It could be the face, perhaps just a look, or maybe a certain personality trait. The attraction of the muse has been an ever-present phenomenon in art history, someone who can inspire creativity in an artist, someone they might return to time and again.  

When you talk about the muse, historically it’s normally associated with the male gaze, but in a new joint exhibition at London’s James Freeman Gallery, entitled Muse, two contemporary artists, Gill Button and Sikelela Owen, offer us a female perspective on what a modern muse might be. Continue reading “Muse – Gill Button and Sikelela Owen” →

Superimposition is a well-known term among graphic designers as the process of laying one image on top of another. In the new group exhibition at London’s Partners and Mucciaccia Gallery, four painters take the idea further both physically and intellectually. Paul Morrison, Barry Reigate, Michael Stubbs and Mark Titchner are leading British contemporary artists who, in their different ways, reference art history yet incorporate what they see in life around them in a mash up of styles and genres, all of which involve some type of superimposition.  Continue reading “Superimposition – Stubbs, Titchner, Reigate and Morrison” →

There are two things that immediately strike you when viewing Sassan Benham-Bakhtiar’s paintings together in this new exhibition – their large size and the abundance of colour within them.

This young France-based Iranian artist has spent the past seven years on a spiritual journey through meditative and energy-balancing practices to try to achieve a better understanding of himself and others. He has translated these ideas by visually depicting that energy through the vibrancy of colour and through a variety of brush techniques that accentuate it.  Continue reading “Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar – Oneness Wholeness” →