Mulryan Gallery is pleased to present FRESCOES, a new exhibition co curated with Joséphine May Bailey, bringing together the work of Lydia Hamblet, Pippa El Kadhi Brown and Vincenzo Muratore.
FRESCOES considers what happens to an image, or to a material, once it has been exposed to change.
The exhibition takes its title from the ancient technique of fresco, in which pigment is worked into wet plaster and, as the wall dries, becomes inseparable from the surface itself. The final image is shaped not only by the artist, but by conditions beyond their control. Moisture, temperature, light and time all leave their trace.
The three artists gathered here work in that spirit, if not in that medium. Across painting and sculpture, weather, light, pressure and repair become active forces, leaving their evidence rather than being smoothed away.
The exhibition unfolds across the gallerys two contrasting spaces.
In the light filled atrium, large scale paintings by Hamblet and El Kadhi Brown meet the sculptural work of Muratore, Mulryan Gallerys current Artist in Residence. Their practices are distinct, but each allows material and environment to participate in the making of the work.
In the dark room, works are presented under focused light, drawing attention to the physical histories held within their surfaces. Muratores fractured marbles are bound with thread and brass rather than restored to an illusion of wholeness, while his cyanotypes on marble use light itself as an active material. Hamblet and El Kadhi Browns paintings similarly carry traces of place, weather and atmosphere.
Throughout FRESCOES, transformation is understood not as damage, but as history.
The marks left by exposure are not erased. They become part of the work.
