the flux review

Tony Black’s bold and gutsy style – influenced by Pop Art, German Expressionism and Fauvism – is rooted in the kind of spontaneous art he enjoyed in his childhood, filling endless notepads with colourful and striking images.

Özlem Thompson was born in Istanbul, and although interested in art from a very early age, she obtained an undergraduate degree in biology and completed her master’s degree in botany with a thesis on the subject of ‘Exotic Plants and Their Usage in Industrial Design’.

John A Blythe is an artist and educator based in Oxfordshire. His practice is situated in and beyond the realm of light and time-based image-making. Blythe's interest is as much in the process as it is in the subject. In Blythe's current work, he is interested in the...

Samantha Louise Emery was born in London during the summer of 1968 to British fashion model Jenifer Wontner and Canadian Olympic Gold Medallist Victor Emery. Her late grandfather Sir Hugh Wontner became Lord Mayor of London in 1973 and her late great-grandfather was Arthur Wontner prolific British actor who famously portrayed Sherlock Holmes in many successful feature films throughout the 1930s.

Shelly Cook 49, was born in Reading but with family roots in Cornwall, she finally felt she came ‘home’ 25 years ago. Cornwall’s rugged industrial landscapes, beautiful coastlines and rich mineral heritage have driven her creatively for all these years

The experience of growing up on Paros, an island in the Aegean Sea in Greece, and Dimitra Skandali’s journey since then to build a community across the oceans, is central to her work. Carrying her island with her everywhere and it shapes the way she sees the world. Creating installations inspired by their exhibition spaces weaving together found elements from those locales to create ethereal forms; reminders of the sea, with its openness and possibilities, as well as its fragile and unstable limitations. The process of familiarizing herself with these new places through the search for materials helps to weave together points of connection in an ever-expanding web, even if only temporarily.

Delighted to be showcasing the work of Emily Shih who is Inspired by daily life, beautiful scenery and things that touch her heart. Shih is fascinated by colour and the journey of living. Through art, Shih can express her truth. 

Commodore takes urban walls from drab slabs to beautiful canvases. His stencils aim to evoke action from a static element. The subject matter I focus on varies but tends to evoke nostalgia or movement.

Belinda Pearce is a flamboyant character, a creative artist unafraid to experiment in order to achieve unique yet collectable canvasses. Pearce paints with passion, choosing subject-matter dear to her heart.

Evelyn Polk’s work is centred around the found object, but also overlaps with notions of excavation and the land. Acting as a mediator, selecting and presenting items for the consideration of the viewer. The process of how he works is dictated by the objects he finds. 

Drawing on personal experience and inspired by human anatomy and psychoanalytic theory,  Kim explores desire as the main subject matter alongside the concept of life and death.

In her theory, all things stem from desire and it varies depending on how the person’s desire appears. The human figure is a recurring theme and Kim’s obsession with the human body started when she was young after experiencing a rare body condition and medical examinations as part of her daily life.

William Reinsch is a young artist who is perhaps one of the most exciting new talents at work in the UK today. An astounding ability with figurative work, work which conveys as much about  Reinsch as an artist as it does about the subjects he paints. Working from his studio in Essex, Reinsch is what the art world classes as an “outsider”, an artist with huge talent and yet not the product of formal art school training; perhaps in this instance, such training may have been counter-productive.

Peter Basden is an artist that produces candid, observational photography that attempts to capture a personal interpretation of honest, in-between, unposed moments. All of his photographs are made with persistence, patience, 35mm film and a small manual camera.

Hannah Sullivan is a young British artist living and working in Manchester. 

Self-taught or art school?

I’m currently studying at Manchester School of Art in the UK, and am about to enter my graduate year.

If you could own one work of art what would it be?

Antoni Tapiés ‘Rinzen’ (Rinzen being Japanese for “sudden awakening”). I saw this in Barcelona last year, and it completely captivated me. The scale of the work is astronomical and completely overwhelming. I like the familiarity of the bed and the mess, and how destructive it feels floating in the air. This was displayed alongside one of his larger cement paintings that upon reflection tonally could have been a suggestion of a mattress. The contrasting ideas between harsh, physical materials and the more empathetic/understood ideas around what it is to be human is something I take a lot of interest in.

Batool Showghi was born in Iran and moved to England in 1985. She received a merit for her MA in Design & Media Arts from the University of Westminster in 1997 just after finishing her BA honours from the London Guildhall University. In 2001 she received a Certificate of Education from the University of Westminster. While continuing her art practice, she taught at Harrow College from 1998 until 2015 as a part-time lecturer. Since then she has dedicated her time to her art and exhibiting her work in both solo and group exhibitions in England and abroad.

Former broadcaster and artist Robin Ross has admitted to finding some cunning ways of escaping the clutches of the law in his youth. The 69-year-old, who grew up in St Annes, was one of many budding DJs pursuing a career in radio and started out the only way he knew – on pirate stations.

Born St. Andrews, Roanne O’Donnell is an award-winning Scottish painter currently working on the series, ‘Surface Work’. She studied Drawing and Painting at the prestigious Edinburgh College of Art and went on to obtain a Masters in Contemporary European Fine Art in Barcelona. After 18 years of professional practice in Northern Norway, she now has her studios in Andalucia and Fife, Scotland.