Richard Walker . Andrew Cranston

Fair and Foul

iota was delighted to host this joint show of paintings by Richard Walker & Andrew Cranston. Showing contemporary works, both artists engage in an exploration of light, darkness, poetry, space, representation, iconography, sign, mark-making - paint. Both artists teach at Scottish Schools of Art - Walker at the Glasgow School of Art & Cranston at Grays in Aberdeen. Both have exhibited widely, in the U.K, the United States & Europe. Both work in large and small scale. (14th Nov-12 December 2015)

Both artists deal with ‘double consciousness’ in their work, trying to create believable space, (observed or imagined), while at the same time bringing the viewers’ attention to the painted surface.

Cranston and Walker have consistently worked with images of interiors, and the canvas itself acts as another kind of interior; an analogous spatial box, which has its own walls, floors, ceilings: limitations as a room does. Painting is a medium characterised often by constraints and restrictions.    

Their work arises from multiple sources, often paintings own conventions and histories. Cranston’s work can be seen in relation to Brueghel or the Italian Primitives, like Sassetta, as well as tapping into German Renaissance artists such as Lucas Cranach. Walker’s work has strong affinities with French painting from Corot onwards as well as Japanese Ukiyo-e printmakers.