Maria Fernanda Barrero | Abigail Box | Sylvia Freshwater | Arran Gregory | Patrick Milsom | David A Smith

Drawing inspiration from the themes of a classic Victorian fiction by Oscar Wilde, the group show interrogates ‘the artist as creator of beautiful things’ where ‘vice and virtue are the artist’s materials’. Spectators fueling their aesthetic urges for ‘surface and symbol’ in the upper Rockwell will discover hidden below the surface, in the Lower Rockwell, a complex and cautionary tale of exceptional beauty.

Maria Fernanda Barrero utilises delicate materials such as paper and fabrics to construct intricate facsimiles of flora and natural spaces. An internationally exhibited artist and recent sculpture graduate from the Slade School of Fine Art, her installation mirrors the fragile migration phenomenon of a creature that engages in double lives, the monarch butterfly.

Abigail Box’s paintings combine found imagery with surreal and dissonant architectural elements. Having recently graduated from Camberwell College of Arts in painting and sculpture, Box places an emphasis on the aesthetic manipulation of colour, space and composition to present unsettling and often-confrontational narratives.

Sylvia Freshwater, a recent MA graduate from Chelsea College of Art and Design whose practice combines fine art and critical writing, creates a series of screen print wallpaper patterns in which kaleidoscopes symbolise a miniature world composed of animal drawings and decadent props.

Arran Gregory’s mirrored animal sculptures engage with their fanciful exterior and unleash a disquiet within their hidden predatory nature. A London based artist who graduated from Chelsea College of Art in 2009, his work continues to be showcased in high profile exhibitions such as the exhibition ‘DIY London Seen’.

Patrick Milsom, recently featured at Menier Gallery in London, painstakingly draws scenes where masked characters face subverted reality and a daunting battle against nature. His works challenge the spectator to engage in a critical viewing of a seemingly emotionless character and an obscure tale whilst reflecting on the potential to find the familiar within the unfamiliar.

David A Smith, a widely exhibited graduate of Chelsea College of Art and nominee for The Catlin Prize, Smith meticulously composes sculptural pieces resulting in perverse tensions between bizarre narratives and animalistic behavior. His works, which often feature light, dynamic colour and decadent materials, also convey an undercurrent of deviance and mortality.

Private View |  27.05.10, 6:30 - 8:30pm
Press Preview: Artist and Curatorial talk 6pm

Exhibition Open |  28.05.10 – 05.09.10
The Trafalgar Hotel
2 Spring Gardens, SW1A 2TS 

www.thetrafalgar.com