Salon Event # 4

Flash Pick with guest curators David Henckel & Simon Plum [08.07.2010 - 10.09.2010]

They Eat Culture’s fourth Salon Event was also our most diverse with work from several artists in a range of different styles and media. Guest curators David Henckel and Simon Plum explored recent Fine Art degree shows in the North West to select promising work by emerging artists from Blackpool and the Flyde College, University of Central Lancashire, Lancaster University and Manchester Metropolitan University to create a diverse show of fresh talent.

They selected works by: Charlotte Utting-Brown, Emily d’Andrea, Florence Dent, Emily McGowan, Shona Harrison, Glen Moyers, Donna Kelly, Meredith Stokes and Joanna Wood.

Both artists say that they found it a learning experience having to choose work for such a particular space as the Continental and came away thinking differently about how to present these ideas to a new audience.

Kathryn Wheatley, one of the curators of They Eat Culture’s Salon work, said “This event showcases the sheer range of ideas coming from the region’s degree students – the level of creativity on display is breathtaking and easily equals work coming out of bigger cities.”

Salon Event # 1

David Henckel– Selected Works [15.12.2009 - 31.01.2010]

An exhibition of paintings and prints from Preston based artist David Henckel launched They Eat Culture’s new strand of curated exhibitions at The Continental, Preston. David's work is informed by the personality of everyday objects and how they might interact when placed together on the canvas. Through a playful process of sampling and automatic drawing he combines elements of vegetation, science fiction, furniture, architecture, vehicles and other stuff to create characters and forms with absurd and comic tendencies. There are strong elements of street-art in these works including the cartoon-ish influence of the New York School painter Philip Guston.

He sets himself the challenge of creating new characters based on a loose set of rules; whether they are to be all three legged or monopods; or trying to bring out the inherent character without the use of expression or eyes and utilising shape or posture rather than a face.

A narrative then evolves as these 'sculptural-objects' face each other as if there is some sort of hidden dialogue. The canvas also develops like a piece of writing working from left to right and down the canvas, flattening perspective and giving each character its own space suggesting code or pictograms. David thinks of them as “quantum soup, packets of information, genes or tiny building blocks of unlimited potential.”

To see more of his work, visit: www.davidhenckel.com