8/6/2008
Anna Gardiner
Art First, London
Home Land. New paintings on canvas and on paper. She readily identifies with children; her terms of reference are not restricted to her own childhood, but are concerned generally with the myths associated with children. She sees children and their present predicaments as an archetype for human kind as a whole.
Art First is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings on canvas and on paper from the studio of Anna Gardiner.
"Anna Gardiner readily identifies with children. Her terms of reference are not restricted to her own childhood, but are concerned generally with the myths associated with children. She sees children and their present predicaments as an archetype for human kind as a whole.
Children in her paintings easily translate into metaphor or become surrogates. They cannot be understood in the same way as adults in terms of hierarchy, clothing, setting, gesture or pose. There is a duality and ambiguity contained within their seeming innocence. Seen singly or in pairs, sometimes confrontationally, the children depicted in Gardiner's paintings represent commonality of experience without any sense of specificity. Just as the space containing them suggests limitless horizons, so the figures in their unintended awkwardness, unprompted humour and unnerving guilelessness allow a breadth of interpretation associated with the human condition."
Christopher Lloyd, 2008
An accompanying publication includes a new essay on the work by Christopher Lloyd.
Image: At The Gates, 2007-8 oil on linen 102 x 102 cm
Art First
First Floor, 9 Cork Street, London W1S 3LL
Gallery Hours: Mon-Fri 10am to 6pm, Sat 11am to 2pm