Roger Lougher - Babell/Tent

29th June - 14th July 

Weekends Only - 10am-5pm

Babell /\ Tent [Tirlun#2 Landscape #2]

We are presented with a landscape. Perhaps a crime scene. Is landscape genre the victim? Could the crime be aggravated assault?

Roger Lougher is playful in his search to develop a language, new to him, for making work in an old tradition.

Babell is the name of a chapel in the Epynt Mountains that is now fallen into ruin, although the graveyard is maintained. Here Babell is a translation into the Welsh of Tabernacle, the tent in which the ark of the covenant was kept. The name suggests the temporary nature of our presence in the landscape. It also suggests childhood, camping out in fields and gardens. There is perhaps the suggestion of an army encampment: further reinforced as we now understand the title refers to a place within SENTA [https://www.gov.uk/public-access-to-military-areas#sennybridge-and-epynt-way] in the Brecon Beacons. The title might inspire the viewer to journey back and forth through time and muse on the dark overtones to our games as children as we rehearse future lives. It might also bring to mind the displacement of people within countries engulfed by war or famine and remind us of the precariousness of all our existences.

Roger Lougher says, “My inspiration comes when I am working at Melin Glonc in Drefach Felindre: coppicing trees, planting hedges, scything or gardening and weeding. The artwork comes from the embodied gesture fueled by two-stroke as I flood my surroundings with the music of the chainsaw or in the case of scything moving meditatively in a cacophony of birdsong.”

Babell /\ Tent [Tirlun#2 Landscape #2]

O’n blaenau – tirlun. Efallai man lle bu trosedd. Ai tirwedd ei hunan yw’r dioddefwr? A beth yw’r drosedd – ymosodiad ffyrnig?

Mae Roger Lougher yn hoff o chwarae gyda syniadau wrth iddo geisio datblygu iaith, sydd yn newydd iddo fo, ond yn deillio o hen draddodiad. 

Enw ar gapel ym Mynyddoedd Epynt yw Babell, erbyn hyn yn adfail ond y fynwent yn dal i gael ei chynnal a’i chadw. Cyfieithiad i’r Gymraeg yw Babell o’r gair Tabernacl sef y babell lle cedwid arch y cyfamod. Mae’r enw yn awgrymu natur dros dro ein presenoldeb yn y tirlun; hefyd, plentyndod, a gwersylla yn y cae a’r ardd. O bosib, gwersyll milwrol, yn arbennig pan sylweddolwn fod y teitl yn cyfeirio at leoliad tu fewn i SENTA ym Mannau Brycheiniog [https://www.gov.uk/public-access-to-military-areas#sennybridge-and-epynt-way]. Gallai’r teitl ysbrydoli’r gwyliwr i fynd nôl trwy amser a myfyrio ar dywyllwch gemau plentyndod wrth inni ymarfer ein bywydau i ddod. Efallai ei fod yn gwneud inni feddwl am y rhai a ddadleolwyd oherwydd rhyfel a newyn; ac yn ein hatgoffa o freuder ein bodolaeth.

Dywed Roger Lougher, “Rwyf yn cael f’ysbrydoli wrth dorri coed, plannu perthi, pladuro neu chwynnu a garddio. Mae’r gwaith hwn yn deillio o symudiadau penodol wedi eu tanio gyda ‘two-stroke’ wrth imi lenwi’r goedlan gyda miwsig y llif gadwyn; neu bladuro’r gwair gan symud yn fyfyriol a gwrando ar gacoffoni cân yr adar.”

John Welson - Thirteen Flowers

Saturday 1st - Sunday 16th June 2013

Weekends only 10am-5pm

John Welson began painting at the age of 12. He received a thorough education in painting, drawing, graphics and ceramics and attended two colleges of art. He has participated in over 200 exhibitions in both private and public galleries around the world since the early 1970's. He is a key figure in the history of post-war British Surrealism having worked with artists such as Conroy Maddox, Paul Hammond and Edouard Jaguer as well as engaging with the International Surrealist movement through collaborative works with artists such as Rik Lina, Gregg Simson and Kathy Fox.  He has been involved in a spectrum of group projects such as participating in Mouvement Phases since the late 1970s and has exhibited alongside artists as diverse as Salvador Dali, Man Ray, René Magritte, Max Ernst, Lucian Freud and Damien Hirst.

From the late 1960's to the early 1990's Welson painted figurative Surrealist paintings, where inanimate objects metamorphose into beasts and human forms. In these earlier paintings, knives, saws, scissors and combs mutate into hands, horses and dissected human forms. These strange, fluid figures occupy naïve, oneiric interiors and landscapes. And, although Welson’s earlier paintings appear to manifest strange nightmare visions, they are not imagined fantasies; they tie the materiality of the world to personal memories, reflections and recollections.

Since the mid 1990's Welson has produced lyrical abstracted paintings inspired by the landscape of his native Wales. The landscape is referred to in earlier works but in these recent works, the whirling figures and fractured objects are buried in the memory of the land. His new works relate more to Max Ernst’s frottage cityscapes than they do to the English landscape tradition. Explorations of specific landscapes are key to the spirit of British surrealism but the surrealist relationship to landscape is not particularly romantic or expressionistic. Surrealism’s response to the pure abstraction of early modernism relies on the historical, psychological and physical aspects of the situations in which it finds itself and this includes explorations of the urban and rural landscape. The situation of surrealism depends on such investigations and, in many ways it is the position of Welson as of the land: a surrealist who is painter, poet and farmer. Welson’s landscape paintings depict the materiality of the landscape through carefully rendered paint that conceals as much as it reveals. Memories inhabit Welson’s landscapes: recollections of the recent and ancient past dissolve into prehistoric, amorphous forms that erupt from the hills of Radnorshire. The Welsonian landscape overflows with memory and physical desire.

The series of works shown here entitled ‘Thirteen Flowers’ demonstrate a further development of Welson’s painting where his lyrical, abstract interpretations of the Welsh landscape have been transposed to the study of still life, specifically the macro landscape of the flower. Where he transforms the rural landscape into organic forms that appear as the transmutation of land into flesh and vegetable eruptions, his flower pictures turn the folds and curves of floral structures into an erotic landscape of flowing paint. Welson’s handling of paint has been honed to an apparently effortless undulating surface yet each work is not only formally powerful but also suggestive of a personal or archetypal myth. As spectators, we inhabit the landscape of Welson’s ‘Thirteen Flowers’ as if an insect exploring the bright folds of a seductive and sensual materiality.

Tair Blodyn ar Ddeg

Dechreuodd John Welson beintio yn 12 oed. Derbyniodd addysg drwyadl mewn peintio, llunio, graffeg a serameg a mynychodd ddau goleg celf. Mae e wedi cymeryd rhan mewn dros 200 o arddangosfeydd mewn galeriau preifat a chyhoeddus o gwmpas y byd ers y 1970au cynnar. Mae yn ffigwr allweddol mewn hanes swrealaeth Prydeinig ol-rhyfel a gweithiodd gydag artistiaid fel Conroy Maddox, Paul Hammond a Edouard Jaguer yn ogystal a’i gysylltiad a’r symudiad Swrealaeth Rhyngwladol drwy gydweithio gydag artistiaid fel Rik Lina, Gregg Simson a Kathy Fox.  Mae e wedi bod yn rhan o sbectrwm o brosiectau grwp er enghraifft cymeryd rhan yn Mouvement Phases ers y 1970au hwyr ac mae wedi arddangos ei waith ochr yn ochr ag artistiaid mor amrywiol a Salvador Dali, Man Ray, René Magritte, Max Ernst, Lucian Freud a Damien Hirst.

O’r 1960au hwyr i’r  1990au cynnar mae Welson wedi paentio ffigurau swrealaidd yn ei baentiadau lle mae gwrthrychau difywyd yn metamorffio i fod yn fwystfilod a ffurffiau dynol.  Yn ei baentiadau cynnar mae cyllyll, llifau, sisyrnau a chribau yn treiglo I fod yn ddwylo, ceffylau a ffurfiau dynol dyranedig. Meddiannai y ffigyrau od, llifol yma dirwedd a mewndir naïf. Er bod gwaith cynnar Welson yn edrych fel petaent yn amlygu eu hun fel delweddau hunllefol rhyfedd, nid ydynt yn ffantasiau dychmygol; meant yn clymu materolaeth y byd i atgofion personol, adlewyrchiadau ac atgofion. 

Ers canol y 1990au mae Welson wedi creu paentiadau haniaethol telynegol sydd wedi eu hysbrydoli gan dirwedd ei gynhenid sef Cymru. Cafodd y tirwedd ei gyfeirio ato yn ei waith diweddar, mae’r ffigyrau troelledig a gwrthrychau toriedig wedi eu claddu mewn atgof o’r tir. 

Mae ei waith newydd yn perthyn yn agosach i ffrotais dinesig Max Ernst nag ydynt i draddodiad tirwedd Seisnig. Archwiliadau o dirwedd penodol yw ysbryd allweddol swrealaeth Prydeinig ond nid yw’r berthynas a’r dirwedd yn rhamantus na mynegiadol mewn gwirionedd. Mae ymateb swrealaeth i’r purdeb abstract o fodernaeth cynnar yn dibynnu ar agwedd hanesyddol, seicolegol a chorfforol y sefyllfeydd lle mae’n darganfod ei hun gan cynnwys archwiliadau o’r tirwedd trefol a gwledig.

Dibynnau sefyllfa swrealaeth ar ymchwiliadau tebyg ac mewn nifer ffordd mae’n dangos sefyllfa Welson ar y tir: swrrealydd sydd yn beintiwr, bardd a ffermwr. Darluniau paentiadau tirwedd Welson materolaeth y tirwedd drwy baent sydd wedi ei ddatgan yn ofalus ac sydd yn cuddio cymaint ag y mae yn arddangos. Mae atgofion yn byw yn Nhirweddau Welson: atgofion o’r gorffennol diweddar a’r gorffennol hynafol yn toddi i greu ffurfiau cyn hanesiol, amorffaidd sydd yn echdorri o fynyddoedd Sir Radnor.  Gorlifai tirwedd Welsonaidd gydag atgofion a chwant corfforol.

Mae’r gwaith a ddangosir yma a enwir ‘Tair Blodyn ar Ddeg’ yn arddangos datblygiad pellach yng ngwaith peintio Welson lle mae ei waith yn ddetholiad telynegol, haniaethol o’r tirwedd Cymreig sydd wedi ei drawsosod i’r astudiaeth o fywyd llonydd yn benodol tirwedd macro’r blodyn.  Lle y mae yn trawsnewid y tirwedd gwledig i fod yn ffurfiau organig sydd yn dangos y trawsnewidiad o dir i gnawd a tharddiad llysiau, troai ei luniau o flodau, y plygiadau a chrymedd strwythur blodau i fod yn dirwedd erotig o baent yn llifo. Mae ymdriniaeth Welson o baent wedi ei hogi i ymdonni arwyneb diymdrech er bod pob darn nid ond yn bwerus ond hefyd yn awgrymog o chwedl personol neu archdeipol.  Fel gwylwyr, rydym yn preswylio tirwedd ‘Tair blodyn ar ddeg’ Welson fel pry yn archwilio’r plygiadau llachar o ddeunydd deniadol a chnawdol.

Gordon Dalton - Beef To The Heel like a Mullingar Heifer

Saturday 11^th – Sunday 26^th May

Weekends 10am-5pm

Beef to the heel like a Mullingar heifer is Irish derogatory slang, but also means high quality. Gordon Dalton’s work, like a backhanded compliment, has the same anxious contradictions. The paintings are self-conscious of what they are, their possible failings, yet disregard any angst by replacing it with a certain nonchalance and arrogance.

Dalton’s paintings have a melancholic humour that questions their seriousness and intentions. His seemingly dour offhand approach denies any superficial finesse to reveal a love of defiant, unwieldy imagery.

For The Last Gallery, Dalton has also painted directly onto the windows, giving the gallery the appearance of a faded dime store or that someone or something is watching you from behind dirty net curtains. This partially obscures what’s inside, acting like a mask or veil.

His new paintings have Dalton’s trademark adolescent qualities yet have a certain ‘folksiness’ about them. Rather than telling stories, they act like punch lines looking for a joke, misheard lyrics from a song or Chinese whispers.

Dalton’s work has an awkward grammar on show, asking the viewer to look longer and harder at what painting is, and why it continues to fascinate.

Gordon was born 1970, Middlesbrough and lives and works in Cardiff.

Beef To The Heel like a Mullingar Heifer - Peintiadau newydd gan Gordon Dalton

Dydd Sadwrn 11^eg – Dydd Sul 26^ain Mai

Penwythnosau 10yb-5yh

Bratiaith Gwyddelig yw “Beef to the heel like a Mullingar heifer” ond sydd hefyd yn golygu ansawdd uchel. Mae gan waith Gordon Dalton yr un gwrthddywediad bryderus fel cyflenwad gwrthlaw. Mae’r lluniau yn hunanymwybodol o’r hyn ydynt, eu ffaeleddau posib er yn diystyru unryw angst gan ei ddisodli gan math o ddifaterwch a thraha.

Mae gan baentiadau Dalton hiwmor melancolaidd sydd yn cwestiynnu eu difrifwch a bwriad. Gwadau ei ddull cyndyn unryw ystryw arwynebol i ddatgelu cariad o ddelweddaeth herfeiddol, trwsgwl.

I’r ‘Last Gallery’, mae Dalton wedi paentio yn syth ar wyneb y ffenestri, sy’n rhoi edrychiad fel petai rywun yn eich gwylio o tu ôl i lenni net brwnt. Cymylau hyn beth sydd y tu fewn gan actio fel mwgwd neu orchudd.

Mae gan baentiadau Dalton rhinweddau o hunaniaeth adolesent er bod ganddynt deimlad gwerinol amdanynt. Yn hytrach na dweud storiau, maent yn actio fel y linell ddoniol mewn jôc, llinellau sydd wedi eu camglywed mewn cân neu sibrydion Tseineaidd.

Dangosai waith Dalton ramadeg lletchwith sydd yn gofyn i’r gwylwyr i edrych yn hirach a chaletach i weld beth ydyw’r llun a phaham y mae yn parhau i swyno.

Cafodd Gordon ei eni yn 1970 ym Middlesbrough ond mae’n byw ac yn gweithio yng Nghaerdydd.