2018 Group Exhibition

press release

20 December, 2018, to 2 February, 2019

PRESS RELEASE - for immediate release

Into its seventh year RKG still works to strike a balance as an artist does: by committing to its strengths and encouraging the unique elements as contributing factors, with more time and attention given to cohesiveness with individuality. The artist's individuality and skill become at once one with the work. The artists at this show present in diverse ways a spark from the attention given to the artwork. The immediacy of shared experience between artist and viewer on seeing these drawings and paintings, invites differently with each artist. 

At Kim Seongjin'sdrawingssomething familiar, natural, direct, takes place within the realistic rendering of his work. Kim's masterful suspended feelings in the drawings strike a note. Individual depth is revealed with labour-intense work; transcendent trust becomes the experience shared with a fellow human - in a portrait of another artist, or of a family member.

Daniel Segrove is much more intrigued by the connection from the journey of exploration, to the minutiae in the reality of subject or method. Composition in Daniel's work is the way the process gives in to, or as the subject invites. Daniel's painting has authority, led by a feeling of trust, which suggests ambiguous narratives.

Then we have Felipe Alonso who is prone to the visceral, but  bridged by affection and openness to the experimental, always drawn by his diverse nature.

The realistic drawings of Will Woods are loaded with endless energy, absorbing the  invitation of the unframed subject matter, with the strong presence of feeling which provides abstract ends.

Abass Rivzi’s drawing is led to surrender to the enduring subject, within all. The length of time spent in making the drawing seems to be as long as it suggests another, as proof that in each direction you see it appearing as the truth leads onwards. 

The initiation of this group exhibition derived from the realistic nature of Gon Bregu's painting in his solo exhibition "Over Sea Reality". His contribution to the gallery's journey, a long, rigorous, testing ride with the aim of encouraging the desire of painting

Daniel Segrove is a graduate in multidisciplinary mixed media with a BFA from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. Daniel currently lives and works in California, and has had two solo exhibitions with RKG, shown his work in the United States and internationally.

"My subject matter ... focuses on the everyday, mundane or monotonous life and trying to project my own experience or significance to these ordinary scenes."

Segrove's work incorporates oil paint, acrylic, pastel, charcoal, graphite, collage, and mixed visual disciplines. 

Felipe Alonso is a Spanish artist based in Medellín - Colombia, whose practice includes painting, drawing, printmaking and sculpture. Felipe has a degree in art from Complutense University of Madrid.

"Utilizing painting, drawing, and sculpture techniques, my work examines the personal and universal exchanges found in contemporary world. The notion of the graphic impulse, with its raw, immediate, and unflinching emotional extremes delivering a directness and frankness, characterizes my work. Layered, abstracted marks are cumulative, each stratum revealing visceral and emotional intensities. I attempt to draw the viewer inward to experience an encounter with the subject and the collective consciousness. 

The driving force behind my paintings is an enduring interest in people; in the human spirit, its emotional resonance and the way over time it manifests in our relationships with others."

Kim Seongjin: Statement; ‘Unexpectedness’ is marked by the unusual and uncommon. 

‘Expectation’ is the virtue of being easily experienced without consciousness, just like we understand the language of our own country. 

But experiencing the unexpected, is determined  by the choice of each individual person.  

Perhaps it is selected as a preference, as a result determined by history of the individual person.

Just as the feelings about beauty vary from person to person,  so is the unexpected also perceived differently according to the individual’s taste. 

Reaching the state of understanding with unexpected experiences. 

And the process of consciously recognizing my comprehensive existence.

It is concealed in the common spaces like a riddle.

William Boyd Woods studied Fine Art (Painting) BA (Hons) at Chelsea School of Art, London, United Kingdom, graduating in 1991.

William, always trying to further develop his artistic lexicon, regularly attends workshops at The Slade School of Fine Art and the Royal Drawing School, both situated in London. William has also been asked to feature in ‘The Drawing Ideas Book’ by Frances Stanfield scheduled for release worldwide  in the summer of 2019 (Octopus Publishing Group). William lives and works in Leigh-on-Sea, a historic former fishing village in Essex that is at the mouth of the River Thames, some thirty miles east of London. 

"Drawing has become an essential daily practice for me which is both meditative and a celebration of my direct surroundings, however mundane they may appear. I use drawing as a visual language to communicate the transient moments of our daily lives, which I try to approach with honesty and an ever curious mind. I endeavour to draw as fluidly as my subject allows with an ever searching gaze relating one object to the next recording them as I see them at that very instant.
The corrections or pentimenti are an essential part of the drawing process that I openly embrace as a constant reminder of the fleeting nature of all living matter and these marks appear as a shadow of a moment passed"

Abbas Rizvi Working within the illusionistic realm of drawing and painting, Rizvi’s work explores the nature of subjective experience and memory. Often using nostalgia as a starting point, Rizvi explores the fluctuating relationship between emotionally loaded memories and a grounded and sensory present. Dreamlike scenes portray pregnant moments that situate themselves within greater narratives, with symbols and signifiers that function as threads for the viewer to disentangle and contextualize.

Born in Iran and raised in Pakistan, Abbas Rizvi lives and works in Toronto. Rizvi studied Drawing and Painting  at OCAD university, and currently works at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery.

Marcus Marriott is a visual artist from Temiskaming Shores, Ontario. His work is focused primarily on the human figure, which he explores through oil painting, digital and analog photography, and videography. Influenced by movements like American impressionism and artists like William Merritt Chase and Edward Hopper, Marriott’s self-reflexive paintings convey the complexity of isolation and the intimacy of humans as they exist in the quotidian. He strives to capture the moments that are small, quiet, and often spent in introspection.

Agron (Gon) Bregu 's "Over Sea Reality" exhibitionis integrated in its entirety to this group exhibition.Bregu's approach keeps alive an individual low-key significance within the larger scale of overwhelming and oppressive change in society, as in the natural world. Observing nature and society informs the artist's personal take on a life of painting.

In this body of work is a predominantly grey palette. The red stripes in the two paintings of the American flag stand out in contrast. In both paintings the same flag is buffeted by hurricane winds, first intact, then torn and tattered, suggesting the convention of a flag as the symbol that carries on, uplifting the spirit of its people, of a country - in this case, America. 

Gon Bregu is reflecting upon a personal point of view. The individual's social order is in upheaval, like an individual in a hurricane. The bravery and endurance of the individual in surviving both natural and manmade disasters, tend to be overlooked. The low-key human qualities which make it in these extreme conditions, compare with the nature of Gon's  painting. 

The source material for this exhibition is the eye of the camera monitoring a hurricane. Enduring elements of the images inform the post factoexperience. This real-life monitoring is translated into personal sentiment that triggers the artist's take on nature and social connection. The duality of Bregu's painting invites both intent and what is to come.

Within both nature and society, as for the individual painting, one has to survive or succumb; so it is for anything that breaks under this pressure of disaster and succumbs, as do elements in the art of painting by Bregu.

Agron Bregu's work is in the collection of the National Art Gallery of Albania. Garnering attention from  art lovers since his debut, Gon lives and works in Athens, Greece.

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