Ansel Krut

Looking at the 7,500 digital images sent in by open submission and selecting from them was two full days work, and we had to move quickly.  I selected around 40 pieces. Doubtless some subtleties were lost and some works that don't reproduce well in photograph might have been overlooked. But by and large the work I chose quite literally "jumped out" at me. So why did these particular pieces hold my attention? I hope it wasn’t just my taste, though that obviously played a part. I certainly wasn't going for a "look" or following any agenda around selection, the work I chose is hugely varied. My chief criterion was that the work felt authentic, that it expressed the artist's world view, that it was not manufactured or borrowed, but personal and honest. Forty honest artworks, that's not a bad haul.

 

To those forty works from open submission, I have added paintings by 5 other artists whose work I know personally. They are Antonio Bellotti, Dido Hallett. Emma Lilly, James Metsoja and Gerry Smith. As artists they are all highly individual, to the point of being idiosyncratic, but they share an attitude to making; it's high stakes and unconventional, it’s challenging to make and challenging to look at. They like to mix things up.  Lots of paint obviously, but sometimes also scraps of this and that, other media, cloth, cardboard, old frames, food. And wildly esoteric references too: childhood memories and life experience, some knowing cynicism and some wide-eyed wonder, some grubbiness and some elegance. It's an overload of stuff together with an overload of thoughts, impressions and feelings. From all of which, out of the crucible of making, they extract, with a flourish, to surprise and delight, the finished work.