Nexus exhibition

Nexus brings three artists together for a diverse exhibition of work, examining different styles that share commonalities through their collective interpretation of colour, composition, and form.

This exhibition combines different approaches to contemporary art under one roof. Influenced by our individual experiences and ways of portraying the world, Mark Elliott Smith, Bernard Charnley and Kate Cochrane, collaborate and provoke our perspectives and insights into specific genres.

Mark Elliott Smith’s work brings something new to abstraction. Inspired by dance and costume, mediaeval art, and his response to music, he builds images which are analogues of the process of construction and destruction, fragmentation and coherence. Painting in layers of flat acrylic colour, his work animates space while creating the illusion of depth, imparting an energising, positive sense of possibility through his playful use of colour and form.

Bernard Charnley combines layered oil paint with oil bars and inserted sections of canvas, creating work which moves between abstraction and figuration, examining the relationships between geometry, surface, depth, and illusion as imprints of the human. His interest in philosophy informs his portfolio of work, which reflects on the nature of social fracture.

Kate Cochrane works in a variety of media, including oils, acrylics, gouache, and dry pastels. Taking inspiration from landscape, trees, rocks, castle ruins and reflections in water, her process of creating paintings, along with wanting to express how she feels, results in a rich tapestry of colour and texture.

3 Aug – 13 Sept

Open: Sun – Tue / 9 – 5pm
Open: Wed – Sat / 9 – 9pm

Private View: Fri / 26 Aug / 6 – 9pm