universe.

Lightning is a potent force in nature, in some cases firing from high in the outer stratosphere to ground. A familiar hypothesis is that it is caused by static electricity created by friction in the air; but could there be another explanation?

New ideas about the laws behind our reality suggest that universe could be entirely electrically powered, and that the energy that causes lightning might have travelled directly to us through plasma streams from the sun.

The implications of this are profound. Lightning striking the ground during a thunderstorm could be directly connected through our own star to other planets and star systems and ultimately other galaxies, not only in appearance but by an actual electrical circuit. Whether proven or waiting to be discovered it is an encompassing vision of the harmony of the universe, poetic in its simplicity.

Paul Fryer has taken this unconventional idea and others from the mainstream of physics and used them to synthesise a new and elegantly symbolic body of work. This new show playfully bridges the gap between conventional practice of sculpture and image making and his more technologically realised oeuvre. Lightning modeled and depicted becomes a motif, which is simultaneously philosophical, scientific, experiential and visual.

Sol Lewitt stated that conceptual artists “are mystics rather than rationalists”; Einstein said that “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious”. Fryer’s new show touches the mystery surrounding the laws of the universe to create beautiful and thought provoking new works which convey some of the wonder and hallucinatory glory that is the imagined Electric Sky.

In this new body of work he uses techniques as diverse as x-ray photography, painting, lenticular printing and sculpture to further pursue and encompass these ideas, culminating with what could be seen as a neon homage to Walter De Maria’s Lightning Field.

Pertwee Andersen and Gold, in association with Adam Waymouth Art is pleased to announce Annie Morris’s first solo show with the gallery ‘There is a land called loss’. This exhibition will feature new large-scale ink drawings, sculpture and watercolors and 34 smaller works on paper. The exhibition will be open to the public from February 3rd until March 1st.

In ‘There is a land called loss” Morris deals with the subject matter of stillbirth, something she went through herself just over a year ago. The very nature of having to go through birth to give life to something that is still is never forgotten. In the upstairs gallery the large scale drawings, made with a fine point ink pen and watercolour collage were created over the last year. They poetically reflect a period of sadness, loss and the hope for new life.

In Morris’s drawings the world that is created is full of intricate detail, rich shading and abstract female figures such as the repeated character of a woman that seems to be balancing on a ball, floating through the landscape. Black and white egg shaped sacks seem to weigh down the figures as they try to lift from the ground through an eerie forest of leafless trees; which in itself is a metaphor for a season of losing life only to grow back again. Some of the figures have fragile egg shapes attached to them as they glide amongst the trees carrying them with ease; others seem to have lost them as they fall in amongst the landscape. The compositions become a tumbling, cascading dreamscape where there is no foreground or background, just a subtly composed black and white field.

Through both an immediate and considered approach Annie Morris’ uses her unique line to capture a world that explores a tragedy of life, love and loss and creates an emotional journey that can only be born through a very traumatic personal experience.

Pertwee Anderson and Gold Gallery is proud to announce ‘Paper’, a group show which seeks to carve out alternative trajectories for this delicate, yet prolific, raw material.

Exhibiting the works of international artists Swoon, Brian Douglas, Jarek Piotrowski, Annette Schröter, Karen Sargsyan, Alex James Daw and Brian Dettmer the exhibition explores both the power and fragility of paper as a medium. As they tear, rip, dye, cut, fold, recycle, trash, sew, stain, stick, mould, slice, slash, and paste their work into being, the artists seek to both reduce and replenish the raw material, imbuing it with a meaning which stretches the narrative threads of the blank page.

Their materials are the waste of contemporary, throw-away culture, already stamped by the technologies of production: a text scribbled over, a book carved into, driftwood found and printed onto, a stage made of re-cycled paper-stock cut up. Labour intensive, their paper works create a fissure where the sublime intentions of modernist painting meet the social pragmatism mobilised by the modern DIY spirit.

Despite the rawness of the materials shown, inherent within many of the images is the influence and appreciation of a type of image-making that finds its roots in computer generated design. These works cut, copy, paste and transform their subjects in a way which mimes the past, whilst looking to the future, traversing between classical and digital mark-making.

Pertwee Anderson & Gold in association with Adam Waymouth, present RAW, Waymouth&rsquos first independently curated show.

RAW looks at the use of different materials being used in the practice of contemporary artists in a way that clearly embraces the material. The majority of the work has some, if not total abstraction, which directs the viewer to the surface rather than being distracted by a literal narrative. Each artist, to a certain degree, embraces the constraints of their chosen material, celebrating the raw, natural marks and working with the material, not just on it.

&ldquoAs machines become more and more efficient and perfect, so it will become clear that imperfection is the greatness of man&rdquo. - Ernst Fischer

In an age where art is so frequently seen digitally or reproduced in varying formats the viewer maybe distanced from the tangible attributes of what they are experiencing. In contrast, the artworks in this exhibition demand intimacy from their viewers and encourage us to consider the three dimensional subtleties which can only be experienced from viewing art &ldquoin the flesh&rdquo and that grow stronger with time.

All the artists featured in this exhibition live and work in major cities around the world. London, NY, Amsterdam and Rome are all urban jungles of varying degrees. These are environments where the ugly and the beautiful live side by side and the line that separates them becomes blurred with time. This show asks one to look at the materials that are the building blocks to the world around us, in a fresh light. The artists involved have responded to these materials as if they were the precious pigments used by the great masters and are asking us to afford them the same respect.

British artist Peter Bailey studied at the Chippendale International School of Furniture, which is where he began to develop his extraordinary technique of using wood veneers to create beautiful and sometimes otherworldly pieces. By layering and sanding varieties of dyed veneers he creates evocative, abstract artworks which belie the materials from which they are made and appear as though they are in fact made from another medium. The use of wood is at the heart of Baily&rsquos practice and his love of the material is omnipresent in every piece. Each work is like a gem that bends and refracts, changing in the light.

Jaap De Vries lives and works in the Netherlands. The materials he chooses to work with, primarily watercolour paint on aluminum create ethereal planes of mirror with colour and light that suggest a world of lucid and playful fantasy. The artist&rsquos work is primarily focused on juxtaposing what he describes as "a world controlled by prohibitions and another, more sacral world: the world of play." Watercolour on aluminum is a naturally unforgiving technique resulting in De Vries having to leave his pieces to dry for days before he can go back to working on them like Bacon working on raw canvases this leaves a very fresh and bold mark.

Erik Sommer is a New York based artist who works with layers upon layers of concrete which seem almost as if they have been cut directly from a decaying, urban environment. His artworks are not intended to represent a precise location or to be a traced replica of any wall that exists in our reality; moreover they are a representation, a homage to the strength and beauty of the material itself. In saying this, Sommer has successfully created the illusion that each of his works has existed for a hundred life times. As Sommer, himself says, he is &ldquocapturing the passing of time through the deterioration of texture&rdquo.

American born artist Michael Petry is currently the Director of the Museum Of Contemporary Art London and has been the first artist in residence at the Sir John Soane&rsquos museum this year. Working in different mediums such as glass, wood, leather and pearls the artist transforms materials and their cultural value in to sensual installations and sculpture that celebrate male sexuality and desire. Michael Petry lives and works in London.

The art of British artist Eric Butcher represents an attempt at the selective articulation of the surfaces of aluminum structures through the use of paint and resin. A thin transparent monochrome is spread across the surface of aluminium and then stripped off, using a variety of blades and instruments drawn across the surface. This procedure is then repeated, slowly building up an accumulation of residues. The outcome is determined largely by the physical characteristics of the support; the imperfections of the metal surface, the burr of its edge; or shifts in the consistency of the paint/resin mix, or the build up along the edge of the blade as it strips the surface bare. Each tiny imperfection is amplified by the process of stripping, leaving a ridge of denser colour to register its presence, a &lsquoregister of failure&rsquo if you will.

From Friday 2nd September and for the first time, Pertwee Anderson & Gold gallery will be opening the entire space to host four exhibitions under one roof.

i by Che Lovelace, Clarisse d’Arcimoles, Steve Goddard and Swoon; Collector VIII, 101 views’ by Tom Gallant; ‘Biliteral’ by Mat Chivers; and selected works by Annie Kevans

i

The exhibition titled ‘ i ’ will showcase the work of four international artists working in contemporary portraiture and includes the work of Che Lovelace (Trinidad), Clarisse d’Arcimoles (France), Steve Goddard (UK) and Swoon (USA). The exhibition will feature artworks across a variety of mediums from painting and photography to contemporary print making.

Che Lovelace: The social and cultural environment of Trinidad and Tobago is central to Che Lovelace’s work with much of the past decade spent visually exploring themes related to the Trinidad Carnival. The body, celebrated therein, be it costumed, exposed, extended or elaborated, as invitation, as shield, or as weapon is a central theme. In 2003 he co-founded the alternative cinema space “Studiofilmclub” in Port of Spain, Trinidad, with Peter Doig. In 2004 he had a solo show at the National Museum of Trinidad and Tobago and in 2006, he and Ravin Ramkissoon, collaborated to bring music and electronically disseminated poster artwork to various locations in Port of Spain. He lives and works in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

Clarisse d’Arcimoles: Since graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2009, d’Arcimoles’ work has been enthusiastically received with exhibitions and awards in the UK and internationally. She has worked collaboratively and individually on a variety of shows. In 2010, Clarisse was one of the 27 finalists selected to present her work at the Photographers’ Gallery for the freshfaced010, she’s also been announced as the winner of Heart of Glass 2010. Her series un-possible-retour was exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery for the Newspeak: British Art now exhibition.

Steve Goddard: Steve Goddard is known as one of the foremost portrait painters in Britain having won numerous prizes and awards for his realist work. It is this work though that interests him the most offering him the flexibility to explore line, texture and colour to recreate his memories and dreams. His work is widely collected internationally.

Swoon: Swoon’s worlds are often populated by realistically rendered - and evocatively cut-out - street people, often her friends and family. Inspired by both art historical and folk sources, ranging from German Expressionist wood block prints to Indonesian shadow puppets, Swoon is a master of using cut paper to play with positive and negative space in a conceptually driven exploration of the experience of the streets. The artist is currently exhibiting at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the New Orleans Museum of Art and is due to be showing in September at the ICA in Boston.

Collector VIII, 101 views

‘Collector VIII, 101 views’ presents new work by talented British artist Tom Gallant. The artist examines the pathologies underlying the West’s continuing fascination with pornography and the culture of collecting. His interest in Victorian decorative craft and his training in the traditional Far-Eastern techniques of Kirigami and Origami are united in his works in which highly intricate and beautiful shapes are cut and folded from pages extracted from pornographic magazines. Tom has exhibited widely both in the UK and internationally.

Biliteral

‘Biliteral’ is an exhibition and installation by British artist Mat Chivers. Mat is currently exhibiting at ‘The Knowledge’, alongside PA&G artist Nancy Fouts, an exhibition curated by James Putnam for the 54th Venice Biennale. He is also currently exhibiting at the historical archives museum in Hydra, Greece alongside AVA artist Kate MccGwire who exhibited at PA&G in February of this year. For this show Mat will be showing new work but also examples of work that can be viewed at his current exhibition in Venice. The artist’s works are in numerous collections including the Fitzwilliam museum and the Soho House Group. Through making sculpture Mat Chivers is looking at some of the moments of process and states of flux that exist below the surface of things. Combining modern making with old world approaches the artist makes marks that contradict the original subject’s form and meaning and is concerned with the conjunction of opposites.

Selected works by Annie Kevans

Also showing will be selected works by British artist Annie Kevans. Since graduating from Central St. Martins in 2004, when Charles Saatchi bought her series of 30 paintings of dictators as young boys, Kevans has had solo exhibitions in New York, London, Vienna and Italy. She has exhibited at art fairs including Art Basel Miami and the Armory, where her portrayals of presidential mistresses left American audiences “mildly offended” but which provoked positive press coverage in Germany, Korea, the US, the UK and Brazil. Kevans will be featured in the much anticipated ‘Power of Paper’ exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery next year. She has been a finalist in the ‘Women of the Future’ awards and in the Jerwood Drawing Prize. Her work can be found in major collections including the David Roberts Collection, 21c Museum, the Saatchi Collection and the collections of Lord Rothermere, Marc Quinn, Adam Sender, Beth Rudin de Woody, John McEnroe, and Marion & Guy Naggar.

Our opening hours are Monday to Friday 11am-6pm & Saturday 12-5pm

The gallery will not be open on Monday 29th August

For press enquiries please contact Jo Brooks

For all Gallery enquires please contact Nicky Stock

From Monday the 15th August and for the remainder of August the gallery will be open as usual whilst in preparation for our September show. Visitors will be able to view a selection of artworks by artists with whom we have worked to date alongside artworks by artists that are new to the gallery. For more information please contact us directly.

In I was there, in Arcadia Alastair Mackie draws on man’s relationship with nature, challenging our awareness and convictions about the boundaries that separate the two.

His first solo show since Not Waving but Drowning in 2009 at the David Roberts Art Foundation, the exhibition will open with four delicate spherical sculptures displayed under glass cases. Upon closer inspection, the surface turns out to be intricately composed of hundreds of perfect mouse skulls. The bones were collected and processed from regurgitated barn owl pellets found on and around the artist’s family farm. On the adjacent wall will be photographs depicting each of the sculptures reunited with their place of origin, the cycle from nature to culture complete.

Further on, three taxidermy display bell jars mounted on turned wooden pedestals have been transformed in to mirroring structures. Upon first view, we are faced with our own reflection. But as our eyes become accustomed to the light, we are able to peer through the mirror and in to the enclosed chamber. The ghostly apparition of a bird of prey is revealed, then lost, as the eye continually struggles between the surface reflection and the hologram-like image cradled within.