Vitalistic Fantasies is coming to The Cello Factory, London. An expanded version of the exhibition originally planned for the 2020 BEEP Painting Biennial in Swansea, will open on 2 December in London just as lockdown ends.
The exhibition presents artworks by 41 painters from Contemporary British Painting in an attempt to bring a visual conversation to ideas discussed in Isabelle Graw’s book ‘A Love of Painting’. These painters put forward images onto which we project ourselves, they are storytellers, colourists, mark makers, fantasists and so are we.
In her 2018 book, Isabelle Graw writes, “One key reason I call these fantasies “vitalistic” is because they imaginatively assume qualities of living beings such as subjectivity, liveliness, and animation for dead material. In a vitalistic fantasy, human attributes – like self-command, will, and energy – are projected onto lifeless material”.
The resulting record of the painter’s activity, however energetic or quiet, is suggestive of the artist themselves, the viewer is compelled to project an imagined personality onto the work.
The exhibition is curated by Paula MacArthur.
Venue: The Cello Factory, 33-34 Cornwall Road, Waterloo, London SE1 8TJ
Exhibition dates: Wednesday 2 – Tuesday 8 December 2020
By appointment via EventBrite
Artists: Iain Andrews, Amanda Ansell, Karl Bielik, Day Bowman, Julian Brown, Ruth Calland, Deb Covell, Lucy Cox, Gordon Dalton, Pen Dalton, Sam Douglas, Natalie Dowse, Fiona Eastwood, Geraint Evans, Susan Gunn, Alex Hanna, Suzanne Holtom, Barbara Howey, Phil Illingworth, Linda Ingham, Bryan Lavelle, Kirsty O’Leary-Leeson, Paula MacArthur, David Manley, Enzo Marra, Nicholas Middleton, Paul Newman, Stephen Newton, Joe Packer, Stephen Palmer, Mandy Payne, Ruth Philo, Narbi Price, Freya Purdue, James Quin, Katherine Russell, Harvey Taylor, Molly Thomson, Judith Tucker, Joanna Whittle and Sean Williams.
https://www.artlyst.com/whats-on-archive/vitalistic-fantasies/