The Waiting Rooms Gallery

Palmers Green Station
Aldermans Hill
London
N13

Presents:

WAITING, a group show.

Samuel Beer, Kezia Cantwell-Wright, Anton Cataldo, Elinor Evans, Alice Hodgson, Audrey Kirby, Laura Ng, Robert Offord.

October 18th -November 14th 2004
Private View on Thursday 21st October, 7pm -10pm

Perhaps it seems a little to obvious to theme an exhibition in what used to be a railway waiting room on the idea of “waiting”, but why not? Everybody should find something to interest them within this group of very diverse and exciting artists.
Waiting is a very loose theme to this show; so much art is surely dreamt up whilst waiting for something else, time spent waiting for a train, a late friend, or even the weekend, is possibly when are minds are most free to wander, to ponder something away from the everyday. So many artists spend their lives waiting for a break, for recognition of their talent so that they can give up the day job and concentrate on their art. This is definitely a different kind of place for all of them to be exhibiting, so please take the time while you wait for your coffee, to look, and contemplate the romance, dreams, and plans presented here.

Samuel Beer is a folk and blues artist. This is probably the last painting Sam will ever do, he can physically no longer paint and instead devotes himself to his successful music career. He feels music is now a much more of a direct translation of his head, more honest and less clouded and more accessible to the man on the street. Until recently he has made very vibrant paintings of the people and things he loves; with his particular view on the world, the light and dark elements of each painting, and indeed each song, are put into stark contrast.
www.samueljbeer.com

Kezia Cantwell-Wright is interested in how public works of art can affect social space; as well as facilitating practical art workshops with children and other groups, she almost obsessively plans for future large scale pieces of work. Through very complicated ideas and processes, she creates very simple geometric structures.
“Study for internal cube with sliding panels began as an exploration of the way in which 3-dimensional shapes are represented on the 2-dimensional plane, the drawing itself then evolved into an idea or plan for a 3-dimsional sculpture which resides in the drawing whilst it awaits to be realised.”
www.keziacantwell-wright.co.uk

Anton Cataldo paints very precisely and elegantly a wide range of unusual subjects. The ideas come to him quite randomly and unexpectedly. This is a self-portrait based on a dream; he does most of his philosophising in the time between day and night, between sleeping and waking.
“The act of waiting brings with it a more acute awareness of time. Waiting irrefutably is a bed partner of time. I lie in bed and wait for sleep to come and time to end for a few hours. In a dream you are unaware of time, and then you wake up.”

Elinor Evans paints people dressed as or acting like animals. They are almost always large and her natural gifts for draftmanship and colour are evident. Often humorous and cryptic, she draws on ancient myths and folk tales as well as her own relationships for inspiration. She splits her time between London, Wales and Spain and has recently won the most promising artist award at the Royal College of Art.

Alice Hodgson has painted a vast series of miniature portraits, she observes others and makes judgements about them, just as we all do sitting in a café such as this. With this self portrait, she wants to put the viewer in her shoes, “Look at me, what do you see, I can dress up as whoever I want to be”
although perhaps not very honestly as she has presented the image as she wants to be seen, raising questions about identity, insecurity and how we portray ourselves to the world.
“There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet.” (T.S.Eliot)

Audrey Kirby thinks about the secret places, past or present that the mind wanders to whilst she makes her work. She is interested in how physical involvement with the environment can affect one’s moods. One of her favourite pastimes in lying in long grass and I think you can tell her romantic out look on life from her paintings. Continuing her fascination with the effect of landscape and time on human nature, she is currently studying a PhD in Supermarket Design at Central St Martins, and has since
1992 been involved with the restoration of Broomfield House, once the local museum, full of fascinating exhibits, now a burnt out shell. She also likes to paint cockerels!

Laura Ng is interested in the suggestiveness of the image and the openness that surrounds an unknown picture; she is exploring how our imaginations automatically create a narrative for everything we see, be it in our consciousness, or our subconscious. She developed these photographs from
negatives found at an old market in London. With a background primarily in
sculpture, Laura now works in a television art department and has previously worked on films in both Britain and the U.S.

Robert Offord works with precision in collage and construction making artworks that tend to cross boundaries and are hard to pin down. Although a narrative is often involved in his own thoughts about the work, he sees this as a completely private, leaving the viewer to take from it whatever they desire. Neither fully abstract nor easily figurative, not free standing sculptures or flat graphics either; these objects exist outside of categories. A series of these unusual images were reproduced as mass-market posters and have achieved a huge commercial success. In 1991 he founded the London Gay Men’s Chorus, a singing and performing group that has now become Europe’s largest gay arts organisation. Robert has also been involved with the restoration of Broomfield House and this will in the future involve the Waiting Rooms Gallery.