Secret Gardens: A Contemporary View
Secret Gardens: A Contemporary View
Drawing upon both his personal journey and online photographic sources, emerging Italian-born artist of Ghanaian origin Stephen Price explores the nuanced terrain of Black memories. Employing charcoal and vibrant, glossy paint, Price depicts enigmatic space-times in which faceless Black figures seem to float. Like half-presences in a surreal world, his silhouettes seem detached from reality, yet bear an awareness of their potent, almost haunting impact on the observer's gaze.
As if immersed in a liminal nature, Price’s figures evoke the nostalgic aura of old photographs discovered in old cardboard boxes: weathered by time yet imbued with captivating allure. Playing with the emotional resonance of ocean blues and rich purples, the artist, who holds a BA in Fine Art Painting and Drawing from the University of Northampton, infuses his canvases with a profound sense of nostalgia, reflecting on memory's often bittersweet nature. The interplay between personal recollections and the broader tapestry of shared Black history becomes a central theme, inviting viewers to ponder the enduring imprint of memory on our collective consciousness.
Drawing upon both his personal journey and online photographic sources, emerging Italian-born artist of Ghanaian origin Stephen Price explores the nuanced terrain of Black memories. Employing charcoal and vibrant, glossy paint, Price depicts enigmatic space-times in which faceless Black figures seem to float. Like half-presences in a surreal world, his silhouettes seem detached from reality, yet bear an awareness of their potent, almost haunting impact on the observer's gaze.
As if immersed in a liminal nature, Price’s figures evoke the nostalgic aura of old photographs discovered in old cardboard boxes: weathered by time yet imbued with captivating allure. Playing with the emotional resonance of ocean blues and rich purples, the artist, who holds a BA in Fine Art Painting and Drawing from the University of Northampton, infuses his canvases with a profound sense of nostalgia, reflecting on memory's often bittersweet nature. The interplay between personal recollections and the broader tapestry of shared Black history becomes a central theme, inviting viewers to ponder the enduring imprint of memory on our collective consciousness.
Ning Wenhai (born 1999 in China) currently lives and works in London. He graduated with an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art in 2023. Ning sees the tiny but rich biomes in the soil as a bridge connecting the real and unreal worlds, a pivotal advancement in the symbiotic bond between humanity and the natural world. His fusion of oil painting and soil not only creates a new symbolic texture, full of the mystery of the interplay of reality and falsehood. But also replants life in the land of another dimension, giving the soil a new power of growth to fill in the ecologically fragile remnants. His works try to evoke people’s thoughts on the origin and evolution of life, exploring the subtle relationship between reality and ideality.