Cube Noir Exhibitions

The Albany, Old Hall Street
14th September - 19th November 2006

Reviewed by Josephine Raven

Cube Noir housed at the Albany is currently showcasing five exhibitions as part of the Independents Biennial 2006.

The opening exhibition Inaugural includes the work of representational painters who are working, living or were born in the North West. Gareth Kemp’s representation of Pope John Paul II opens the exhibition, followed by the multilayered text and image series by Tim Ellis. This level of complexity continues throughout the exhibition in Laird Galbraith’s highly detailed canvases addressing issues such as identity and memory and David Hancock‘s large-scale representations of modern urban myths. Landscapes also feature highly, each artist taking a completely different approach to this traditional theme. Paul Elliker’s simplistic fictional landscapes inspired by children’s book illustrations and school textbooks are a particular favourite. These directly contrast with the work of Peter Edge, whose emotive panoramic landscapes capture the essence of the places they depict, while Gina Ward’s cityscapes illustrate the artists direct response to a chosen environment, created on the spot and depicting various locations in Liverpool. The accompanying narrative is extremely useful for many of these artists in order to fully understand the complex nature of their work.

The work of Tim Ellis continues in further exhibition Cut For Confidence, displaying the artist’s latest body of work. This series consists of eight works which continue to address his central ideas surrounding the relationship between fact and fiction, text and image in advertising, each canvas depicting the front cover of a particular magazine – ‘Yesterday’s Magazines printed with last week’s news a year in the future’.

Gareth Kemp has also scored himself a solo show in the form of Score Draw inspired by football. These images were created by either drawing on photographs which summed up the decade in which they were taken or tackling the homo-erotic issues surrounding football which are so often disregarded. Not exactly my cup of tea but well executed representations highlighting an alternative aspect to the game.

McFaul and Love design studios created the fun and inviting Northwest Passage, a cartoon-like mural of words and waves carrying you down the passage and onto the final exhibition Soup Versus Gazpacho, with Susan Gladwin’s wall mounted prisms offering a soupçon of things ahead. This body of work has been produced by those working behind the scenes in two of Liverpool’s major art institutions, Soup from Tate Liverpool and Gazpacho from National Museums Liverpool. This role reversal from worker to artist is barely noticeable, with a complete mishmash of techniques, genres and inspirations creating an eclectic display.

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Comments:

Comment left by Paul Robinson on 25th March, 2007 at 23:03
Dear Sirs, is Cube Noir a permanent exhibition space or an event of artists. I would like to put a proposal forward to Cube Noir and would like some further information. Regarda, Paul Robinson.

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