Vitrine Bermondsey Street is delighted to present ‘An evanescent fix’, a group exhibition bringing together the work of Jack Brindley, Keith Farquhar, Charlie Godet Thomas, Clare Kenny and Wil Murray who reconfigure, manipulate and occupy the presence and notions of photography within their practice.

The exhibition looks at unusual processes and obscurities that question the works materiality. By reconfiguring and removing previous forms, narratives disperse providing a dialogue making one consider the physicality of ‘things’. Through gesture, colour, material and assemblage the show looks at ways these approaches are employed; encouraging the spectator to question form, materials and narrative, which may or may not have once laid beneath.

Raw steel rods and structures interrogate and transform the architecture of the space created by Jack Brindley, holding flatbed prints on re-used dibond, that weave in a somewhat transient nature amongst other works encouraging the spectator to become part of this narrative. Keith Farquhar’s hyperrealist inkjet-printed plastic bags collected from family members’ recycling questions the objects material.

Charlie Godet Thomas’ practice bridges sculpture, photography and painting whilst refusing so sit neatly into any one category. Images are held still in cast rubber, or obscured through adhered undulating surfaces of pigment. Thomas’ rigorous approach of reconfiguring photographic images are an attempt to liberate otherwise ‘difficult’ imagery into the realm of colour, surface, weight and movement. Wil Murrays works poses questions of photography and its relationship and concern to paint, through complex and decisive gestures each material manipulates the other increasing its compositional and conceptual permutations.

Reality and representation are explored within Clare Kenny’s practice, fragmented narratives are manipulated through subtle gestures and assemblages, curling, rolling and folding, re-evaluating the works authenticity. The exhibition draws on nostalgic elements often associated to photography, through unusual processes and meetings of materials.

Jack Brindley (b.1987, London, UK) studied is BA in Fine Art at The University of Reading and MA Painting from the Royal College of Art, London in 2013 where he received the Royal College of Art Bursary. Solo exhibitions include; Sweat, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London, (2014) and Blueprint, CSA Space, Vancouver, Canada, (2013). Group shows include; Tan Lines, Drawing Room, London, (2014), The 8 Artistic Principles, Attic, Nottingham, (2014), Mud and Water, Rokeby Gallery, London, (2014), Intercourse 3, ICA, London (2013) and Congratulations you are the most recent visitor, Kettles Yard, Cambridge, (2013).

Keith Farquhar (b. 1969, Edinburgh, UK) studied his BA in Fine Art Sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art and graduated in 1996 with an MA in Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, London. Solo exhibitions include; Quantum Physics for Beginners, Gallery Hight Art, Paris, (2014), Ken & Cady Noland, Piper Keys, London, (2013), Ocean Terminal, Leslie Fritz Gallery, New York, (2013) and More Nudes in Colour, Studio Voltaire, London, (2010). Group exhibitions include; Counterpoint, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, (2014), The crime was almost Perfect, Witte de With, Rotterdam, (2014), Holes in the Walls, Early Works 1948-2013, Kunsthalle, Fribourg, Switzerland, (2013) and Day Before This Place, Tanya Leighton Gallery, Berlin, (2013).

Charlie Godet Thomas (b.1985, London, UK) studied his BA in Fine Art Sculpture at Manchester School of Art and graduated with MA Fine Art Sculpture at the Royal College of Art, London where he was awarded the Bermuda Arts Council Scholarship and the Peter Leitner Scholarship. Solo exhibitions include; A Method for Writing/ A Method for Making, BALTIC Center for Contemporary Art, Newcastle, (2014), Bildungsroman, The Bun House/Field Projects, (2011) and Notes on Reality, Le Garage Gallery, London, (2010). Group exhibitions include; The Manchester Contemporary (with Cactus Gallery, Liverpool), Old Granada Studios, Manchester, (2014), Bending Light, Home-Platform, Bristol, (2014), END, Cactus Gallery, Liverpool (on tour), Manchester, (2014), Bermuda Biennial 2014, Bermuda National Galley, Bermuda, (2014), Poppositions, Brussels, Belgium, (2013) and Re-interpreting The European Collection, Bermuda National Gallery, Bermuda, (2013).

Clare Kenny (b.1976, Manchester, UK) lives and works in Basel, Switzerland, studied her BA in Fine art at Chelsea School of Art and Design, London and graduated in 2010 with an MA in Art in Public Spheres at Hochschule fur Kunst und Gestaltung (University of the Arts Lucerne) Lucerne, Switzerland. She has undertaken residencies at Pro Helvetica, Shanghai and IAAB at Paris Cite des Art in Paris, France. She has also been awarded the Grant Fachausschuss and was the recipient of Kunstkredit Prize, Basel, Switzerland. Solo exhibitions include; Galerie Gisèle Linder, Basel, Switzerland, (2014), Yesterday’s Labour is the Future’s Folly, VITRINE, London, UK, (2013) and The Frame, DOLL l’espace d’art contemporain, Lausanne, Switzerland, (2012). Group exhibitions include; Artissima, Turin, Italy, (2014), ARTBASEL, Galerie Gisèle Linder, Basel, Switzerland, (2014), system.painting.construction.archive, Lion & Lamb Gallery, London, (2013), Galerie Gisèle Linder, Artforum Berlin, Germany, (2010).

Wil Murray (b.1978, Calgary, Canada) studied Painting and Drawing at Alberta College of Art and Design, Canada. He has received a number of grants and bursaries including the Travel Grant, Canada Council for the Arts, (2013) and Cultural Relations Grant, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, (2013). Solo exhibitions include; Please Boss Remember Me, VITRINE, London, UK, (2014), Modulations, Library Cote-St, Luc Montreal, Canada, (2012), Last Summer I Build a 1:8 Scale Model of your Vagina, Staatsgalerie, Prenzlauer Berg Berlin, German, (2011) and We Pet Your Cat to Death?, GalleryPUSH, Montreal, Canada, (2009). Group exhibitions include; Art in the Home 2, VITRINE with Contemporary Arts Society, York, UK, (2014), Gout De La Peinture, Arsenal Montreal, Canada, (2013), The Painting Project, GALERIE DE L’UQAM, Montreal Quebec, Canada, (2013), Broadcast and Tape Modern No.25, Tape Club Berlin, Germany, (2012).

Curated by Alys Williams and Chris Bayley.