Exhibition
12th - 19th October
Exhibition opening: Friday 11th October 6-8pm
Shapeshifting looks at our relationship with nature with an imaginative slant. Janie works across the mediums of paint, ceramics, drawing and print. This exhibition explores processes of germination, flowering, mineralisation, extrusion and memory. Ideas move fluidly between the abstract and figurative, surface and object. Assemblies and collections of pieces make small monuments to our natural selves.
These works consider the meeting or blending of the natural world and human experience. Plants and their lives, their relationship with pollinators, photosynthesis and mineral growth are woven into the visual narrative. The patterning of insects, plants and the adoption of these for textiles and clothing are considered within the layered and imagined space of painting.
Colour is an important component: the selected palette creates a sensory climate for the motifs to settle into. Form is developed from ideas about generative processes, a seed or ovum. In the ceramics hand-building is combined with mould-making from found objects - often domestic in origin. The forms echo motifs within the paintings and pull the imagined space of the painting into the world of things.
After graduating from West Surrey School of Art in 1985 Janie studied for an MA in Fine Art at the Slade. She has taught at the Slade, Bath Spa University and the School of Art in Bristol.
Janie’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and her prints have featured in publications. She has attended Artist retreats in Norway, France and England. Her studio is at Jamaica Street Studios, in Bristol where she is also an associate member of BricksBristol.
Opening Times:
Thursday-Saturday 10am-3pm