yes/no: A CBP virtual open studio: co-curated with Deb Covell and Paula MacArthur and the site built by Isaac Ashby
David Ainley, Iain Andrews, Amanda Ansell, Karl Bielik, Day Bowman, Julian Brown, Simon Carter, Deb Covell, Lucy Cox, Gordon Dalton, Pen Dalton, Natalie Dowse, Fiona Eastwood, Nathan Eastwood, Susie Hamilton, Suzanne Holtom, Barbara Howey, Phil Illingworth, Linda Ingham, Paula MacArthur, David Manley, Enzo Marra, Paul Newman, Stephen Palmer, Ruth Philo, Freya Purdue, James Quin, Katherine Russell, Molly Thomson, Judith Tucker, Joanna Whittle, Sean Williams
This was chosen by Artist Newsletter as one of the top exhibitions of the week
You can download the catalogue here
Welcome to our impossible open studio, 32 painters from around the UK virtually come together for the first time in a labyrinthine studio complex – come in and explore … experiencing a painter’s studio might usually be a physical and messy experience so this time why not enjoy floating through what is a blend of video game and virtual show? In each studio space you’re given a yes/no choice of two further doors to step through, but it’s an open studio in more ways than one – so you’d better check the weather forecast, you may need an umbrella and please wash your hands before entering.
32 selected painters from Contemporary British Painting have own their space in this virtual studio and you can explore their work in progress and working environment. The show considers unresolved, unfinished or recalcitrant works, paintings which still ask questions of their makers, these works have not yet answered Yes or No but still say Maybe. The title of the show is taken from Gerhard Richter’s reference to his working process as a series of Yes/ No decisions with a final Yes to end it all. The work included focuses on the kind of decisions that all painters undertake when embarking on a painting, from the initial idea stage to the resolved and exhibited work, you will see revealed some of the uncertain moments that paintings go through, an insight into the layered time consuming process that so often lies hidden underneath that final Yes decision. The works bring painting as thought to the fore. Whatever idiom these painters use, they have all taken a risk, they have chosen to place an uncertain work into the public domain, paintings which are in-between, still open ended and fluid with that unpredictable final Yes still to come.