Habitat – Mixed Group Show

Habitat – Mixed Group Show

Launch event: Friday 14 March, 19:30-21:30

Main event: 15 March – 19 April

At Cupola Contemporary Art

All living things reside within a habitat. Given the correct conditions, life thrives, but when habitats are compromised, altered, reduced or even destroyed, what happens then? 

Habitat – a new mixed group show at Cupola Gallery. Over 70 artists responded to the theme across media. Artists have looked at human, domestic and work life, animal and insect habitats. The exhibition brings together a diverse response to the theme.

From collections of ceramic sculptures, delicate miniature pieces made from organic materials. through to large scale paintings, textile hangings and relief works, jewellery, photography, printmaking and mixed media conceptual work, there is plenty to see and think about!

We have deliberately selected work that clearly represents different responses to ‘habitat’.
Buildings are certainly represented in concrete brutalist pieces by Sheffield based Mandy Payne and
a large painting of Manhattan’s skyline by David Wheeler, a little pink house by Lesley Lassof,
skyscrapers by Nicola Rawnsley and dark entrances or exits by David Kenny. Inside spaces and our
relationship to them are shown in the work of Pauline Rignall, a still life showing only a window
and the edges of two chairs titled ‘the curtain draws and falls’, and the delicate monochrome
aquatint by Rachel Suddaby of two shadowy figures sat on a window sill edge, framed by the light
penetrating the room through the window behind them. Charlotte Willoughby Paul is exhibiting a
still life painting of a vase of lilies in front of a traditional Welsh dresser appropriately dressed with
other crockery whereas Emelia Archer draws our attention to those sat on concrete balconies in a
high rise residence. Faces and figures are dominant in the paintings of David Jones, Lyn Hodnett,
Kyle Brown, Tracy Keeping, Simon Dobbs and Laura Garcia Martin. A full figure painting of a
man inspecting his torn shirt sleeve in front of a bay window by David Jones is in complete style
contrast to the expressive, mask like, row of faces of Kyle Brown’s ‘In search of silence and
isolation.’ Lyn Hodnet’s two distinctive portraits depict two different women submerged under
water; one, eyes closed, dreamlike, with fish darting around, the second, eyes open, sees a more
realistic collection of detritus we are likely to find in the sea; a bright and colourful painting and
disturbingly accurate. Simon Dobb’s paintings are reminiscent of the romantic ideal of bathers in an
idyllic setting. Corrina Rothwell’s ‘A matter of contemplation’ and Annie Roche’s painting ‘bee
action’ touch on the temporary or fleeting Habitat. Homelessness and traveller communities come
to mind when looking at the work of Shaun Morris and Bernie Rutter.