WINTER SHOW 2020
7th - 17th December 2020
Opening Times:
Monday - Friday
10:30am - 6:00pm
Saturday - 12:00pm - 4:00pm
Sunday - Closed
La Galleria proudly presents the Winter Show 2020. We are pleased to be able to host our annual prestigious group show at the end of this turbulent year. All the artworks presented in this exhibition are strong, meaningful and refreshing expressions of contemporary art that embody the force driving individuals to express and affirm their personality and artistic style within today's modern art landscape.
The exhibition presents a dynamic selection of artists working across a variety of mediums. All COVID-19 measures will be adhered to during the exhibition. We hope that you will visit our final exhibition of the year.
2020 Shortlisted Artists
Peter Lange
Dante, 67 x 44 x 21 cm, Bronze/Stone
Dante is my tribute to the artworks I was lucky and privileged to see and experience in London; both on the streets and in the galleries. Influenced by great artists and their work as well as being curious if I could ever create; I've started to tell a story of adventure, struggle, hope & pain. Today I'm looking at that story, cast in metal - Dante.
Grace Hubbard-Smith
II, Storms Eye Series, 17.2 x 22.1 cm, Acrylic on Board
My current objective as an art practitioner is to portray the nature of light and shadow, its ephemerality and its spiritual connotations, allowing for an ontological discussion on isolation and mindfulness. This is completed through a portrayal of windows, interior space and the creation of dimension through light and shadow. To myself, areas of light convey a sense of peaceful mindfulness; in painting, I have become fully aware of light and space and the momentary freedom in looking at its ephemeral luminosity stream across a window frame. Through thin washes of acrylic paint on board, I aim to capture a moment in time, a conscious experience like that of seeing a room in its last moments, before it is abandoned.
Hayam Elsayed
The Flower Lady, 50 x 50 cm, Oil on Canvas.
An Egyptian artist whose pictorial sample focuses on the theme of portraiture. By conceiving painting as a healing tool, as a true balm for the soul, Hayam Elsayed gives us intense images that go beyond mere physiognomic documentation revealing the artist's interpretative gaze on the subject. Hayam's inspiration comes from many places. Since my early days as an artist, my family has been a major influence on my work; a single unit of security within a world full of evil and vices. As the artist within me grew and matured, she has found other sources to stimulate her creativity.
Her painted portraits are almost obscure yet never vague; inviting and yet never approachable. Instead, they have the power to hold your gaze and share their story in silence that gently whispers tales untold. she, in love with beauty, according to whom "everything that exists, lives, all that lives, is beautiful and all that is beautiful deserves to be painted" because painting must express playfulness, exalt the pleasure of life and of all that is beautiful around us.
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Kat - Freakin hot art
Chessboard, 2018, 60 x 60 cm, Acrylic on Canvas Board
Hi, my name is Kat and I’m a Russian painter and illustrator who lives and works in Moscow, a city I find constantly inspiring due to its vibrant energy and rich cultural diversity (but although actually, for vodka and tough bears jk) and I study at the Moscow State University faculty of arts. I write my paintings with the slogan-FREAKIN HOT ART and my Instagram is @freakinhot.art. All my paintings are painted with acrylics. I really like acrylic, because it conveys the brightness of colours the way I want.
Being inspired by the contemporary artists and works of David Hockney and Romero Britto and of course by my sweetheart Andy Warhol I developed my own painting style, that can be described as a fascinating blend of funk and pop art. My art is a reflection of myself, my emotions and experiences. In the current moment, I find great inspiration in American Pop Art and fashion. It gives me endless inspiration and helps in art-making.
Rebecca Parrott
Villa Denia, 61 x 91 cm, Collage
Rebecca has a passion for art and collage. Using found memorabilia such as newspapers and magazines, she creates intricate and evocative work which reflects the beauty of both figures and landscapes from her photography and sketches, in addition to work on commission based on clients’ photographs. Her intricate works are inspired by water, air, shape and movement. Whilst at first glance instilling a sense of calmness and serenity, upon closer inspection the carefully selected juxtaposition of images and complexity of colour becomes apparent.
An apparently calm pool of water becomes a frenetic body of energy as the eye takes in the layers of imagery. An onlooker will observe new details each time a piece of art is viewed. After sketching out the desired composition, she carefully selects images, intricately cutting and pasting shapes to achieve the desired image. A glazing resin is applied to the finished piece which further intensifies the colours used and magnifies the mesmerising details.
Akshita Lad
Reflections Series, 35 x 30 cm, Oil on Canvas
As the saying goes - Eyes are the windows to the soul. I’ve made the eyes the focal point of my portraits as I wanted to capture my subjects in an act of reflection and thought. I wanted to juxtapose the passiveness of their postures with the speed of thoughts flying through their minds.
My style reflects a delicacy, timelessness, and attention to detail that are influenced by my love of the great Masters of the Renaissance period. I was born in Mumbai, India. I was very fortunate to grow-up in a family where my father, a collector of classical European, Japanese and Chinese art, instilled in me an appreciation for the arts - for workmanship and for beauty.
Currently, I am immersed in painting portraits. My aim is to bring alive the beauty and character of my subjects. I want my audience to be delighted with my art and I want to create art that is timeless.
I love travelling and have lived in many parts of the world. I currently live and work in Dubai, U.A.E.
Maryse Pique
HAPPINESS, 90 x 90 cm, Acrylic on Canvas
I have always wanted to make paintings that are impossible to walk past, paintings that grab and hold your attention. The more you look at them, the more satisfying they become for the viewer. The more time you give to the painting, the more you get back. The viewer is a living, breathing being that moves about in space and I want the painting to be experienced like that. I want my painting to imitate life in that way. I want the experience of looking at it to be very much like the experience of walking through a bigger landscape. I start by choosing the colours and just go with the flow, harmony in colours is my starting point for my painting. I'm there mixing paint for a painting, so I'm making decisions about what it's maybe going to be, because I never know in advance what the painting will be at the end. I think the painting is done when I don’t feel any more reasons to work on my canvas. When a painting is achieved, I will never go back to it. The magic that I have at the beginning by making my painting will stop when I stop my last brushstrokes or my knife. Today, the magic comes from my new way of paint, new discovery which brings different textures and a new technique of painting without a paintbrush. My keywords are experimentation, progress, discover new ways to make a difference in my paintings.
Deborah Lanyon
Pett Level, 76 x 76 cm, Acrylic on Canvas
My name is Deborah Lanyon. I was trained at St Martins and the Byam Shaw School of Art. I am an abstract painter, interested in landscape. My work is physical, often painting on the floor allowing the free fluid organic use of acrylic paint. The source of the work is from sketching in situ but the finished work is performed in the studio. Over the last thirty years, I have shown in many London galleries and have sold to private collectors all over the world.
Elaine Ford
Sun Blazes, Mixed Media on Canvas
120 x 120 cm
Having worked as a Stunt Coordinator and Performer in Films and Television for over 25 years, the adrenalin rush, energy and drama are ever-present in my paintings, which are inspired by the natural landscape. My work is driven by the desire to capture the sense of place and emotional responses the sea and landscape can evoke, whilst leading the viewer on a visual journey. I have a passion for colour and use artistic intuition to record memory and experience of a place, which are not wholly committed to a specific region or time, but instead aim to
encapsulate a synthesis of place, the elements and atmosphere. I enjoy the process of building up layers and then stripping back and scratching into the surface to reveal hidden places and allowing the painting to develop its own narrative through unexpected results. Working with palette knives and my hands, as well as applying bold brush strokes enables me to achieve rich textured paintings, creating maximum energy, emotion and diversity in my mark-making.
Carla Thompson
Winter Solstice, 90 x 60 cm, Oil on Linen Canvas, £950
A fine artist specialising in the use of handcrafted Old Masters materials and techniques, Carla Thompson’s contemporary rendition of stylish portraits and still lives celebrate the beauty of craftsmanship and modern luxury. For this collection, she uses a fashion-forward aesthetic imbued with history as she merges the use of archival oils and mediums that hark bark to Rembrandt and Da Vinci. Drawing on her background in fashion, she brings to life the sumptuous textures of lace, organza and fur with her use of subtle colour glazes and texture.
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Bel McSweeney
Untitled, 168 x 134 cm, Oil on Canvas, £1,150
A young artist, fascinated by the brittle balance between order and chaos, and the complex nature of this friction within the foundations of humanity, and under the ascendancy of modern technology. These works are from her series 'Undifferentiated Swirling Chaos', focusing on current global chaos. Conformity, supremacy and inner turmoil in response to the rising global mayhem, are all themes explored over this series of varied mental dramas and imagined images. Licenced with imagination in creating these images of the outside world, the artist uses elements of the ridiculous to bring humour into some of her work, a device which she believes is of immense importance amongst chaos and adversity. With both futuristic and mythical tendencies, these works are a heightened, fantastical response to being locked away and helpless, and observing and feeling the unstoppable will of the world from a confined, detached place. However, the artist is determined to not lose sight of the beauty and satire amongst the mayhem, an 'undifferentiated swirling chaos' that is historically built into the foundations of our earth.
Célia de Bodinat
L’huître à la perle, Oil pastel, 58 x 46 cm, £880
I have an obsession for light and shadow. I am always looking for objects to draw, I love to work on reproducing the game of light. The shell is brilliant, it captures the light and shines and is, therefore, a fantastic source of inspiration for me.
The oil pastel allows us to be in direct contact with the material, which is also what I prefer, multiply the layers to create volume, rub, blur with the hand, the finger.
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Paul Emmet Costelloe
Dancing Shapes, Oil on Canvas, 70 X 90 cm
I graduated from the University of Brighton with a BA in fine art painting in 2005 followed by an MA in fine art from the Grays School of Art in 2007. My love of painting began when I attended an art class at the age of 8 which was run by Irish artist Pauline Bewick. Even then at a young age, I had a very distinctive style which was brightly coloured and very bold shapes which were very eye-catching. As the years have gone on my style has very much progressed. My work now is very much focused on the flatness of colour and the elimination of perspective which add’s to my personal take on the modern abstract cubism style. My use of the palette knife and brush strokes creates a resonant atmosphere and an almost sculptural presence in each painting I produce. There have been several artists who have influenced my work over the years and they are Patrick Heron, Matisse, Alan Davie and Ben Nicholson.
Hannah Schmitz
Conversely, Acrylic on Canvas, 3ft x 3ft,
My paintings are representative of the world I see around me. I am inspired by pop culture and everyday things that inspire me. I really like to use images in an unexpected way to create a smart, colourful and bold statement. Most importantly, my love of colour is what really makes my artwork pop. My paintings are statement pieces that are a reflection of the experience I have had in my life.