Softer, Softest

Guts Gallery is excited to present Softer, Softest; a group exhibition which explores the condition of softness and the ways in which it can be expressed in artistic composition.

Softer, Softest rejects the harsh, oppressive edges of modern machinery and instead celebrates the transitory, enigmatic nature of human touch and memory. Throughout the show, spectral bodies phase in and out of view; they shift, collide and eventually coalesce into shadowy, indistinct forms. Elsewhere, everyday objects are captured in hazy impressions; enchanting them with a cryptic, almost spiritual power. In each composition, you can almost hear the hushed breath, the strained whisper or the subdued rustling of fabric that has been captured from life and housed in the sanctum of the canvas.

Each of the works in Softer, Softest is suffused with a quiet, lyrical beauty; each like a half-forgotten memory stirred in a sleeping mind or a flicker of light glimmering behind an opaque glass. Painted textures in each piece are gossamer-like; colour spreads across surfaces like an exquisite, dreamlike web and delicate drawing marks thread together intricately. Throughout the show, shapes seem to bloom and curve gently; the turn of an elbow, the bend of a wrist or the edges of a stationary object are constantly rendered in soft, restrained detail.

In Softer, Softest, the ephemerality of the present moment is crystallised into a fragile, glass-like artifact. It is as if the artists have captured time itself in each composition; the fleeting present moment becomes a delicate object for the artist to examine and revolve around in their hands. In this way, the artists in Softer, Softest demonstrate a more meditative, contemplative and, crucially, softer way of exploring and expressing the world that they inhabit.

Words by Jamie Hope