Elements: jonathan barber, david quinn & adam taylor

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.

 

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." David Quinn

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.