BARRY CAWSTON
BARRY CAWSTON
WELCOME TO THE OPENING RECEPTION FEB 5, 2014 FROM 18:00 TO 20:00 BIRGER JARLSGATAN 26
BARRY CAWSTON Barry Cawston’s photographic work with landscape, cityscape, industrial sites and interiors is deeply rooted in the history of western art and reminds of modernists such as Edward Weston and contemporary figures such as Andreas Gursky or Xenia Nikolskaya. His work demonstrates the art of photography as expressive medium for undermining our expectation of the visual media in a subtle manner: Our first associations regarding the architecture in decay and our collective memory and nostalgia for places of such beauty are carefully interrogated and confounded in a play with shape, pattern, colour and texture. The spaces the viewer is confronted with hold a poetic and associative charge that interlinks with a visceral impact. The appearance and properties of the everyday seem altered and decontextualised. This leaves room to notions of latency and ambivalence but also speaks of the rightful existence of places out of time and change. In this solo show, Couture Galleri presents works from the series “Scenes from the Concrete Jungle”, “Spaces In-Between”, “Cities of the Drum” and “Burma: Land of the Day Stars”. These works take us on a journey to our own here and now. Places that easily could be overlooked have become places for contemplation of mysterious and bizarre quality, reminiscent of dream-like experiences that elude explanation. Wherever on the globe, his motives
balance two powers: Rhythm, repetition, and composition, the projectable and functional are replaced by human spontaneity or the eccentric and random. The places he portraits form part of a collective memory we have about such places but nostalgia and exotism never take over. Under Cawston’s lens, the manmade turns organic and opens up for an intimate experience of threshold spaces. His work is a reminder of a universal truth about people’s interaction with as well as influence and dependence on their environment and habitat.
Cawston started to work as a freelancer from the mid-1990s and also collaborated with Al Deane under the pseudonym of Boris Baggs. He is a steady winner of numerous prestigious awards: in 2006 he won The Exeter Contemporary Open Award, in 2008 Royal Academy Photographic Open Award and for the last three years in a row he has been a National Open Art Finalist. His work has been published in ART magazine, The Independent Newspaper, British Journal of Photography, Radical Philosophy Magazine, National Geographic and Art of England and he has exhibited widely internationally. Besides working on his own Fine Arts he also has worked on Commissions photographing diverse examples of English Heritage’s listed buildings including churches, swimming pools and cinemas as well as a conservation project in the Amazon.
COVER IMAGE: GARAGE DOORS, 76 X 91 CM (FROM THE SERIES CITIES OF THE DRUM)
FROM THE SERIES CITIES OF THE DRUM
GOLDEN STAIRCASE, 122 X 91 CM
FROM THE SERIES SCENES FROM THE CONCRETE JUNGLE
TOCA DO PESCADO, 48 X 150 CM
SIDE STREETS NYC, 38 X 100 CM
FROM THE SERIES BURMA: LAND OF THE DAY STARS
MORNING RITUAL, 72 X 91 CM
FROM THE SERIES BURMA: LAND OF THE DAY STARS
YANGON BOOKS, 91 X 72 CM
BARRY CAWSTON Born 1966, lives and works in Somerset, UK EDUCATION Leeds University BA in Sociology Leeds Polytechnic Diploma in Photography SELECTED RECENT SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2013 James Freeman Gallery, London The Folk House Gallery, Bristol 2012 In Flux, Atkinson Gallery, London Beaux Art, Bath 2011 Hinterland, Capital Culture Covent Garden, London 2010 Sarah Myerscough Fine Art Mayfair, London 2009 Cuba/Italy/China: Close House. Hatch Beauchamp, Somerset. On Borrowed Time: Octagon Chapel, Bath. SELECTED RECENT GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2013 2011 2008 2007 2005
Little Big Gallery, Paris Mernier Gallery, London Collyer Bristow, London Show me the Artists: Capital Culture, London Bristol Contemporary Open 08 Selection ‘Portraits from an Institution.’ L’Exhibition D’Autumn: Sanari sur Mer, France View Gallery, Bristol. Royal Academy Photographic Open, Bristol. Buildings At Risk, Battersea Power Station English Heritage’s BAR campaign. Inspired: listed churches for English Heritage’s Inspired campaign, Exhibited in the catacombs of a church in Paddington / House of Commons.
AWARDS 2013 2012 2011 2010
National Open Art Finalist, UK See Me Finalist, New York National Open Art Finalist, UK Invited Artist: Hereford Photo Festival National Open Art Finalist, UK South West Art Award Winner, Bristol Invited artist for the RWA Photographic Open, Bristol
2008 Frome open Art Competition Winner with “The Tibetan Cowboy”, Wiltshire Royal Academy Photographic Open Award winner with “Books, Napoli”, London 2006 Bewdley Open Art: Award winning, Birmingham The Exeter Contemporary Open Award winner 2004 BJP/Nikon Endframe Award: funding four-week photographic project in China which resulted in a body of work, ‘The Yangtze, River of Tears’. PUBLIC COLLECTIONS RWA collection, Bristol PRIVATE COLLECTIONS Robert Pasley Tyler Rupert Soames Ajit Nedungadi Tim Maloney Rachel Crossley Blaise Jagger Joe Cohen Matthias Lind Per Roman Zita Nicolaou Chen Dr Pat Nuttal Mona Perlhagen Janet Harbison CLSA Nadine Birkmeyer Vincenzo Zinni Ruper Soames Robert Pasley-Tyler PUBLICATIONS Kath Cockshaw: In Flux, Atkinson Gallery, Somerset, 2012. (artist monograph) Kath Cockshaw/Hugh Mooney: Hinterland, Drugstore Gallery, Somerset, 2010. (artist monograph)
EXHIBITION ONGOING FROM FEB 5 TO FEB 19, 2014
BY LAMPLIGHT, 76 X 91 CM (FROM THE SERIES SPACES IN-BETWEEN)
BIRGER JARLSGATAN 26, 114 34 STOCKHOLM • TELEPHONE: +46 (0) 734 267 018 WEDNESDAY – FRIDAY 12 TO 18. SATURDAY – SUNDAY 12 TO 16. ALL IMAGES ARE © BARRY CAWSTON. WWW.COUTUREGALLERI.SE
WELCOME TO THE OPENING RECEPTION FEB 5, 2014 FROM 18:00 TO 20:00 BIRGER JARLSGATAN 26
BARRY CAWSTON Barry Cawston’s photographic work with landscape, cityscape, industrial sites and interiors is deeply rooted in the history of western art and reminds of modernists such as Edward Weston and contemporary figures such as Andreas Gursky or Xenia Nikolskaya. His work demonstrates the art of photography as expressive medium for undermining our expectation of the visual media in a subtle manner: Our first associations regarding the architecture in decay and our collective memory and nostalgia for places of such beauty are carefully interrogated and confounded in a play with shape, pattern, colour and texture. The spaces the viewer is confronted with hold a poetic and associative charge that interlinks with a visceral impact. The appearance and properties of the everyday seem altered and decontextualised. This leaves room to notions of latency and ambivalence but also speaks of the rightful existence of places out of time and change. In this solo show, Couture Galleri presents works from the series “Scenes from the Concrete Jungle”, “Spaces In-Between”, “Cities of the Drum” and “Burma: Land of the Day Stars”. These works take us on a journey to our own here and now. Places that easily could be overlooked have become places for contemplation of mysterious and bizarre quality, reminiscent of dream-like experiences that elude explanation. Wherever on the globe, his motives
balance two powers: Rhythm, repetition, and composition, the projectable and functional are replaced by human spontaneity or the eccentric and random. The places he portraits form part of a collective memory we have about such places but nostalgia and exotism never take over. Under Cawston’s lens, the manmade turns organic and opens up for an intimate experience of threshold spaces. His work is a reminder of a universal truth about people’s interaction with as well as influence and dependence on their environment and habitat.
Cawston started to work as a freelancer from the mid-1990s and also collaborated with Al Deane under the pseudonym of Boris Baggs. He is a steady winner of numerous prestigious awards: in 2006 he won The Exeter Contemporary Open Award, in 2008 Royal Academy Photographic Open Award and for the last three years in a row he has been a National Open Art Finalist. His work has been published in ART magazine, The Independent Newspaper, British Journal of Photography, Radical Philosophy Magazine, National Geographic and Art of England and he has exhibited widely internationally. Besides working on his own Fine Arts he also has worked on Commissions photographing diverse examples of English Heritage’s listed buildings including churches, swimming pools and cinemas as well as a conservation project in the Amazon.
COVER IMAGE: GARAGE DOORS, 76 X 91 CM (FROM THE SERIES CITIES OF THE DRUM)
FROM THE SERIES CITIES OF THE DRUM
GOLDEN STAIRCASE, 122 X 91 CM
FROM THE SERIES SCENES FROM THE CONCRETE JUNGLE
TOCA DO PESCADO, 48 X 150 CM
SIDE STREETS NYC, 38 X 100 CM
FROM THE SERIES BURMA: LAND OF THE DAY STARS
MORNING RITUAL, 72 X 91 CM
FROM THE SERIES BURMA: LAND OF THE DAY STARS
YANGON BOOKS, 91 X 72 CM
BARRY CAWSTON Born 1966, lives and works in Somerset, UK EDUCATION Leeds University BA in Sociology Leeds Polytechnic Diploma in Photography SELECTED RECENT SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2013 James Freeman Gallery, London The Folk House Gallery, Bristol 2012 In Flux, Atkinson Gallery, London Beaux Art, Bath 2011 Hinterland, Capital Culture Covent Garden, London 2010 Sarah Myerscough Fine Art Mayfair, London 2009 Cuba/Italy/China: Close House. Hatch Beauchamp, Somerset. On Borrowed Time: Octagon Chapel, Bath. SELECTED RECENT GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2013 2011 2008 2007 2005
Little Big Gallery, Paris Mernier Gallery, London Collyer Bristow, London Show me the Artists: Capital Culture, London Bristol Contemporary Open 08 Selection ‘Portraits from an Institution.’ L’Exhibition D’Autumn: Sanari sur Mer, France View Gallery, Bristol. Royal Academy Photographic Open, Bristol. Buildings At Risk, Battersea Power Station English Heritage’s BAR campaign. Inspired: listed churches for English Heritage’s Inspired campaign, Exhibited in the catacombs of a church in Paddington / House of Commons.
AWARDS 2013 2012 2011 2010
National Open Art Finalist, UK See Me Finalist, New York National Open Art Finalist, UK Invited Artist: Hereford Photo Festival National Open Art Finalist, UK South West Art Award Winner, Bristol Invited artist for the RWA Photographic Open, Bristol
2008 Frome open Art Competition Winner with “The Tibetan Cowboy”, Wiltshire Royal Academy Photographic Open Award winner with “Books, Napoli”, London 2006 Bewdley Open Art: Award winning, Birmingham The Exeter Contemporary Open Award winner 2004 BJP/Nikon Endframe Award: funding four-week photographic project in China which resulted in a body of work, ‘The Yangtze, River of Tears’. PUBLIC COLLECTIONS RWA collection, Bristol PRIVATE COLLECTIONS Robert Pasley Tyler Rupert Soames Ajit Nedungadi Tim Maloney Rachel Crossley Blaise Jagger Joe Cohen Matthias Lind Per Roman Zita Nicolaou Chen Dr Pat Nuttal Mona Perlhagen Janet Harbison CLSA Nadine Birkmeyer Vincenzo Zinni Ruper Soames Robert Pasley-Tyler PUBLICATIONS Kath Cockshaw: In Flux, Atkinson Gallery, Somerset, 2012. (artist monograph) Kath Cockshaw/Hugh Mooney: Hinterland, Drugstore Gallery, Somerset, 2010. (artist monograph)
EXHIBITION ONGOING FROM FEB 5 TO FEB 19, 2014
BY LAMPLIGHT, 76 X 91 CM (FROM THE SERIES SPACES IN-BETWEEN)
BIRGER JARLSGATAN 26, 114 34 STOCKHOLM • TELEPHONE: +46 (0) 734 267 018 WEDNESDAY – FRIDAY 12 TO 18. SATURDAY – SUNDAY 12 TO 16. ALL IMAGES ARE © BARRY CAWSTON. WWW.COUTUREGALLERI.SE
