Art / Antlers Gallery
Antlers Gallery’s Charles Emerson In Bath
Antlers Gallery recently announced that Charles Emerson will be the second artist to feature in a series of solo exhibitions taking place in Margaret’s Buildings. This is part of a collaboration between Bristol’s nomadic Antlers Gallery and Bath-based antiques dealer Geoffrey Breeze. Opening on 23 October and running until 23 November, this will be the first time that the Bristol-based artist’s work will be shown in Bath.
The exhibition, Blacklight, presents a continuation and development of Emerson’s hugely popular flower photographs. All the images are real and there is no Photoshopping, post-production or special effects. The images are created underwater using real flowers, inks and dyes, using glass plates, mirrors and coloured and UV lights to create the surreal images that are captured on camera. The overall effect is more painterly than photograph.
Taking advantage of the intimate gallery space, this new show will feature works made in pairs, one representing the light and one the dark, so that the two images provide a counterbalance to each other. A completely new piece of work will also be shown for the first time.
Charles’ flower series were originally inspired by the heavy symbolism in Dutch Vanitas paintings, and features a number of large-scale constructed photographic works. Emerson uses the subjects symbolically to explore notions of fragility, melancholy, life and death and in this latest series, expands the work further by heightening the use of light, colour and depth of field, adding more layers and, in some cases, geometric shapes.
Charles’ exhibition is part of a four month collaboration between Antlers Gallery and Geoffrey Breeze, who met through mutual connections in the Bristol art scene. The first exhibition, featuring large-scale monochrome oil paintings of the animal form by Bath’s Abigail Reed, captured the attention of the Bath public.
Breeze said, “I’ve enjoyed bringing Antlers Gallery to Bath. The response to Abigail’s show was really positive and I expect Charles’ show to elicit the same response. This is a great opportunity for Bath’s art lovers to experience Charles’ sublime works in a stunning setting.”
Antlers’ Gallery Director Jack Gibbon added, “The collaboration with Geoffrey has proved to be an enormous success and we’re looking forward to seeing the reaction to Charles’ work when it opens. His work is always popular with enthusiasts and we’re pleased to be given this opportunity to present it here in Bath for the first time.”
Blacklight will launch with an artist’s talk on Saturday 25 October, which will be a great opportunity to meet the artist and hear the thinking and process behind the work, and runs until 23 November.
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