We are delighted to present a group exhibition featuring the work of three artists who are known for their minimal aesthetic: Jonathan Barber, David Quinn and Adam Taylor. Although each artist has their own unique process, they collectively create work which characterises minimalism, eliminating non-essential elements to allow the viewer to focus solely on the fundamental components of the artwork.
Jonathan Barber creates atmospheric abstract works based around light, darkness, shape, movement and presence.
His new body of work explores the interplay between landscape, presence, mark making and negative space. For these enquiries he delves into the captivating realm of collaged monoprints and papers on board. Each gestural mark alludes to the recording of a place, contrasted with flat areas of colour. These works serve as a testament to the impermanence of existence inviting the viewer to a dialogue between the external environment and the inner self.
David Quinn is known for his small-scale, abstract paintings. These intimate pieces are inspired by book design, musical notation, signwriting, and the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi: the acceptance of transience and imperfection. Quinn’s understated, minimal works may seem simple at first glance but on closer inspection you notice the carefully considered layers of the pages that make up his paintings. Characterised by repeated patterns of lines, dots, and grids, with muted colours and worn edges, they are suggestive of both passing time and old paperback books. Quinn compares his work to a form of poetry, or visual haiku, that reflects his deeper thought processes using lines instead of words.
I used to title my exhibitions and give individual pieces a number, but I feel now that each piece deserves its own name. I have recently started to name my paintings after ancient towns and cities that no longer exist. There is so little we know about the past, that in a way these places only really exist in our imagination.
Adam Taylor is influenced by the coastal landscape of his rural surroundings in West Wales. His paintings depict dreamscapes that descend into abstraction, mirroring the ephemeral nature of dreams. Using the colour blue, he creates earthly minimalist landscapes that often incorporate elements of a grid. The use of grids creates a sense of separation and disconnect within the painting, comparable with a cut up and reassembled collage. The minimal aesthetic is essential to Taylor’s work. It is only through a process of deduction, and removing 90 percent of the original marks, that he reaches a point of completion.
He strives to capture the mood of the land, distilling the basic forms into pleasing shapes and colour. While he works predominantly in oils, he also employs enamel paint and different textures at the beginning of the painting process, resulting in a final piece which is raw and layered.
