Perpetual Dawn

Lacey Contemporary presents the work of contemporary painters Geoff Diego Litherland and David Price alongside bronze sculptor Simon Bacon in this first collaboration 'Perpetual Dawn' opening 29th June 2016.

Through this exhibition, the artists present wild and reimagined worlds formed by destructed landscapes that seem to echo an ancient time. Traces of human life are scattered throughout, with classical references that seem to allude to the loss of a great empire or an apocalyptic world. Our two painters, Geoff Diego Litherland and David Price present this unknown world through their exploration of landscape painting, while Simon Bacon's sculptures deconstruct and fragment the classical figure, presenting bronze 'ruins' that sit mysteriously amongst the paintings.

Geoff Diego Litherland is a Mexican born artist, he completed an MFA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths University of London in 2012 and is currently a lecturer in Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University. Geoff's new work strips back the Science Fiction narratives that have been prominent in his work in order to expose it to a more immediate, direct and metaphysical comprehension of how we position ourselves within a landscape. The new work seems to be hovering in a state of 'becoming'; we find figures interacting with the landscape, their substance and materiality seem to be dissolving into the painterly swirls of matter. There's a more human intimacy in the work, the figures feel at times lost but also intrigued by their strange and abstract surroundings. Are they at one with their place in the universe, celebrating their simple and pure existence or has something out of hand happened in which they are trying to survive a 'wild' post apocalyptic environment? Fire and wood are crucial motifs, elemental and timeless the paintings seem to want to strip away contemporary structures and technology to expose a more direct human experience of the landscape.

David Price lives and works in Margate, Kent. He is Print Tutor at London Metropolitan University and also teaches part-time at Arts University Bournemouth. David studied at Edinburgh College of Art before completing a Master's Degree at Newcastle and then another MA at the Royal College of Art where he studied Printmaking. He held a fellowship in printmaking at the Royal Academy between 2009 and 2012. He was selected for the Bloomberg New Contemporaries in 2009, and has been showing with Art First, London since 2010. He also co-runs London Drawing, a London based teaching practice established in 2006. Since moving his studio to Margate, his work has evolved to experiment more freely with colour. His studies in printmaking at the RCA continue to inform his primary practice of painting and drawing where each colour is applied separately, unmixed, directly onto the surface.

The subject matter for his paintings, drawings and prints has evolved too, but remains focused on the traces and remains of human life within the landscape. Reimagined buildings and structures, half decayed - litter the land. The images hint at a timeless and eternal story, reminding us of the futility of human endeavors and the certainty of loss. But, then - the retaking of the world through nature's imperishable and perpetual growth is a reminder of life's eternal deathless state so that these are ultimately positive images of a bright and clear tomorrow rather than simply the remains of today.

Simon Bacon lives and works in Wivenhoe, Essex and he graduated with an MA in Sculptural Practice from Colchester School of Art in 2013. His work is influenced by over twenty- five years as an Osteopath and four years postgraduate research in transpersonal psychology, all of which supports his expression of existential themes through the human form. His figurative work and process is shaped by a deep interest in the philosophy of mind and consciousness and typically reflects an expression and enquiry of process, and references 'our becomingâ€. His work explores themes of existentialism, including concepts of individual existence, freedom and choice which are embodied through the narrative of the making itself. The sculptures undergo a number of stages from initial, often unmediated, modelling in clay to pieces that are ultimately cast in Bronze. Representational work is gradually deconstructed, fragmented and altered through process and making until the finished pieces become unique transformed figurative forms. For Simon, it is important that each piece is unique, as our own process of becoming is unique. The surfaces and forms of the sculptures which in some cases appears fragile, eroded and fragmented represent the conflict between our subjective reality and an outer 'otherâ€ reality, the struggle of life itself and the physical and psychological effects this has on us. Simon tries to sculpt the phenomenological; the 'how it feelsâ€ experience of our becoming and the lived journey.

'Perpetual Dawn' opens Wednesday 29th June with a private view and drinks reception at the gallery from 6-9pm. RSVP to [email protected]