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 

Jo de Pear is a British Printmaker whose recent work has focused on the flora and fauna of the island of Antigua where she spends several months of the year living and working. Her work has explored the process of cyanotype, using the strong sunshine as her enlarger to create striking one-off works. 

Due to the pandemic, Jo was grounded in London for a year, where she took the time to develop her cyanotype works into other creative print processes. This has included etching, screenprinting and woodblock printing. 

We are very pleased to feature here a collection of Artist Proofs from a new forthcoming collection of prints. These have been hand printed by Jo in London during April 2021 and will soon launch as limited editions of 20. 

These Artist Proofs are unique in the sense that some may not ever make it to being a full edition - making these all the more special.

** Please note : these have been photographed in both natural and artificial light - due to the nature of the ink which has a slightly reflective quality to it - the colours are not exact. 

All works are sold unframed - for framing options please do get in touch. 

Launching today 8 March 2021 are two new works by Christine Wilkinson from the BT Tower series. 

As an artist that mostly works with pixels and light, these works are more figurative than usual.  The iconic BT Tower in London's Fitzrovia district is a familiar beacon to many Londoners. Christine photographed the tower from her central London home over one morning. The images have not been digitally manipulated and instead have been arranged to tell a story of a moment in time, witnessed from a fixed viewpoint unique to the Artist. 

Each work is a limited edition of only 12.
Paper size 65 x 65 cm 
Signed and numbered on the reverse. 
£475 

Very sadly Jane Fredericks died on 30 November 2020. In the last few weeks of her life, Jane decided she wanted to leave 4 limited edition prints that would help provide some income for her 16 year old daughter and serve as a parting gift to those who may not have been able to afford her original one-off paintings.  

Her husband Volker and I helped facilitate that wish and the prints are available to buy on the website.  The prints are authenticated by a signed certificate of authenticity. These are beautiful, high quality reproductions of original works that have not been sold and that remain with her family.

The prints are currently available to view at the studio - please do get in touch if you would like to view them. 

Launching on 19 November are 4 new exclusive collectors print sets of Jo de Pear's popular 'Decanters' series.

British Printmaker Jo de Pear has for many years worked with an archive of family heirlooms with her work – previous collections have centred on her predecessors’ silver cutlery and antique lace. Over the past few years Jo has been working with the cyanotype process in the sunshine of Antigua, making striking graphic prints from the island’s rich flora and fauna.

As a consummate printmaker it was a natural progression to use the cyanotype process to experiment with the antique cut glass decanters and other glassware – taken to Antigua from London piece by piece. The results of these experiments have revealed a beautiful contrast of shadow and light and their beauty is the resulting clarity of line and tone. The ghost like shadows provide strong graphic images as well as capturing a bygone era with a strong contemporary twist.

The initial experiments and resulting prints have been successful and have now mostly sold. Due to the travel restrictions due to Covid this year and Jo unable to travel to Antigua, this led her to go back in to the print room in London and experiment with photopolymer plates

in order to reproduce the very strongest original cyanotypes in a different print process.

 This has enabled her to produce this exclusive limited edition of prints using both cyanotype process blue and then pushing the boundaries further and experimenting with a new colour ochre.

Over the past few weeks Jo has worked hard in the print room as each print is individually hand inked, wiped, polished with tissue paper to enhance the whites and taken through an etching press by hand. These are then dried for weeks under boards to keep the paper flat. The results are these fantastic collectors sets of prints, each unique in the sense that they are all hand printed but available at a really accessible price.

 You can view all of Jo de Pear's new works and earlier works here:

I’m pleased to present new and exclusive work by London artist Marie Lenclos who has created a series of 6 new works for us. Marie's works are hugely popular and sell out quickly. These smaller works are a perfect way to start your art collection at a very accessible price. 

The collection of oil paintings on linen were made during October, and inspired by Autumn light and colours. 

Marie Lenclos says of the work 'All the places pictured are in my immediate neighbourhood, close to my home and studio. They reflect on the beauty that can surprise us in the most familiar places, if we let it.'

The works go live on the website at 6am on Thursday 12 November. To view the collection in advance please get in touch. 

Size: 18x24cm
Medium: Oil on Linen.   
Year: 2020
Price includes frame. 

See all of Marie Lenclos' available works here