'Midlands Open 2015' At Tarpey Gallery, Castle Donington

David Booth, 'Space Matters', Fluorescent Perspex & Aluminium, Date Unknown

I found myself over at Castle Donington’s Tarpey Gallery, in North West Leicestershire, again recently, accompanying my good friend Suzie to the opening event of their ‘Midlands Open 2015’ exhibition.  I've been lucky enough to have my painting, ‘Map 3’ selected for the show, - something that feels like a small piece of affirmation in the slightly anti-climactic aftermath of the ‘Mental Mapping’ exhibition in which it first appeared.  I suspect that slight sense of come-down was inevitable, given how immersed Andrew Smith and I were in the run-up to that show, during the first half of this year.  I’m deliberately taking a step back to reassess my own work just now, so it’s good to know there’s still at least one piece out there to ‘represent’ and at least keep the pot simmering.  I’ve submitted a few more pieces of the ‘mM’ work for consideration elsewhere too, but there’s no point getting ahead of myself here, (chickens, hatching, etc.).

Tarpey Gallery, Castle Donington, Leicestershire

'Map 3', Acrylics & Paper Collage On Panel, 2015

The Tarpey event doubled as an introduction to the open exhibition, but also as an unveiling of both the gallery’s recent extension, and extensive new sculpture garden.  The new additions signify the ambition of Luke Tarpey and his father to grow their gallery into something of a regional art hot spot, and the numerous visitors squeezing into the building and strolling amongst the sculptures outside suggest this is paying off.  They’ve run the ‘Midlands Open’ for several years now, although this was the first I’ve attended.  It felt like a pretty significant event on the day.

'Midlands Open 2015', Tarpey Gallery Sculpture Garden

'Midlands Open 2015', Tarpey Gallery Interior

It’s in the nature of any open exhibition to be something of a mixed bag, and this show is no different.  However, regardless of the varying aesthetic or stylistic priorities of the work exhibited, the standard of execution was impressively high throughout.  Given the gallery’s need to pay its own way as a commercial enterprise, one must accept that most of the work passing through it must do so in the hope that someone might pay good money to place it in a domestic setting.  Naturally, the danger is that a certain lack of ‘edge’ or reversion to accepted ‘good taste’ can prevail, but Luke Tarpey and his team seem to be avoiding the worst pitfalls of such a situation.

Sam Shendi, 'Mother & Child' Steel, Date Unknown

Sam Shendi, (Background): 'Evolution', Steel.  (Foreground): 'Troy', Mixed Media, Dates Unknown

Amongst the work in the ‘Open’ are a number of pieces that might be said to offer a little challenge, or to at least run counter to the expectations of context.  Notable here are Sam Shendi’s colourful, pop-informed (and seamlessly executed) sculptures, and David Booth’s ‘Place Matters’, - a cascade of fluorescent acrylic shapes, partly tumbling over the building itself.  Both artists injected a satisfyingly synthetic element into the setting of greenery and historic buildings.  Alongside his larger exterior pieces, Shendi also has a couple of smaller pieces indoors, intriguingly made from 'crushed classic cars'.  These single-colour monoliths retain a pleasing monumentality, despite their domestic scale.

David Booth, 'Space Matters', Fluorescent Acrylic & Aluminium, Date Unknown

To be honest, I don’t really know where my own work would naturally situate itself on the consumable, portable artefact spectrum.  It’s something I’ve only really considered fairly recently, as I’ve started to think more seriously about exhibiting work.  Viewing ‘Map 3’ in two rather different public contexts, in the space of a few weeks, only serves to magnify such questions in my own mind.  I rarely consider such things as potential audience, (and saleability - even less), as I’m producing my work.  Nevertheless, even, (especially), if one has aspirations to make obscure films and photographs about underpasses and fence posts, alongside paintings full of scrambled texts, - some thoughts about the settings in which they can best thrive are inevitable.  There may be considerable differences between the art one person might choose to live with, and that which another might deliberately venture out to view in a gallery setting.  And that’s before one considers the difference between the public and a commercial sectors. The functions of a gallery as a place to visit, a place to have experiences, and a place to purchase, clearly require a bit of untangling.  I guess it only really matters that the work is produced for its own reasons, first and foremost. It's when thoughts of a potential market or audience creep in too early, that problems arise. 

Sam Shendi, 'Souls - Yellow', Steel - Crushed Classic Car, Date Unknown

Oliver Lovley, 'Broadmarsh Bus Station, Nottingham', Acrylic on Linen, Date Unknown

Anyway, it’s best not to make assumptions, and I spent most of my visit to this exhibition just viewing the work on its own terms.  Amongst the other pieces that caught my own eye were Oliver Lovley’s spatially ambiguous, near-monochrome painting 'Broadmarsh Bus Station, Nottingham'.  I was also rather intrigued by Chris Reynolds' painting 'Unwrapped' not far from my own piece.  It’s probably no surprise that I was attracted by its torn layers and pleasingly battered and scratched surface.  Outside, amongst a variety of sculptures inspired by organic forms, Miles Halpin manages to bring a slightly sinister, alien quality to his rusted steel pods.  The thought of plunging a hand into those forbidding orifices reminds me of that camp 1980s 'Flash Gordon' film [1.].

Chris Reynolds, 'Unwrapped',  Mixed Media, Date Unknown

Miles Halpin, 'Fruit Of The Tree Of Knowledge', Steel & Wood, Date Unknown

‘Midlands Open 2015’ continues until 15 August 2015 at: Tarpey Gallery, 77 High Street, Castle Donington, Leicestershire, DE74 2PQ.  (‘Map 3’ hangs above the stairs, - careful you don’t hit your head on it.)



[1.]:  Mike Hodges (Dir.), 'Flash Gordon', UK, Starling Films/Dino De Laurentis Co./Universal, 1980