Gas Gallery will be showing for the first time at the forthcoming Photo London Fair at Somerset House from 8 - 12 September showing the work of 2 abstract photographers Christine Wilkinson and Jo Bradford
Jo Bradford's three new collections launching at Photo London are under the headings of Hours, Minutes and Seconds. This being the correlation to how long the exposure to light was to create the colours and gradients in each collection.
Jo says of these works :
“They are an exploration of time, but also of colour in terms of their transmittance and reflectance spectra and the overlap between them. Inspired by the colours I see around me, the books I am reading, my research and the view from my studio window. Each set captures a unique moment in time, held in stasis on paper during my ongoing journey through colour, light and time.
As one colour slips into the next it becomes less of itself and more of its neighbour. These transitions speak to me of loss, of renewed hope and of transformation. This is where the magic of the spectrum exists, and it has drawn me back time and time again, in a bid to capture these gradients and explore the sensations of the pure colour within.”
British Artist Jo Bradford is a master of the camera-less photograph process. Her work can be described as being ‘photographs of photography’ or pure photographs since they do not represent an external reality, referring only to themselves.
For over 20 years Jo has spent countless hours in her analogue darkroom in Devon UK, working endlessly with only light, coloured filters, photosensitive paper and time itself to create her finely tuned studies of colour. Her meticulous recording of timings and colour combinations are extensively and intricately catalogued so that she can return to these as a starting point for her continued work known as luminograms, tracing light onto light sensitive paper.
Hours:
Within the new collection of works in the Hours series we can see the smooth and seamless gradation of light and colour. The depth of colour is of course relative to the amount of time the light has been exposed to the paper in the darkroom. Using moving masks to slowly cover the work during the exposure, the results are deep, dark hues where the light has reached the paper for the full hour contrasted with bright areas where the light was only exposed fleetingly for seconds or minutes to create her mesmerising studies of light, time and colour.
Minutes:
Jo Bradford’s set of 6 interconnected works entitled ‘Chroma’ is created entirely in her pitch-black darkroom. Jo has spent hours planning, testing, refining, and perfecting her method to achieve the exact gradation of colours. With months spent resolving ways to overlap the intensity of light and depth of colour to work through the chromatic scale creating these studies of blocks of time and intensity of colour. Each individual work corresponds with its neighbours, providing a dialogue for the colours as they morph into each other and traverse the spectrum. The outcome is a set of 6 photographic prints available in an edition of only 25.
Seconds:
Jo Bradford’s most recent experimentation in the darkroom has been using instant film – much like a polaroid. The process here happens in exposure times of just fractions of seconds, as she rapidly moves her hands to mask light and apply coloured filters in between the light and the paper. These explorations performed in complete darkness result in unique flashes of captured colour as she traces light on to the paper, using masking techniques to allow varying degrees of exposure and colour saturation. The result captures her selected pure and varied colours on to paper, all faster than the blink of an eye
These works will be showing with Gas Gallery on Stand D11 in the Discovery zone at Photo London 2021 and will be available to order at the show and online from 6 September 2021
Gas Gallery will be showing for the first time at the forthcoming Photo London Fair at Somerset House from 8 - 12 September. Launching at the show will be a new series entitled 'Edge of Disintegration' alongside a series of Monochrome works which will be available to buy as a set.
You can read our full interview with Christine here
Showing at Stand D11 in the Discovery section, the show will focus on two abstract photographers whose work comes under the title of cameraless photography. Christine Wilkinson and Jo Bradford, both UK artists with an obsession with light and colour whose work is at different ends of the scale in terms of their processes.
Christine Wilkinson’s work blurs the boundaries between photography and painting. Light becomes form. Form without substance, existing only as an instance of colour and light. Working with photographic negatives and digital pixels she creates something in between photography and painting with highly colourful results.
It begins with a photograph or a fragment of a photograph - car headlights or sunlight streaming through a window. It’s a starting point, a process, reducing the image simply to random pixels to be used as raw material. Then it’s about finding the subject matter through the process, evoking a sensation rather than pinning down an image. Christine says of her work ‘The best way to describe my process is that I start with an image of light on which I make marks. Each of these marks enables me to control shape, tone, contrast and luminosity, almost like a form of drawing, creating exciting possibilities.”
Christine quotes Vaughan Oliver "One thing leads to another, and during the process you’ll stumble upon something that just happens, and that in a way gives you the feeling of what you were looking for in the beginning."
Based in central London and with a background in video and filmmaking Christine Wilkinson experiments with film and digital cameras, scanners, photocopiers, digital darkroom software ... and occasionally a pencil ... to create form out of light.
Details of the show at Photo London are available here:
It's always a delight to welcome new work by Anna Marrow to the gallery - and we are pleased to present a specially commissioned body of original works on wood celebrating 'modernist dreams'.
Anna Marrow turns her attention to mid century modern buildings, vintage cars, iconic London and New York architecture, California dreaming, Summer vibes and all things colourful through her special world's eye view.
All original artworks are exclusive to Gas Gallery.
View the show here
Lena Goodison is a Swedish artist currently based in Nottingham. She originally trained in fashion photography and has worked across a number of creative disciplines over the last 20 years. Since 2018 Lena has turned her talents to painting, creating colourful and bold pieces that have been gaining popularity across the world.
Inspired by post impressionist painters including Gauguin and Matisse, Lena’s current focus is on expressing emotions and ideas through a carefully considered colour palette with her subject being female portraits in this new exclusive collection.
We are pleased to present a selection of 6 original works on birch ply, framed and ready to hang.
To arrange a viewing please do get in touch.
See all of the available works here
