Exchanging Space

David Teager, Duncan Newberry, Jessica Temple, Mikhak Mirmahoudi, Portman, Rachel Clewlow, Robbie Hudson, Tom Henderson

Once again we are delighted to offer a curatorial opportunity to Jessica Temple with an exhibition that explores space in relation to scale, dimension, categorization, movement and imagination.

Exchanging Space creates a dialogue between the works and raises the ideas of depth, dimension and distance. The title is taken from Grammers of Creation, by George Steiner, which discuses the difference between 'creation' and 'invention.'

All of the artists in Exchanging Space graduated from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne between 1998 and 2010.

Rachel Clewlow's paintings chart her journeys. Utterly meticulous, Rachael records every journey she makes, location, distance traveled, time spent. Through her innovative cartographic approach, these maps beautifully show the times and spaces where she has spent time and traveled. Untitled (London) records her journeys through coloured targets, in and through London, including visits to jaggedart.

Tom Henderson's pieces bridge the space between painting and sculpture. These three dimensional works are a progression from his solo exhibition Plane Space, at jaggedart in 2009. Made of perspex, aluminum, resin and oil paint, these works have a more physical, painterly quality. Through colour, materials and composition, a sense of transparency and space is achieved, thus challenging the concept of conventional freestanding sculpture.

Robbie Hudson's drawings describe an imaginary space. He explores myths, visually retelling stories that have been repeated for generations, incorporating aspects from each different version of the story. In these large scale pieces, Robbie draws with a confident fluidity of line. The Sinking of the Pequod is inspired by Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick.

Mikhak Mirmahoudi's three works in the exhibition are part of an ongoing series. Each photo-etching measures 2 x 4cm and is contained in a much larger frame. The space she has created around the work, draws the viewer into these tiny, intense prints, the size and composition of a postage stamp. Mikhak demonstrates herself as an accomplished print maker through this new body of work.

Duncan Newberry has developed his own process of stretching paper taut over pine supports which are then treated like a canvas. Duncan paints fluidly using blacks, grays and a neutral palette, exploring surface texture and tonality. The resulting paintings occupy a sculptural space with great depth of surface.

David Teager-Portman's sculpture Side, is made from two wooden structures placed adjacent to each other, visually punctuated with blocks of colour. The two structures are made from sourced wood, which is treated and finished and converted to a new form, with new meaning. Each of the parts of the sculpture, and the space between them, are part of David's exploration of traditional and fundamental issues of weight, balance, movement, and momentum. These are examined in poetic representation coupled with a scale, which addresses the familiarity of personal proportion.

In Jessica Temple's Conceptual Anamorphosis I and II she explores a different approach to drawing and portraiture through a hypothetical perspective. Avoiding describing the face as an oval, the drawings have both an abstract quality and intense detail depending on how the viewer looks at the work. Concentrated areas of detailed pencil starkly contrast with blank spaces on the page and the drawn form appears from the paper with a physical and dramatic dimensionality in this thinking medium.