Ben Ravenscroft, Connecticut Console, 2011, oil and coloured pencil on aluminium

Simon Oldfield is pleased to present Apartment; the first of a series of off-site exhibitions on Bloomsbury Square, held alongside Simon Oldfield’s established gallery programme.  The exhibition will include paintings, drawings and prints by British and international artists including Sam Basu, Ewan Gibbs, Sam Knowles, Ben Ravenscroft, Yuval Pudik, Kraig Wilson, Ben Ashton and Daniel Wallis.   

This collection of small works each have their own intense jewel like qualities, drawing the viewer deeper into the imagery, full of intricately worked surfaces and narratives.

Sam Basu presents new work; a mysterious photographic scene punctuated with silver foil is surrounded by a delicately carved wax frame, moulded and coloured as if mapping the way to a fantasy landscape. Basu will also be showing a new drawing depicting figures inspired by Watteau and medieval paintings where the picture contains a series of multiple narratives.

Ewan Gibbs’ presents two works from his ‘Typical Interiors’ series, which take travel imagery from photographs found in holiday brochures. Broken up, coded and re-presented, the viewer is drawn into a tableau of undisturbed furniture which is stripped of the day to day belongings and detritus of a ‘typical’ inhabitant.

 Sam Knowles’ practice deals with metaphysical concerns, and the notion that the world – and man’s existence in it – can be explained by the ‘grand’ theories of philosophy, art and science .  It is the gaps left behind by the departure of the meta-theory that form the starting points for many of his works.   Knowles presents new works with gold leaf interventions of found book pages and book covers, present the viewer with enticing, fantastical imagery of utopian scenes.

 Ben Ravenscroft’s lustrous works are built up with pencil, acrylic  and oil creating rich, chromatic surfaces which move across the paper and aluminium. Part action painting, yet intricately crafted, areas of acid yellow and gentian break  through creating multiple interwoven layers. Ravenscroft’s works are part of the Connecticut Series created during his residency at the Albers Foundation, Spring 2011.   

Yuval Pudik is an artist based in Los Angeles, for Apartment Pudik will be showing his meticulously rendered, graphite on paper drawings. With tooth fossils of the megaladon (the prehistoric ancestor of modern sharks) as a reference point, Pudik embarks on a new exploration of form through the appearance and presence of natural objects. Hovering between figurative and abstract, the resulting works evoke the language of natural science while offering a voluptuous and poetic critique of power, sexuality and social evolution.

Ben Ashton will be showing a drawing taken from his recent Polyhedon Project; a large scale installation erected in Queen Square, Bloomsbury, earlier this year. This project is underpinned by Ashton’s continued interest in stereoscopy and optical illusion, which serves to place the emphasis on altered realities and self-deception.

 Kraig Wilson presents an intimate photographic portrait of his mother from a series of work that explores of domestic and social portraits, which demand patient negotiation of boundaries. Creating distance in parental intimacy to make beautiful nudes, or “infiltrating” the personal realm to learn what makes them tick.  Wilson works with large format, transparency and 35mm film.

Apartment: off-site address

Bloomsbury Square, London, WC1A 2LP

Exhibition continues until 22 December 2011

By appointment – please contact:

Simon Oldfield: +44 (0)7970 719692 / email hidden; JavaScript is required

Julia Ravenscroft: +44 (0)7906 651324 / email hidden; JavaScript is required