Material Matters, Fitzrovia Gallery, London UK
Philip & Charles Gurrey are pleased to announce the opening of Material Matters a joint exhibition which brings together two artists fascinated by the material wrought-ness of the art object. Son and Father Philip and Charles Gurrey have never exhibited work together before and this exciting new exhibition connects their deliberate and separate practices for the first time through a commitment to their given mediums.
The work in this exhibition explores themes of war, history, politics and power. These works are framed by an explicit commitment to truth, form and process and both of their very separate material investigations, though firmly grounded within the traditions of their given mediums, let ‘nothing inherited go unchallenged’[1]. The layers of meaning within the creation and reception of these artworks shows us that not experience alone but only thought that is fully saturated in experience is key to developing any understanding or notion of truth within art.
Philip Gurrey (b. 1984, York) received a Postgraduate Degree from the Glasgow School of Art in 2012 and a BA from GSA in 2007. He has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Madder139 Gallery, London (2008) the Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London (2012) and the Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling (2017). Selected group exhibitions at Nottingham Art Gallery (2017), Tat Art Barcelona (2017), No20 London (2017), The Mercer Art Gallery Harrogate (2016, 2013), Glasgow International (2016), the CCA Glasgow (2015), Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati (2014), Altered Esthetics in Minniapolis (2014), Museum Dr. Guislain in Ghent (2013), the Glue Factory in Glasgow (2013), Fondation Frances in France (2012), the University of Helsinki (2012), Siena Art Institute (2011), The Mall Galleries London (2009), the Kowalsky Gallery London (2009) and the Mark Moore Gallery in Los Angeles (2008).
Charles Gurrey (b. 1953, Thurso) received a Postgraduate Degree from St John’s College, Cambridge in 1981 and a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Baliol College Oxford in 1979. He has completed public art projects at Dunorlan Park in Tunbridge Wells, for the Vale of Glamorgan Council, at Bletchley Park, for Bradford Cathedral and at Greatham in Hartlepool. His architectural and ecclesiastical work includes Guildford Cathedral, the Westwater Building in St Helier, Jersey, York Minster, Arthington Park Yorkshire, Blackburn Cathedral and Ripon Cathedral. He has exhibited at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester (2000), Wolseley Fine Arts London (2005) and at the New Art Centre, Roche Court Wiltshire (2008).
[1] Theodor Adorno Aesthetic Theory Continuum London 1997 p.30