31st May 12th June 2012
33 Tite Street London SW3 4JA
The Space Between is an exhibition of new paintings and sculpture by british artist Orlando Campbell (b. 1985). Presented by newartists-na.com/ at the chelsea studio once used by James McNeill Whistler and John Singer Sargent, who lived and worked there for nearly 30 years. Exploring themes of isolation, nostalgia and decay, campbell’s new body of work provides an abstracted, and sometimes surreal, view inspired by his research of nineteenth and early twentieth century medical manuals.
After studying painting at Central St Martins , Campbell moved to Helsinki, Finland, where his work was influenced by the barren landscapes and remoteness of Finnish life. On his return to london he spent three years studying historic carving and restoration, with significant impact on his painting practice.
A Degenerate is one of a series of eight large oak panels treated with gesso and variously gilded and painted in bole to render an abstracted elliptical detail of cells, diseases and tumours, the remaining seven will reference cross sections of teeth and gums.The processes and materials used in each panel reference those employed by Renaissance artists and icon makers, adding the language of reverence to these abstract landscapes.
campbell’s interpretation of anonymous medical subjects’ profiles is to be found in a group of miniature bronze heads. Including Deficient Growth of Mandible these bronzes retain a sense of sadness and grace, but again leave the viewer to imagine their subject’s story in a medium most often reserved for those of standing and wealth.
Five smaller paintings take the typology of dentistry in the form of whole teeth and roots, set against worked back gilding and varnish, the teeth are rearranged in configurations to encourage an anthropomorphic reading.
These smaller works all reveal a profile of bare wood, a number stand alone as sculptural objects, with two painted surfaces visible to the viewer. Offering a further reinterpretation of iconic language,The difficulties of extraction is presented in the form of the familiar doored triptych.
Layers of paint and varnish are built up to create surfaces with cracks and openings, images painted and then all but completely subtracted. Campbell’s juxtaposition of subject, process and medium come together to create a sense of otherworldliness, playful but also uneasy in its delicate elegance.
Orlando Campbell was born in 1985 in London, UK; he lives and works in London. His artistic practice includes painting, gilding, historic woodcarving and sculpture. Campbell studied painting at Central St Martins and woodcarving and restoration at City & Guilds, London. His work has been exhibited at The Korean Cultural Centre, London (2012),V&A, London (2012),The Cable Factory, Helsinki (2008) and Abbott Meade Vickers Gallery, London (2007).
New Artists is a roaming gallery that specialises in presenting the work of independent emerging artists in interesting and unusual spaces across London.The inaugural New Artists exhibition of work by Richie Culver and Shorvon & Hunter took place in 2011 at Maggs Bros. Ltd, an antiquarian booksellers located at 50 Berkley Square.Also known as the ‘most haunted house in London’.
