GOLD

Toni Davey   Jane Harris   Carali McCall   Anna Mossman
Katherine Perrins   Alice Temperley   Denise Webber

Exhibition: 2-22 Dec 2023 & 4-20 Jan 2024

Opening event: 1-3pm, Saturday 2 December 2023

Venue: CLOSE Ltd, Close House, Hatch Beauchamp, Somerset TA3 6AE

Join us in an investigation of gold’s historical and iconographic use in the history of art. These works all reference the individual artists' own practices and demonstrate the continued importance of gold as an inherently potent idea, material, colour and pigment in contemporary art. Gold can adopt meanings of value, status, position within a hierarchical structure, or the divine. In magical contexts it can be perceived as a material with inherent powerful qualities. The symbolic nature of gold has been a means of communication between humans and a spiritual world. We see this in golden objects, in beliefs and perceptions of gold, and the significance of gold in religious and magical traditions and ceremonies.

We welcome this wealth of female artists to CLOSE and celebrate in unison for all we are grateful for. Through these works we send out a longing for peace and harmony. As we look forward to a new year, we approach with optimism and a gentle asking for love and unity in the world. That is Golden.

Toni Davey, whose work features above, has used gold in many of her recent works: gold leaf, metallic ink, studs and paper. A trip to Morocco had demonstrated how intense decoration and the use of metallic pigment and materials can make the humble appear very precious. The richness of shiny materials and their use became a comforting element during the Covid lockdown. 

This exhibition comes just ahead of the late Jane Harris’ retrospective at MÉCA museum Bordeaux following her sad passing almost exactly one year ago. Harris’ later works were well known for her use of the iridescent pigment, something that is used to exquisite and mesmeric effect in her gold elliptical pieces; the pigment heightening the luminosity of the works and the movement of the eye as it travels across the surface of the canvas. The starting point for Jane’s use of metallic pigments was the Aluminium paintings of Frank Stella, but as art historian Camille de Singly writes in her essay for ‘Surface to Edge: Painting Light’ in 2014; ‘This use of pigments incorporating iron and aluminium oxides and titanium dioxide coated mica, creates a liaison between decorative and fine art.’ Such works speak to wholeness, harmony and celebration. 

Carali McCall has found that gold offers an element that can represent the spiritual. These works combine pigments and powdered gold with solvents. After the paper is cut, folded and prepared McCall performs by drawing one continuous line with graphite in an attempt to exhaust the materials. Consisting of a collection of durational-drawing artworks, in which McCall draws with graphite on paper with pre-treated materials such as gold, silver and red and blue gouache, these time-based works have been compiled and then each layer cut; exploring the depth and sculptural means of malleable drawing materials. Each work is hand-cut in the shape of a circle that unveils and supersedes the work that came before. We are excited to have McCall in this show and also as a new member of the CLOSE group of represented artists.

Anna Mossman introduces a new series of drawings which explore the relationship between iconic geometry and gold. They extend her use of directional line where time, movement and the hand combine to form meticulous, methodically constructed weaves. This body of work includes ‘First Orb’ 2023, which will feature in the Gold exhibition and on this year’s CLOSE Christmas card.

Katherine Perrins is an accomplished painter who derives much of her influence from the work of Giorgio Morandi. Perrins’ depicts the ordinary and the quotidian, and in this exhibition she has taken two everyday objects, her baby’s sippy cup and spoon, and used the gilding process to highlight the preciousness of these typically overlooked items. In gold, these ordinary objects transform to become jewel-like treasures, and honour a sacred time in the mother and child relationship. Like Morandi, the objects were then arranged and painted borrowing a warm golden palette of colours inspired by his work ‘Still Life’, 1957. 

We are excited to present the work of Alice Temperley MBE in a fine art context. Temperley is a famous fashion designer whose work is inspired by early Hollywood, glamour and boho chic, much of her references using motifs from the natural environment of Somerset where she grew up and continues to practice. The designer was nicknamed ‘Magpie’ by her family for her love for all things that sparkle, and we welcome her intricate works into this exhibition.

For Denise Webber gold is strongly associated with her childhood. She writes, “There were traditional goldsmiths on the island where I grew up. Their delicate jewellery was a celebration of life's milestones. Every evening they carefully swept up the gold lemel and dust from their wooden workbenches and weighed it in miniature scales. Girls had their earlobes pierced young, even as babies. My own ears were pierced in the hour before siesta by an Armenian jeweller using a device resembling a leather-punch. Older women spoke of their jewellery as an insurance against an unknowable future. When we had styes, my mother rubbed our eyelids with her wedding ring. The cabaret girls put sequins and cowries into my hands as we sat together on the beach. Gold gave me memories of the body, of vows and of persistence.” We are delighted to show Denise’s multi-disciplinary practice for the first time at CLOSE.

Toni Davey, the Estate of Jane Harris, Carali McCall, Anna Mossman and Katherine Perrins are all represented by CLOSE. For more information, please see our website.

Visits throughout the exhibition are welcome by appointment, book online HERE Or email [email protected]

Thursday 10am - 3pm

Friday 10am - 3pm

Saturday 10am - 1pm