Rye Studio School in The Grove is hosting an exhibition called “Right Here Right Now” during the Arts Festival (daily 10am-4pm) showcasing national contemporary artists from across the country to represent the Zeitgeist of 2015. It aims to offer Rye a snapshot of fine art today from artists of the highest quality in different mediums.
Dom Theobald, whose work is pictured above, says “my paintings are a place to put some ideas. The paintings are about everything, and there is an organising principle – the container and the contained, tackled directly. Objects and forms accompany us throughout our life. They come and they go. They also say something of us”.
Chantal Joffe’s work (pictured below) is, by comparison, about people rather than objects. Her work often depicts women and girls and she possesses a humorous eye for everyday awkwardness and an enlivening facility with paint. Adhering only waveringly to its photographic sources, it reminds us that distortions of the brush or pencil can often make a subject seem more real, exploring the possibilities of a figurative feminist art through paint itself.
Another exhibitor is local artist/illustrator/director Dave McKean from the Isle of Oxney, who was at the private view and is talking about his film The Gospel of Us at the Kino cinema this Friday evening. His drawings are incredibly detailed and those on display were part of a multi-media commission from the Manchester Jazz and Literature Festivals. He illustrates books, designs record and book covers, creates visuals and direct films, as well as exhibiting and performing – and Rye often features in his work. The exhibition has been curated by a group of Studio School students who have chosen the exhibits and organised the exhibition.
(Source: Studio School)
Photos: Kenneth Bird