Allan Bech’s works are often described as surreal and metaphoric. He works within the fields of the irrational and subconscious which is most apparent when pencil is applied to paper, drawing what comes to my mind. Finding inspiration in everyday life, Bech meanders his environment collecting thoughts on scraps of paper. His beautifully detailed works are a catalogue of the mundane events of the everyday. Bech creates his own perception in life, a unique vision of the world.

Biography

Allan Bech (born 1983) had his first exhibition at Gallery V58, back in 2010. The architect, C.F. Møller offered him a solo-exhibition at their headquarters. He studied at Aarhus School of Architecture, Jutland Art Academy before returning to Aarhus School of Architecture. Allan Bech was associated to V58 from November 2010 to October 2013, before moving to Copenhagen, where he now resides and works. He recently returned to Aarhus as he was invited to do a wall piece near the city’s cultural centre, Godsbanen. In 2014 he will exhibit in Denmark, Norway and at PAPER in the UK.

Untitled Profile Pictures is an ongoing drawing project in which Jemima has experimented with the visual translation of a virtual social structure in a series of drawings of Facebook profile pictures. From the lo-res pixilated images of ‘profile pictures’ she has made to date nearly 200 drawings of her own Facebook friends (always choosing an image from their profile pictures in order that the choice of image is their choice for a public image). For her presentation at PAPER, Jemima will show a selection of these drawings selected from PAPER’s and Jemima’s mutual Facebook friends.

Biography

Jemima Brown is based in London and has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally since graduating from an MA at Chelsea School of Art in 1995. She was selected for New Contemporaries 1997, and her work has been included in exhibitions at the Royal Academy and the Pompidou Centre in Paris. She has also had solo exhibitions with Vilma Gold, Rosie Wilde, and the Agency in London. Past awards have included a Fulbright Scholarship at UCLA, Los Angeles, and the Cocheme Fellowship at Byam Shaw, University of the Arts. In 2011 she received the Mark Tanner Sculpture Award, at Standpoint in London.

Carole Cluer’s work explores whether it is possible to create memories through the act of drawing. Carefully drawn from her imagination, various ephemera give weight to the unreal through trompe l’oeil style effects. Carole constructs an alternative future or past within various objects such as a hat, a coat or a wallet, each meticulously recreated by hand in pencil.

Biography

Carole Cluer completed her Masters at Sheffield Hallam University in 2014. She was included in Everyday Illusions at PAPER.

Annabel Dover was recently undertook a residency at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge. Her work was included in the Jerwood Drawing Prize in 2010. She recently exhibited in Catalyst at the IWMN, Salford.

Simon Leahy-Clark's practice stems from an investigation into the potential of everyday ephemeral materials and possibilities within drawing, painting and image making. His current work is focused on newspapers, exploring the inherent qualities of this everyday material/object and exploiting the form and information within, while also bringing to the fore the tactile nature of the paper itself. The collage works use remnants from previous work – cut out pictures are re-assembled anew, becoming a collection of imagery as well as a single image. The ‘master’ images depict abandoned spaces or objects, or are otherwise inbetween or transitory areas. The work fluctuates between its constituent parts and the overall picture. The experience of looking remains in constant flux.

Biography

Simon Leahy-Clark (b. 1973, Cardiff) studied Fine Art at Middlesex University (1996-1999). Selected exhibitions include ArtWorks Open, Barbican Art Trust (2014, 2013, 2011, 2010); The Distance Between, Bond House Gallery, London; NeoArt Prize, Bolton (2013); Photo/Print Open, Charlie Dutton Gallery (2013); Creekside Open (2013, 2007); Collectible, ZAP, London (2012); Jerwood Drawing Prize (2011, 2008); RA Summer Exhibition (2014, 2011); Crash, Charlie Dutton Gallery (2010); Core Open, London (2010); So What's Different Today, Globe Gallery, Newcastle (2010); The National Open Art Competition, Chichester (2009); 40 Artist 40 Drawing, The Drawing Gallery, Shropshire (2009); Re:Drawing, Oriel Davies Gallery, Newtown (2008); 13th Yoshihara Memorial Exhibition, Osaka Contemporary Arts Centre, winner Gutai Group Prize (2005), Aftershock, 1a Space, Hong Kong (2004); Faith, Transition Gallery, London (2004); Oriel Mostyn 12, Llandudno (2002). Solo exhibitions include Library, Westminster Reference Library (2012); From the Lagado Academy, CAS Gallery, Osaka, (2005), supported by the British Council. He lives and works in London.

Ellie MacGarry makes drawings, paintings and painted objects which are awkward or clunky; unusual spatial configurations are set up through the use of surface effects and jarring colour relationships.

Biography

Ellie MacGarry was born in Cambridge, UK in 1991. She studied Fine Art at the University of Leeds, graduating in 2014. She now lives and works in Leeds, UK.

Leanne Richardson's work focuses on appropriation and reproduction to create an illusion of questioning the use of materials, to show how advertising plays with senses in seducing the viewer. By creating one off reproductions to include animals, creates absurdity and uses their vulnerability to entice the viewer. Collage shows this use of reprodcution in magazines and the animalistic society we live in of discarding everything we no longer desire. By using paper in the same way as paint, Richardson creates an illusion of what materials are being used, manipulating judgements like advertising has the ability to do.

Biography

Leanne Richardson graduated in 2012 from Manchester Metropolitan University with a BA Hons in Fine Art. Leanne has been included in Making Faces, The Chapel Gallery, Ormskirk (2014); Silent Auction, Holden Gallery, Manchester (2012); Nine, Kraak Gallery, Manchester (2011). In 2013 she had a two-person exhibition with Lucy May Schofield at PAPER.

Stephanie Shaw's work has been an ongoing enquiry into building relationships between pre-existing imagery, found materials, and her own mark making, by playing with form, colour, texture, and scale. The juxtapositions and interactions in these relationships create tension, opening up dialogue between forms. She is interested in how the artist can influence viewers' perception and interpretation. Through the destabilising effect of collage on visual and contextual knowledge, the viewer's control is disturbed and questioned. Using mixed media, painting and drawing, she is; therefore, trying to create a space whereby the process is apparent and the artist is present.

Biography

Stephanie is from York, and has recently completed a degree in Illustration at Manchester School of Art. She lives and works in Manchester.

‘Show and Tell’ is a series of ongoing works which explore how clothing is used by specific groups of men as a status symbol within their communities. The portraits, created on paper and onto walls, depict faceless young men often turned with their backs to the viewer. By obscuring the identity of her subjects, invites an audience to scrutinise the 'information' available - clothing, hair and jewellery - in order to complete the portrait. The works investigate expressions of individuality, conformity and stereotyping.

Biography

Barbara Walker is an artist based in Birmingham, England. Her practice is inspired by the social, polical and cultural realities that inform her life and lives of those around her. Working primarily in drawing and painting, her work adressess issues such as class, represantation, power, and belonging. Recent exhibitions, Tiwani Contemporary, London, UK (2013) The Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham, UK (2013), Depthford X, London, UK (2012),The New Art Gallery Walsall( 2011) , Luminous Language, Launch F18,New York, US (2013), Fehily Contemporary, Melbourne Austraila (2012), The New Art Exchange, Notingham,UK (2010), East International 09, Norwich (2009). Walker was recently included in Modern Painter's 100 Artists to Watch.

Graham Watson’s practice is a continuation of the Surrealist practice which aims to resolve the contradictory conditions of dream and reality. Using image appropriation and traditional cut and paste techniques to create collages primarily concerned with the evocation of the magical, a childhood sense of wonder, and possibility and consequently nostalgia, it’s power both equally ecstatic and melancholic. Watson embraces free association in his practice and avoids narrative an underlying impetus often pervades the work.

Biography

Graham Watson (born 1974) lives and works in the Lake District. Graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in 1996. Played nationally and internationally as former drummer in art band ‘Black Basque’. Recent exhibitions include: ‘1964’ P.S. Mirabel Manchester 2014, ‘End of the Line’ Paper Gallery Manchester 2013, ‘Yellow’ Rheged Gallery Penrith 2013, C-Arts Open Studio Cumbria 2013. Residency and exhibition at Rogue Studios Project Space Manchester 2011.