'FLEURSDUMAL' Curated by Dolly Thompsett Exhibition Dates : Friday May 9th - Saturday June 7th 2014 at CHARLIE SMITH LONDON

FLEURSDUMAL

Curated by Dolly Thompsett
Emma Bennett, Michael Boffey, G L Brierley, Bernhard Martin, Neal Rock, Dolly Thompsett
PRIVATE VIEW
Thursday May 8th 6.30-8.30pm

EXHIBITION DATES
Friday May 9th - Saturday June 7th 2014

GALLERY HOURS
Wednesday-Saturday 11am-6pm or by appointment

‘The beautiful is always strange’, said Baudelaire.  The artists in this show demonstrate within their painterly flourishes a strange beauty that alludes to a sense of corruption and to  the festering nature of an often hidden aspect of human consciousness.  The work selected relates to Baudelaire’s collection of 19th century poems ‘Les Fleurs du mal’ by embracing an awareness of  death, degeneracy and pain. The six artists in the exhibition have developed visual vocabularies that echo Baudelaire's syntax in  order to elucidate something, something that speaks most strangely of beauty. Within these paintings a moment of expression is fashioned by means of art that truly speaks of life, like a briefly blossoming  flower that feeds from the decomposing carcasses of beasts, great and small, and from the sun above.

Dolly Thompsett

Dolly Thompsett

'The Secret Life of Mrs Andrews'

Acrylic, ink, mixed media on patterned upholstery linen

2014

90cm x 67cm

Dolly Thompsett

'Europa'

Acrylic, ink, mixed media on patterned upholstery linen

2014

31cm x 41cm

Bernhard Martin

'I actually wanted to make a picture of love'

Oil on raw canvas

2014

80cm x 70cm

G L Brierley

'Gertrude'

Oil on panel

2014

30cm x 40cm

Emma Bennett

'Watching the Dark'

Oil on canvas

2013

122cm x 91.5cm

Emma Bennett

'A Weightless Quiet'

Oil on oak panel

2013

25cm x 20cm