C.O.D.A - FOLD - LONDON

'C.O.D.A', FOLD Gallery, London.

http://www.foldgallery.com/exhibition/c-o-d-a/

https://www.newspaperclub.com/timellis/4qp8pywq-c-o-d-a-tim-ellis

FOLD Gallery is pleased to present a solo show of new work by Tim Ellis. The exhibition is comprised of projections, three dimensional collages, paintings, stained glass and custom made badges, which are accompanied by a limited edition publication.

The acronym C.O.D.A takes its name from the word coda; meaning any concluding event, summation, or section. In this instance the artist has created his own umbrella organization for future site-specific installations and curatorial projects that will all have a recurrent theme present.

Tim Ellis investigates ideas of cycles, faith and society; through the exploration of totemic objects and relics created by different cultures. These reoccurring themes are made visible through his attempts to make sense of, and recognise different traces of life, whilst allowing the potential for new beginnings. Central to this has been the idea that inherently every beginning naturally has an end, and it is this – ‘The End’ – that becomes the focus for this exhibition.

Since 2014 the artist has been working in specific locations using materials, imagery and techniques found in the locality. These adopted forms and techniques are distilled and reconstructed to create objects that could potentially serve or offer a purpose. For this show Ellis has hidden within each piece of work various signifiers, codes and symbols that direct the viewer to the final location of an offering buried beneath the earth.

The location of this buried object holds great importance for the artist as the moment of awakening regarding his own understanding of existence and with it loss. Adopting this burial place as a central point of focus, the exhibition harks back to a time where totems, charms and gifts were left in the landscape as spiritual offerings. In this case the artist is aware his own offering will potentially remain undiscovered, a monument to a moment in time, who’s true meaning will, in time, be forgotten.

'Wish You Were Here', Estuary 2016, Metal, Southend Pier, Essex.

'Wish You Were Here', Estuary 2016, Metal, Southend Pier, Essex.

http://www.estuaryfestival.com/event/detail/wishyouwerehere

'Phase 1' (Reseau Peinture), Ruskin Gallery, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge.

'Phase 1' (Reseau Peinture), Ruskin Gallery, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge

'Flatland', FOLD Gallery, London.

'Flatland', FOLD Gallery, London.

http://www.foldgallery.com/exhibition/flatland/

‘Imagine a vast sheet of paper on which lines, triangles, squares, pentagons, hexagons, and other figures, instead of remaining fixed in their places, move freely about, on or in the surface, but without the power of rising above or sinking below it…and you will have a pretty correct notion of my country and countrymen.’

Edwin A. Abbott – Flatland (1884)

Flatland is an exhibition of contemporary painting that takes its name from Edwin A. Abbott’s book about life in a two-dimensional world.

The six artists in the exhibition use both traditional and unconventional techniques and media in their approach to the discipline. Exploring various ways that the definition of painting is continuously evolving, the exhibition seeks to expand the traditional parameters of painting: blurred, deconstructed, and refigured.

These artists treat abstraction as one language among many, neither privileged nor reactionary. Some of their common themes are clear: history and the passing of time, the representation or metaphor of the body, the depiction and negotiation of spatial elements, worlds within worlds: while others more elusive. Working with an optimism and freedom within the medium the artists in this show amply demonstrate that painting is an unfinished project, a work in progress, as mysterious and vital as ever.