Aleksandra Durman is a British Artist, born in Montenegro 1972.

She has lived and worked in London since mid 1990s. Aleksandra graduated with Fine Art Degree at Middlesex University in 2014 and earned her Masters at Wimbledon College of Arts London in 2016.

My  artwork practice is influenced by the improvisation and spontaneity of the Abstract Expressionist movement and the Surrealist concept of the unconscious mind driving art work. I also wish to explore conscious emotions through my abstract art and the haphazard forms which emerge. Through working intuitively, feelings and memories are evoked which I may or may not have been conscious of when I started the work.

 I aim to create paintings which, although abstract, has an emotional impact. I am interested in conveying my perceptions of the world with its magical, mystical, qualities onto canvas. 

Growing up in the Montenegro, I developed a genuine passion for colour, as the local geography provided a rich and ever-changing palette - from the dark blue to bright turquoise Adriatic Sea, to the imposing ‘black’ mountains, the lush green exotic plants and the stunning red, orange and pink sunsets. In my paintings I make an emotional dialogue with colours, by the process of adding detail to my work.

All of these techniques are fundamental for releasing my ideas, feelings and memories, which flourish and blend together, allowing the paint to reveal whatever forms materialise and enabling emotion to emerge within the paintings.

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Andrew’s show was in early February 2022, called Painting Pictures With Sound.

I often start my work with a real feeling of dread with no confidence that I can produce anything of any worth. Until I put the first lines or forms onto the paper and develop the first ideas this fear persists. I try not to think too much about the process and let things develop intuitively and as soon as I put in too much consideration the painting for me loses any impact or significance. When I look at a scene or subject I tend to look for the shapes and forms and rather than trying to replicate the scene accurately I focus on the format and pattern effectively deconstructing and simplifying them. With no formal training my technique is haphazard and unconventional, there is no structure or formal planning and the outcomes are often a surprise. I work mainly in oils, ink and gouache on paper or canvas. The size of the work is bound by the fact that I do not have a studio and most of what you see has been done on the dining room table or kitchen worktop. Often to the great annoyance of my wife.

Andrew is an untrained artist who has dabbled with drawing and painting for many years but has only given real focus to his work recently. His work mainly looks at the shape and pattern within objects and scenes effectively deconstructing and simplifying them. He has no definite style or methodology and his influences vary greatly. This is reflected in the range of work he produces. As well as dabbling in art he also dabbles in music and often his paintings are either inspired by music or accompanied by music. His own compositions accompanied his most recent exhibition at Kate Howe’s RuptureXIBIT Gallery.

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Anna showed in April 2022 with her solo show, Re-Emergence. She will be exhibiting in a new solo show later this year from October - December in the CornerHOUSE Arts Centre.

Anna Dyson (b. 1965) is a British painter who lives and works in London and was educated in Richmond Upon Thames College. Dyson reaches for unexpected colour as she works quickly and “intuitively” on multiple canvases at once, covering them in swirling, flowing, vibrating forms. Dyson’s neuro-diversity is the touchstone of her practice, and her work carries with it the translation of her experience navigating a world wired for others. Dyson’s work foregrounds her experience living with ADHD and Autism while at the same time surrendering to the vibrant, electric intuitive condition her subconscious rests in. “I leave everything at the door and paint,” says Dyson.

Anna Dyson’s recent large-scale paintings are in response to a brief Kate Howe set for her to work on canvasses over a meter squared and refrain from using black and white paint. Thanks to a two-week residency at Kate Howe’s studio, Dyson had the space and resources to develop her practice and experiment. 

 She met the challenge by experimenting with fluorescent colours and extending her brushes to allow her to stretch across the large canvasses. This added a very physical element to her “intuitive” process which opened the composition of her paintings, and the absence of black and white gave a new depth. 

 Her most recent works have continued to be painted without black and white and play with fluorescent colours.  Though they are on a smaller scale, the openness and flow gained with working large has carried through

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Aoibhin was the curator of the Coping, in Colour show, December 2021, which she also exhibited in. She will be exhibiting again later this month in June for the RCA Graduate Show 2022.

 I want to paint

Thought out things

With moments of silence

Allowed to breath

But my brain doesn’t stop

Until forced

By my medicine

at night

I care about one thing

But mania strikes

Focus becomes scrambled

And overlap begins

Then comes the obsession

Emptiness is not allowed

I try to hold back

But the gaps need filled

Saturated

I listen to a podcast

To shield me from my thoughts

But for a fleeting minute

I’m going to accomplish something massive

Am I compensating?

When I’m grounded

I realise

Quite frankly

That it would be impossible

Impossible to do it all

Even though I need to

To make it all worthwhile.

Aoibhin Maguire, b.1997, is a painter originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland. She has recently relocated to London to complete her MA in painting at the Royal College of Art, and also holds a First-Class Honours degree in Fine Art from Lancaster University. Aoibhin has exhibited work in a variety of locations across the UK, such as in The Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool and The Tub, Hackney in London. She has also exhibited internationally, such as in Baku Gallery and C3 Lab in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA and has been the featured artist of the month in Charlotte Art League, North Carolina, USA. The first year of Aoibhin’s Masters at the Royal College of Art was solely online due to the Covid19 pandemic, so she used this time to open her own gallery and studio in Northern Ireland in an empty retail unit and has loved being able to work with local artists and help showcase their work, the highlight being her curating a group exhibit 'EMERGING: A Room Full of Art' to help support local artists after the hardships endured during the pandemic. Upon moving to London, Aoibhin curated (and exhibited in) a group show at Kate Howe Studios, Ltd titled 'Coping, in Colour', featuring the work of six London based artists. Currently, she is preparing for the Royal College of Art's 2022 degree show.

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Brandon showed in August 2021 with his solo debut show, Perfect Blue. He will be exhibiting again in a new solo show entitled, Not Going, Changing, January 2023.

Brandon Seedhouse is an artist & educator based in England. His work has been shown in London, New York & Japan.

Drawing upon influences from 1960’s counter culture, Zen Buddhist philosophy, Japanese aesthetics and the natural world, he explores themes on time, memory, gesture and experience. His practice is grounded in the process of making and primarily engages with painting and print making methodology as to explore relationships between environment, material and gesture. The work is a response to his own personal encounters and experiences in the external world and the internal processing that occurs afterwards.

Once in the studio, these encounters and experiences are subjected to filtering, translation and abstraction through processes of construction, deconstruction, layering, recycling and sampling. In Zen Buddhism, everything in existence is within a state of flux, evolving into something entirely new or dissolving into nothingness. Elements/fragmentations of these encounters and experiences are extracted and synthesised into images, objects and installations as a means to capture, visualise and advance the existence of them. The aims for each work is to develop an image or object which entices the viewer to stop and look with a purposeful gaze. In doing so, subsequently becoming lost in the subtle or obvious details, until eventually they’re no longer looking at the work but through it. Moving inwards, into their own internal space where they can be in a meditative state, slow in thought and action.

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Imogen showed in July 2021 with their solo debut show, Voyeur

Imogen is an Artist from Hampshire, UK. She has a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Kingston School of Art, graduating in 2021. She has exhibited work primarily in London and was nominated for the Freelands Painting Prize in 2021. Imogen is currently based in Reykjavik, Iceland completing a work placement abroad and will be going on to do her MFA from this September at Glasgow School of Art.

Imogen’s artistic practice revolves around emerging imaginations of the body in the public sphere. She engages with failure as a mode of potential. The process of undoing, dismantling and unbecoming offering other creative ways of being; a resistance towards established, patriarchal and heteronormative structure of progress in favour of queer processes. Fragmented collages inform paintings that explore how the body negotiates with space, place, and differing socio-political contexts. Dissecting earlier figures from inactive paintings she creates, montages combine multiple artistic processes, differing moments of impulse, and shifting temporalities of urgency. During the pandemic, she explored “the window” as object and device, conjuring both resentment and optimism. A translucent wall, the window allowing us to view one another, but also separate us. It visualises separation as invisible, a screen that connects and isolates. The ‘window’ became the basis for her solo show, Voyeur, with us in RuptureXIBIT.

Imogen’s understanding of queer bodies developed in relation to her own sexuality during her undergraduate studies. During this time, She thought alongside established thinkers on gender (Butler, 1993), feminist theorists (Robinson, 2015), writings on unbecoming and failure in relation to queerness (Halberstam 2011), and artists such as Nancy Spero, Marlene Dumas, Gabriella Boyd and Katherine Bradford. She became to consider her surrounding institutional structures that gate keep emergent imaginations of the body. Imogen’s practice encourages the destruction and reconstruction of shifting and becoming bodied. Through multi-stage processes, new meanings and relationships manifest that otherwise would not.

I have no upcoming shows unfortunately! But instead I am taking the time whilst I am here in Iceland to focus on the collage element of my practice. Taking inspiration from the books, magazines, newspapers, postcards I’m picking up, along with the conversations I’m having with other artists and creative thinkers, I’m allowing the culture of the country to enter my work in an intimate way. Particular and niche, the narratives and themes that emerge from the collages comes directly from the country itself, a body of work built upon direct anecdotes and personal responses. I came to this country interested in how it’s ideas and values may affect my work, and ultimately allow myself to be susceptible and welcoming to its idiosyncrasies.

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Kate showed in November 2021 with a self titled solo show.

Kate graduated from the University of Lincolnshire & Humberside with a degree in Museum & Exhibition Design. She has since worked as a designer in or for museums including the V&A, Ashmolean Museum and National Museum of Scotland, among others, in the UK and internationally.

Inspired by the stunning Anni Albers exhibition at Tate Modern, I had a desire to create a large piece of art for my home.  It's all about the lines for me!  As a designer, I'm in my happy place producing detailed technical drawings.   Incorporating my love of lines and colours, I set about designing my own 'wallhanging' using different coloured wool on a frame, creating patterns and shapes in both the positive and negative space.

I work with you and your chosen colour scheme to create a piece of art unique to you and your space.

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I create large scale, bold, rhythmic, energetic and closely observed drawings in black and white.

I often begin a piece with one of my found objects. These are generally small flotsam and jetsam found at home as well as on holidays, river walking and beach combing.

I am interested in how and why an object demands your attention above others. It may be the patina, shape, weight, or the way the light strikes it or reflects off it. That moment of discovery, the process of searching, of something luring me to pick it up, is where my drawings begin. I have kept some of the items in my collection for years sometimes before knowing how I can use them in my drawings.

My works evolve over many months and often have a number of layers and undergo many changes. I utilise a wide variety of pencils, charcoal, rags, rubbers, inks, powdered charcoal, masking tape, and masking fluid as a creative material. I love the balance of opposing forces such as light and dark, energetic and tranquil, serene and disturbed, which is why black and white is dominating my current work.

Currently I am using one or a few found objects and manipulating them to create patterns and the potential initiation of a drawing.

I have always been interested in the unconscious mind, and abstract art. I have developed a creative style that switches between randomness and thoughtful decision making to shape images. I love the serendipity and chance of the random juxtaposed with a more considered working method, and the swing and flow between the two. In this way a final drawing emerges. For me there is the added bonus of having a way to explore and resolve;  one can only hope that it may resonate with others.

Rebecca showed in April/May 2022 with her solo show, BROKEN COLOURS

Rebecca Lacey is an artist and an actor, mother , life coach and a poet.

Her painting is expressive and gestural using colour , texture and shape. She gained a Distinction in her fine Art Foundation at Richmond School of Art in 2019. She has subsequently been self taught. Her first solo exhibition was in 2020. She had two successful online exhibitions during the lockdowns, in 2020 and 2021. She is an exhibiting artist on Saatchiart.com

She has been a professional actor since her youth , working across all mediums . Appearing in numerous BBC and ITV productions. Most recently in GRANTCHESTER for ITV. She has also performed in a season at the RSC and in early 2022, a Tony award winning play in the West End.

During my practice I try to connect with whatever is going on artistically within me. I try to hold states of being, then "get out of my own way" and see what happens as the paint hits the paper. I believe it is in the gaps between conscious thoughts where creativity happens. In my practice I work a lot with colour. Colour generates vibrations within me that are at the beginning of most of my work. There is a relationship between colours, the way they jostle for pre-eminence and harmony , their luminosity and intensity , that I find endlessly compelling .

We know how we feel when we see certain colours, how they pull us in without words, attract or repel us, like a scent or a sonata. I love the idea of colour being a metaphor for how we are feeling - like having the “blues” and the way a colourful painting can light up a dark corner , like a smile in the room .

I am often exploring the synthesis of senses that happen when I am working. Always trying to push conscious thought to one side and allowing the sensations of physically moving the paint across the surface to release my inner intentions. I want to share the way my senses are blurred as I paint . Mostly the paint does the work and I react to it with the instinctive choices I make. It is a very improvisational way of finding out what I want to say .

I am also intrigued by ways of “breaking up” the colours into an interesting surface. It could be the smooth flatness that allows the intensity to sing out, or the cracked, raised surface that creates some 3 dimensionality. I am always trying to engage the viewer, to find interesting ways to hold their attention and invite them into the world , as I see it; to seek out different ways of connecting . The delight of working with colour is an organic feast of energy and harmony , a life force , just as it is in the natural world around us .

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Stephanie showed in June 2021 with her installation, Life In Materials: A Cycle to Exist and Recreate

I am a Charity shop manager originally working for Mary's Living and Giving for Save The Children. I now work for Octavia which is something I am very much interested in and enjoying with passion. It brings me joy as I get to help the planet be more sustainable for future generations as well as raise funds through running a beautiful hub space for people to shop within.

I am a mum to a gorgeous boy, and I want to encourage my son to care for our world, to understand about the environment and the issues facing it so that he can try to defend it with knowledge and understanding.

I love fashion and styling with visual merchandising being a key part of what I enjoy in my life as well as diving into other creative fields such as flower arranging. I just love to have a finger in many pies and to always challenge my mind.

The aim of my installation was to generate discussions about fast fashion culture and the potential of using 'throwaway' materials in modern garment construction.

I transformed my second-hand materials into sustainable designs, including a colourful dress made with waste fabrics from Teddington Theatre, which I presented on mannequins bought from my local Shooting Star Hospice shop, highlighting my zero-waste theme.

Also included in my exhibition are scattered pieces from my sketchbook in which I first planned my ideas for the project.

I am currently working on a photo project which is an extension of 'Life in Materials' which will display me wearing hats crafted from waste materials to highlight the balancing act we all participate in daily trying to improve our carbon footprints and the waste attached to us as beings.

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Zahura in September 2021 with her solo show, Looking Back. She will be exhibiting with us again in August 2022 with a new solo show entitled Here and Now.

Zahura Sultana is a London based artist who was born in 1952 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She has spent most of her life in London, where she now feels rooted and at home. Her childhood life was transient. Her father was an engineer in the army, who was posted to different cities and countries every two years. She remembers fondly of the upbringing she had, but also remembers that there was discipline and order in the home. This allowed no room for creativity or artistic influences in Zahura’s life, and her schools had echoed the same stance. Her parents had objected to an art profession for her. Later it was also discouraged by her husband. So it was only at the age of forty, after her divorce, that she got the opportunity to pursue art.

Zahura Sultana has graduated with a BA Fine Art at UCA Farnham, an MA Fine Art at Wimbledon College of Arts (UAL), and a Foundation in Art Psychotherapy at the University of Roehampton.

Zahura Sultana is an abstract painter who explores the human condition, her emotions and inner landscape, and the concept of time. She also uses her practice to grapple with the insecurity, anxiety, restlessness, and destabilising factors caused by constant uprooting during her childhood.

She uses various tools such as brushes, palette knives, and household appliances (like spatulas and squeegees) to apply and reworks marks on the canvas. Brushstrokes are applied with force, vigour and energy. She scrapes, removes and disturbs the surface on the canvas for it to be only reconstructed again through the application of more layers.

 Zahura is constantly making charcoal sketches of decaying flowers in her home. There is something about the way flowers curl and transform in the later part of their life that fascinates the artist. From there, she selectively transfer particularly ‘emotive’ lines and shapes from these drawings onto the canvas. She may revisit this experimental work whilst painting her ‘final’ pieces, which tend to be made more spontaneously and intuitively.

Domestic imagery and objects feature in Zahura’s work because they are a metaphor for domesticity and her experience of motherhood. Flowers and vessels are an influence in her work for they help her explore both the bond between mother and child and emotions like sorrow, sadness, anger, guilt, and hope (for reconciliation).