The Space Between

 The Space Between

The Space Between - Graham Hunter Gallery, September 2022

 ‘The Space Between’ explores the work of 8 UK based artists whose work could be defined as occupying the space between. Western culture often regards space as empty and formless whilst Japan has its own word ‘ma’. It is the space between the edges, a gap or a pause in conversation or musical notes, the distance between objects and time, but significantly Ma is filled with energy and feeling.

 In a literal sense, the artists explore the space between fact and fiction, realism and abstract, and the sublime and the mundane. Their subject matter and processes create a mood and an atmosphere that suggest far more than appears. The work here reminds us of the beauty between the edges, especially by those artists who explore liminal spaces - a door in a swimming pool filled with light and leaves, lost places and moments of abandonment – these are paintings about places on a threshold where absence can be as important as presence. Other artists, whilst reflecting reality, create a place of otherness in their work; for example, underwater realms where figures appear suspended in ‘space’ until the light breaks through the surface of water lulling us gently back to reality or abstract colour used to draw the viewer in and offer a place of meditation and slow contemplation.

 This exhibition invites the viewer to consider that the significance of the space between is that it is everywhere and ultimately reminds us that what isn’t there allows for everyone’s stories to co-exist.

 'These trees are magnificent, but even more magnificent is the sublime and moving space between them, as though with their growth it too increased.’Rilke

Exhibiting Artists - Angela Smith (curator), Antonia Jackson, Bill Bate, Mark Munroe-Preston, Michele Griffiths, Paul Smith, Steph Smith, Sue Blandford