Liverpool Portraits/Bluehouseart

Exhibition at Urban Coffee Lounge, Smithdown Road
Ends 31st May

Reviewed by Kenn Taylor

The Urban Coffee Lounge café/gallery on Smithdown Road is currently showing two exhibitions side by side, both based on photography but very different in style.

Liverpool Portraits is a collection of documentary images and portraits of life in the city by Ben Zuhlcke, an international artist now living locally. It captures everyday life in the city, from the skaters behind the FACT to shopping crowds. Zuhckle’s pictures well show the everyday expressions of people as they go about their daily lives both aware and unaware of the camera’s eye.

Robert Howie Smith’s adjacent exhibition Bluehouseart is a very different prospect. Images are taken from the wilds of rural Scotland’s beaches and forests, part of his ongoing project to explore the myth of the wolf. Smith’s moody large format black and white prints are created using an experimental printing technique which evokes a sense of the ancient and foreboding landscapes.

A small but perfectly formed exhibition of contrasts.