Observation Rooms — Justin Hibbs

ARTHOUSE1 | SHAPE_SHIFTERS 2019

OBSERVATION ROOMS

Sasha Bowles | Rosalind Davis | Justin Hibbs | Gibson Martelli

Preview: Thursday 2nd May 6.30-8.30pm until 31 May 2019

Artists Talk: Thursday 30 May 6-8.30pm

ARTHOUSE1,45 Grange Rd, London SE1 3BH

1. Sculpture & Gold Mirror (Square edit).jpg

An exhibition of site-specific works by five artists. Drawing on archetypes from a myriad of sources to create immersive, illusionistic and experimental installations. Activated by the viewer, space materialises, dematerialises, unfolds, shifts and collapses as you journey through the various portals, crossing thresholds into other worlds.

Davis and Hibbs bring together different aspects of their artists’ practice into direct dialogue with one another, creating a collaborative workmade up of modular parts; steel frames and mirrored elements that reflect both one another and reconfigure the surrounding space, acting as an endlessly changing composing device as the viewer navigates the work,disorientating and mesmerising the observer.

Sasha Bowles plays with scale and architectural tropes, miniaturising, enlargingand re-positioning Illusionary worlds that are then consumed and possessedwithin frameworks of spatial constructs.

Gibson/Martelli investigate the relationship between figure and landscape via modes of moving, andbodily responses. The viewer is pulled into a lexicon of realities where movement is explored and experienced through the gateways of emergent technologies.

The common thread in the collective is that they all transform shape, space, environment and experience through their multi- disciplinary approaches. Some of the connecting themes that the artists investigate are; modes of display, illusionary experience, architecture and reconstruction of space. All of the artists acknowledge in their practices the central importance of generative dialogue and exchange alongside experimentation, risk taking and research to their process of artmaking. In this respect they work collaboratively on the exhibitions whether through the creation and development of their work in conversation with others, curatorial projects, residencies and exhibition making.

Shape_Shifters are a collective of six artists; consisting of Sasha Bowles, Rosalind Davis, Justin Hibbs, Evy Jokhova and Gibson / Martelli who originally had an exhibition together at Arthouse1 in 2016.

About the Artists:

Sasha Bowles is an artist and curator, she has a MA from Wimbledon College of art (2013). Solo shows include Hairy Interventions at Arthouse1 Gallery (2018) and Doo-plis-i-tee at 286 Gallery, London, (2016). Selected group exhibitions include: Reportrait, (Nottingham Castle Museum); Creekside Open, (APT); Complicity, (Collyer Bristow Gallery); The Crash Open & Photo and Print Open (Charlie Dutton); No-One Lives in the Real World, (Standpoint Gallery); Bonfire of the Vanities, (Display Gallery); Discernible (Zeitgeist Arts Projects), Catalyst, (Angus Hughes Gallery & Husk Gallery), Barbican Arts Trust, The Lynn Painter Stainers, The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and The Discerning Eye (winning the Benton Prize). Curation includes: ‘Bodies That Matter’ at ArtLacuna and co-produced The Bodies That Matter 3 publication. COUNTER_FITTERS (Geddes Gallery ) and Catalyst (Husk Gallery) and Face to Face, Lubomirov/ Angus-Hughes Gallery. Bowles has work in private and public collections in Britain, Europe and America.  She lives and works in London. 

www.sashabowles.co.uk  Twitter: @SashaBowles1Instagram: @sashabowles1

Rosalind Davis is an artist, curator and a graduate of The Royal College of Art (2005) and Chelsea College of Art (2003). As an artist Davis has exhibited nationally and internationally and has had a number of solo shows: no format Gallery (2017), the Bruce Castle Museum (2013); John Jones & Julian Hartnoll Gallery (2009); The Residence Gallery (2007). Selected group exhibitions have been at the Courtauld Institute; Arthouse1, Bo Lee Gallery, Standpoint Gallery, Transition Gallery; The Roundhouse; The ING Discerning Eye; the Lynn Painters Stainers Prize, Sevenoaks Kaleidoscope Gallery and no format Gallery. Her work is held in a number of private and public collections. Davis is the Curator at Collyer Bristow Gallery; a dynamic gallery in a law firm. She previously co-directed and developed two arts organizations; Zeitgeist Arts Projects (ZAP 2012-15) and Core Gallery (2009-11).

www.rosalinddavis.co.uk Twitter: rosalinddavis Instagram: @rosalindnldavis

Justin Hibbs (b. 1971) studied at CSM, London (1991-94) He has exhibited his work both nationally and internationally and has also curated a series of artist-led exhibitions. Solo shows include: Between Before and After at Arroniz Arte in Mexico City (2018), Alias_Re_Covered (2015) at Carroll / Fletcher; PARA/SITE (2013) & Secondary Modern (2010) at Christinger De Mayo gallery, Switzerland; Altneuland (2007), Lucy Mackintosh Gallery, Switzerland; Metroparadisiac (2006) and I'll Wait for you (2005) at the One in the Other Gallery, London.  Recent group exhibitions include Rules of Freedom, Collyer Bristow Gallery, Shapeshifters, Arthouse1 London; Abstraction I, Arroniz Gallery, Mexico, Pencil/Line/Eraser (2014), Carroll / Fletcher, London; Superstructures (2013), Arroniz Arte, Mexico City; Oh My Complex, Kunstverien Stuttgart, Germany.

  www.justinhibbs.com Twitter& Instagram @Justinhibbs

Bruno Martelli graduated from Central St. Martins and Ruth Gibson from University of Kent at Canterbury. Worldwide commissions include residencies in North America, China, Australia and New Zealand and exhibitions at The Barbican Gallery, Detroit Institute for Art, and The Venice Biennale.Solo shows include ‘Big Bob’ (2015) at Jaffe-Friede Gallery in Hanover, USA,‘MAN A’ (2015) at UNION gallery, London and ‘80ºN’ (2014) at QUAD Gallery in Derby. They have exhibited in London in group shows: ‘This Is Where We Came In’ (2018) at Angus Hughes Gallery, ’Complicity, Artifice & Illusion’(2016) at Collyer Bristow Gallery, ’Splintered Binary’ (2017) at Gossamer Fog and ‘Now Play This’ (2017) at Somerset House.Nominated for a British Academy of Film & Television Arts (BAFTA) the duo are recipients of several awards: a Henry Moore Foundation New Commission, a National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA) Award and in 2015 they won the Lumen Gold Prize.Their virtual reality work MAN A VR was recently exhibited at FILE Electronic Language International Festival in SAO PAULO. Gibson is Coventry Universities Creative Fellow at the Centre for Dance Research. The artists live and work in London.