FIRST LOOK
Diane Bresson | Ines Fernandez de Cordova | Mara Gajic | Eden Hawkins | Ruth O’Reilly | Felicity Royce
First Look, installation view, ROSL Clubhouse, London
If time was taken from us, then it would surely be given to others…
This group exhibition, First Look, introduces the work of 6 artists whose plans to display recent work have been waiting for you to return. Presenting a selection of photography, printmaking, textiles and ceramics across two floors of the ROSL Clubhouse, First Look can be seen as an opportunity to reimagine our freshly opened surroundings.
First Look, installation view, ROSL Clubhouse, London
Diane Bresson’s large-scale unique screenprints decorate and transform the Central Lounge with overlapping bold colours and emblems taking full use of the wall architectural features. Similarly, Ruth O’Reilly’s hand-tufted textile works climb the main staircase. This is truly an exhibition of encounters; Eden Hawkins presents a triptych of images from Maruseppu Art Residency, Hokkaido, Japan made in 2019 before international travel was a mere memory. 2020 reads through many of these artworks, whether it be Mara Gajic’s deserted Muscle Beach, the balanced tension, still sculptural forms and oil bar markings of Ines Fernandez de Cordova’s prints or Felicity Royce’s joyous ceramics, enraptured with the process of making.
Mara Gajic, Paralax (2020), digital print, 85 x 85cm
So many relationships and personal stories which we have formed from spontaneous contact throughout our lives had to be paused over the past year. First sight turned into overfamiliarity with our close environment followed by a desire to be outside and experience living all over again. As doors reopen and we pass through, perhaps each new experience will resonate longer than an instant and love at first sight will span more than a glance.
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Diane Bresson
First Look, installation view, ROSL Clubhouse, London
Diane Bresson (b. 1996) studied at Central Saint Martins specialising in Printed Textiles. Bresson is a French artist and designer who lives and works in East London. After receiving the Colour in Design Award (2018) Bresson worked on commercial projects including the Bicester Village x British Fashion Council Pop up Store (2019). Her work was published by Elle Decoration, Living Etc. and the Evening Standard. Recent exhibitions include Creative Union (2018), Cluster Craft Truman Brewery (2018) and Ugly Duck (2019). Her series of large-scale Untitled screen prints (2020) explores the screen printing process as a spontaneous and experimental tool to create unique artworks.
Diane Bresson, Untitled -1 (2020), unique screenprint on paper, 77.5 x 123cm (on display vertically) - Image courtesy of the artist
Diane Bresson, Untitled -2 (2020), unique screenprint on paper, 78.5 x 133cm (on display vertically) - Image courtesy of the artist
Diane Bresson, Untitled -3 (2020), unique screenprint on paper, 95 x 181.5cm (on display vertically) - Image courtesy of the artist
Diane Bresson, Untitled -4 (2020), unique screenprint on paper, 97.5 x 144.5cm (on display vertically) - Image courtesy of the artist
Ines Fernandez de Cordova
First Look, installation view, ROSL Clubhouse, London
Ines Fernandez de Cordova (b. 1992) studied at Camberwell College of Arts for both her BA and MA. Fernandez lives and works in Peckham, London, is a printer for Jealous Print Studios (2016-2021) and for artist Anita Klein (2017-2021). Recent exhibitions include Hold Onto this Echo, Blue Shop Cottage, London (2020); Holding Space, Subject Matter Art, London (2021); Metis, Purslane Art, London (2021); Flowers, Jealous Gallery, London (2020); Hell is Other People, Jealous Gallery, London (2019); Impression, International Contemporary Printmaker Exchange Exhibition, Macau, China (2018); Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, London (2018) and Elevate, Exhibit London, London (2017).
Inez Fernandez de Cordova, Arriba (2020), photopolymer etching with oil bar, 32 x 23cm - Image courtesy of the artist
Inez Fernandez de Cordova, Encima (2020), photopolymer etching with oil bar, 32 x 23cm - Image courtesy of the artist
Inez Fernandez de Cordova, En Lo Alto (2020), photopolymer etching with oil bar, 32 x 23cm - Image courtesy of the artist
Inez Fernandez de Cordova, Musgo (2020), photopolymer etching with oil bar, 32 x 23cm - Image courtesy of the artist
Inez Fernandez de Cordova, Torre (2020), photopolymer etching with oil bar, 32 x 23cm - Image courtesy of the artist
Mara Gajic
First Look, installation view, ROSL Clubhouse, London
Mara Gajic (b. 1994) is a Toronto-based visual artist. She obtained her MA in Photography at the Royal College of Art, London (2020) and her BFA in Toronto at OCAD University (2016). Her recent work was exhibited at TJ Boulting Gallery in London as part of RCA 2020 Photography Graduate Show, With Fists, It Kicks, It Bites (August 2020). Other exhibitions include Transitions, PEP Photographic Exploration Project, Brussels (2020); Losing Ground, Bridge Studio, RCA, Battersea, London (2020); Structures of Perception, Coldstream Gallery, Toronto (2017) and Other Worlds, Lieutenant Governor’s Suite, Queen’s Park, Toronto (2016). Gajic is a recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, including the Stephen Bulger Gallery Scholarship (2016), Project 31 Award (2016), AIMIA/AGO Photography Prize Scholarship Finalist (Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto) and Jim P. Shea Award (2018). She was selected as one of the winners of Magenta Foundation’s Flash Forward Competition for Emerging Photographers in Canada, US and UK (2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018). Most recently, her work was awarded by SNAP 2021 Photo Competition in Toronto. Her practice has been included in Canadian and international publications such as Transitions by PEP (Photographic Exploration Project), Flash Forward by the Magenta Foundation, Imitation of Life by Loosen Art, Philosophy Within Its Proper Bounds by Edouard Machery, BLOOM Magazine, and PhotoEd Magazine. Her work was featured in Source Magazine’s MA/MFA 2020 online showcase for emerging talent across the UK and Ireland.
Mara Gajic, Muscle Beach (2020), digital print, 85 x 85cm - Image courtesy of the artist
Mara Gajic, Parallax (2020), digital print, 85 x 85cm - Image courtesy of the artist
Eden Hawkins
First Look, installation view, ROSL Clubhouse, London
Eden Hawkins (b. 1993) is a London based artist whose practice focuses on photography and digital modes of image-making. She graduated from the Royal College of Art (2020) having received the Metro Imaging award and The New Photography Purchase Prize. In 2017 Eden completed an internship at Studio Qui Yang in Amsterdam and was commissioned by Edinburgh's Stills Centre for Photography to take part in a group exhibition. This work travelled to London as part of the Ingram Collection Purchase Prize Exhibition. In 2019, Hawkins took up a funded residency supported by the Sasakawa Foundation and participated in an exhibition in Hokkaido, Japan. Since graduating Eden has had her work published in Vogue US, undertaken major commissions for textile, apparel and ceramic designers and has facilitated workshops at the London College of Communication. Hawkins is currently collaborating on two awarded mentorship programs: The Women in Photography program and the Metro Imaging Mentorship scheme.
Eden Hawkins, Maruseppu, Tokyo 1 (2019), baryta print, 76.2 x 53.3cm - Image courtesy of the artist
Eden Hawkins, Maruseppu, Tokyo 2 (2019), baryta print, 76.2 x 53.3cm - Image courtesy of the artist
Eden Hawkins, Maruseppu, Tokyo 3 (2019), baryta print, 76.2 x 53.3cm - Image courtesy of the artist
A View From Two, 2019 - text by Eden Hawkins
I was in Japan in the summer of 2019 for a residency. I spent time first in Tokyo then the following month in the northernmost prefecture Hokkaido, in a 1920s traditional Japanese house. The house is large and each room is in varying stages of regeneration. The residency, a fairly new initiative that has plans to bring contemporary art to the small rural Japanese town where the average age is in the late 60s.
Maruseppu, where I stayed, felt almost completely derelict in some areas and very removed from the City. As it turns out, being so north, we were closer to Russia than we were to Tokyo. But there was a cross-pollination of deep-rooted traditional accents, a presence of spirituality and a boxy aesthetic, whose pairing with accelerated technical advancements, allowed for the town to present itself as distinctly and unmistakable Japanese.
Around this time I was researching Russian formalist paintings and particularly Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square. An 80 x 80 cm black square painting in which the black oil paint is now splitting and cracking due to it being poorly handled and maintained. Recently, an x-ray revealed that the black was in fact painted on the top of two monochromatic paintings. Underpaintings. With this knowledge, we can reverse the natural order of the painting and imagine its underbelly or negative. A view from within or underneath.
The residency was spent thinking about Tokyo’s relationship with the rural town; feeling its pressure underfoot. The work became a way of showing a view from two sides. Rearranging the interior of the old Japanese house and staging expressions of the city's energy or mass. These three pictures present the two. And just like Malevich’s canvas splitting, from underneath we can imagine the city bursting through the seams and spilling through.
Referring back to these images after isolating the work reveals itself to be eerie. And within the expression of duality there is a tangible sense of isolation. The pandemic, the virus, an exterior morphing mass, pushing up against us and forcing us inwards. A couple of years have passed and the works were never exhibited. But as they take their place in this post pandemic show it appears that there could not be a more fitting time to exhibit this particularly relatable viewpoint.
Ruth O’Reilly
First Look, installation view, ROSL Clubhouse, London
Ruth O'Reilly, Bright (2021), acrylic yarn, felt, 67 x 28cm
Ruth O’Reilly (b. 1990) studied at The Northern School of Art, Hartlepool. O’Reilly lives and works in South Shields, North East, UK and was shortlisted for the Premier Vision NextGen Awards in collaboration with ARTSTHREAD for the The Grand Jury Prize, Imagination Prize, Interiors Prize and Materials Innovation Prize. Previous exhibitions include New Designers, London (Virtual, 2020) and Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle (2019).
Ruth O'Reilly, Joy (2020), acrylic yarn, felt, 106 x 65cm
Ruth O'Reilly, Glee (2020), acrylic yarn, felt, 106 x 61cm
Ruth O'Reilly, Bliss (2020), acrylic yarn, cotton yarn, felt, 42 x 22cm
Ruth O'Reilly, Merry (2021), acrylic yarn, felt, 43 x 23cm
Ruth O'Reilly, Delight (2021), acrylic yarn, felt, 23 x 23cm
Felicity Royce
Felicity Royce, Movement Vessel (2021), ceramic vessel, 35 x 18cm
Felicity Royce (b. 1971) graduated from Ballarat University, Australia with a BA in Applied Art (1992), awarded the Walker Ceramic prize in her final year. She was Artist-in-Residence with the Craft Council, Melbourne (1993) and completed a Diploma of Education in Art (1993). Royce lives and works in London and is a member at Turning Earth Studios, London (2015 – present). Recent exhibitions include The Narrative in Motion, The Menier Gallery, London (2017). Represented at The Strathearn Gallery, Scotland (2018); Sculpt Gallery, Great Braxted, UK (2017).
Felicity Royce, Movement Platter 1 (2021), ceramic platter, 9 x 33 x 32cm (h x w x d)
Felicity Royce, Movement in Orange (2021), ceramic vessel, 37 x 17cm
