A London Newcastle Project Space
Tickner McLusky Bell & Young
GALLERY 46
Sara Berman & Alison Lousada
[scene unscene]
SHOW RUNNING DATES
21 December 2020 – 30 January 2021
TUESDAY -SATURDAY 12AM – 7PM
BY APPOINTMENT: info@sarabermanartist.com
Press Release
20% of the profits will be donated to Providence Row Support For Homeless Adults
[scene unscene] is a conversation around ceremony and space, depth and domesticity? Presented like an exploration akin to an archeological dig, this show featuring new paintings, weavings, and transformed archival undergarments by Berman, and editions of enigmatic volcanic vessels by Lousada, is tantalizingly set in the domiciliary space of GALLERY46 in Whitechapel.
Like an excavation from which the scholars must extrapolate usage, the work is set out like evidence for the viewer to inspect, introspect, intuit. Ownership and meaning, these poured, manipulated, tenderized objects and paintings, vessels and weavings, garments transformed, require close attention. Unearthed, uncovered, revealed, flaunted; the gaze travels and traps. Meaning is thrown from the fabric of a past, distant yet distilled: memory of a form; memory of a function; memory of an evocation of a feeling of the feminine. They play in a new scene now, a new kind of seen, transported and transformed by their movement. And in the manner of all displaced objects, they are replaced, redrawn, reinvented by the artist, the viewer, and the space.
Berman’s painted figures are in position, occupying their frame, connected with each other, ready for action. Carefully casual, deceptively withdrawn, waiting for their underestimation, knowing in advance that it is coming, drinking it in, and throwing it back onto the viewer.
Weavings mix finesse and fury, spilling their beads like eggs, lie in wait for you, dare you to see them, dare you to think it, will not tell you. Sweaters formed from the lint of bodily detritus, undergarments stand stiff – disarmed, mute. Silence, bustle, frozen, brazen. An air of ritual to their texture, they witness archaeology of the body, the mind, the eye, the I.
Lousada’s clay vessels, poured, painted, fired, and cracked, occupy and harbor space by the glowering intensity of their presence. These are fragments of a life, of a time, of a form, of a function, the scene set anew. The gaze, the glaze, volumes created, volumes spoken. Volcanic disruption; pregnant pause. Lousada’s vessels hollow out the domestic and render it exterior, divorcing form and function, refusing to obfuscate any of the mess, any of the disruption such a liberation may and inevitably does cause, unabashed, bellied and proud of their flaws, worn as battle scars, prizes of their existence.
The works bring questions and answers deeply embedded in materiality. Clays, fabrics, fibers, paint, smooth, rough, tender, the work presents its process proudly, jogging memories, invoking imagined pasts, witness to work, craft, skill, minutiae, reliability: the feminine unseen.
The rough textures, the bold looks, the emptiness and aimlessness of vessels jostling for position, crushing in their delicacy.
Press Release
SARA BERMAN
b. 1975, London; lives and works in London
1995-1999 Saint Martins School of Art and Design, London
2014-2016 MFA Slade School of Art, London
After obtaining her BA in Fashion at Central Saint Martins in 1999, Sara Berman founded and ran her eponymous fashion brand for 15 years. This involvement with clothing and the body led to a visual arts practice that combines painting and textile works.Berman’s work deals with the spaces we occupy. Corporeal, haptic, cerebal, societal. Space as an extension of self. Clothing, textiles, the domestic interior and the female body provide the platform for an exploration of materiality through painting, weaving, assemblage, collage and drawing. Berman has had solo shows in London, Hong Kong, LA and New York as well as being included in multiple group shows both in the UK and abroad. Her work is held in a number of private collections and institutions.
www.sarabermanartist.com
ALISON LOUSADA
Alison Lousada grew up in rural Cheshire near the Potteries border. After a BA Hon’s in Textile design at Brighton she had a long and well established career as a print designer for several luxury fashion houses. A lifelong passion of pottery collecting led to a career change and Alison trained under the guiding eye of Nicola Tassie, who encouraged her to set up her own studio in 2016. She sells her work through The New Craftsmen and Matches Fashion in London, as well as Bergdorf Goodman in New York. Alison specializes in creating distinctive and individual stoneware vessels. They investigate the collaboration between the domestic bellied form and the broken fragile painted surface. Using a combination of stoneware course clays and porcelain, pieces are repeat fired resulting in cracked and blistered finishes. The addition of volcanic engobes and lava stone deepen the textured and disrupted veneer which is so integral to her practice.
www.alilousadaceramics.com
SARA BERMAN
Les Trois Garces 2020
Oil on linen, 240 x 200cm
£15000
Ooof! 2020
Oil on linen, 240 x 200cm
£15000
Floorwork 2020
Oil on linen, 120 x 120cm (excl. spacing)
£8000
Gloria 2020
Oil on linen, 100 x 200cm
£10000
Tumble 2020
Oil on vintage linen, 120 x 120cm
£8000
Untitled 2020
Oil on linen, 60 x 60cm
£4000
Stuckk 2019
Oil on linen, 60 x 60cm
£4000
Sporos 2020
Weavings – Various materials, 31 x 36cm
£2500
Hood & Bridle 2020
Weavings – Various materials, 31 x 36cm
£2500
Tartan 1 2020
Weavings – Various materials, 31 x 36cm
£2500
Wooky Hole 2020
Weavings – Various materials, 31 x 36cm
£2500
Boba 2020
Weavings – Various materials, 31 x 36cm
£2500
Egg Transport 2020
Weavings – Various materials, 31 x 36cm
£2500
Low Hanging Fruit 2020
Weavings – Various materials, 31 x 36cm
£2500
Memo 2020
Denim and oil, 40 x 30cm
£2500
Dress 1 2020
Vintage workshirt and oil, 120 x 120cm
£3000
Bustle 2020
Vintage textile and oil, 50 x 100cm
£2000
26 2018
Lint (framed and glazed), 80 x 1000cm
£1800
28 2018
Lint (framed and glazed), 80 x 1000cm
£1800
27 2018
Lint (framed and glazed), 80 x 1000cm
£1800
34 2018
Lint (framed and glazed), 80 x 1000cm
£1800
35 2018
Lint (framed and glazed), 80 x 1000cm
£1800
29 2018
Lint (framed and glazed), 80 x 1000cm
£1800
37 2018
Lint (framed and glazed), 80 x 1000cm
£1800
ALISON LOUSADA
Hnottur 2019
Stoneware clay & Porcelain, 28 x 24cm
£750
Lyti 2020
Stoneware clay & Porcelain, 35 x 15cm
£750
Dalki 2019
Stoneware clay, Porcelain & Iron Filings, 51 x 15cm
£950
Loftbolur 2020
Stoneware clay & Porcelain, 40 x 15cm
£950
Vanskopun 2020
Stoneware clay & Porcelain, 40 x 15cm
£950
Tomleiki 2020
Stoneware clay & Porcelain, 51 x 23cm
£1200
Siast 2020
Stoneware clay, Porcelain, Iron Filings
& Volcanic Rock, 42 x 24cm
£1200
Grjothrun 2020
Stoneware clay, Porcelain & Iron Filings, 55 x 32cm
£1500
Holott 2020
Stoneware clay, Porcelain & Iron filings, 39 x 32cm
£1500
Tolfta 2020
Stoneware clay, Porcelain & Gold lustre, 32 x 24cm
£900
Skorpu 2020
Stoneware clay & Porcelain, 43 x 24cm
£1200
Brettanda 2020
Stoneware clay, Porcelain & Iron filings, 35 x 16cm
£750
Attunda 2020
Stoneware clay, Porcelain, Volcanic rock
& Gold lustre, 38 x 19cm
£900
Brettan 2020
Stoneware clay, Porcelain & Iron filings, 32 x 24cm
£900
Svartur 2020
Stoneware clay, Porcelain & Iron filings, 35 x 30cm
£1500
Nitjan 2020
Stoneware clay & Porcelain, 35 x 24cm
£900
Misjafn 2020
Stoneware clay & Porcelain, 39 x 18cm
£900
Eldgos 2020
Stoneware clay, Porcelain, Iron filings, Volcanic rock & Gold lustre, 35 x 16cm
£750
Tunglmynd 2020
Stoneware clay, Porcelain & Iron filings, 35 x 30cm
£1500
Bettina 2020
Stoneware clay, Porcelain & Iron filings, 41 x 26cm
£1200
Krassandi 2020
Stoneware clay, Porcelain & Iron filings, 32 x 24cm
£900
Prir #1 2020
Stoneware clay & Porcelain, 28.5 x 12cm
£550
Prir #2 2020
Stoneware clay & Porcelain, 28.5 x 12cm
£550
Prir #3 2020
Stoneware clay, Porcelain & Iron filings, 34 x 14cm
£600
Prir #4 2020
Stoneware clay, Porcelain & Iron filing, 33 x 14cm
£600
Prir #5 2020
Stoneware clay, Porcelain & Iron filings, 34 x 14cm
£600
Prir #6 2020
Stoneware clay, Porcelain & Iron filings, 33.5 x 14cm
£600
Prir #7 2020
Stoneware clay, Porcelain & Iron filings, 33 x 14cm
£600
Prir #8 2020
Stoneware clay, Porcelain & Iron filings, 36 x 14cm
£600
Fiu #1 2020
Stoneware clay, Porcelain & Iron filings, 33 x 14cm
£600