For millennia, we have been in awe of the fundamental laws of nature, seeking out patterns and symmetries from microscopic particles to the greater universe. Geometry and symmetry appear to govern the world around us with an underlying mathematical order, resulting in the formation of simple and complex shapes and patterns. There is a long aesthetic tradition of nature inspiring and being represented in human civilisation, the ancient Greeks studied natural forms abstracting them as simple geometrical shapes in which to construct their temples and shrines.

In the mid 1800’s Joseph Paxton’s design for the Victorian mega-structure ‘The Crystal Palace’ originated from the vein structures of the giant lily pad ‘Victoria Amazonica’ and was constructed from a pioneering modular steel structure. A century later the architect Buckminster Fuller’s radical futuristic geodesic domes were derived from simple honeycomb with interlocking triangular pieces. Modular in construction these flexible frames could be replicated and built quickly; enlarged or reduced in scale to suit countless needs. These modular building methods are all around us in our built environments from shopping centres, airports, schools and apartment buildings.

Evans is seeking to explore our constant human need to assemble and reassemble our built environments. He has created in the exhibition (IN)Visible Systems an evolving series of obsessively constructed drawings and prints which depict these realised and theoretical languages of architecture, geometry and nature as both growing and being destroyed in a state of unsettling flux and transformation.

His systematic drawings have been disrupted, erased and taken apart in a constant dialogue between organic and formal structures which depict his imagined cities as both hybrid architectural spaces and delicate emergent biological forms. Geometric shapes and complex patterns appear to replicate themselves and transform in scale to unsettle our ideas of urban space and present us with new spatial possibilities.

Alex Evans originally trained for a BA (Hons) in Drama at The University of Hull and an MA in Visual Language of Performance at Wimbledon School of Art. His work has been exhibited nationally in galleries including MK Gallery, London Art Fair and the Anise Gallery. His award-winning international projects include multi-disciplinary collaborations and residencies in Australia, Japan, the Maldives and across Europe. Alex is currently the first artist in residence at Tower Bridge London. He lives and works in London.