Space In Between, London
For its participation in ART-O-RAMA, Space In Between (SIB) will present a dialogue between 3 artist: London-based American artist Christian Newby, New York-based British artist Sandy Smith, Sao Paulo-based Brazilian artist Lucas Simões.
Christian Newby’s recent works are made from fabric and carpet, screen-printed photographs and watercolour. These take the domestic interior and, more specifically, the fictitious interior as their starting point; the ordinary and homespun accoutrements of intimate space reflected as an infinitely charged connotative platform. His latest works reflect a specific interest in finding immediate pleasure in the abbreviated mediations of film trailers, posters and seeing art in print or on-screen rather than first hand. The inability of the image of the image – or object – to graphically relate all of its content or associative potential is at the heart of his practice. The ability to shift meaning and improvise, as well as to employ techniques that obscure hierarchies of between the fine and applied arts, is central to his work. Christian Newby was born in Virgina Beach, USA. He lives and works in London.
Lucas Simões is a Brazillian artist based in São Paulo with a background in architecture and design. Simões’ interest in architecture is rooted in the changes and trends that take place both in and around it over time. His practice addresses the notion of ‘time shifting’ in architecture; both its physical manifestations of change and potential dilapidation, as well as social perceptions of changes in the style of architectural design.Through his practice and heavily layered, distorted works, his intention is to intervene in the original meaning of an object or image and create a new representation which oscillates between beauty and strangeness, movement and depth. His recent exhibition at Space In Between addressed the contemporary concerns with Brutalist architecture in London.
Sandy Smith has been represented by SIB since 2012 and has presented four solo shows with the gallery since 2009. Sandy Smith works with language; specifically the spaces, systems and structures where language takes form in co-habitation with contemporary life. Smith uses many different media, including performance, video, painting and sculpture, with text being the main thread throughout. Over the past three years, Smith has worked with repetition and patterning, influenced by the state of unfocused overstimulation experienced in deserts. Concentrating his use of language down to a handful of basic linguistic operators, he then combines and repeat them to form ‘hyperactive fields’ of language. Smith’s new work using acoustic tiles will form the background for a presentation of his recent work at ART-O-RAMA. These tiles, designed to eliminate echoes and create an acoustically infinite space, provide a stage for observing a silent collection of silkscreens, sculptures and found objects.