Dawn Chorus I Chris Hawtin
16 June – 28 July 2017
Venue: BEARSPACE, 152 Deptford HIgh Street, London SE8 3PQ
Open: Wed- Fri 10-3pm / Sat 10-6 pm
BEARSPACE is pleased to present ‘Dawn Chorus’ a solo exhibition by new painter, Chris Hawtin. Chelsea College of Art & Design graduate Chris has been developing a painting style which incorporates his trademark mechanised organic forms growing out of, or invading classically painted landscapes, slipping between parallel realities of a historical landscape with the looming sci-fi, industrial and organic developments of the future, brought back to bear on a tranquil scene of the past.
These ‘vessels’ from another place and time break through into our notions of art history, creating the promise or threat of new civilisations, also contrasting two sources for painterly inspiration; the topography remembered from historical representations of landscape painting, alongside the artist’s use of the vessels which is always based on the same form, ever evolving from one painting to another through the use of a digital programme and 3D imaging. The form sometimes becomes space-ship like, sometimes like a machine and sometimes an organic spaceform (or often all three). The smooth lines taken from the 3D imaging and suggested composite surface are juxtaposed with the natural style of painting and the subject of the landscapes they enter. Chris Hawtin works as artist archaeologist of the past and future by combining these styles and historical future references, often connected with a bright bolt of electricity as the vessel becomes ‘earthed’ to the ground.
The paintings themselves are rich in discourse around painting and the digital, our desires around space travel and science fiction, saying more about our current society than the future we look to represent, often actually re-engaging with part of our past and reinterpreting this with future lenses, as we often look at the future as a return to an earlier state of living.
Chris Hawtin graduated from his BA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art and Design in 1999 and has since been working and exhibiting in the UK, Athens and Lisbon. During this exhibition his work will also be the focus of 'Surface' a major UK exhibition at Waterfront Gallery, University of Suffolk in Ipswich. The artist lives and works in South East London.
BEARSPACE is pleased to be working with Chris Hawtin as he has a unique voice within contemporary painting, asking crucial questions at a relevant point in history and executing this with skill and imagination. Alongside his use of colour, the combination of the classical landscape and futuristic forms makes for exceptional composition and subject.
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Image credit (Above and homepage)
Chris Hawtin Gregor's Hollow 2017 198x198cm Oil, enamel, resin and acrylic on canvas