Florence Hutchings’ The place I call home runs across both spaces of Union Gallery. Hutchings’ surrounds herself with objects, drawings, plants, images and postcards which inspire her to create.
Florence Hutchings The Kitchen Sink II 2020 Oil, collage and oil bar on canvas 190 x 150 cm
Often, she relentlessly draws in her home, expanding her practice from the studio, bringing her work into the domestic sphere. This has been evermore been present during the recent lockdown, where Hutchings’ was forced to adopt her own domesticity as her primary source of influence; the sink in the bathroom, the stand in the sitting room, the plants, pots, and vases which make up her home. Hutchings’ work is not just a documentation of the everyday. She uses a diverse, vibrant palette and varied modes of painting to create a dialogue between the actual and the abstracted, regenerated version of the mundane.
Florence Hutchings The Plant Stand II 2020 Oil, acrylic and collage on paper 84 x 59 cm
The works exhibited in The place I call home delve into various aspects of Hutchings’ practice and lend to her ways of making. Her tendency to work in series is evident in the works shown. Each work presented is a pair or is featured in an extended series, whilst holding the overarching theme of the interior. Hutchings’ often creates a body of work in various scales and mediums simultaneously. Within a particular work the use of bold and complementary colours, ie. the mix of bright yellow and a burnt red or a deep purple and earthy green, allows them to stand alone devoid of being presented together. Yet, it is Hutchings’ exquisite use of colour and painterly language which allows each work to hold their own unique energy whilst being able to bounce off one another when displayed as a group.
Florence Hutchings The Purple Plant Stand 2020 Oil, collage and oil bar on canvas 140 x 90 cm
Hutchings’ work is labour intensive, she pushes and moves paint whilst also cutting out and collaging. She builds up a pictorial image, then reduces, reworking it into something much simpler yet still holding the intended organic textures. Within her work she finds the background, such as the carpet or wall, is just as important as a plant stand or sink. Hutchings’ approaches all her work with the same intensity with the small works even becoming more physical as they have been worked mainly on the floor, the drips down the side of the canvas usually show when she has worked in this way.
The place I call home, Florence Hutchings curated by William Gustafsson, on until 5th September 2020
@union.gallery
Florence Hutchings (b. 1996, Kent, UK) is a graduate of The Slade School of Art with First Class Honours (2015-2019) Selected exhibitions include: ‘Florence Hutchings and Danny Romeril’ The Cabin, LA, USA (2019); ‘Kaleidoscope’ Saatchi Gallery, London (2019); ‘The Poetry of the Everyday’, BEERS London, London (2019); ‘Seating Arrangement’ Delphian Gallery, London (2018). Hutchings lives and works in London, UK
