Exhibition Run: 21 April 1994 - Sunday 8 May 1994

Artist: Stephen Elson, Tina O’Connell, Andrew Sabin

Curated by Penelope Curtis

Three sculptors, whose work shares a common richness of texture, chosen for the walls of Cubitt Street Gallery. Reliefs and sculptures exploiting the material of the world around. Work that is neither on the ground, nor free-standing, but which emphasises its relationship to the gallery walls which in Cubitt Street mark out the fragile interior space from the studios behind.

These works quote from the texture of common experience and give concrete form to anonymous elements that pass unnoticed. They re-formulate the plasticity of vegetable, mineral or architectural structure. As sculpture they set up a formal logic which they also undermine.

Stephen Elson has cast reliefs in resin. They operate in the shallow but suggestive space between painting and sculpture, and refer to the perception and interpretation of visual information. Tina O’Connell’s works are extracted from the fabric of the gallery, components fitted out to their own specifications in customized carriers which exploit the subliminal associations of the look of materials. Andrew Sabin interweaves cosmetic and authentic functions within the look and the structure of each of his sculptures. Their dense texturologies suggest a world of heightened richness which is necessarily both natural and artificial.

This work is full of matter. In contrast to the current tendency towards the insubstantial and the casual, these works are made. They have body, weight and memory. They provide material evidence of the way the world is put together.

This show has been selected by Penelope Curtis at the invitation of Cubitt Street Gallery.