Drawing, painting and video by Marius von Brasch and Howard Hardiman at the West Gallery around the notion of transformation in myths and alchemy.
Illumination by Marius von Brasch and Howard Hardiman opens in the West Gallery on Friday 29th September 6 – 8pm.
Artists’ Gallery Tour: Saturday 30th September, 3pm (free).
Artists’ Theatre Presentation: Friday 13th October, 6pm (£5).
Alchemy - An Introduction to the History, Symbolism and Practice of the Golden Game talk by Dr R.A. Plimer: Thursday 30th November 7.30pm (£5).
Freestyle Drawing and Painting workshop with Marius von Brasch: Thu 2 & Fri 3 Nov 10am – 4pm£90 / £85.
Exhibition continues until Saturday 2nd December 2017.
A catalogue will be available listing all the works and commented by the artists. Ella Clocksin, artist and writer has written an introductory essay Narratives of Perception: Time, Relationships, Identity and Transformation.
Georgia Newman, Exhibition Manager Quay Arts writes:
With the Autumn season upon us, there is change afoot, and our latest exhibition ‘Illumination’ by Marius von Brasch and Howard Hardiman couldn’t be a more fitting show as they explore transformations within myths and alchemy through contemporary painting, drawing and video.
Kindly supported by the Arts Council of England, von Brasch and Hardiman have embarked on a year-long journey to find common threads of storytelling and mythological tales within their work. Although very different in style, their work is complimentary through examining shape-shifting animals and beasts, time and space and narratives of love, fear, sex and death.
Artist and writer, Ella Clocksin writes in her introduction to the Illumination exhibition catalogue;
“The exhibition illuminates not only ancient mythologies but the contemporary resonance of their archetypal relationships, and the inward transformations suggested by metamorphoses in physical form. The particular narratives speak to universal human experience. Shedding light on the subjective nature of chronological time, on love’s formation and relationship breakdown, on resistance to conformity and societal norms, and on the personal construction of identity, they speak to our shared humanity.”
Marius von Brasch works in drawing, painting and digital video. His interest lies in the idea of visual and psychological transformation or process, and his works reference frequently mythology and historical sources, which pick up this subject. He completed a practice-based PhD research in Fine Art at Winchester School of Art and was awarded the Abbey Fellowship in Painting at The British School in Rome in 2013. He has widely exhibited (South of England, London, Rome) and works from his studio in Rookley, Isle of Wight.
Howard Hardiman is a research-led artist based on the Isle of Wight, drawing from mythology, nature and life, he works in printmaking, pen, pencil and digital art. After studying interdisciplinary art theory for his undergraduate degree in Cultural Studies at Norwich in the 1990s, he became a sign language interpreter. This led him to work in galleries, where he was encouraged to return to both theory and practice as an artist. He began giving tours for major London galleries and soon began drawing and writing, creating graphic novels and interactive adventure books. Hardiman won a year-long studio residency at Quay Arts’ Jubilee Stores Studios, which allowed him to progress his work from page to wall. In 2015, he undertook a research residency with Brading Roman Villa to produce a series of images emerging from new translations of classical myths.