Group Show: 'The Subversive Landscape'

Tremenhere Gallery, Cornwall, UK

Pleased to be part of 'The Subversive Landscape' at Tremenhere Gallery curated by Hugh Mendes.

 

'The Subversive Landscape'
(Artists who Deconstruct, Recontextualise or Subvert the Landscape).
 
Tremenhere Gallery,
Nr Gulval, Penzance, Cornwall TR20 8YL
PV April 28th 
Show runs April 28th - May 28th
 

The Subversive Landscape presents works by artists who deconstruct, recontextualise or subvert the landscape, but who are not necessarily thought of as landscape artists.

A multi-media exhibition that features paintings, prints, sculpture and time-based video pieces, The Subversive Landscape is the first time Tremenheere has exhibited works from Aqua Oscura; James Turrell’s series of etchings that depict images from his work of the same name that is permanently sited at Tremenheere.

The Subversive Landscape is a group exhibition, curated by Hugh Mendes, and features works by the following artists: Fiona Banner, Michael Landy, James Turrell, Amikam Toren, Gordon Cheung, Fleur and Ali Mackie, Rob and Nicky Carter, Robin Mason, Alex Gene Morrison, Kiera Bennett, Andrew Grassie, Reece Jones, Adam Dix, Hugh Mendes, Lucy Willow, Lee Maelzer, Roger Thorpe, Jesse Leroy Smith, Kirsty Harris, Dan Hays, Liane Lang.

 

Statement from Hugh Mendes:

Having been asked to curate a show at the beautiful Tremenhere Gallery in Cornwall, I thought it should refer to the landscape but not necessarily be a traditional ‘Landscape Show’. I thought about artists who I have worked with before and who I currently work with, especially in an academic context.


Initially I conceived of ‘the no landscape, landscape show’, which subsequently developed into ‘The Subversive Landscape’… consisting of artists who deconstruct, recontextualise or subvert the landscape, but are not necessarily thought of as Landscape Artists, at least not in the usual sense.


All of the artists I have invited are well known to me and I have followed their practice over many years. The exception to this is James Turrell. However, he has two major pieces of work on the site of the gallery; the Tremenhere Sculpture Park. One of these is an underground camera obscura. He has created an etching from an image of the tree canopy from under the ground. So this image fits the theme very well.


Also there is a Dorothy Cross piece sited right outside the gallery, which tangentially becomes part of the show.


Many of the artists I have included are part of the Fine Art faculty at City & Guilds of
London Art School, where I and most of them have taught for the last 20 years. They all refer to the landscape in very diverse and unusual ways.


Of the others, some are very well known internationally, others perhaps more obscure. It is a multi media exhibition, including paintings, prints, sculptures and time based video pieces.

 

Gordon Cheung shows a new series of sculptures based on Chinese scholars rocks otherwise known as spirit stones; microcosms of landscapes and meditative focal points between nature and civilisation. Here made of Financial Times newspaper to suggest the contemporary landscapes of capital transmitted at an instant and wherever it accumulates determines Utopias or Dystopias. The base enhance’s a pareidolia mountain in the clouds.

 

Artists:

Fiona Banner 
Michael Landy
James Turrell
Amikam Toren
Gordon Cheung
Fleur and Ali Mackie
Rob and Nicky Carter
Robin Mason
Alex Morrison
Kiera Bennett
Andrew Grassie
Reece Jones
Adam Dix
Hugh Mendes
Lucy Willow
Lee Maelzer
Roger Thorpe
Jesse Leroy Smith
Kirsty Harris
Dan Hays
Liane Lang
February 2, 2023