“Trial and error canvases can contain several hesitant layers, painted over many months. They become what I’d call ‘scruffy’ paintings but there’s something really satisfying about having works like these lying around the studio – there’s an energetic tension between these and the more finished paintings.”
32 painters from around the UK virtually come together for the first time in a labyrinthine studio complex. Yes/No is a virtual exhibition/open studio which offers an opportunity for viewers to explore a painter’s studio from a different perspective.
You can explore both their work in progress and working environment. The show considers unresolved, unfinished or recalcitrant works, paintings which still ask questions of their makers, these works have not yet answered Yes or No but still say Maybe. The title of the show is taken from Gerhard Richter’s reference to his working process as a series of Yes/ No decisions with a final Yes to end it all. The work included focuses on the kind of decisions that all painters undertake when embarking on a painting, from the initial idea stage to the resolved and exhibited work, you will see revealed some of the uncertain moments that paintings go through, an insight into the layered time consuming process that so often lies hidden underneath that final Yes decision. The works bring painting as thought to the fore. Whatever idiom these painters use, they have all taken a risk, they have chosen to place an uncertain work into the public domain, paintings which are in-between, still open ended and fluid with that unpredictable final Yes still to come.
Come in and explore … https://www.contemporarybritishpainting.com/yes-no/
A CBP virtual open studio is curated by Deb Covell, Paula MacArthur and Judith Tucker, and built by Isaac Ashby
Exhibiting artists are: David Ainley, Iain Andrews, Amanda Ansell, Karl Bielik, Day Bowman, Julian Brown, Simon Carter, Deb Covell, Lucy Cox, Gordon Dalton, Pen Dalton, Natalie Dowse, Fiona Eastwood, Nathan Eastwood, Susie Hamilton, Suzanne Holtom, Barbara Howey, Phil Illingworth, Linda Ingham, Paula MacArthur, David Manley, Enzo Marra, Paul Newman, Stephen Palmer, Ruth Philo, Freya Purdue, James Quin, Katherine Russell, Molly Thomson, Judith Tucker, Joanna Whittle, Sean Williams
You can download the accompanying catalogue here