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| Marc Gooderham with The Ghost of Southwark Street |
As the tail end of hurricane Gonzalo lashed Britain, I
found myself near London’s Petticoat Lane and with time to burn, having turned
up rather too early for the opening of a new exhibition.
Shelter from the intermittent downpours and whipping
wind was available around a corner in The Bell – and if ever you wanted a
simple illustration of how this part of the city has changed – and is changing
– then here it was.
Just a decade ago, you’d have ventured inside with a
certain caution.
Now, although the décor remains authentic, the crowd
is rather more booted and suited than once it would have been, there are comfy
sofas to relax in and, while the young lass at the bar is pierced and tattooed,
she’s also perfectly happy to discuss the two rosés that the pub serves – one
from either side of the Catalan Pyrenees.
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| Christ Church, Spitalfields |
It was an entirely appropriate taster for the main
course ahead.
A London
Eye: Three Artists Look, gives a trio of painters the
opportunity to show their different interpretations of the city in one place.
Although this isn’t a solo show, it’s dominated by the
work of Marc Gooderham – 22 works as opposed to 12 and 10 from the other
artists here.
Writing briefly about Gooderham’s work previously,
I’ve touched on how he finds beauty in the run-down and the derelict, complete
with street art – often faithfully captured in his hyper-real acrylic works.
While there are paintings here, there are also works
in graphite and chalk, giving a great idea of the artist’s range.
Christ
Church, Spitalfields, a beautiful chalk on black paper,
has a delicate, spectral quality about it.
It’s the antithesis of The Ghost of Southwark Street, a large acrylic on canvas that catches
the eye as soon as you enter the gallery.
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| Blue Skies |
Here, in a way, is the epitome of what interests
Gooderham, as he explained. It’s not just the derelict – or even the past – but
the constantly changing landscape; the process of transformation.
He captures a part of the past that is still with us –
even as some of it is about to be razed to the ground or changed into something
considered more apt for the new bustle that is London.
Indeed, even documenting the street art and graffiti
captures part of that transformation – many of Gooderham’s subjects are in a
part of town where street art has developed into having commercial pull for
visitors.
The Bell – indeed, the entire area around Spitalfields – is all part of the transformation (for good or bad) that is taking place almost on a day-to-day basis.
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| Wilton's Music Hall |
Many of these subjects are places I’m familiar with:
Christ Church, Wilton’s Music Hall, the Rio Cinema in Dalston and the Regent’s
Canal in Hackney are pretty much my patch, so they have a particular personal
resonance.
The works show such places as rather worn, yet still
glorious for all that, and with an atmosphere to match.
It’s all achieved with a satisfying variety of
techniques, from the hyper-real acrylics to a rather looser style (The Blue House), the softness of
graphite and chalk, and the near-abstraction of Blue Skies.
It is also, of course, a call to look at and explore
our built environment – and most particularly where you least expect: to look and
find the unexpected glories that the urban world has to offer.
Try it some day. You can even do it on the nightmare
that is Oxford Street: cast your eyes above street level and there is a
different and fascinating architectural world to be discovered.
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| London Face |
Miranda Benzies’s work offers a very different
perspective – her London Faces series is an intriguing and surreal world where
iconic aspects of the city are reimagined into human faces – a London Eye car
becomes an eye, for instance, as in the eponymous London Face.
In London Lady,
a red phone box becomes a mouth – which did remind me of the anecdote about Max
Bygraves telling Julie Andrews how to speak Cockerney for My Fair Lady: “just open your mouth like a letter box and it all
comes out!”
There are also landscapes here that convey London –
and particularly the Thames – in a different and sometimes rather darker way.
The execution is excellent – Benezies’s works are all
in oil, with a very fine finish
Nicholas Borden paints en plein air – which is a challenge in itself in the bustle of
London – and explores the city in bold, bright and deceptively simple canvases.
The selection here includes oil on canvas and on wood,
plus drawings.
This may be a small exhibition, but it’s a fascinating
presentation of London – and not least, of the less well-known side of the
capital.
A London
Eye: Three Artists Look is at the Leyden Gallery, 9 Leyden
Street, E1, until 15 November.
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