John Creighton and Anne Thalheim Exhibition

The exhibition is a showcase for the amazing work of John Creighton and Anne Thalheim and promises to be a visually stunning experience for all who come along to see the show.

John Creighton is a painter who explores the possibilities of images based on intensely perceived feelings. Whilst not being tied to a specific subject matter these feelings have strong roots in the experience of landscape. In attempting to realise these images his working methods explore and question the traditional dualistic role and function of the observer and observed, memory and perception, tradition and chance in a dynamic and tactile way. The work has echos of a personal surrealism running through them, but rather than be too entrenched in the familiar tradition of British Surrealism, they offer up a personal and evocative experience through the subject matter and the way in which the material is sympathetically applied. 

Anne Thalheim’s work deals with emotion and power in a visual, three dimensional poetic form. Within the resulting 3D objects are elements borrowed from church architecture and furniture, historic fashion, corsets, armours, organic forms, flowers, insects, creatures from the depth of the ocean. Using crafts techniques such as basketry, sewing, needlework or Japanese armour construction methods she assembles ready-made items from DIY and home stores (for example black recycled rubber doormats, cable ties, hose for ponds etc). These man-made materials are tailored to give an overall impression of a dance between humour, sombreness, attraction and repulsion. Red, black and white serve as signature and symbols. The works have a powerful presence, transposing the everyday materials into visually stunning but also slightly alarming pieces that are difficult to classify but transitionally beautiful in spite of this. 

Anne Thalheim is supported by National Lottery through Arts Council England