Line & Surface: Simon J Harris, Steven MacIver, Henrietta Dubrey and Mark Beattie

Sarah Wiseman Gallery is proud to present ‘Line & Surface’, an exhibition examining the work of Simon J Harris, Steven MacIver, Henrietta Dubrey and Mark Beattie, making connections across the fields of painting and sculpture.

The four artists each have a confident, individual voice but their work is connected by their use of strong line and colour as well as a preoccupation with abstraction. Established artists Simon J Harris, Steven MacIver and Henrietta Dubrey all bring a unique interpretation to the medium of oil on canvas while Mark Beattie, a young sculptor who burst onto the London art scene a couple of years ago, brings a freshness of approach to formalistic pieces.

Simon J Harris paintings have a cinematic presence and are concerned with the idea of abstraction and place emphasis on interaction between the viewer and the surface of the artwork. Having recently completed his PhD in Fine Art Practice to high critical acclaim, Simon has thrown himself into an extraordinarily refined approach to his artistic practice. Working with intensely pigmented layers of oil on fine linen, he 'traps' the image in between the layers of the paint, creating a sumptuous high-gloss finish just like a piece of celluloid film. His paintings are large-scale with a potent, awe-inspiring presence.

 Steven MacIver has his second NYC solo exhibition at Dillon Gallery running concurrently with 'Line & Surface'. Steven will show two new,  larger works from his most recent output, focusing on the power of line in painting and the space it creates within the two-dimensional plane.

Henrietta Dubrey's bold use of line and colour to communicate space and physical connection have long captivated collectors of her work. Henrietta describes her works as "autobiographical deconstructions and reconstructions of life, appearing on the canvas as an abstract gestural web, occasionally tangled, occasionally bold and resolved." They have a clarity and maturity to their free spirited but sparse composition with a wonderful sense of directness and immediacy.

The sculptor Mark Beattie works with an intriguing concept that explores the circle and globe with flashes of neon. Using copper and neon strips and tubes, Mark twists them into elegant forms that are captivating and alluring. Mark won the 2015 Xerxes Sculpture Competition at Serpentine Sackler Gallery and is successfully showing in London at art fairs and in gallery exhibitions. 'Line & Surface' marks the first time that Mark exhibits in Oxford and is an important introduction to the Gallery as an original voice in a difficult medium.