SPACE

12 Nov - 4 Dec 2004

Tom Hackney, Gordon Cheung, Mauro Bonacina, Mark McGreevy, Emi Avora, Sarah Barnes, Willem Weisman, William Stein.

Tom Hackney drew upon the nostalgia of his collection of 1950s and 60s North American slides to produce this series of striking photorealist paintings. The glowing images embody the idealism of the era and capture the ethos of the American celebration of landscape. The terrain is often desolate and eerie like a scene from 1970s sci-fi; a futuristic staging with an overwhelming retrospective ambience.

The paintings are made directly from the artist observing the 3D images through his hand-held ‘View-Master’ slide viewer. As the series develops, the observational process begins to move beyond a painted transcription of landscape. The artist’s focus shifts back from the illusion of three-dimensional space, and settles on the beams of refracted light passing from the tiny bulb through the slide, which are teased apart into variegated halos of colour as they pass through the viewing lenses. The curved shape of the ‘View-Master’ slides appears again in the shape of the canvases. Encasing the paintings behind glass further removes their surface and holds this strange and distant scenery, like the original stereographs, in stasis.

Tom Hackney was born in Taunton, Somerset in 1977. He studied Foundation Art and Design in Somerset and graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University in BA Fine Art in 2000. He has exhibited widely in Manchester and London. He lives and works in London.

Gordon Cheung MA graduated from the Royal College in 2001. Mauro Bonacina MA graduated from Goldsmiths College in 2003. Mark McGreevy MA Fine Art graduated from University of Ulster in 2003. Emi Avora MA graduated from the Royal Academy in 2002. Sarah Barnes BA graduated from Edinburgh College in 2002. Willem Weisman MA graduated from Goldsmiths College in 2004. William Stein BA graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2000.

Tom Hackey is the winner of the BOC Emerging Artist Award 2003/4. In the words of Sir Peter Blake RA, one of the five judges: “ The BOC Award is unique because it specifically supports art graduates wishing to pursue a professional career. We chose Tom because we believe his painting is exceptional now – and shows great promise for the future.” The award supports promising young artists based in the UK with a grant of £20,000 to the winner, with up to five additional discretionary awards of £1,000 each to runners-up.