c4m artists news update (4)

Photographs of Valerie & Roger Dean's exhibition at Pages of Hackney

The contrasts between Chelsea and Hackney may be extreme but both have their own art communities and both are currently hosting exhibitions by commission4mission artists.

Elizabeth Duncan Meyer's sculptures form a backdrop to the conviviality which characterises the garden that becomes the meeting, greeting and eating place at the Chelsea Arts Club over the summer months. Worked in clay, stone and wood, her sculptures are minimally marked; less is more as she works with the grain of the wood and vein of the rock to create iconic figures with a gritty and emotive resilience. Her Mother and Child has the soaring upward curve of her celebrating mother balanced by the foetal curve of the child on the womb from which it has emerged, while her Face of Moses is, by contrast, scratched and scarred stone.

Roger Dean's beautifully focussed photographs of the patterning found in nature's details are entitled 'Emerging Images' but this title applies equally to the paintings of his wife, Valerie. In her work, semi-abstract figures emerge from blurred expressionist landscapes to be silhouetted by passages of light. Her Venetian scenes are saturated with light creating hazy views while, in her biblical works, light illuminates darkness and realises her characters. Pages of Hackney, which hosts their exhibition, is both an eclectic bookshop and a community and cultural hub, holding regular events and monthly exhibitions in its basement gallery.

The next exhibition featuring a commission4mission member, of which we are aware, will be a one man show by Michael Creasey at the Visual Arts Centre, Frances Bardsley School, Romford from August 23rd to 28th. More details to follow.