Susannah Douglas is concerned with the representation of the human figure through the conventions of portraiture. She plunders images from a range of sources; art historical examples, via photocopies; anonymous photographs uploaded to the Internet and glossy magazine spreads. These fragments are spliced together, the poses, gestures, attire and composition are examined, repeated, reconstructed and reflect back upon themselves.

Biography

Susannah Douglas lives and works in London. She graduated from Wimbledon College of Art with an MA in Fine Art in 2010. Her work has recently been exhibited at Bermondsey Project, London and in Bristol as part of Incub8; Motorcade Flashparade's series of solo exhibitions by selected emerging artists. In 2013 she was selected for the Jerwood Drawing Prize, The Griffin Art Prize, and Art Laguna. In 2014 she will have a solo show at the Globe Gallery in Newcastle and a two-person show at PAPER.

Phil Hopkins’ drawings have a devotional quality. Drawing on the humble, mundane materials and images that dominate our everyday experience, they worry away at them until their physicality and their meaning is transformed. The kitsch poetry of paint-colour names on DIY store colour charts carry the pathos of suburban aspiration, and catalogues of furniture or consumer goods reveal the ways in which we strive to assert our individuality within the limitations of commodified options. These are carefully chosen surfaces on which to draw, and their sheen of advertised sophistication is erased when Hopkins works with these materials. The erasure takes place not decisively, not cleanly, but partially, hesitantly, by means of a roughly scumbled layer of paint reminiscent of the white-smeared surface of windows behind which redecoration work is taking place. The schematic image of the house, and the narrow line of the garden path, ubiquitous in Hopkins' work over many years, remind us simultaneously of a place of refuge and a place of confinement. They signify both the private home of the 'nuclear family' and the social space of the housing estate, embodying both the separateness of the individual and the uniformity of the mass. (Derek Horton, 2014)

Biography

Born in Bristol England, Phill Hopkins studied at Goldsmiths College in London. He lives and works in Leeds. Known as a sculptor, his recent work has centred predominately around drawing. He was recently included in Becky Beasley’s ‘I Fall to Pieces’ (named after his piece) at Leeds City Art Gallery; Catalyst: Contemporary Art and War - Imperial War Museum North, Salford and Parallel Lines & Model Gallery, Leeds. He is represented in various public collections, including, Imperial War Museum, London; Stadt Dortmund, Germany; Hungarian Museum of Photography and Leeds City Art Gallery.

Richard Meaghan's works on paper are born from imaginations, thoughts and inventions manifested in oil and graphite. Their varied beginnings invariably start with questions of human existence and why we are here. From the cosmological to the merely topical, Meaghan's thoughts take on an evolutionary journey from ancient history and theology to ideas of globalization, control and political agenda. Here, with world affairs as they are with climate change and genetic engineering Meaghan's landscapes often have eschatological connotations that could be depictions of our future or echoes of our past.

Biography

Richard Meaghan (born 1970) lives an works in Liverpool. He has exhibited nationally and internationally as artist and curator. Recent exhibitions: 'Lure & the Seducer' Christoffer Egelund, Copenhagen (2009) 'Getting off at Edge Hill' Metal, Liverpool (2009) Liverpool Art Prize (2009) FACT (2010), Cornerhouse, 'The Last Adventure of the Great Alonso, Primo Alonso, London (2011), Liverpool Biennial (2012) 'Beautiful Things' Next Door Projects, Liverpool (2013)

Jenny Steele’s practice explores the relationships between our occupation of digital space and physical space, their corresponding architectures, and our suggested movement within these spaces. She has recently been focusing on tracking inhabitation within the urban spaces of the North West. She explores her ideas through the processes of animation, printmaking, bookmaking and drawing.

Biography

Jenny Steele has been practicing as an artist for ten years, and is a graduate of MFA at Goldsmiths (2007) and BA Fine Art (First Class) at DJCAD (2002). She exhibits internationally, and has undertaken residencies in the UK and China. She is currently Artist in Residence at Manchester School of Art, and is completing a commission for InCertainPlaces (Preston). She has also recently been shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize 2012.

Simon Woolham's work is concerned primarily with occupied spaces and the narratives that unfold in them. His drawings of school playing fields, junked underpasses and the like often contain text with the tone of dialogue. Through these glimpses of speech the dilapidated environments come to life in a skint version of enchantment: a tree stump or a broken fence are filled with the meanings of the events that go on around and about them. In his attempts to unearth this unpredictable and fragile process of memory, he uses biro drawings, paper interventions, animation, video and text.

Biography

Simon Woolham is currently based in Macclesfield. He has exhibited widely, including solo exhibitions at the Lowry in Salford and Chapter Gallery in Cardiff, as well as numerous national and international group exhibitions. In 2008 he was included in the first Tatton Park Biennial and in 2006 he was Artist-in-Residence at the Baltic in Gateshead. He won the Mostyn Open 11 at Oriel Mostyn in 2001.