Camille Lesourd and Ivan (gallery basement)
Private view: Thursday 24th of October from 6.30 to 9.30
Originally from La Paz – Bolivia, Ivan started painting at the age of eight inspired by Indian ink and tempera drawings left by an uncle. He studied Fine Art at the Institute of Fine Arts in La Paz.
“What drives me to paint is the challenge to express my perception of time, our time. I see it as a way to channel day to day of awareness through images, using for this purpose mainly oil colours and different graphic techniques to achieve the desired meaning, I have perhaps grown more meticulous as I progressed in painting so my ideas and inspiration have also evolved.
“Painting, drawing and sculpture are all part of the same manual arts, which are able to give a deeper satisfaction than other more logical or rational tasks. Colours, shapes and volumes give life to a different dimension of thought – this medium which we call Biophilia. Painting for me is a state of mind expressed through the senses, something difficult to be taught if it’s not in our nature”
Camille Lesourd is a 25 year-old BA Fine Art graduate with a studio in South West London.
“I am a painter working on different techniques with a preference for oil with its rich potential. My work is focused on landscape. A recent trip to Patagonia made me discover the power of nature. I started to work from images of glaciers and explored the representation of water and ice. I found a new gesture through brush marks. I love to emphasise the strength of textures in paint. Colour vibrations constitute a permanent fascination and experimentation for me. This leads me to abstraction as my laboratory. For me painting doesn’t exist without exploring the vibrations of colours. Action painting provides me with freedom and happiness”.
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Interval II (ground floor)
Hundred Years Gallery is proud to present “Interval II”, a selection of original and collectible artworks, drawings, art fetishes and objects by various artists belonging to or currently working in the gallery.
Artists:
Rita Says, Antonio Mena, Juan Gallego Pinazo, Mary Lemley
Rita Says: For this show Rita Says presents works both old and new: a combination of performance documentation (photos and drawing)and three recent collage pieces made from the defaced pages of fashion magazines torn up and rearranged into configurations reminiscent of Hannah Höch and Arnulf Rainer.
Mary Lemley: In 2001, 56 drawings from the illustrations of 1960s Ladybird books, were made as a way into the research for the films on autism and art that Mary Lemley was to make in collaboration with her step son Gabriel Hardisty-Miller, a child with autism. They were a part of a process to gain understanding about consciousness and language through the subjective experience. Then the drawings were just put to the side.
By 2007 Gabriel was now a young adult with autism, and there was very little funding from Social Services for Gabriel to lead an everyday life. Mary then brought out the drawings to raise the much need funds for Personal Assistants, and with them she started the Gabriel’s Angels Fund and called the drawings “Nouns for Gabriel”. Sadly Gabriel died last year. Yet the savage and uncaring funding cuts meant that Mary was constantly trying to raise more and more funds for Gabriel’s 24/7 needs for his declining health. Though thousands were raised to keep his Personal Assistants with him, Gabriel’s needs were beyond just their salaries – and Mary was left with a huge debt after his death. The drawings are being sold to help pay off this debt.
Antonio Mena was born in Málaga (Spain). There, he worked as a freelance photographer for 20 years, specializing in portraits. Because of the economic situation in his country, last year he decided to move to London, looking for a new opportunity in the creative world. Now, he is contributing to Hundred Years Gallery as a resident photographer in the photo-studio.
Juan Gallego Pinazo: (Malaga, Spain 1921-2009). After a long, creative and passionate life, he left behind just a few original posters commissioned by Spanish Cities Fiestas plus some drawings and sketches rescued by his daughter from a forgotten cupboard and brought to London, which constitute the most valuable pieces of Hundred Years Gallery collection.
