Clare Chapman: Always On My Mind

Always On My Mind (Part 2) opens Thursday 31st of August 2023 and features the work of 16 artists including: 

Clare Chapman 

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Q) What’s always on your mind these days and is it having an impact on your art work? 

Clare Chapman: “Loss. Yes it does have an impact. I think my paintings are an attempt to create something I desire, so they come out of this sort of gap, or try to fill it.”

Q) Can you name an art exhibition, art book or artist that changed the way you think? 

“Andy Warhol’s From A to B and Back Again. Especially the chapter on cleaning blinds.” 

Q) The National Brain Appeal provide much-needed funds to support The National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery and the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology – together known as Queen Square. This is one of the world’s leading centres for the diagnosis, treatment and care of patients with neurological and neuromuscular conditions. These include stroke, multiple sclerosis, brain cancer, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and dementia. Have you or your loved ones ever suffered with any of these things?

“My grandmother had Alzheimer’s, I remember being so frustrated with her that she couldn't remember what day it was. I didn't understand it at the time. She was a beautiful, kind woman.” 

When the critic Jerry Saltz was recently asked what it is he’s looking for in art he answered “A sense of necessity, someone working in their own voice, doing what they can’t not do.” Do you relate to his way of thinking and do you think your own work is something you just can’t not do? 

“Absolutely. It's a completely obsessive and compulsive pre-occupation, and a bit crazy.  I could paint anything and I wonder why I don't or can't.  These things just keep popping back as if there is nothing else in the world they could be.”

The opening party for Always on my Mind Part 2 is Thursday 31st August 6pm till 9pm at Fitzrovia Gallery, 139 Whitfield Street W1T 5EN

Nicola Hicks: Always On My Mind

Always On My Mind (Part 2) opens Thursday 31st of August 2023 and features the work of 16 artists including:  

Nicola Hicks

Instagram

What’s always on your mind these days and is it having an impact on your art work?

Nicola Hicks: “Money, how to keep the show in the road, how to get it keep it manage it, and is it worth it”

Can you name an art exhibition, art book or artist that changed the way you think?

“I'm 63 and a prodigious reader so it's not possible to identify a single shocker, this year, heavy light by Horatio Clair is the book. It speaks of humanity and the mind which is much the same as art. And Anslem Kiefer at white cube which is maddeningly good and jealousmaking. Tracy Emin’s doors at the N.P.G are a tremendous lurch in the right direction, allowing artist to have authority, and the perfect balance to all the photography inside. My mum is gone and I miss her every day, we had a complicated relationship I trawl my memories of her to fill the gaps of all the conversations not had. We used to walk to the pond to feed the ducks. She walked fast, I held her hand, I didn't have to look where I was going I could turn my head right and look at the trees on the material inside my hood which I preferred. It was a structured walk with a purpose which I loved. Without her I amble . I've drawn the ducks.”

When the critic Jerry Saltz was recently asked what it is he’s looking for in art he answered “A sense of necessity, someone working in their own voice, doing what they can’t not do.” Do you relate to his way of thinking and do you think your own work is something you just can’t not do?

“I think artists are like a displaced tribe, recognising each other when we meet, liking each other or not but delighted by our kind.”

The opening party for Always on my Mind Part 2 is Thursday 31st August 6pm till 9pm at Fitzrovia Gallery, 139 Whitfield Street W1T 5EN

Edie Flowers: Always On My Mind

 Always On My Mind (Part 2) opens Thursday 31st of August 2023 and features the work of 16 artists including: 

 

Edie Flowers

Instagram

What’s always on your mind these days and is it having an impact on your art work?

Edie Flowers: “I’m currently in the first cohort of a brand new residency in the south east of England. It’s a completely immersive and challenging experience, almost like an artist’s boot camp. I’m using the time to experiment and make work that feels important. The uncertainty of life and the pressure to make good decisions is always encroaching.” 

Can you name an art exhibition, art book or artist that changed the way you think?

“Brazillian artist Beatriz Milhazes has a retrospective of collected works in the UK on show at the Turner Contemporary, Margate. The show is a powerful and politically activated experience which urges its audience to spend time and think. I’ve been a couple of times and each time I learn something new about the work or the way I think.”

What work(s) are you thinking of putting in the "Always On My Mind Part 2" exhibition?

“When Harry first approached me to be a part of the show I had just completed a series of work on Headaches. I was trying to imagine what certain headaches felt like whilst playing with the aesthetic of etching, a medium I struggle with due to sensitive skin.”

When the critic Jerry Saltz was recently asked what it is he’s looking for in art he answered “A sense of necessity, someone working in their own voice, doing what they can’t not do.” Do you relate to his way of thinking and do you think your own work is something you just can’t not do?

“I think Jerry has summed it up perfectly there. The time you put into your work is always evident, the love, hate, blood, sweat and tears are always visible.”

The opening party for Always on my Mind Part 2 is Thursday 31st August 6pm till 9pm at Fitzrovia Gallery, 139 Whitfield Street W1T 5EN

James Lawson - Always On My Mind

Always On My Mind (Part 2) opens Thursday 31st of August 2023 and features the work of 16 artists including: 

James Lawson

Instagram

When the critic Jerry Saltz was recently asked what it is he’s looking for in art he answered “A sense of necessity, someone working in their own voice, doing what they can’t not do.” Do you relate to his way of thinking and do you think your own work is something you just can’t not do?

James: "I have OCD and battle with ‘unwanted thoughts’. I feel that my work reflects this struggle as well as functioning to some degree as a meditative process, helping me to focus my mind and channel nervous energy into creativity. Another important creative outlet for me is playing the drums and for me there is an interesting comparison with the rhythmic mark making, counting and pattern building in my painting. Both of these outlets help me to eliminate ‘external’ concerns and be ‘in the moment’, focusing on the activity in hand. I hope that this experience transfers to the viewer. The following quote from the novel Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem resonated a lot with me when I read it although his character Lionel Essrog has Tourettes, not OCD: ‘Tourettes is just one big lifetime of Tag really. The world (or my brain - same thing) appoints me It again and again. So I tag back. Can It do otherwise? If you’ve ever been It you know the answer.’

Can you name an art exhibition, art book or artist that changed the way you think?

"I found the Agnes Martin Exhibition at Tate Modern in 2015 really mesmerising. There is something I can’t put into words about how the experience of her paintings shifts between a cognitive process of looking and thinking (reading?) and a very physical, bodily experience of ‘being’ in their presence. I find myself moving back and forth, towards and away, to apprehend detail and totality and back again and find myself transfixed,  almost unable to move away."

What work(s) are you thinking of putting in the "Always On My Mind Part 2" exhibition?

"I am working on the largest painting I have made, which I am hoping to finish in time for the show. It is about as tall as me and has an underlying grid structure of approximately 1cm square units. Like many of my paintings, the pattern is pre determined and evolves in a strictly linear way, moving from left to right and top to bottom. The painting is gradually emerging line by line in my studio, like a very slow poem, or a jumper, or a rug."

 

The opening party for Always on my Mind Part 2 is Thursday 31st August 6pm till 9pm at Fitzrovia Gallery, 139 Whitfield Street W1T 5EN

Sarah Wood: Always On My Mind

Always On My Mind (Part 2) opens Thursday 31st of August 2023 and features the work of 16 artists including: 

Sarah Wood

Instagram

What’s always on your mind these days and is it having an impact on your art work?

 "The usual things, everyday concerns, mundane chores, the people I care about. What is going to happen? How will I manage? My art work takes me away from all this."

Image above: 'Dependant’ oil on board 41x31cm

Can you name an art exhibition, art book or artist that changed the way you think?

"An exhibition of Vermeer in The Hague in 1996. Everyday scenes that I found extremely moving at the time, and still do. The paintings of Morandi, deceptively simple. Reading ‘A Room of One’s Own’ by Virginia Woolf when I was a student, though I haven’t read it since."

Q) The National Brain Appeal provide much-needed funds to support The National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery and the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology – together known as Queen Square. This is one of the world’s leading centres for the diagnosis, treatment and care of patients with neurological and neuromuscular conditions. These include stroke, multiple sclerosis, brain cancer, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and dementia. Have you or your loved ones ever suffered with any of these things?

"Both my parents suffered with dementia. I ‘lost’ my mum to Alzheimer’s in about 2014, but she actually died in 2019. It is heartbreaking and devastating to witness the person you know disappear, but still see them in body, if not mind. The fear and confusion in her eyes stays with me. I hope one day to remember her for her life and not for the way she died."

The opening party for Always on my Mind Part 2 is Thursday 31st August 6pm till 9pm at Fitzrovia Gallery, 139 Whitfield Street W1T 5EN

Jeremy Deller: Always On My Mind

 Always On My Mind (Part 2) opens Thursday 31st of August 2023 and features the work of 16 artists including:

Jeremy Deller

Instagram

Q) What's always on your mind these days?

Jeremy: "Just the usual mess of things"

Q) Can you name an art exhibition, art book or artist that changed the way you think?

"Music has more of an effect on me to be honest"

Q) The National Brain Appeal provide much-needed funds to support The National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery and the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology – together known as Queen Square. This is one of the world’s leading centres for the diagnosis, treatment and care of patients with neurological and neuromuscular conditions. These include stroke, multiple sclerosis, brain cancer, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and dementia. Have you or your loved ones ever suffered with any of these things?

"Luckily no."

Q) When the critic Jerry Saltz was recently asked what it is he’s looking for in art he answered “A sense of necessity, someone working in their own voice, doing what they can’t not do.” Do you relate to his way of thinking and do you think your own work is something you just can’t not do? 

"Yes and Maybe."

The opening party for Always on my Mind Part 2 is Thursday 31st August 6pm till 9pm at Fitzrovia Gallery, 139 Whitfield Street W1T 5EN

Kim James-Williams: Always On My Mind

 Always On My Mind (Part 2) opens Thursday 31st of August 2023 and features the work of 16 artists including:

Kim James-Williams

Instagram

Kim James-Williams — The Picturemakers / Y LLunwyr

Q) What’s always on your mind these days and is it having an impact on your art work? 

Kim James-Williams: "What's always on my mind? Turning 50 really brings life into focus: parents getting old and children leaving home prompts a new chapter. I swim in the sea every day, which puts everything into perspective. The cold water holds me up and surrounds me; there's no room for thinking about anything else except body and breath. It's that sensation that I'm looking for when I'm drawing."

Q) Can you name an art exhibition, art book or artist that changed the way you think? 

"I'm like a kid in a sweet shop where art is concerned, I fall in love with every new exhibiton I visit and so it's hard to choose one. I liked Lynette Yadom-Boake a lot, the way she keeps the paint alive and the way she uses tone so well. I always have a tsundoku of books on the go, I'm enjoying 'Modernists and Mavericks'."

Q) What work are you thinking of putting in the "Always On My Mind Part 2" exhibition? 

"I think Always On My Mind 2 will have ink drawings of people who are important to me at the moment. Things fell transient. Maybe my daughter Seren and my Mum, at present I'm very aware of being the middle of three generations of women."

Q) The National Brain Appeal provide much-needed funds to support The National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery and the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology – together known as Queen Square. This is one of the world’s leading centres for the diagnosis, treatment and care of patients with neurological and neuromuscular conditions. These include stroke, multiple sclerosis, brain cancer, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and dementia. Have you or your loved ones ever suffered with any of these things?

"My beautiful cousin Diane died of MND which was so cruel. It makes me think, be glad of every day on this mortal coil, enjoy your body and what it can do, find joy where you can.  I get migraines, whichh come suddenly without warning like an unplanned firework display. They mix up my words and spatial awareness but the time where I lie in the dark to banish the flashing lights can be quite creative as all I can do is daydream."

Q) When the critic Jerry Saltz was recently asked what it is he’s looking for in art he answered “A sense of necessity, someone working in their own voice, doing what they can’t not do.” Do you relate to his way of thinking and do you think your own work is something you just can’t not do? 

"Jerry was on it. This year for me has been so hectic juggling three teaching jobs and family, I've hardly had time to draw properly annd I feel like I'm floating slightly above the earth, feet not properly grounding. It's like I forget who I am a bit if I don't draw. In my work I'm aiming to make the medium and the subject of equal importance. In that way, drawing and painting puts me in touch with what I really think about something, in a way that verbal thought doesn't."

The opening party for Always on my Mind Part 2 is Thursday 31st August 6pm till 9pm at Fitzrovia Gallery, 139 Whitfield Street W1T 5EN

Geraldine Swayne: Always On My Mind

 Always On My Mind (Part 2) opens Thursday 31st of August 2023 and features the work of 16 artists including:

Geraldine Swayne

Instagram

Q) What’s always on your mind these days and is it having an impact on your art work?

Geraldine Swayne: "What’s on my mind is a kind of general non stop anxiety about climate change. It has maybe changed my work in that I’m making pictures of what’s in front of me more, like memorials, especially the stained glass things I’m making."

2) Can you name an art exhibition, art book or artist that changed the way you think?

 "I remember coming down from Newcastle to see Gilbert and George at the Hayward in the 80’s and feeling pretty bent out of shape, and like I was entering a new world. Like I was allowing myself to think I was becoming an artist. More recently the Elizabeth Price show ‘In a dream you saw a way to survive and you were full of joy” at the De La Warr Pavillion was overwhelming. I went back maybe 5 times; music; film: Enfield poltergeist photos; funeral cloth;  icebergs next to marble girls next to GavinTurk’s sleeping bag. The way she curated that show changed me I’d say. It was utterly brilliant."

3) What work are you thinking of putting in the "Always On My Mind Part 2” exhibition?

"I’m thinking of putting in a double, leaded portrait on glass  of a friend and her dog."

Image above: 'Ariel and Jude' 

4) The National Brain Appeal provide much-needed funds to support The National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery and the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology – together known as Queen Square. This is one of the world’s leading centres for the diagnosis, treatment and care of patients with neurological and neuromuscular conditions. These include stroke, multiple sclerosis, brain cancer, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and dementia. Have you or your loved ones ever suffered with any of these things?

"Yes unfortunately I lost my brother to a very unusual brain disease. And my dad and aunt died from the effects of dementia."

5) When the critic Jerry Saltz was recently asked what it is he’s looking for in art he answered “A sense of necessity, someone working in their own voice, doing what they can’t not do.” Do you relate to his way of thinking and do you think your own work is something you just can’t not do?

"I’ve been enjoying his postings on Instagram, and he seems to have found a new vocation as a salty pedagogue. Funny too. So I agree with him  that working in your own voice is the heart of it.  It’ll keep you insulated. Finding the voice can be tricky in the clamour. It’s easy to get distracted sometimes, by all the awful art-scene painting around, and how the art market pedals nonsense, so maybe I should add Gwen John to the list of shows I saw years ago that changed me. Her paintings are so strong and so quiet but charged. Not like anything else. Something you can’t not do? It’s hard to paint,  so I  sort of hate it and love it, but am wedded to it. You do it so long I guess eventually it affects your genes. But yes, it’s something we can’t not do." 

The opening party for Always On My Mind part 2 takes place on Thursday 31st of August at Fitzrovia Gallery, 139 Whitfield Street (30 seconds from Warren St Tube)

 6pm till 9pm

Louise Reynolds: Always On My Mind

 Always On My Mind (Part 2) opens Thursday 31st of August 2023 and features the work of 16 artists including:

Louise Reynolds

Instagram

1) What’s always on your mind these days and is it having an impact on your art work?

Louise Reynolds: "I’m always thinking about the current news. I use it as a point of departure when making my work, where serious topics overlap endlessly with fleeting fad gossip. The outcome gives us all a scrambled understanding of the world we live in, with fragmented images and narratives crossed together. I try to combine these threads in my work, but the actual process of sifting through news feeds is habitual now and I’m always thinking about the newest trends and headlines, and the images they prompt in me."

2): Can you name an art exhibition, art book or artist that changed the way you think?

"I loved the Radical Figures exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery, everything in the show felt so monumental, and it was amazing to see contemporary figurative paintings in such monumental scale. Conceptually Everything is Connected: Art and Conspiracy at the MET was very formative in my ways of thinking about addressing contemporary concerns through my work, and I loved the sense of humour a lot of the work in that show had. Recently the Durer exhibition at the National Gallery was amazing to see as he’s always been one of my heroes, I hadn’t seen his prints in person before and it was magical." 

3) What work(s) are you thinking of putting in the "Always On My Mind Part 2" exhibition?

"I’m thinking of putting a new series of drawings into the exhibition. I've been working a lot with coloured pencils on plywood boards, I feel this combination allows for a lot of sensitivity that really appeals to me."

4) Q) The National Brain Appeal provide much-needed funds to support The National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery and the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology – together known as Queen Square. This is one of the world’s leading centres for the diagnosis, treatment and care of patients with neurological and neuromuscular conditions. These include stroke, multiple sclerosis, brain cancer, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and dementia. Have you or your loved ones ever suffered with any of these things?

"My Gran is currently living with dementia and it’s very emotional when glimmers of her past self appear. I see the weight it bears on the rest of my family, especially when she acts out of character. It’s hard to wrestle with the idea of knowing the person you love is somewhat missing but still physically present. I sincerely hope better treatment will be found through funding from important charities like the National Brain Appeal. I have regular migraines too that can take me out for full days, and I hate the creeping feeling of one coming on. I have a lot of empathy for everyone who experiences them, it takes a lot of will to push through."

5) When the critic Jerry Saltz was recently asked what it is he’s looking for in art he answered “A sense of necessity, someone working in their own voice, doing what they can’t not do.” Do you relate to his way of thinking and do you think your own work is something you just can’t not do?

"I’ve always felt that making art was never a choice for me and just a necessity. I’ve always drawn and painted and I can’t imagine life without it. It’s how I relate to the world, and it’s the only thing I genuinely care about doing."

The opening party for Always on my Mind Part 2 is Thursday 31st August 6pm till 9pm at Fitzrovia Gallery, 139 Whitfield Street W1T 5EN