27th Mar – 12th Apr Signal Gallery, 32 Paul Street, London EC2A 4LB www.signalgallery.com/info
Matthew Small and Fran Williams will be showing their work together for the first time in a two-man show at Signal gallery.
The show called ‘The Way We Were’ finds the two artists in top form, producing powerful works in their distinctively intense styles. Both artists have largely concentrated on portraiture as their main stylistic medium. There is also an underlying melancholy and soulfulness in both their works, which sits very well together, even though the technical means of achieving this atmosphere is quite different.
Fran Williams studied illustration at Swansea Metropolitan University and since graduating she has shown in across the UK solo and group shows and at a number of important Art Fairs, notably the London Art Fair. Her unique blend of ethereal beauty and painterly technique, have found her a place in the Urban Art scene as well as in the Fine Art community. The artists says about her work ‘I relentlessly explore the emotive qualities of paint, surface and form. My ethereal figures that take the viewer on a journey within. The paintings are a visual diary of my life experience so far, as I aim to capture and trap my feelings and emotions in paint’.
Matthew Small also studied illustration, firstly at the University of Westminster and then at The Royal College of Art. He has shown extensively in London and internationally and has been a considerable figure in London’s Urban Art scene for several years. Matt’s unique technique, creating a colourful kaleidoscopic effect in a series of intimate portraits, mostly of young black men, has become an iconic trademark for the artist. He invariably paints on found metal objects, which adds to the intensely urban feel and beauty of the works.
