‘Synthesis was an inspiring event. Around 80 people painted throughout the day, including 20 children and young people. A number of serious artists and many welcome experimenters contributed to create the large scale multi-layered mural
The fluorescent / UV light reaction gradually took full effect as daylight disappeared. By evening the walls looked wild.
Louis, Youth and Mixmaster Morris gave us a thoughtful soundtrack to work to.’
– Rufus Knight-Webb
FAD Magazine: The Top 6 Art Exhibitions to see in London this week
The Resident – Living South Magazine’s April Issue:
AFTER NYNE
Quantum Ceramics on After Nyne Magazine online:
Interesting piece about the exhibition and artist, Nadav Drukker, written by gallery curator, Rufus Knight Webb.
‘Nadav walks past my gallery most days on his way to Brixton market. Over the past few years I have begun to get to know this strange scientist who makes ceramic vessels at his home studio, which I have visited now on a number of occasions. Alongside his pottery, Nadav has an alter ego as Dr Drukker, leading a research team at Kings College London. He creates the objects and vessels in clay as a means to communicate his research in String Theory & Supersymmetric Field Theories.’
http://www.afternynemagazine.com/science-art-fuse-quantum-…/
LONDONIST
Quantum Ceramics by Nadav Drukker mentioned on Londonist as part of their things to do and see in London next week.
The exhibition opens 17th March -8th April. We are open from 10 am – 6 pm Tuesday – Saturday.
THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
Quantum Ceramics at Knight Webb Gallery mentioned in this week’s issue (11/03/17) of The Jewish Chronicle
‘From an early age, growing up in Jerusalem I had a strong affinity with ceramics; the Japanese vessels that my grandfather collected and the abundant shards of pots from local archeology. Originally ceramics were a way for me to focus on something other than research, but recently I have felt compelled to combine my two passions. As I started transcribing my calculations onto clay, I realised that the process itself was not a mere reflection of my research, but was influencing it.’
QUANTUM CERAMICS is the first solo exhibition of ceramic works by Theoretical Physicist Nadav Drukker, based at Kings College London, who makes traditional studio pottery as an alternative means to communicate his scientific research.
Drukker’s string theory related ceramics are presented as a series of six projects: Circle, Cusp, Index, Polygons, Cut, and Defect. Each series is based on a research paper by the artist, with the shape and texture of each piece reflecting the research. The works are all traditional glazed stoneware and porcelain vessels.
‘I wanted to share the excitement from both of my passions with the public, so instead of attempting to answer the question of what string theory is, I create objects that represent the beauty I find in string theory. I hope that the viewer will be able to admire the forms and formulas the way that one views hieroglyphs or cuneiform, which we know carry meaning, but most of us cannot read. In particular cuneiforms, one of the earliest forms of writing and normally implemented in clay. So I am bringing back modern mathematical notation to clay.’
The works are presented as a series of six projects: Circle, Cusp, Index, Polygons, Cut, and Defect. Each series is based on a research paper by Drukker.
17th March – 8th April 2017 at Knight Webb Gallery, Brixton.
8th April, 10:30 – 12:00 Breakfast With Artists: Nadav Drukker
Knight Webb Gallery presented a collection of work by Spanish artist Joseba Eskubi at VOLTA NY.
‘Synthesis was an inspiring event. Around 80 people painted throughout the day, including 20 children and young people. A number of serious artists and many welcome experimenters contributed to create the large scale multi-layered mural
The fluorescent / UV light reaction gradually took full effect as daylight disappeared. By evening the walls looked wild.
Louis, Youth and Mixmaster Morris gave us a thoughtful soundtrack to work to.’
– Rufus Knight-Webb
Press Release – Synthesis – UV Collaboration Event
Rufus Knight-Webb
‘Soon after I opened my gallery in 2012 I became curious about the paintings of Aboudia, an emerging artist from Ivory Coast. I was showing another emerging African artist at the time, and thought that the two of them would jointly make a wonderful exhibition.
Several years later I purchased a medium sized Aboudia painting from an influential New York art collector, Michael Hort. Through this connection I was introduced to Aboudia’s agent Issiaka Toure, and before long I was both a buyer and dealer of Aboudia’s paintings.
Last Sunday (9th October) Aboudia was painting in my London studio, completing three new pictures which had been shipped to the gallery from his New York studio partially finished. This was a great moment for me and a milestone for the gallery. I was surprised he could work with me watching, and then I remembered he was initially a street artist, and painting in front of people would be natural.
Aboudia’s work is easily identifiable with its skeletal figures sketched in oil bar over light ghostly washes of colour. The artist has cleverly brought together his origins as a street artist with an experimental curiosity for multi media and vigorous abstract painting.
Death seems to play a recurrent role in these paintings, alongside stray animals, African street life, neon signs, traffic, and what seems to be a rather negatively portrayed UN peace keeping army. Aboudia’s homeless years, eight of them, have played a vital role in his imagination. There are also his memories of the 1999 Cote d’Ivoire military coup and its subsequent political skirmishes. Stray animals are a poignant symbol of war, homelessness and poverty.
I have a personal interest in fast improvised painting and the way it captures a fixed moment in time. Aboudia above all painters I know has captured these fleeting moments and presented them in a graphic animated style. His world of intense and troubled human activity comes to us through the innocent perception of a self taught artist.
Moderna Museet in Stockholm have agreed to purchase the painting ‘Light Green Spring’ 2013 by Anders Knutsson.
This large monochrome painting was shown by Knight Webb Gallery at Context Art Fair New York in May this year (see image below). The same work was also shown at The Agueli Museum in Sweden throughout August.
In addition to ‘Light Green Spring’ the collection at the Moderna Museet includes Knutsson’s ‘Long Red Painting’, from 1979 and ‘Midnight Earthshine #16’ 1979. This gives the artist a substantial presence in the permanent collection of Sweden’s most prestigious museum of art.
‘Juliane Hundertmark from Berlin is at the top of her game, effortlessly informal and gently satirical.’
Breakfast is orientated around Hundertmark’s recent series of large scale works on canvas titled ‘Breakfast’. For the past year the artist has been exploring this commonplace ritual and gathering of friends and family in their sleepy, hungover and occasionally dishevelled state.
Since Hundertmark initiated this series in 2015, it has resonated with her audience and inspired associations and memories of scenes from their own lives. These strangely animated characters are not simply stereotypes, they are aspects of real personality types acting crudely, honestly and as themselves. Hundertmark has produced these new paintings in her distinctive, confident style, with her usual balance of satire and fantasy.
Words & pictures by Rufus Knight-Webb
Returning to London, following a rainbow to the north. I stopped at Watts memorial chapel in Surrey, a truly romantic Fin de Siecle, Art Nouveau building. Built as a shrine to the Victorian artist George Frederick Watts and designed by his wife Mary a brilliant designer, creator of ceramics and portrait painter. Always a magical spot, I have stopped here many times over the past 30 years, often when the evening light is inviting. On this journey a vivid rainbow appeared as I drove over the Hogs Back and drew me off course toward Compton and Watts Chapel.
The chapel with its arrangement of trees, headstones, mausoleum and curved cobbled paths is an expression of deep love or deep friendship. Perhaps only love could have inspired a memorial with such a romantic vision as this sculptural landscape of the afterlife. In this sense the chapel is a miniature Taj Mahal. Many of the graves are beautifully designed in bas relief ceramic form by Mary, and I wondered whether the graves inhabitants could actually afford these elaborate headstones, or whether they were subsidised in order to complete Mary’s vision. Aldous Huxley is buried here under quite a plain 1960’s grave, along with his final injection of LSD (an intriguing deathbed request, administered by his wife).
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