Isolate. Lawton has become known for her swirling renditions of groups of people derived from observing patterns of movement in public places such as stations or airports. Over the last eighteen months, however, she has turned more consistently to the urban environment itself and to an occasionally lower perspective than her usual aerial view. Therefore, we are presented now with a mixture of highly cropped close-up views of unknown people at street level; obsessively worked urban vistas depicted from a raised position; and the more familiar representations of group behavioural patterns.
‘Isolate’
CLAPHAM ART GALLERY is pleased to present again LOUISE LAWTON. Italy based Lawton has achieved great success since graduating from Wimbledon School of Art in 2001. This will be her third one-person show since then, and she has also been a key participant with Clapham Art Gallery at many art fairs in the UK and US. Lawton has become very collectable, and continues to build on her reputation as a highly sought after young artist.
Lawton continues to make highly figurative charcoal works on a gesso ground, this time sourcing her subject matter from the urban environments of London, New York and Paris. Lawton has become known for her swirling renditions of groups of people derived from observing patterns of movement in public places such as stations or airports. Over the last eighteen months, however, she has turned more consistently to the urban environment itself and to an occasionally lower perspective than her usual aerial view. Therefore, we are presented now with a mixture of highly cropped close-up views of unknown people at street level; obsessively worked urban vistas depicted from a raised position; and the more familiar representations of group behavioural patterns.
Lawton sees these selective views of the world around us as detailed fragments of a complex whole where the public embody ‘a solipsistic separateness with this mass-inhabited urban environment. There is a sense of isolation within the collective’. The artist, therefore, is concerned with the ironic, anthropological problematic of individual loneliness within an overly populated, architecturally dense location; and with the potential loss of individual identity within the group ethos. To this end, she treats her subjects objectively by using either extreme compositional cropping or by filling the entire picture plane with intense detail. In essence the identity of her subject is negated by employing this micro/macro axis.
Exhibition Date: Wednesday 20/10/04 – 20/11/04
Opening Preview (Serving Mixed Cocktails): Tuesday 19/10/04 7.00pm – 9.00pm
Gallery Hours: Tue-Sat 11am-6pm
Contact: Zavier Ellis / Aniko Pall
Clapham Art Gallery
61 Venn Street
London SW4 0BD
Unit 02
40-48 Bromell's Road
London SW4 0BG