Event detail
Introduction
The Meeting Place is Joy Wolfenden Brown’s first exhibition at Millennium. I have, however, had the pleasure of working with her on numerous occasions whilst Director at Goldfish Contemporary Fine Art.
Her work is made in her tiny studio set in an attic room at the top of her house. The ceilings are pitched, and relatively low, so she works mainly around or on the paint splatted floor. The studio feels like an inner sanctum. I’m not sure if anyone else is allowed in to the space but a visit has that sense of rare priveledge. It feels totally hers. Her paintings extend the experience.
There remains something so extraordinarily fragile within her paintings. Even the rawness of the application suggests a vulnerability; these are works that leave nothing for the artist or the viewer to hide behind. It is totally appropriate to attribute that often over used term ‘honesty’ to Wolfenden Brown’s work.
Early on in her career, part of me nervously anticipated, that as her reputation grew (as it has), that this essence in her work could evaporate in the glare of recognition or acclaim. It never has.
In fact, with a developed sense of confidence we witness a marked development in scale. Much larger works on board brush shoulders with the more familiar small scale paintings on oil soaked paper. The presence of these larger pieces is imposing as well as intimate. Their inclusion enforces her stature.
So much contemporary figurative painting makes cultural reference, analysing the society that we live in – often taking an external vantage point or ‘third person’ perspective. What is rarer is to see work that speaks so truthfully about the human condition in such an unguarded personal way – from the core – the result is timeless.
The German Expressionist artist Kathe Kollwitz once urged us to ‘look at life with the eyes of a child’. For me the power of Wolfenden Brown’s painting is to remind us of the child who lurks within all of us. The autonomous solitary state that we find ourselves in behind our own imposed screen is laid bare, and the attempt to come to terms with that and to share ourselves is both the struggle and goal. I relate to these paintings wholeheartedly, I never tire of them.
Joseph Clarke. 2010
Artist Statement
“There is a river of life all around. But you can’t push it. Try softer”
John Ortberg
In many ways if I speak about my work I could just say that I paint pictures and that I would be very sad if I had to stop. In fact, I think I would be filled with grief.
All speaking can be difficult and contains risk. When we speak aloud we may select what we show of ourselves according to who we are and who we are with.
In the quiet of my studio I find a meeting place where silent conversations unfold. They flit to and fro like little birds carrying messages or flow like a river that gently awakens a dormant heart.
For every life there are things that remain unspoken. If they could be photographed they might be caught in the light as flashes or fragments of no especial significance but they would record a life unseen or a conversation otherwise unheard.
A passing scent may stir a longing for something precious that is hard to identify and thought lost.
Sometimes when I paint my heart races or flutters as if I am uncovering a secret love.
In showing my paintings I hope that they offer the viewer a meeting place for their ‘unspoken’, and I always hope that the viewer will feel free to take from the paintings whatever they will.
Joy Wolfenden Brown. 2010
http://www.millenniumgallery.co.uk
