The Art Works Galleries
7 May - 1 June 2009
Stepeny Bank, Ouseburn, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 2NP
Mon-Sat 10.00 - 17.00
http://www.theartworksgalleries.com/
"This exhibition showcases some recent work from the upcoming artist Iris Priest, recent winner of the Art Work's Miniature Focus Competition (January 2009) and BALTIC's Doodle Dare Competition (November 2008).
In this show Priest presents some pieces from her ongoing series of paintings Specula & Other Stories whose accidental compositions have been culled from magazines and images from the popular press. These miniature, acutely rendered images engage the viewer intimately in a peculiar, parrallel space where the nature of looking, seeing and knowing is brought into question.
"My work explores the disorientating phantasmagoria inherent in contemporary culture and the degredation of the real through the saturation of imagery in advertising and consumer culture, touching upon Baudrillards' definitions of the Hyperreal......The patterns and common tendencies which emerge through the series, therefore, reflect the ways in which these images are governed by culture and context and, ultimately, how our daily reality and perspective of the world is manipulated through the similar miniature interfaces of newspapers, magazines and television."
