Century Gallery
ACAVA, 1-15 Cremer Street, Shoreditch, London E2 8HD
Contemporary fine art in an artist-run gallery

Through the surface
July 10-20, 2002
Henry Warburton, Lesley Andrew | paintings, 3D | space 1


Through the surface is an exhibition by two artists with similar concerns about perception and its subversion. An exploration of surface is integral to the work of Lesley Andrew and Henry Warburton in this show. Through differing means, both artists seek to undermine the process of identification.

  
Henry Warburton, working from a shamanic interpretation of the universe, is particularly interested in issues of perception, attention, object identification and intent. His paintings deliberately undermine the process of identification and allow feeling to co-exist with the act of vision. The use of differing materials unsettles the surface of the work, causing reflections and tonal variations which ultimately draw you into the paintings: the complexity of the result rewarding the eye for looking. So ultimately vision is unclouded by inner dialogue.
In contrast, Lesley Andrew's starkly simple pieces create a dislocation of perception through the simplest of interventions. Each 'frame' seems to contain space in a very formal way. At the same time the surfaces react with light to create ever changing reflections and shadows which open up the physical boundaries of the work. Sometimes the contained space takes on a physicality of its own, at others the shapes appear to be disappearing into the surface of the wall itself. This effect is enhanced by a deliberate play on serial compression and rotation, generating a feeling of movement within the pieces themselves. So perception is destabilised.