Ronchini Gallery London will present Dream No Small Dreams curated by Bartholomew F.Bland, Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Hudson River Museum. The exhibition features work by Adrien Broom, Thomas Doyle and Patrick Jacobs - three New York-based artists known for their depictions of artificial landscapes and alternative realities.
Exploring the renaissance of interest among artists worldwide in constructing small-scale hand-built artificial environments, intricate new worlds are presented in miniature as dioramas, models, sculptures, and photographs. Drawing from a variety of pictorial traditions including the 18th century concept of the Sublime, the Hudson River School and American Transcendentalism, the work of these artists puts the world under a microscope to reflect on the human experience.
Adrien Broom's Frames of Mind series of photographs captures fantastical imagined landscapes created through building miniature sets. With a cinematic approach to photography, Broom creates illusions that play between reality and fantasy, emphasising the imaginative impulse. Her images are densely narrative, exploring universal themes of childhood, loss and the anxiety of modern life through these constructed scenes.
Thomas Doyle carefully sculpts tiny scenes of destruction, disaster and mayhem encased in glass domes. At the centre of his work is the iconic American clapboard house which can be seen teetering on the brink of sinkholes or cut in half. Figurines are surrounded by apocalyptic chaos yet betray little emotion in their faces. They trudge along with suitcases or bury the dead, inviting viewers to be absorbed in the crucibles and memories they elicit. His work serves as a metaphor not only for the global economic crisis, but more profoundly for the idea that the traditional American homestead is not the safe haven we all presume it to be.
Patrick Jacobs produces miniature sculptures of hyper-realistic environments embedded into walls and viewed through glass portholes. Viewed at close range, his works are lit from within, revealing themselves with fisheye luminosity. Working with materials like paper, plastic, acrylic gel and metal, Jacobs constructs three-dimensional landscape dioramas. The idealised, incandescent green expanses characteristic in Jacobs work initially seem to provide a respite from the increasingly anxious and paranoid world. The sculptures offer the viewer an isolated view of an attractive alternate reality that always remains eerily out of reach.
Creating work through intense engagement with materials and attention to detail, these artists share a passion for scale and the impact it has on perception.
CREDITS.-
Exhibition.- Dream No Small Dreams.
Curator.- Bartholomew F. Bland.
Venue.- Ronchini Gallery London. 22 Dering Street, London.
Dates.- 6 September to 5 October 2013.
Opening hours.- Monday-Friday 10.00h - 18.00h. Saturday 10.00h - 17.00h.
