Exhibiting Artists:

Katrina Blannin, Eric Butcher, Sandra Crisp, Natalie Dower, Tim Ellis, Julia Farrer, Árpád Forgo, Hanz Hancock + Patrick Morrissey, Stephen Jaques, Hans Kotter, Caroline List, George Meyrick, Ian Monroe, Jeremy Morgan, Laurence Noga, Milly Peck, playpaint, Carol Robertson, Sarah Sparkes, Benet Spencer, Trevor Sutton, Trisant (Julian Hughes Watts), Kate Terry, April Virgoe, Adia Wahid, Mary Yacoob  

Co-curated by:

Hanz Hancock & Patrick Morrissey   (Saturation Point) Laurence, Noga          Benet Spencer

The New Accelerator, a short story by H.G. Wells from 1901, addresses technological development, introducing a new perception of reality through a tonic which has the effect of slowing the world’s rotation. Taking the same name, The New Accelerator exhibition, aims to establish a dialogue between a range of artists who have reflected advances in technology through reductive, minimal, architectonic or geometric approaches. This story chimes with the editing process and focus through which abstract artists construct their images, using processes based on limitation, a single element, or through repetition or extension. Working with various partner organisations and individuals, the project identifies an interaction between art, science, science fiction and systems. Through presenting 27 contrasting artist’s practices, the exhibition, along with symposium and catalogue essays, will address points of connection and departure within these key areas.

The discourse surrounding Geometrical and Systems based art remains rooted in 1960s and early 1970s zeitgeist for purity, through clarity of thought and articulation, and as an extension of earlier Modernist dialogues. Conventionally located often as related to painting or other physical processes of construction such as sculpture or wall-based reliefs, The New Accelerator exhibition profiles a wider range of work, such as digital generative simulation or 3d video animation, which are presented alongside work that continues to explore media such as oil or acrylic on canvas, 3d relief constructions and installation.

Drawing upon key works within the Fitzwilliam Museum collection, such as Jeffrey Steele’s Sg III 103 (1988), and with Cambridge’s position as a hub of scientific and mathematical innovation taken as a starting point, the project aims to draw attention to the surrounding discourse, and how this connects with a wider range of contemporary artists working in diverse media, whilst locating their work in context of science or science fiction. 

Caroline List – text 

In these recent paintings and light works Caroline List explores formal compositions through colour contrast and light. The surface and colour within her work sets up a spatial language, a visual tension between flatness, illusory space and chromatic value. These mixed media works play with the simulation of space within painting, creating a dialogue between the ….. original painting and its virtual reproduction. This is particularly relevant in a time when the viewer’s experience of ‘Art’ is often seen through the interface of the screen.

Light Chroma Green fuchsia, oil & acrylic on panel  70cm diameter

Light Chroma Green fuchsia, oil & acrylic on panel  70cm diameter

Light Chroma Green Tondo, led light box perspex & wood    80cm diameter

Colour relationships are explored through tonal gradations and complementary contrast. Colour theorist such as Michael Eugene Chevreul (1786 – 1889) whose writings on simultaneous colour contrast influenced many painters throughout art history, have informed some of the colour conversations in Light Chroma.

David Batchelor writes in ‘The Luminous and the Grey’ (2014) about the velocity of colour, describing grey as suspended in space no longer white but not yet black.

‘If luminous colours are the most fleeting the most ephemeral and the most fugitive then grey is the sloth and the slug of colours’ p.69:

Light Chroma Grey, Oil & acrylic on panel 70cm diameter

The chromatic value of the work is seen in contrast to both the monochromatic grey scale and sprayed veils of paint. Atmospheric space is in dialogue with flatness and dense blackness. These spatial horizons make reference to natural phenomena and landscape space, creating luminous visual horizons within the push and pull of the picture plane.

This inquiry into colour and light is further explored in the backlit LED Tondo light boxes, which combine painting with the illusory space of photography. These Porthole vignettes reference the selective viewpoint of the lens and the virtual space of painting. The reproduction and simulated luminosity of these backlit images question the relationship with their painted counterparts.

Many Thanks for the support of  Central Saint Martins School of Art & Design ( UAL Refresh funding )

Space Studios : Breathing Space Bursary ( Artist  Development fu,