28th March – 2nd April, open daily 12 – 6pm
Private view 31st March, 6 – 9pm
The group of 25 artists participating in ‘Mud, for you’ are all enrolled in Turps Art School. This group of international painters and sculptors is not bound to one single physical place, continually shifting between countries and contexts.
A collection of individuals and a common idea. As many threads yet to be woven together,
each member adds something of their creative vision to the ever-expanding ethos of the
group, enrichening the concept.
The 25 artists share an affliction; a compulsion to make and to reinvigorate each other’s work. Their practices stem from a deep engagement with the medium and its possibilities for the contemporary world. They explore notions of agility, transience, environment and
impermanence.
Whilst their works may be different, what unites and inspires them is a willingness to make art which both emulates and disturbs.
‘Mud, for you’ at the Fitzrovia Gallery will be the group’s debut exhibition.
Is it just mud or gold that you see on these walls?
Art and Alchemy have similar goals. While Alchemists attempt to create life from the material trying to defeat the vanishing present, artists juggle humble materials to create something which can allow one’s views to live on, a message to be passed on, and a voice to be heard by someone far away.
As artists, the continual search for a perfect balance affects our work on so many levels. Dealing with the delicate equilibrium of precarious life-work dynamics and cuts in the arts, we try to make something of our work last. Unfortunately, this is the quest we have to face. The real state of the arts.
Have we achieved in transforming the paint, clay or inks into something else? Or does it look like we have wasted our time in a hobby – as described by many politicians?
“THOSE BEAUTIFUL SHIMMERING POWDERS FROM THE PAINT STORE TURN IMMEDIATELY INTO PASTY SLOP BUCKETS OF SICKENING GREEN OR HEMORRHAGE-Y BROWN TONES. THIS IS WHERE THE FETISHISM GOES HORRIBLY WRONG.” – AMY SILLMAN, ’FAUX PAS’, 2020
As Amy Sillman illustrates in her book ‘Faux Pas’, all painters speak of their paints becoming “mud”, and this happens with any other medium too. All artists struggle to turn muck, grime and filth into something one will see as an artwork.
“THE PIGMENT ITSELF IS REVERSE ALCHEMY, A GOLD THAT BECOMES SHIT IN OUR STUDIOS, AND OUR TASK IS TO TRY TO TURN THAT SHIT BACK INTO GOLD.” – AMY SILLMAN, ’FAUX PAS’, 2020
On the gallery walls we present our artworks – our mud.
We just try to make the best of what we have, attempting to turn shit into gold. Our works are the simple by-product of hours of an alchemic research and inevitable mistakes, however, it is only by working through the mud, by putting it out there and throwing it on the walls of galleries, that we can hope to see it become something else.
So, it is by serving our mud to you in this gallery, that we attempt to elevate the mess we make.
Here is our mud, for you.
A full list of all participating artists can be found below.
Alexandra Beteeva
Alison Berry
Caitlin Heffernan
Cathy Hayes
CD Lewis
Darina Meagher
Djuro Selec
Elspeth Penfold
Eugenia Cuellar
Hermione Carline
Jane Peacock
Jantil Moon
Jenny Blake
Jo Fleming Smith
Joanne Boyle
Louise Evans
Matthew Swift
Nick Ivins
Penny Green
Sarah Ria Mursal
Susan Montgomery
Victoria Snazell
Vivienne Baker
Zelga Simone Miller
Zoë Rivas Zanello
