For the past ten years Jonathan Ross has had an annual Christmas Show at his Gallery 286 in London’s Earl’s Court. But just to show he is not a slave to tradition he is having a New Year Show instead to welcome in 2014.
The format is similar, an eclectic mix of artists who show regularly at the gallery, alongside some recent discoveries. And the thing about 286 has always been its diversity. As Jonathan Ross puts it “I have always been interested in a wide variety of art and I expect the sort of people who come to the gallery to feel the same”.
Well-known for his world-class collection of holographic art Jonathan is married to sculptor Camilla Shivarg, who works in the traditional medium of clay, and between their interests in the hand-made and the high-tech can be found their many artist friends and associates.
In the past year, for example, 286 has featured Holography from 3D Capsicum, Light Art from Andrew Ryder, a survey of Still Life, musical Abstractionist Mark Fry, landscape and portrait artist Minna Stevens, and a new technique of resin painting from Japanese artist Ricca Kawai Kalderon.
The New Year Show brings together 30 artists whose mediums of choice range from pinhole photography to lenticular prints, from quirky ceramics to jewellery crafted from Soviet relics and Thames riverbank diggings, from exquisite portraits, landscape and still life paintings to affordable lino cuts and etchings. And of course there are sculptures from Camilla and holograms from Jonathan’s long-term associate David Pizzanelli.
Another 286 regular, Carolyn Gowdy, has created a Winter Wonderland in her inimitable style, within which she invites visitors to sit for a uniquely styled Poem Portrait. That’s something you won’t find anywhere else!
But 286 is not just another gallery. Situated in a Victorian terraced house on the edges of fashionable Kensington & Chelsea, it is also the home of its director and his wife and visitors are attracted as much by the intimate atmosphere of the house, where a gas-log fire burns on cold winter nights, and the fabulous garden created by Camilla, where guests enjoy Summer evenings in a veritable London Oasis, as they are by the art and artists they encounter there.