Private View
Thursday 16th February 6-9pm

Closing Party
Friday 24th February 6-9pm - LIVE MUSIC featuring the chill-out band TOY

The Espacio Gallery Project returns to the Menier Gallery showcasing works by 22 Espacio Artists. With painting, printmaking, mixed media and sculpture this exhibit manifests the diversity of the group and their continuous passion to create.

There will be a closing party on Friday 24 with Live Music featuring the chill-out band, Toy. 

Participating artists:

Tom Allan, Terry Beard, Tania Beaumont, Laura Bello, Judith Bieletto
Ana Cockerill, Lesley Croxford, Zelda Eady, Julie Eccles, Catherine Field
Nina Harma, Nick Hazzard, Juli Jana, Ann Kopka, Valerie G. Montgomery
Ralph Overill, Renee Rilexie, Rosalind Smith, Furrah Syed,
Justyna Szpygiel, Julia Tester, Liz Whiteman Smith

Curator: Renee Rilexie

__For Tom Allan, stone sculpture is an expressive art form. He tries to express emotion through the stone he’s working with, like a painter using colour and form. "There is an excitement in that, and the challenge is to bring modern techniques and idioms to this ancient art."

__Terry’s work is mainly concerned with creating a sense of depth and form through the use of colour relationships. She uses various media including acrylic paints and mono-printing to create these effects.

__Tania Beaumont is a mixed media artist in the broadest sense, using many media to create paintings and original prints, often combined with handwritten pages and mono-printed collage papers . She incorporates her extensive visual database of memories and images to produce works with narrative and ambiguity.

__Laura Bello is fascinated with the beauty and anger of the natural world, inviting the viewer to contemplate the patterns she creates on  canvas, through which she seeks to evoke a confluence of tension and harmony.

__Judith’s current work explores nocturnal landscapes, based on her personal experiences when walking during the hours of darkness in different parts of Europe.  “All my senses were alert, trying to perceive what I couldn’t see, enjoying the glorious feeling of oneness with the environment.”

__Ana’s present work is inspired by a subjective observation of images, forms and ordinary views. The initial stage of her creative process is aroused by a random object. She then plays with this chosen item, multiplying and altering it according to what her imagination dictates.

__Lesley is constantly returning to her subject, she eventually knows it well enough to have the freedom to take chances, this allows her paintings to gain life from the energy and assurance that arise from her intense observation and emotional engagement with her subject.

_Zelda’s  interests are  boundary between representation and abstraction. Painting with acrylics enables her to investigate multiple viewpoints on a single picture plane whilst experimenting with form and colour.

_Julie is drawn to unusual viewpoints of commonly seen structures, spaces and the natural world.  She uses abstraction to show the beauty that is so often not glimpsed whilst also having the ability to produce accurate representations of scenes.

_Catherine’s interests are in using a variety of different media to create beauty. She’s currently working with aluminum, dish cloths and plastic bags and is inspired by the ordinary, everyday things.

_Nina’s work focuses on relationships and explores a whole range of human emotions as well as the way in which we relate to nature. She aims to reflect her thoughts and emotions on a two dimensional space.

_In Nick’s work, there is a struggle between maintaining the coherence of a piece while allowing enough anarchy to develop to keep the work fresh. Accidents are embraced, sometimes taking the work in a new and exciting direction.

_Juli Jana’s  love of life, the outdoors and all that is different is expressed in her work. She captures the joy and light of the subject. Her paintings are alive with colour and line and can express a fantastical or playful quality.

_Ann Kopka is currently engaged in researching the properties of discarded everyday ephemera and disposable objects with little or no intrinsic value, drawing attention to the throwaway nature of consumer society and questioning our perception of its value systems.

_Valerie uses theatrical gestures and intensely saturated, often dissonant colour combinations. "My personal interpretation of a possible notion of contemporary femininity is not dainty, weak or tasteful; rather it is colourfully aggressive, ferociously whimsical and dramatically excessive."

_Ralph’s work explores an environment in which space, objects and figures are gestured rather than defined. He uses printmaking to depict themes of isolation, alienation and overload as the pressures on society and infrastructure seem to be leading civilisation into a contemporary meltdown.

_Renee’s  connection with musical notes, vibrations, movement and colours allows her to create and express with freedom.  The process of creating brings clarity and consciousness of her connection with everything and the vibrations of the universe.

_Rosalind’s  relationship with metal is very physical and tactile. It is the strength of the different metals that she works with that she finds so appealing. Finding the breaking point of different metals has been a characteristic of her work and gives each piece their individual challenge and style.

_For Furrah Syed, art is not a static representation. The movement she depicts and capture in each of her abstract paintings is what creates the thread of narrative that anchors her work.

_For Justyna, 'Silence' is the subject of her paintings, an attempt to grasp what is often a result of meditation or contemplation – the undisturbed inner peace.  Owing to this wonderful silence, then able to reach the great state of contemplation, the blissful state which soothes the soul, body and mind.

_Currently Julia works mainly in pastels and printmaking. She finds that when she works etching plates she is drawn to the abstract. "The marks I can make with various substances are much more subtle than any I can make with a brush or a pen."

_Liz  is interested in what is going on behind the face that we present to the world. Particularly in the world of the adolescent who is at that stage of trying to work out who they are, who they want to be and who they could be.

_51 Southwark Street, London
SE1 1RU
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_Opening Hours:
Tues - Thurs: 11am - 6pm
Fri 17: 11am - 8pm / Fri 24: 11am - 9pm
Sat: 11am - 5pm 

Nearest Tube/Train Stations: London Bridge