This week, a brand new exhibition opened at Tremenheere Gallery curated by Martin Holman, an art historian and writer on contemporary and modern art. He is a regular contributor to Art Monthly and the Burlington Magazine, and has written for Art Review, Artscribe, Aspects, Art World International, Cura, the Daily Telegraph and more.
Martin has put together an exhibition pairing two artists Jeffrey Dennis and Jamie Shovlin. Both of these artists have exhibited their work in museums and galleries around the world and this show represents their debuts in Cornwall.
We caught up with Martin to find out what exactly inspired this curation, who these artists are, what kind of work we can expect to see, and how it all resonates with Tremenheere.
Martin, what inspired you to curate this exhibition?
I wanted to bring to Tremenheere an exhibition that was good to look at and intellectually stimulating. Moreover, I wanted to invite artists from outside Cornwall to develop the dialogue between the many artists living and working in West Penwith and those from the rest of the UK whose careers have achieved a high level of critical attention. Both Jeffrey and Jamie have exhibited often in this country and in solo shows abroad: Jeffrey’s first show in New York took place in 1985 and Jamie (who is 20 years Jeffrey’s junior) in 2006. And both artists have exhibited at leading public galleries: Jeffrey at the Whitechapel Art Gallery and Jamie at Tate Britain. There is a huge amount of knowledge and experience in these artists.
Please tell us a bit about the artists and the work that will feature in the exhibition.
These artists don’t fit into stereotypes. Jeffrey’s approach to making a picture is very constructive. That is, a painting comprises several vignettes that show things happening although it is hard to fit all the scenes we see on a single canvas into a single, continuous narrative.
We try to make connections because that is what we do as viewers, but the composition is fragmented. It lacks a centre – rather like modern life. In fact, Jeffrey evokes the nature of modern living where, try as we might, it is hard to make sense of what is going on. Art has traditionally tried to resolve into a unity – whether it’s literature, music, film or painting – and Jeffrey admits that everyday experience doesn’t tend to lead to a tidy ending.
Meanwhile, Jamie is fascinated by our tendency to believe what we see and take for granted that a picture (or a book or newspaper report) is authoritative. He has tested common credulity in numerous projects in the past 20 years in which he has used all manner of media, from drawing and painting to film, sound and objects.
The work in this exhibition is rather special: it’s entirely new and possibly represents a new approach. Jamie hasn’t exhibited for five years and by going back to his first love, drawing, he is trying a new approach. He has drawn several small images of a crow’s head, which repeats around the room in different positions and colours. The work is no more straightforward than his previous projects: we have to apply our imaginations as acutely as we do when looking at Jeffrey’s paintings. What do we associate crows with? What does the colour signify? The more we look, however, the less sure we become about what we see. These are very intriguing things. I am drawn to the mystery in both artists’ work.
This is a great pairing of two artists. How did you decide to bring them together?
I have collaborated with both artists before and admire the range and ambition of their practices.
What do the artists involved in the show have in common or/and do differently to each other?
Both have a deep commitment to the techniques and the potential for transformation of the materials that they have at their disposal.
How do you feel the work resonates with Tremenheere?
Most directly, in their subject matter. Jeffery’s work is not unlike a landscape. Indeed, the terrain that dominates the surface of his paintings, which looks like soap suds criss-crossed by ducts and channels that try to make connections, has the feel of a terrain we travel over, whether in towns or the country. We discover things in those places. Meanwhile, Jamie has a fascination with bird life. In 2006 his project at Tate Britain was devoted to the relationship that had grown up between his mother and the birds in her garden. He made drawings based on ornithological illustrations in an authoritative book and added as text transcripts of his mother’s comments about the birds she watched. She gave them names like ‘Roger’. She’d talk about ‘Roger’ at the kitchen table and Jamie would have to ask who she was referring to. Was it a friend or neighbour? ‘To Roger the crow’, she’d reply. A lot of people have that kind of anthropomorphic link with nature. With the crow in this show, who we discover is called Leonard Jake, Jamie takes that relationship to a symbolic, metaphorical level, which makes us think of how crows are portrayed in books, films, fables and in common superstition. I think that outlook on the world of plants and creatures also exists at Tremenheere.
The exhibitions run 16th September – 7th October 2023. Jeffrey Dennis will exhibit on the lower floor or the Gallery, while Jamie Shovlin will show on the upper floor.
Tremenheere Gallery is open Tuesday – Saturday, 11am – 4pm, closed Sundays and Mondays, FREE entry.
All works are available to view and purchase online here.
Feature image: Jeffrey Dennis, Traces of Occupation (detail), 2018, oil on linen, 127 x 153 cm. (c) The artist.