SURFACEGALLERY

AS PART OF THE EM18 GRADUATE PROJECT, WHERE RECENT GRADUATES ARE OFFERED A RESIDENCY IN OUR PROJECT SPACE FOR THE MONTH, WE’RE INTERVIEWING THE ARTISTS ABOUT THEIR PRACTICE AND THEIR VIEWS ON ART AS A WHOLE. OUR FINAL INTERVIEW IS WITH JENNY BRAMLEY.

For those who don’t know who you are, can you tell us a little about yourself, and your practice as an artist?

I graduated from the University of Derby earlier this year and I am now currently undertaking an MA in Fine Art at Derby. My most recent works have included large-scale simultaneous drawings. These were figurative and focused on the process of exploring the potential of materials, doing, and mark-making with both traditional and non-traditional media.

Having come out of university, have you noticed any differences between working as a student artist, and creating your work for a wider, public market?

Working as a student artist there is always an underlying knowledge that work created is to be assessed and needs to be critically underpinned. This has given me a good grounding for creating work for a wider market. I still document my work, carry out a period of ongoing research, visit exhibitions and artist talks; these help me to focus on the current project in hand. I think otherwise I may get a little lost.

The biggest difference is one of independence and ensuring that I create new contacts and a support network to keep up to date with all things contemporary.

When did you first involve yourself with the art scene? Was this due to your educational experiences, or were you inspired from other parts of your life?

I only got involved with the art scene about five years ago as a mature student. In my previous life (!) I worked as a Chartered Accountant. I was inspired to change course in my career following a couple of redundancies. Suddenly I had a chance to do something else which was extremely liberating and creative! I started with a Foundation course in Mansfield which I absolutely loved. Following the Foundation course I was thrilled to be accepted onto the BA (Hons) Fine Art at Derby and subsequently the MA Fine Art programme and this residency.

I have had the opportunity to visit exhibitions locally, nationally and internationally which has really helped me to immerse myself in the world of Contemporary Art.

During this residency, what are your plans? How are you using this time at Surface?

As I write this I am coming to the end of the residency. My plans for the residency were to use the body of work created for my Degree exhibition as a starting point. 

However, as the residency has progressed I have realised, and most importantly acknowledged, that my interest lies in the process of doing, doing processes, working with materials and playing and exploring; I decided that any processes were not undertaken in order to produce a finished outcome as such.

I feel I have pushed myself out of my comfort zone. And that hasn’t been easy. I have had to be a bit braver and take a leap of faith. I even confess that there have been few tears along the way! I am still finding my way and I believe that the artwork displayed in the Graduate Residency Exhibition will have shown my development over the past few weeks.

Where else have you exhibited, and other than the EM18 Show on 2nd November, do you have any future exhibitions?

Recently I have exhibited at U+1F3A8 and Smoke and Mirrors in Derby, Busk Off and Summer Open in Nottingham. Further afield I exhibited in Transpired, Walker Art Gallery and Nasty Women Exhibition in Liverpool and SURPRISE 8 in Athens. 

Next year I will be part of a group exhibition for the MA Degree show at Derby. I will continue to look for exhibition and art residency opportunities.

As a final question I’ve asked everyone I’ve interviewed, what do you think is the future of the arts? And if you had infinite resources, what kind of work would you make in that future?

I would like to see a reversal of the downplaying of the importance of the Arts in mainstream education. Allow children and young people the opportunity to explore their creative sides.

We as artists can help with the continuation of such good works of including the local community in the arts – it is not elite, and it should be for everyone.

Infinite resources well there is the Jackpot question.  Perhaps setting up a shared studio space and a gallery would be a great start.  With staff and assistants to carry out my every whim!  Creating a rolling calendar of events, exhibitions, workshops, networking events…..

AS PART OF THE EM18 GRADUATE PROJECT, WHERE RECENT GRADUATES ARE OFFERED A RESIDENCY IN OUR PROJECT SPACE FOR THE MONTH, WE’RE INTERVIEWING THE ARTISTS ABOUT THEIR PRACTICE AND THEIR VIEWS ON ART AS A WHOLE. OUR SEVENTH INTERVIEW IS WITH ANNE STANSFIELD.

For those who don’t know who you are, can you tell us a little about yourself, and your practice as an artist?

I am a person with a long and varied career outside of the art world but I have had a consistent practical and vicarious interest in art. Before starting my BA in Fine Art at the University of Bolton I would have called myself a watercolour painter — with a side-line in other creative activities; but now, conceptual artist might be a better description.

My current practice involves making artefacts for specific locations or contexts. I have a particular concern with the subtle or overt effect that institutions or their processes have on people — I think of it as a form of institutional critique where I poke around to see what squirms. I start by immersing myself in the situation, then identify and investigate any interesting topics or juxtapositions that reveal themselves. Recent projects have resulted in varied works; some of a somewhat subversive or controversial intent and others that provide an empathetic or fun outcome. Mediums chosen are those appropriate to the environment or subject matter or could be objects found on site. My artworks range from sculptural forms; film; ceramics; laser cut work; to traditional 2D artwork (print, photography, painting); or rarely, performance. Examples include: a gold glazed porcelain bauble weighing the same as a female heart; a light-box portrait of a volunteer worker; a crate of interactive beer goggles; a pub activity book; a film subverting institutional branding policies (accompanied by spoof mascot merchandise).

Having come out of university, have you noticed any differences between working as a student artist, and creating your work for a wider, public market?

I think my emphasis has always been on producing good work that resonates with the viewer, whether that be my fellow students, the tutors or the art going public. I haven’t noticed any significant difference in my thought processes for this residency but now that I’ve been posed the question, it makes me think that maybe I should. Certainly, the anxiety to generate an idea then make something interesting is the same. I suppose that at this stage, it is possible for me to ruin my professional reputation at the first hurdle — oh no! more stress!

I am certain this is not the case! When did you first involve yourself with the art scene? Was this due to your educational experiences, or were you inspired from other parts of your life?

Visiting art galleries and various exhibitions was the limit of my involvement in the art scene before going to university. But while at the University of Bolton I was invited to join an art collective near my home town — which I really valued. I’m not a member of any art group now; there seems to be a shortage of such opportunities in Lincoln. My ambition is to fill that gap by establishing an artist studio with work spaces and gallery, and for it to be a place for discussion of individual projects, somewhere to receive support and get critical feedback; and maybe offer a reading group.

My time at university was enjoyable, inspirational and illuminating; but paradoxically, I find myself in a position where I am now aware of how much I don’t know. Completing a fine art degree is barely the beginning — I’m reminded of steamy bus journeys on rainy days where a ‘huff’ and a rub on the window only reveals reflections and refractions. However, my belief has been consistent — that art should be a response to our shared world in a way that probes, challenges and/or inspires positive change.

During this residency, what are your plans? How are you using this time at Surface?

The first few days will be spent observing and researching in and around the gallery; then I’ll start playing with emerging ideas, while continuing to read and refer back to various texts and theories as the work progresses.

I hope to establish a rapport with the other artists and get to know the theories they’re interested in and the methodologies they use; it’s exciting to see the development of other people’s artwork and be able to discuss it with them and ask questions.

I’m also looking forward to visiting other galleries and exhibitions while I’m in Nottingham —there are a lot of great things to see.

Where else have you exhibited, and other than the EM18 Show on 2nd November, do you have any future exhibitions?

My experience of exhibiting outside of university is limited. My most recent work was exhibited at the end of August this year in Sausages and Mince, which was a group show held at the end of Two Queens Studio summer school in Leicester — I showed two pieces: a film of puppets that spoofed the Studio’s two co-directors; and a digital photograph of the Studio’s chairs in a ‘dead pan’/topological format. Prior to that my exhibition history dates back to 2014: Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Art, London where I entered an oil painting on the subject of mediation; Bury Collective Book Project, John Rylands Library, Manchester, where artist’s books were displayed; Portraits Exhibition, The Met Theatre Gallery, Bury with a surveillance series of digital photographs, and a gum Arabic print.

All my other exhibitions have been associated with university modules; and my next exhibition will be at the end of a residency at the Art House, Wakefield.

As a final question I’ve asked everyone I’ve interviewed, what do you think is the future of the arts? And if you had infinite resources, what kind of work would you make in that future?

I believe that access to the arts should continue to be free, because of its cultural and developmental importance. But, because of incremental reductions in government funding and the uncertainty surrounding exiting the European Union (regarding connections with European art and its artists, and access to European funding), I am pessimistic about the art’s current organisational structures. I am not pessimistic however, about art itself; artists have always been able to make art, and the more difficult the circumstances the more creative and poignant the work.

If I had infinite resources I would open ‘state of the art’, accessible and supportive (of artists at any stage in their careers) artist’s studios. It would be fully resourced with modern equipment; employ staff e.g. administrator, cleaner, technicians and subject specialists, who would organise reading groups, group crits and 1:1s; it would contain several gallery spaces, offices, sleeping accommodation e.g. for visiting speakers, and have a well-stocked library. And of course, kitchen, common room, showers and laundry. In my studio space, I would paint for enjoyment and make objects for any site responsive work I was engaged in… I have endless flights of fancy about State of the Art Studios…

AS PART OF THE EM18 GRADUATE PROJECT, WHERE RECENT GRADUATES ARE OFFERED A RESIDENCY IN OUR PROJECT SPACE FOR THE MONTH, WE’RE INTERVIEWING THE ARTISTS ABOUT THEIR PRACTICE AND THEIR VIEWS ON ART AS A WHOLE. OUR SIXTH INTERVIEW IS WITH JAMES HANDLEY.

For those who don’t know who you are, can you tell us a little about yourself, and your practice as an artist?

I’m James Handley, I am 24 and graduated from Nottingham Trent University this year. I’m often drawn to the negation of social interactions and of artistic expressions. I see my work as an enquiry into the unexamined life, everyday life being something I see as a heavily abstract social organism. The method is; Deconstruct, Reconstruct.

Having come out of university, have you noticed any differences between working as a student artist, and creating your work for a wider, public market?

Art in the public market is very aesthetic, you need something to draw people in. As a student some people, including me, thought this took away from the message of the artwork. I still do to an extent, but it’s naïve to think that people will only want to see ideas in work, that’s high fine-art and is more often pretentious. As a student you look at everything to make sense of what you’re making, e.g; only making work for yourself. The world is your oyster in that respect. When I was at university, I wanted everything I made to have a reason or rationality behind it and confront others with my thoughts, that was highly conceptual. That’s not how the art market works, you need to make it palatable for people to get behind or they lose interest. So, I’ve been focusing on sneaky conceptualism, mine being negation. So, I make paintings with large empty spaces that take up most of the space, showing that the opposite of making (sometimes destroying) is still important in regard to the composition.

Simply, after coming out of Uni I’ve had to be smarter in how I create something with an idea whilst also making it engaging for the audience.

When did you first involve yourself with the art scene? Was this due to your educational experiences, or were you inspired from other parts of your life?

It would have been at Nottingham Trent University. I had always been interested in art but I had never been with other creative people until then. The art side of my life had always been self-directed compared to others whose entire lives were artistic. Mine only really got started 5 years ago.

During this residency, what are your plans? How are you using this time at Surface?

To explore the unexamined. The unexamined fitting my practice of negation as both are seen as null. Why would you look into something that you haven’t thought about? Just like the stuff you haven’t really had to think about. I’m also using this time to experiment on the public a tiny bit, using unconscious acts and making them conscious. It’s rather imposing, but it gets easier as the days go on.

Where else have you exhibited, and other than the EM18 Show on 2nd November, do you have any future exhibitions?

I’ve exhibited in Liverpool at the Trophy Room (which has now closed) earlier this year. The exhibition was using the space to make the painting become the space; think how most paintings in a museum just become part of the furniture. Apart from that, I have been part of Of a Curious Nature which was also at Surface. I approached people during the show with a bright light and tried to keep eye contact. That was a load of fun. Except for those, I haven’t got any plans in the future after this show.

As a final question I’ve asked everyone I’ve interviewed, what do you think is the future of the arts? And if you had infinite resources, what kind of work would you make in that future?

For the future of arts? Death maybe? How do you keep making things knowing all the market wants are nice objects? That’s not actually how I feel, but more interesting things are happening outside the traditional ways of art. Collectives and happenings are more prevalent than sculpture and paintings these days. People want stories or concepts more than nice objects. Assemble and Paul Iago come to mind. And then there’s the need for challenging narratives, art can only be political and social now. Everything you choose has a connotation that you cannot escape. You use cement? Is that a comment on building on greenbelt land or a glamorizing of the brutalist architecture that is now used in many council apartments? It’s no longer the case that materials make nice things, because those things now have meaning on their own. Art for art’s sake is dead, thank god.

In the future, I want to explore this infinitude of possibilities in different ways, might be paintings, might be a book of some sort. All I know is that the things I’m interested in are still there and are full of potential personally. The negation is overpopulated with possibilities.

AS PART OF THE EM18 GRADUATE PROJECT, WHERE RECENT GRADUATES ARE OFFERED A RESIDENCY IN OUR PROJECT SPACE FOR THE MONTH, WE’RE INTERVIEWING THE ARTISTS ABOUT THEIR PRACTICE AND THEIR VIEWS ON ART AS A WHOLE. OUR FIFTH INTERVIEW IS WITH ELIZABETH GRAY.

For those who don’t know who you are, can you tell us a little about yourself, and your practice as an artist?

I go by the stage name of Elizabeth Gray and Mrs Art, which sort of fronts the art I create where sometimes I perform as many characters or this exaggerated version of myself. My work, which has been primarily video, examines and combines various familiar imagery from past and present pop culture, usually manipulating it to a point of becoming disconcerting. I like to play with the similarities of horror and comedy. This comes from my love of 1970s/1980s horror films where some of them were so over the top that you knew the visual effects were fake, yet as an audience we still chose to get sucked into the horror.  

Pop culture is such a large subject matter within what I create, because it’s so accessible to a wide variety of audiences. People automatically have a connection with something that is familiar to them and this entices them into my artwork.

Having come out of university, have you noticed any differences between working as a student artist, and creating your work for a wider, public market?

Initially, there’s a big difference in the work I produce as I can no longer make my videos due to not having University tech, so now I am focusing on performance. I think, even through University, I have always focused on making work that I love and consequently audiences have loved it, because of this energy I had for my art. My fear is with bringing my drag influenced style of performing to a gallery setting; I want my audience to have fun and laugh at my work and I feel in a gallery enjoyment is almost a taboo subject.

When did you first involve yourself with the art scene? Was this due to your educational experiences, or were you inspired from other parts of your life?

I’ve always loved drama and filming; I was never the arty one. But I studied the subject through all of my education and then eventually got to a point where I could combine everything I love into my practice, which has created what I do now. My Dad is a big inspiration to me as well, as he used to act and do all his own special effects make up. So as a child I was always getting him to do my makeup and he’d get out his theatrical box of greasepaints and all the other children at the fancy dress competition would think I was a weirdo, but then I always won. 

During this residency, what are your plans? How are you using this time at Surface?

Having actual space to work has been really beneficial for me, as my room is just filled with all the props and costumes for my practice. I’ve been working a lot with my new sewing machine, as I’d been doing everything by hand and I was like I just can’t go on like this anymore. Even though the costumes aren’t really the art part of what I do, I have to go through this process of making them, because it just wouldn’t be the same if I went out and bought them. Everything I do has a real thrown together, amateur feel. It’s been nice to focus on this element as opposed to a finished piece. However now that I have my costumes, I am starting to piece together two opening and closing performances for the exhibition opening night. I will also be performing past numbers throughout the two weeks, which I have been rehearsing.

Where else have you exhibited, and other than the EM18 Show on 2nd November, do you have any future exhibitions?

For my degree show, I put on my own 40 minute show at The New Theatre Royal in Lincoln. I have also just come from another graduate residency at The Art House in Wakefield, where I worked and lived with two other artists for a month to produce our show Taurus. As for the future, I am going to have a much deserved break, until I find what I want to do next!

As a final question I’ve asked everyone I’ve interviewed, what do you think is the future of the arts? And if you had infinite resources, what kind of work would you make in that future?

I would want the art world to become a lot less serious and more accessible to everyone, where all types of art can be mainstream.

If I had unlimited resources, I’d create my own touring show that encompasses video and a variety of performance styles with different performers. I love those strange underground gigs that you stumble across and the floors are all sticky. That’s where my show would go.  

AS PART OF THE EM18 GRADUATE PROJECT, WHERE RECENT GRADUATES ARE OFFERED A RESIDENCY IN OUR PROJECT SPACE FOR THE MONTH, WE’RE INTERVIEWING THE ARTISTS ABOUT THEIR PRACTICE AND THEIR VIEWS ON ART AS A WHOLE. OUR FOURTH INTERVIEW IS WITH HARRY MARTIN.

For those who don’t know who you are, can you tell us a little about yourself, and your practice as an artist?

I’m originally from Nottingham and I returned here after studying fine art at Westminster University to re-ground and escape certain aspects of our strange capital city (rent prices and a sense of alienation, mostly). I make large abstract paintings depicting interlocking natural forms that reference underlying patterns within nature, and that play with depth, scale, and perspective to warp the rules of consensus reality. I exhibit the paintings with ambient, drone-like compositions which creates a meditative, enveloping sense of groundlessness. My Buddhist practice, and my love of science fiction and fantasy have a strong influence on my work, the former allowing me to connect more fully with the wonder of this world and the latter inspiring me to create imaginary, immersive worlds in my paintings.

Having come out of university, have you noticed any differences between working as a student artist, and creating your work for a wider, public market?

You no longer have the strong support framework of university, with studios, workshops, tutors, other students etc, and you have to create a new support framework yourself which is difficult but good character development. You’re also not being graded which I find really refreshing – on the one hand how do you grade something as nebulous as art? And on the other the people who are going to be grading your work are constantly having conversations with you about your work which creates this weird pressure to conform to their ideas. Balancing part-time work with my practice is tricky but it makes me use my free time more effectively and means for the moment I don’t have to worry about making a living from my art which would raise all sorts of tricky questions around maintaining my artistic integrity.

When did you first involve yourself with the art scene? Was this due to your educational experiences, or were you inspired from other parts of your life?

I started painting very young, always inspired by nature, then moved into fantasy illustrations as I fell more in love with the books of J.R.R. Tolkien and Ursula Le Guin as well as the seemingly endless virtual worlds of Bethesda video games. My first art scene was an online community of fantasy artists and writers. I started exhibiting physical work when I went to art school, where I made work combining performance with minimal abstract sculpture installations. It took me quite a long time to eventually fuse together these two very different practices.

During this residency, what are your plans? How are you using this time at Surface?

I’m making images from dry earth pigment and pastel sticks on unstretched, unprimed canvas, using collaged imagery from decaying natural forms to create a sense of flux and impermanence, of the work moving from one state to another. I have been wanting for a long time to move out of the regular picture frame and into a loose, perhaps sculptural, use of canvas – so how I hang the work will be important, maybe emphasising folds/hanging in unusual places. I still need to work out what I’m doing for a sound piece – probably something quite chaotic to reflect the visual work.

Where else have you exhibited, and other than the EM18 Show on 2nd November, do you have any future exhibitions?

I had a solo show in the project space at Surface Gallery in June, an exhibition as part of the summer school at Two Queens in Leicester, and I exhibit regularly in libraries. I’m exhibiting at West Bridgford Library from January 29th to 19th February next year.

As a final question I’ve asked everyone I’ve interviewed, what do you think is the future of the arts? And if you had infinite resources, what kind of work would you make in that future?

As new technologies develop artists will begin using those very quickly as they already are doing, e.g. VR tech. Artists will continue to experiment with every medium imaginable, creating works that reflect our increasingly bizarre and hypercomplex culture. The art world will have a steadily more unhappy relationship to money as overall wealth trickles up to the top few who will continue to use art as a useful investment to protect their fortunes. For this same reason I think there will be more ‘blockbuster’ exhibitions as more wealth is poured into big artist names, and probably grassroots arts organisations will struggle more.

My work is mostly recycled to tread as lightly on the planet as possible so in a way having access to infinite resources wouldn’t make much of a difference to what I do, unless it meant I would find a giant trash heap filled with all the materials I like to use. Maybe I would build a retreat centre with artist studios, meditation/yoga halls, permaculture garden etc. 

In the lead up to Reflection: Contemporary Portrait Exhibition at Surface Gallery, Nathan T. Dean has been interviewing the artists about their practice and the wider artistic environment today. All our artists have been asked the same questions on portraiture, selfie culture, art, and more, to get an insight into how an international array of artists - all coming together under one set form of portraiture - can explore, tackle, and discuss the form in such varied ways.

And we continue, with Inbal Limor.

 For people who are just discovering your pieces, can you tell us a bit about yourself, your artistic practice, and your work to date?

My art’s point of departure is usually a combination of material, emotion, and figure. I am interested in the ability to convey an emotional and external world with shape, colour palette, and texture. Most of my works are motivated by the desire to characterise a figure, whether figuratively or in a more abstract manner. The figures I depict resonate my autobiographic world, alongside reflections on archetypical figures. Archetypes that employ motifs of motherhood, femininity, or masculinity. I aspire to delineate the boundaries of these figures while setting them against contemporary perceptions, which are often laced with dark humour.

In my art, I explore this proximity of inner and external world by merging various materials and techniques. Most of my recent work is based on a mix of figurative oil painting and a combination of nontraditional materials taken from folk art, shamanism, or simply “leftovers of life.” My artworks are largely rooted in experiences of “womanhood,” which for me are manifested in the use of traditional crafts like sewing, knitting, weaving and more. Most of my works are carried out on different types of fabric or wood. They are characterised by bold colours and collagist nature that can also be arranged into different installations in diverse ensembles.

In my recent series of work, my engagement with textile solidified. To a large extent, this practice is indebted to my family’s rich historical relationship with textile. My grandfather was a tailor and my grandmother did needlepoint and sewing for many years. Her work was more creative than functional, and in a way, this has also inspired my own work. I keep different textiles and embroidery works that I did or collected over the years. From my childhood in the U.S, through my years as a teenager in Ashkelon, Israel, an art student in Tel Aviv and Sweden, to today, when I am a young mother. My autobiographical textile collection holds different stories, some of which find their way into my works and others are left as the piece’s genetic code. Only I can decipher this code, however the viewer can sense the added value to the piece, though not always discover its source.

Which artists inspire your work, and do you feel they too are portrait artists? Do you even regard yourself as a portrait artist?

I have accumulated many influences over the years I must admit. I wouldn’t say the majority are portrait artists but I have definitely always been fascinated with the way artists give their interpretations of the subject, the way it exposes so much of both the painted and the painter. I’m very influenced by folk art and growing up I had a lot of Georgia O’keeffe’s and Hundertwasser’s around my parents' house. While I have never considered myself a portrait artist, I do love painting them. But usually the portraiture is an element of a larger piece as part of a mixed media work.

In our current turbulent world, how do you feel portraiture fits into the current artistic and cultural climate?

I feel like even today a painted portrait can give you so much more than a picture. It can bring light to your inner soul. Selfies have made thoughtful portraits even more powerful by sheer contrast.

As a follow up? Facebook, selfie culture, the public and the private? As an artist, what are your views on these elements, and does this change your artistic practice?

These elements are indeed the sign of the times. I try to stay in my own world when it comes to my work, I’m a pretty private person and not much of a selfie taker…

I have, in my recent works, been breaking up the subjects of my portraits; obscuring and interweaving fragments. This could well be my reaction to the harsh objectivity of a selfie-type portrait, allowing more of my interpretation, more subjectivity and imagination than any filter can give you on your phone.

How does it feel being a part of an exhibition with such a range of international artists?

It's wonderful to be part of this varied group of artists. It’s great to see such diverse backgrounds all coming together in one place. I wish I could be there to see it and meet all these talented interesting people.

Hardest question, and one I've asked everyone I've interviewed. What do you think the future of art is? What comes next? And if you had infinite resources and time, what would you add to that future art?

In the lead up to Reflection: Contemporary Portrait Exhibition at Surface Gallery, Nathan T. Dean has been interviewing the artists about their practice and the wider artistic environment today. All our artists have been asked the same questions on portraiture, selfie culture, art, and more, to get an insight into how an international array of artists - all coming together under one set form of portraiture - can explore, tackle, and discuss the form in such varied ways.

And we continue, with Louise Lahive.

For people who are just discovering your pieces, can you tell us a bit about yourself, your artistic practice, and your work to date? I’m an artist who lives and works in North Hertfordshire, I graduated from Kingston in 1999 with a BA in fine art and my practise has been mainly painting ever since then. I consider myself a painter, although I do work in other mediums and other materials, for example sculpture, digital art or illustration, but most of these works I consider as secondary to my main large canvases that I like to work towards over a long period of time.

Which artists inspire your work, and do you feel they too are portrait artists? Do you even regard yourself as a portrait artist?

It’s hard to answer the question of who inspires me because it’s so many and varied; I am inspired by my contemporaries that I meet. I think it’s an exciting time to be working as a painter. The artists that I come back to time and again are people such as Rembrandt, Eva Hesse, Camille Pissarro, Anselm Kiefer, Hilma af Klint.

No, I don’t consider myself as a portrait artist, however I use myself in my work as an authentic starting point or because I can only communicate the experience of being human through myself. I only know what it is to be me.

In our current turbulent world, how do you feel portraiture fits into the current artistic and cultural climate?

Well, I think that it’s a good thing to be introspective and for us to really look at ourselves; there is never a time when we do not need to look inwards to go forward. At the moment, we can see and understand ourselves physically in ways that we have never been able to before, this really interests me. We are evolution understanding itself better and better every day, but how do we interpret this into our everyday reality? How do we interpret this into our spiritual and emotional experience (if at all)?

As a follow up, Facebook, selfie culture, the public and the private? As an artist, what are your views on these elements, and does this change your artistic practice?

It’s difficult to get people out and engaged with art on a local level, and public forums online do help to promote work, however I look at it really as a way to try and get people to show up and help to create an interest.

The fact that self-image, or one single image, can become so important now is something that I am not comfortable with; I don’t think a cult of narcissism is the way forward. As for public and private, I have always thought that it is important for me to be honest or ‘revealed', if you like, as an artist in order for me to progress. I guess this makes me a portrait artist in a sense.

How does it feel being a part of an exhibition with such a range of international artists?

Brilliant.

Hardest question, and one I've asked everyone I've interviewed. What do you think the future of art is? What comes next? And if you had infinite resources and time, what would you add to that future art?

I am worried about the future of the arts at the moment in regards to the up and coming generations. It has never been easy to be an artist, but now it is becoming harder to study if you are not rich; this is deeply disturbing and detrimental to the arts.

As far as the future of fine art goes, I think it’s becoming less centred in London because of the property boom and most gallerists not able to operate with high rents.

If I had infinite resources my paintings would be larger and I would have a huge studio with a rack and I would not need to worry about buying paint or finding part time jobs to support my work. However I do try and let the work lead me and I don’t ever think I can’t make something because of resources, I usually find a way eventually.

In the lead up to Reflection: Contemporary Portrait Exhibition at Surface Gallery, Nathan T. Dean has been interviewing the artists about their practice and the wider artistic environment today. All our artists have been asked the same questions on portraiture, selfie culture, art, and more, to get an insight into how an international array of artists - all coming together under one set form of portraiture - can explore, tackle, and discuss the form in such varied ways.

And we continue, with C.O.G.

C.O.G will be performing her poetry on the evening, which the audience is open to interact with.

For people who are just discovering your pieces, can you tell us a bit about yourself, your artistic practice, and your work to date?

I’m a poet. It is definitely not the most prized of contemporary art forms, so most of the time when I talk to people about my art it’s out of their own surprise that poetry isn’t boring, pretentious, or melancholy (though, as with all art, it definitely has the potential to be just that).

Which artists inspire your work, and do you feel they too are portrait artists? Do you even regard yourself as a portrait artist?

I adore the poetry of e.e.cummings, and, oddly enough, he seems to focus in on people and characters in such a refreshing and sometimes brutal light, whilst still often maintaining a gorgeous naivety in his work. But portrait poetry isn’t really a thing (yet), so I’m slowly wading through and looking to famous visual portraits of the past and the process of visual art to better understand how I might represent a person in a portrait poem. The progression of Andy Warhols self-portraits is something I find particularly interesting.

In our current turbulent world, how do you feel portraiture fits into the current artistic and cultural climate?

Maybe it’s a grasp at clarity. Instead of getting lost in the massive whirling landfill sit of a zeitgeist we have to traipse through every day it's nice to stop, and to capture a person in a specific moment of time. From the very point that portrait is finished that person will continue changing just as they have grown to that point in their lives: but for that moment they become a physical and solid being, comfortably and beautifully captured. That is, if the artist has done their job.

As a follow up? Facebook, selfie culture, the public and the private? As an artist, what are your views on these elements, and does this change your artistic practice?

Upon seeing the first few words in this question my eyes sort of glazed over and my mouth puffed up like a monkey's might in exasperation.

It’s important for people to remember who you are in the fast-paced flickering screen of the everyday, so I suppose online presence is important… Honestly: I think to be in print, to be in physical places and have your art in physical places is much more important. It brings the artist much closer to immortality. We pass down books, paintings: nobody will remember what you put on your facebook feed, just as nobody will care what you had for breakfast.

How does it feel being a part of an exhibition with such a range of international artists?

Exciting. This is the first time my poetry has been in an art gallery. I’m so glad I took the chance to submit because the gallery could possibly be the perfect place to experience poetry. Just as someone might love art galleries but not want a 10-foot tall sculpture in their living room, some people just don’t want the commitment of buying a poetry collection, but might love the experience of reading a curated piece or two upon the wall.

Hardest question, and one I've asked everyone I've interviewed. What do you think the future of art is? What comes next? And if you had infinite resources and time, what would you add to that future art?

The future of art is just disagreeing with whatever came directly before.

In the lead up to Reflection: Contemporary Portrait Exhibition at Surface Gallery, Nathan T. Dean has been interviewing the artists about their practice and the wider artistic environment today. All our artists have been asked the same questions on portraiture, selfie culture, art, and more, to get an insight into how an international array of artists - all coming together under one set form of portraiture - can explore, tackle, and discuss the form in such varied ways.

And we continue, with Milad Karamooz.

This article has been part reworded by Nathan T. Dean, due to English being Milad Karamooz second language. He has had permission from the artist to correct any spelling and punctuation without losing any meaning. 

For people who are just discovering your pieces, can you tell us a bit about yourself, your artistic practice, and your work to date?

I am Milad Karamooz a self-taught Iranian photographer. After spending 35 years of my life in my country I discover that my country is the land of paradoxes. Every side of an Iranians life are full of paradoxes. Our personal life, social life, religious life, political life: every side that you can imagine. That’s why I'm so interested to show who people really are. And let them face to their paradoxes. And force them to think about it. One of these paradoxes are the ways that people choose their life. I am the one who says we do not really choose. Actually we don’t have any choices. Because we are exactly choosing the way that our traditional society is dictated to us. Sometimes our roles are totally in contradiction to our human nature. But, harmfully, that teaches us perfectly that they are our targets and we should be happy to catch the roles. In this collection “ HALL OF MIRRORS” I tried to ask that: are they the best roles that we can choose? Did we choose them or we are chosen before? Aren’t we the prisoners of the roles that societies dictated to us?

In our current turbulent world, how do you think portraiture fits into the current artistic and cultural climate?

'Human' is the most important subject in the world at this time. Portraits are helping us to get to know each other, to get close to each other and feel and find our communa; senses. If we can fill our pains, happiness, and our needs, then we will find the way of peace.

As a follow up? Do you find social media helps or hinders your practice?

I am living in a country that is so hard for the people to go out of the country. Because of many reasons. Economical problems, political problems, visa issues sanction limitations and so many difficulties that are not peoples fault. It’s a big issue for the artist who wants to send their voices to the world. So social media is maybe the one and only window of freedom for us. The window that is connecting us to the world. 

Which artists inspire your work, and do you feel they too are portrait artists? Do you even regard yourself as a portrait artist?

Iranian visual artist Shirin Neshat, Iranian writer and director Bahram Byzayie and Pier Paolo Pasolini and Pedro Almodovar are my inspiring artists. I have learned from them that great artists are the artists who do not surrender to their circumstances. We shouldn’t let nobody prison our mind. And if you ask me, yes, I feel they are portrait artists. Actually I never haven’t chosen to be a portrait artist. But now when I’m looking to myself and my works, yes, I guess I am.  

How does it feel being a part of an exhibition with such a range of international artists?

It feels really great. Especially for people like me who are in the countries that there is not any support for the independent artists, it feels like “we are not alone”

Hardest question, and one I've asked everyone I've interviewed. What do you think the future of art is? What comes next? And if you had infinite resources and time, what would you add to that future art?

The meaning of art could be different in different cultures and different circumstances. For me, art is a weapon to fight for change. The biggest challenge about art in my mind is the censorship pressures.

In the lead up to Reflection: Contemporary Portrait Exhibition at Surface Gallery, Nathan T. Dean has been interviewing the artists about their practice and the wider artistic environment today. All our artists have been asked the same questions on portraiture, selfie culture, art, and more, to get an insight into how an international array of artists - all coming together under one set form of portraiture - can explore, tackle, and discuss the form in such varied ways.

And we continue, with Sonja Benskin Mesher.

For people who are just discovering your pieces, can you tell us a bit about yourself, your artistic practice, and your work to date?

having worked full time as a visual artist for some time  & used those years exploring ways to communicate thoughts and concerns

it is not all you see on the surface, it goes deeper than that. work  goes back many years, what I have seen, experienced, touched and collected.

... watch me make things…..

am quite patient, hold my tongue, but can't say multi  disciplinary.

easily

i live here, in wales easily

Which artists inspire your work, and do you feel they too are portrait artists? Do you even regard yourself as a portrait artist?

Joseph Beuys/ Joseph Cornell/ many others

museums

no  not specifically.

portraits are often  the outward appearance; I work inward; feel the features & the heart of the matter

“I pickle it

as granny bottled the bitter pears”

In our current turbulent world, how do you feel portraiture fits into the current artistic and cultural climate?

not sure

 As a follow up? Facebook, selfie culture, the public and the private? As an artist, what are your views on these elements, and does this change your artistic practice?

social media is as a sketch book to throw out ideas to learn and change

some people don’t make selfies in the current sense

How does it feel being a part of an exhibition with such a range of international artists?

we are artists without borders, we give and share,

not expecting anything

in return we are part of it all, and pleasantly

accepted without judgement.

the journey is endless to join as desired

In the lead up to Reflection: Contemporary Portrait Exhibition at Surface Gallery, Nathan T. Dean has been interviewing the artists about their practice and the wider artistic environment today. All our artists have been asked the same questions on portraiture, selfie culture, art, and more, to get an insight into how an international array of artists - all coming together under one set form of portraiture - can explore, tackle, and discuss the form in such varied ways.

And we begin, with David Hopkins.

For people who are just discovering your pieces, can you tell us a bit about yourself, your artistic practice, and your work to date? If I try and look at my artworks from outside, as someone seeing them for the first time, I suppose the viewer might notice some of the following things … The works are paintings, not drawn or modelled in 3D. And this guy seems fairly competent as a painter. Well, I’ve painted throughout my life. I graduated in Fine Art from Central St. Martins, London in 1996. Since then I’ve done many further courses or painted alongside other painters to strengthen my skills – tonal painting, portrait-painting, using glazes, sight-size portraiture. I see myself as a realist figurative painter but I always keep Richard Diebenkorn in mind for that possibility of also making abstract paintings as well as realistic ones. And of course even my paintings from life are composed abstractly, with a lot of juggling of the shapes around the canvas. Of course I can and do draw, but painting is my strong suit.

I suppose a viewer would notice that my paintings are usually of individual people or objects. These days I’m concentrating on painting people or objects from life. I seem to catch my sitters in isolated meditative poses. I paint best from life. In a way all my paintings are portraits, whether of people or things around me; they’re usually still and meditative. I paint both men and women, but I’ve done a lot of paintings of guys, trying to see inside them and sense how they are trying to work out being a guy in a time and societies that pose a lot of questions to us men. I try and look at everything I paint with respect and compassion.

I’m interested in how 'what is put out there and made public' combines with the encoded and very private. The interior life of persons or objects. But I’d also like to return more to painting places, buildings or landscapes, in the future.

Other than these general points, almost everything I could say about my paintings could at once be contradicted. For example some paintings are enormous (a 2m x 1.5 m portrait of my mobile phone), some very small. Sometimes I paint very fast, other pieces take me months of endless refinements. I’m very into juicy colour but sometimes I work with a very muted limited palette. I’ve exhibited and sold quite a lot locally in London. I submit to national painting prizes – with variable success … I’ve had portraits long-listed, e.g. for the BP Award 2015. I’d like to get more recognition for my portraits, and for my bigger, composed paintings, like my ‘Victims and Suspects #2’ (2017, H1.5 x W1.6m, oil on canvas), a portrait of 6-7 studio objects but with indirect wider reference to the events of the year.

The world of professional British portrait painting can be a bit airless – a stuffy room. Good to open some windows and doors.

Which artists inspire your work, and do you feel they too are portrait artists? Do you even regard yourself as a portrait artist? I’m not someone who needs to look for inspiration, everything around is food for painting.

Other artists, great artists or new artists … it’s easy to be blown around and influenced into doing a Hockney, a Paula Rego when we come back from an exhibition. Though I’m not sure about our present cult of artist-genius blockbusters - even Goya can paint badly on an off-day (and Manet definitely). If we are rooted in our own practice we won’t be blown off-course, just enriched or irritated or intrigued, whatever. All of that can then refine or modify or enlarge what we ourselves do as artists.

Of course I look at artists who’ve done portraits, not just professional portraitists like Sargent but also others whose portraits were just one area of their many kinds of paintings – like Titian, El Greco, Max Beckmann. I’ve studied with interest the great Spanish still life painters, Byzantine icons, and how exactly a Bonnard paint surface or a Bridget Riley is made – it’s all grist to our mill. Who you keep company with artistically comes out in your own artworks.

I remember one of my St Martin’s tutors asking me ‘Do you think you might be a portraitist?’ which hadn’t occurred to me before. So sometimes I describe myself as one but really it’s just one of the kinds of artwork I’ve been interested in making, over the years. But yes, a very strong interest.

I think if you asked this question to Velázquez, he couldn’t have predicted Picasso or Dalí

In our current turbulent world, how do you feel portraiture fits into the current artistic and cultural climate? The portrait is a bit of an odd fish as an artwork in that the subject feels it partly belongs to them. When I texted a model/friend that I’d sold one of his/our portraits, the message flashed back ‘Where’s my royalties bro’ (Answer: ‘Tight in my sealed wallet, bro’).

The idea of portrait commissions can be a tricky one. I tend to paint portraits of models I’ve got to know or friends. So the area of commissioned portraits, of ‘I’d like you to repaint the mouth, you’ve made me look bad-tempered’, of a price for a particular size of portrait, all that can seem an artistic cul-de-sac, a backwater cut off from mainstream art preoccupations about issues of culture, politics or philosophy or gender etc.

So it’s good to look outside at what portraits are being made in other countries or modes, outside the white British upper-middle-class family or institutional portrait niche. The world of professional British portrait painting can be a bit airless – a stuffy room. Good to open some windows and doors. I don’t think portrait-painting is irrelevant to current art any more than physically constructing an artwork is more retro than a digital work or an installation. It’s still a valid mode.

As a follow up? Facebook, selfie culture, the public and the private? As an artist, what are your views on these elements, and does this change your artistic practice? I think I’ve mostly answered this already in the above. In the sense that Facebook and selfie culture put a lot of emphasis on me-me-me or looking at you-you-you, the portrait fits well into this looking at images or projections of individual people. So we portraitists are not so way off trend. ‘Portraits’ can look dated or hackneyed, but the figure-paintings that Jenny Saville and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye produce are right in there with all the other visual stuff we are engaged with now.

How does it feel being a part of an exhibition with such a range of international artists? Always good to be with other artists and an international mix. Although people often seem to think of me as very English when they meet me, I feel more comfortable in a mixed scenario. Even though from a distance our work might look ‘very British’ it’s not good to close ourselves inside a narrow club, it can get a bit sterile. Better to open ourselves up to mixed influences and cross-fertilisation. If what comes out then still seems to others ‘very English’, that’s just how it has come out naturally, we haven’t closed ourselves up deliberately to keep it that way.

Hardest question, and one I've asked everyone I've interviewed. What do you think the future of art is? What comes next? And if you had infinite resources and time, what would you add to that future art? I think if you asked this question to Velázquez, he couldn’t have predicted Picasso or Dalí, but he would have been well aware that his own stuff wasn’t at all like medieval painting. So maybe it’s none of our business, not our concern what future art will be like. That there will be art in the future, while the human race survives and hangs on in there, I think we can be sure. Always, some people feel the urge to make art, to create art or music or film or performance. And there’s always an audience, other people are curious to see it or hear it or watch it, because they know it’s about them even if indirectly – though different societies have different levels of access to it. But what exactly the forms of art will be in the future, there’s no predicting. I think artists are generally concerned with the immediate future rather than far ahead, so we keep creating things that seem to us better or more relevant or more powerful than what’s around us at present or in the recent past.