Ben Lowe & Gus Farnes: Subtleties of Bronze and Brush

With vigorous strokes of paint and coarsely textured bronzes, Ben Lowe and Gus Farnes explore a dynamic realm in which nuance and gesture reign supreme. Thompson's Gallery presents a compelling dual exhibition tracing the artists' respective trajectories within this rich terrain, which intersect in alternatively harmonious and unexpected ways.

 

In his latest collection, Nightingales and Bombers, graphic designer-turned-artist Ben Lowe extends an ongoing meditation on the visual and emotional dimensions of colour. The compositions correspond more to a deeply felt personal experience than to a particular time or place, and the visual gradients rendered on each canvas express the emotional gradients of its fundamental essence. These paintings do not shout, they whisper; they do not electrify, they intrigue; they do not exclaim, they emote.

 

Gus Farnes operates within an equally contemplative domain, creating abstracted human forms that eloquently refute the notion of sculpture as a static medium. The Norwich School of Art & Design alumnus uses rough-hewn surfaces to bestow a kinetic vitality upon his figures, infusing them with an almost mystical life force: they gather, carry, lean back, stride ahead, and consider their surroundings, somehow neither completely still nor fully animate — even when seated, they 'buzz.'

 

Transcending age-old boundaries between painting and sculpture, Lowe and Farnes chart the middle ground we live day in and day out. Their incisive, stylish, and quietly thrilling journey through a world of subtleties awaits you at Thompson's Gallery London.