Cathy's Art Diary

Strange exhibition at Unit of new work by Kevin Klamminger. I must admit the aesthetic of these pieces aren’t to my taste but I loved the quality of the painting in them blending the hyperreal and surreal. Evidently, they are about the “balance between conscious and unconscious minds” but I’m not sure I’d have got that. I did feel they would work well as illustrations for Greek myths. My favourites were the small, less surreal pieces with painted faux frames. Closed 8 December 2024    

Fascinating exhibition at Unit of new work by Bobbi Essers. These beautifully painted works explore the idea of platonic friendship by combining images from photographs of sections of her friends. It talks of the interweaving of groups of people. I loved the way the images blended together sometimes by combining canvases but in others creating the same effect with paint. Closed 8 December 2024

Sweet exhibition at Unit of new work by Gori Mora exploring “safe spaces” for queer people. I think I was meant to be slightly shocked but I just thought they were sweet as they had a cartoon like quality. I couldn’t help but think it was Tom of Finland meets Beryl Cook and incidentally I’m annoyed with myself for missing the recent exhibition which did bring those two together. I was intrigued to find they are oil paint on Perspex which I’d not come across before. It gave   a very shiny finish to them which added to the campness but made them hard to photograph. Closed 23 September 2024  

Beautiful and fun exhibition at Unit of new work by Damian Elwes recreating and reimagining the studios of famous artists. I loved the detail in these pieces leading you to spot props the artist had used or landscapes through windows which had influenced them. They gently mimic the style and palate of the artist and recreate their art hanging on the walls or on an easel yet again keeping Elwes style. At first I was annoyed they weren’t labelled but there was a good webpage and links to stories about the pictures and actually it was more fun to just look and work out who they represent. There were just two that foxed me which weren’t on the site. My favourite was this clever Francis Bacon.  C losed 23 September 2024

Beautiful exhibition at Unit Gallery of new work by Jess Allen. I loved these paintings which combined images of real objects and people with the shadows of others. I liked the mix of the real and surreal creating a narrative your brain started to fill in. Other works showed paintings within paintings in domestic settings shown alongside the original works. I felt these added an element of time and the past to the work. Closed 21 April 2024

Interesting exhibition at Unit Gallery of contemporary artists take on the Ancient Greek idea of the Three Graces. The show looked at how a selection of artists have used the idea of the Three Graces to question ideas of ideal beauty and female roles. My favourites were by Jake Wood-Evans which were a classical take on the subject in a rather ethereal form. I’m not sure I always saw the link to the Graces in some of the other work and a bit more commentary might have helped. That said I did like Radu Oriean’s layer textured pieces. Closed 21 April 2024  

Mixed exhibition   at Unit featuring contemporary artists working in abstracts. The commentary described this as a group show which “guides viewers through an immersive experience that connects form and space”. I’m not sure I got that although for a while I did think the building noise coming from a room next door might have been part of it. I’m afraid I didn’t relate to the paintings in the show. I liked their bold colours but found them a bit impenetrable. I much preferred the textile work which seemed to lend itself to abstract ideas. My favourite was Allison Reimus’s patchwork quilt like pieces which had a geometric abstract effect. I also liked Betty Leung’s more sculptural work -and how she used specifically printed fabric for them. Closed 3 February 2024  

Fun exhibition at Unit of new work by Mauro C. Martinez. These oil paintings were all of lone tennis players mimicking the aesthetics of sports photography with the close-cropped image and deep shadows. It took me a moment to realise he’d replaced the shadow of the ball with that of a cat, hence the title. I did like the colour and action of them. You don’t often see paintings of sport. I found them slightly cruder in the flesh than they’d looked in the publicity email but I guess that reflected the effect of zooming into an image. The commentary was interesting pointing out how Martinez is trying to move into series of pictures to examine repetition. Closed 3 February 2024  

Strange exhibition at Unit London of new work by Karms Thammatat. I admit I’d had done a lot the day I saw this work and it might have been one show too far. They had a cartoon, street art feel although inspired by Sir Thomas Moore’s Utopia of 1512. I’m not sure what Moore would have thought! Karms creates an imagined world peopled by figures with enlarged eyes and manic smiles in uncanny environments. I am afraid they were just not for me. I could see what they were doing but they aren’t my aesthetic. Closed 20 May 2023    

Colourful exhibition at Unit London of new work by Sasha Ferre. The works looked like huge flowers paintings with the coloured blending and jumping off the walls and reading the useful leaflet now I see they are hung in such a way that the colours flow better the canvases. She created the work by placing the canvas in the floor and crouching over it using oil sticks which she then rubs in with her hands. She compared the abstract imagined landscape to jazz music. I loved the effect. Closed 20 May 2023  

Vibrant exhibition at Unit London of work made during lockdown by Stephen Wong. These were effective landscapes despite being painted in rather artificial colours. They combined large sublime scenes with tiny figures also too small to see.   The large works were of Hong Kong where the artist lives and are based on plein air sketches done on long walks through the country around the city. I loved their scale as well as the colour. The smaller works are of Great Britain composed from Google Earth during lockdown. Each has a small toy car hidden in each picture and are shown with the car sitting on the top of the frame. Some have an odd perspective but they looked wonderful as a set. Closes 27 January 2023

Interesting exhibition at Unit Gallery of new work by Stacey Gillian Abe. These were large pictures of black women painted in Indigo blue to highlight the role the dye played in the East African Slave Trade. I loved the way Abe caught the different shades in the skin despite using blue. Some of the detail on the pictures was embroidered giving them a lovely texture. I particularly like the fine lines linking some of the figures. The pictures filled the space in an enjoyable but   challenging way. Closes 27 January 2023