Last year EMBASSY’s members' show displayed 90 pieces of art work, which this year has expanded to an impressive 110. SALONVERT, owes its name to a luminous green wall in the downstairs exhibition room; a not so subtle reference to the beautiful deep green walls of the 18th century Parisian Salon on which a myriad of works would hang.
In the spirit of the Salon’s eclecticism, there are a vast array of different themes, mediums and aesthetics in evidence here, though the dominance of drawing over painting is clear. The subtlety of Hugo de Verteuil’s pencil drawing, and Catriona Whiteford’s collage, cuts through the crudity of the exhibition. The exposed brick of the old church creates an interesting space, and the haphazard curation successfully mirrors the artworks in some cases.
However, smaller pieces litter the floor like an afterthought, and works such as Nathan Anthony’s ‘U-H’, in which an ejaculation of glass protrudes from a plastic UHU tube, would certainly benefit from the aesthetic of a white cube gallery. There is a droning sound that filters throughout the gallery space, and reaches a crescendo as one descends the stairs, a result of five video pieces placed incongruously on chairs. What sounds like the residue of a technological process filtered through some mild drum and bass emanates from one video piece, but one can’t be sure. The pieces in this exhibition bleed into one another, so that as with the sickly green wall downstairs, one is left disconcerted by the spectacle.
first published in the journal, sunday 13th february
www.journal-online.co.uk
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