Sharon Drew: Light-Waves

The Tokarska Gallery, East London is pleased to present Light-Waves, a solo exhibition by British artist Sharon Drew. The exhibition will include new large-scale acrylic paintings on canvas, small works on paper and a limited edition of Giclee prints.

Sharon Drew’s paintings are modern-day Abstract Expressionism reinvented for the 21stCentury. Imagine repeat-patterns disrupted by the gestural brushwork of American Artist De Kooning and the vivid hues of St Ives School British Painter, Patrick Heron. Drew’s sensual paintings pulsate with colour and light – stimulating as well as visually impactful – the works are a contemporary take on this heyday of abstraction.

Although a London-based artist, the St Ives connection is real for Drew. She regularly travels to the western coast of Britain to paint outside in all weathers, on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. Drew comments that,

‘The processes of painting in the landscape, experiencing the elements and being ‘in the moment’ are crucial to my working practice. It is the seeing and feeling that matters, the exposure to the gales and high seas, the dazzling of the light and colour that inform my paintings.’

Light-Waves, the exhibition’s title refers to the ocean’s influence as well as the scientific term – the different wavelengths that make up the visible light of the spectrum. While Drew’s work is shaped by her experience within environments, it also has a strong affinity with the painterly, emotional attitude of the mid-20thCentury art movement Abstract Expression,

Sharon Drew’s recent acrylics combine intellectual rigour with aesthetic delight to please the eye and heart, and stimulate the mind…..a happy state of flux animates each piece and engages the viewer with gorgeous colour, mesmeric line and seductive ambiguity.

Nigel Politt, Former Visual Arts Editor, City Limits Magazine.

Sumptuous pieces, full of energy, Drew’s uncompromising use of colour is surely the reason that she was selected as art consultant for Art Is, providing the paintings for lead character, Lulu, an aspiring artist. This new British musical feature film, by Barry Bliss, stars Paul McGann and Gary Kemp recently premiered in the London Independent film Festival, April 2013.

Light-Waves will provide a vibrant foray into contemporary abstraction, whilst daring to explore the decorative. Sensual, absorbing and fascinating, here is an artist who deftly controls an unstable medium with a mesmerising effect.