The April exhibition at Artful Expressions, the boutique gallery curated by Sorcha Tyles, opened on Saturday, April 1st, 2017. This month, it’s an all boys affair, featuring Panteleimon Aeon and Sven.
Up until now, exhibitions at the gallery have tended towards offering pairings of artists whose work tend to be complementary to one another. This has always added depth to a visit, encouraging one to compare and appreciate both styles on display and consider them as both individual portfolios and a join exhibition, flowing one to another. With Pan and Sven, Sorcha has shifted things a notch: Pan focus on avatar studies, while Sven leans more to landscape images; thus presenting two contrasting portfolios of images, each of which are fascinating in their own right.
Pan’s work is visually striking, combining a sense of posed set piece with natural flavour. The result is that while each may well have been composed, so to could each have been easily caught as a moment from the subject’s life; a frozen instant of an unfolding story, the subject unaware they have been so captured.
As regular readers know, I’m strongly attracted to images with contain a narrative, and Pan’s work easy contains entire novel in each image. They draw us into the story, opening the floodgates of the imagination so that we become enwrapped, filling out the back story to these people, their surrounding, and what brought them to this moment in time. These are images to be admired from an artistic standpoint as well; the use of light and shadow, the muted toning, the use of perspective, depth of field, rule of thirds, framing – all play a role in attracting us to these moments in time.
Across the central aisle of the gallery space, Sven also presents nine images, but these are focused on the places in Second Life he has visited and appreciated. “I am definitely no professional by any means. [This is] merely a hobby that I enjoy,” he states disarmingly of his work.
He may not by a professional – after all, how many of us are? – but that doesn’t negate his eye or his style. All of the pieces are again evocative in presenting the scenes they have captured. They also draw us to them, stirring thoughts and imagination, tempting us to wonder at what we might find were we to enter the worlds they offer us and encouraging us to check the pictures for the location names in a desire to visit them (and yes, the names are given).
And did I say these were two contrasting styles? Well, perhaps they are; but they are also drawn together into a cohesive whole by Pan. He has included a single, striking landscape in his set of images. It serves as a natural, subtle link between his display and Sven’s.
Both Pan and Sven will be on display at Artful Expressions until the end of the month. Don’t forget you can also enjoy an ever-changing display of Sorcha’s work on the ground floor of the gallery.
SLurl Details
- Artful Expressions (Adored, rated Moderate)
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 