Material Identity is an introspective journey through the multidisciplinary practise of the artists in the exhibition, whose works explore the varied and changing cultural landscape of identity. The inherent delicacy of their works evokes a sense of balance between what is material and immaterial, between form and composition and the physical and metaphysical.

Olga de Amaral (B.1932) is deeply driven by her exploration of Colombian culture and her own identity. Architecture, mathematics, landscape, and socio-cultural dichotomies in Colombia are woven together through the use of fibre. Through a complex system based on artisanal technique, she finds answers to inner questions. Her golden surfaces of light thus embody the secrets of her soul. Her use of gold, inspired by the interwoven histories of pre-Hispanic and Colonial art, gives her work a presence at once sensual and otherworldly.

Having studied Fabric Art at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, Olga went on to found and direct the textiles department at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogota in 1965. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1973, and in 2005 was named ‘Artist Visionary’ by the Museum of Art & Design in New York. In 2008, she was honorary Co- Chair for the benefit of the Multicultural Audience Development initiative , Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Emilie Pugh (B.1988) employs unconventional methods of mark-making in her work, combining old-world techniques and subject matter with contemporary processes. From burning into paper with a lit incense stick; lighting gunpowder onto drawings; using thread, light and mirrors, as well as more conventional ink drawings with pen or brush, Pugh’s multi-layered works on paper express ideas of the material and the immaterial, as she is drawn to the delicate balance between the transitory and the permanent; between form and the void. Pugh’s works often begin as an introspective journey – a mapping of internal landscape; tracing colours, following pathways and feeling her way around an unfolding thought or sensation.

Emilie has just finished a six-month Artist Residency at Atelierhaus Mnegerseile, Berlin, having previous studied at Byam Shaw School of Art at The Ruskin School of Fine Art and Drawing at Oxford University. Emilie has exhibited all over Europe, in London, Oxford and Berlin.

In search for a new source of energy, while on an Artist Residency in New York City, Adeline de Monseignat (B.1987) turned to acupuncture. This led to research on ways in which energy moves within the body and how energy attracts bodies to one another: human interaction. Adeline’s ‘Acupictures’ are made with no other medium than energy, translated into light, and recorded on paper: the energy punctures the paper in the same way needles puncture the skin. In 2012, her work was selected for The Threadneedle Prize at the Mall Galleries, and she was also invited as a guest speaker at Art Moscow in 2012 to contribute to a talk organised and supported by Christie’s, Frameless Gallery and the British Council, with a selection of her works on display..

Yun-Kyung Jeong (B.1981) paintings marry aspects of eastern and western culture, in the pursuit of an imagined and idealised natural Utopia. Through the repetition of a leaf-shaped symbol, signifying the elements as one, the artist attempts to portray the invisible and subtle collisions arising from the conflicts between the countless elements that make up the world. Jeong’s paintings have qualities of an optical illusion in their play with depth, combined with a strong sense of perverse three-dimensionality.

Yun-Kyung studied at Slade School of Fine Art & Goldsmiths, and in 2012 won the Threaneedle Prize.. Her work has been exhibited widely, including exhibitions in London, Barcelona, Seoul and in China.

Camilla Emson’s (B.1987) appropriation of unfamiliar tools and multidisciplinary practice calls forward her body as an intuitive storyteller. Her new series Colour Maps is a continuation of her Fibrosis series, where she has explored sewing using an needle she found on residency in India. New Experiential Theory that relates to early life experiences inspires her work. It describes how memories are ‘woven into your body, like imprints in your nervous system.’ However the plastic nature of the nervous system allows for the development of new pathways throughout life. Colour Maps clearly depicts Emson’s unique process of creating new maps. She pulls, loops, knots and dangles loose threads as if she were practicing a strange surgery. Her act of reparation is in response to the careless bleach splatters that have burnt and weakened the fabric of the linen and erased its original brightness. This way she feels she can access and re-configure history.

Camilla is currently undertaking her 2nd year of an MA at Goldsmiths in Dance Movement Psychotherapy and has completed an MA in Fine Art at City and Guilds. She was invited to install a major installation piece “Life is Never Completely Sewn Up' as part of the St Moritz Art Masters during the summer and will be exhibiting with Slyzmud Gallery in Buenos Aires next month. In recent years she performed as part of the Art Licks Weekend programme (2013) and at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (2013).

Rook & Raven Gallery

7 Rathbone Place
London W1T IHN United Kingdom
Ph. +44 (0)20 73230805
info@rookandraven.co.uk
www.rookandraven.co.uk

Opening hours

Tuesday - Friday from 11.00am to 6.30pm
Saturday from 11.00am to 5.00pm

Related images
  1. Camilla Emson, Colour Map (Blue), 2014, bleach ink cotton linen and wax, 132 x 106.5 cm
  2. Olga de Amaral, Strata XV, 2009, Linen, gesso, acrylic and gold leaf, 234 x 203 cm
  3. Yun-Kyung Jeong, Volume 1, 2012, Acrylic on unprimed canvas, 120 x 120 cm