behind the pictures: pieces on scenes in visual art

Saturday 20 November 2010

Vyner Street Galleries

The Vyner Street Gallery is fast becoming the place to be on the first Thursday of every month. Located in Cambridge Heath and known as London's contemporary Art District, the area is bustling with people looking to discover the next best thing in the art world. The scene, mostly attracting stylish locals and the arty crowd, is as one might expect 'happening', and most surprisingly, you don't need your name on a guest list to catch a glimpse of Vyner Street's hidden gems.

With emerging talents sitting alongside established names, a simple walk down this street will see you shifting from conceptual fine art to meaningfully arranged and composed objects. While the galleries, including Gift, Degree Art, East2Gallery, and Five Hundred Dollars all represent artists who all bring prominent, fresh and unique styles to the art market.

Hosting specialised exhibitions, Vyner Street offers a well needed collective art presence. Most recently, Lucinka Soucek, one of Vyner's outstanding talents, presented her Wood and Trees exhibition using a woodcut technique to portray varying illustrations. The roughness derived from Soucek's technique created a vividness which draws the viewer into her work, causing us to focus in on the intense detailing which evokes a sense of intimacy and warmth.

Alongside Soucek, Gift Gallery presents Elaine Wilson, whose artwork has plunged into studying female identity. The small sculptures of women in Victorian dress depict a conventional ideal which is contrasted by the way they are holding pointed guns. The emotions held within the sculptures aim to spark a curiosity in viewers in a bid to spark a consideration of femininity and female identity.

If Gift Gallery doesn't satisfy you, take a wander down to Degree Art where Alien Beauty: Alien Freedom is currently being exhibited. Created by artists Robert Dunt and Alistair Baxendale, the exhibit uses mixed media and photomontage whilst contrasting new and famous paintings, to reveal the boundlessness of imagination in artistic creativity and perception. With inspiration including pop art, Alien Beauty: Alien Freedom promotes a sense of disarrayed and chaotic freedom at the heart of its subject. The chaos goes someway toward representing Vyner Street's amalgamation of diverse artistic talent. After all, where else could Alien Beauty: Alien Freedom stand alongside exhibitions such as Hannah Wooll's Natural Habitat?

The pop art influences of Dunt and Baxendale's work alone completely contrast with Wooll's charming and innocent subject matter. Her use of earthy colours help depict the humble female character at the centre of her piece, introducing an entirely different dynamic to the Vyner Street movement.

Dunt and Baxendale, Wooll, Soucek, and Wilson all represent the diversity of Vyner Street and its relentlessly changing face. Exhibitions may come and go on a weekly and monthly basis, but Vyner's dedication to being commerical platform for the most innovative talents discovered at degree shows never falters.

Photographs provided by galleries