‘FULL HOUSE’
FULL HOUSE
SOMERS GALLERY
96 Chalton St, somersgallery.com
Tue - Sat 12pm to 6pm
Babeworld, Erin Collins, Nathan Cash Davidson, Lesley O'Neill, Alfie White and Glenn Wilkinson
August 31 - October 14, 2023
Reception: Thursday, August 31st, 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Full House is a group show curated by Sacha Craddock, featuring artists: Babeworld, Erin Collins, Nathan Cash Davidson, Lesley O'Neill, Alfie White and Glenn Wilkinson.
From full to empty street, domestic interior to public event, Alfie White’s black and white photographs seem to present a generous cross generational vision with a picturing of place, both inhabited and barren, that manages each time to convey a striking sense of formal moment.
Babeworld’s film, ‘Derby Day’, plays around with the hilarious narrative of predetermined expectation and assumption. The relaxedly delivered account of an interview the artist had whilst in the process of applying for funding to make a film, provides a subtle, confident, touching riposte to what was at best a downright cloying patronising person in authority.
In Erin Collins film installation, theatrical gloop or goo is squirted on to limb, hair, heel and calf. This deadpan theatrical play on voyeuristic expectation parodies a two-way engagement with physical and sensory display. Two of Collins’s photographs bring skin tone and a heightened nature of produce to a pitch of exploitation and parody.
Lesley O’Neill’s sophisticated expressive prints of faces, which are in turn representations of dolls made by the artist, set up a circular play between expression and expectation. Ultimately moving from disappointment to elation, with a range of feeling in-between, the artist projects as a sort of short hand for visual language onto the work.
Glenn Wilkinson’s painting of a donkey satyr dragging a woman by the hair, comes with reference to historical painting composition as well as a desire to speak about the space occupied by social media in current affairs. Wilkinson’s works on paper, conjured with ink and loosely washed colour, are narrated scenes constructed out of a friend’s dream.
The elaborate detail in the cloth that so fulsomely surrounds the four-poster bed in Nathan Cash Davidson’s paintings, is a luxuriant mass of painterly mark, volumetric force and physical material. Nathen’s portraits also carry a relation to the subtle and detailed construction of character of a mid Renaissance portrait.
The range of work with such an independent voice reflects the fact that the six artists in Full House were originally together on a shortlist for the SPECTRUM Award 2022. The Award, established four years ago, was not realised as a result of lack of funds.
Craddock, who co-founded the award and chairs the selection process, is grateful to Somers Gallery for the unique opportunity to curate an exhibition that is such a celebration of the enriching relationship between visual art and autism.
Copyright Sacha Craddock. August 2023
