Articula London: 'Apophenia' at Foodface

Friday 26th October, 2012 (one night)

With paintings by Lindsey Bull, Maria Högbacke, Tom Howse, Phoebe Mitchell, Joanna Phelps, Charles Robinson, Lucy Smallbone and Mimei Thompson

www.foodface.org.uk

Foodface just captured my heart tonight. At the back of an industrial park, at the back of Peckham, and at the end of a dark alley and an even darker courtyard, I never expected to find such delicacy, sensitivity and lightness of touch. Apophenia presented the work of eight emerging artists, each contributing one small canvas to the show, curated by Phoebe Mitchell and Charles Robinson (who also showed work).

The paintings were unified not through theme or formal content, but by a mutual adoration of surface, brushstrokes and colour. No, I couldn’t place any social content, but for me the very gentleness of their gestures felt refreshing, generous and powerful. I can’t help but guess that the scale of everything helped engender in me this response. The paintings brought you close to them, then seduced you with wet strokes of paint and thick impastos, yet held your attention in a quiet way.

I would advise you to go see it, but it was ever so sadly a one night occurrence, the gallery to be converted back to a work space again immediately after.

At the end of a cold night this place warmed the part of my soul dedicated to the appreciation of the understated and the insubstantial. Small yet moving.