2010 has been a busy year for the South London Women Artists.
Paola Minekov 'Dancers In White'
Originally set up in 2008 by Leonie Cronin and Jenny Sweeney the SLWA has gone from strength to strength with a current membership of 100 energetic and diverse artists and a growing waiting list of reserves keen and waiting to join up.
In March this year they held their 3rd exhibition at Dulwich Library and in May the SLWA stormed into Central London with a hugely successful show at Bankside.
This November they return for their fourth show at the library and the diversity of the group is well illustrated by the three artists who have organised this latest exhibition.
Paola Minekov who heads the team is originally from Bulgaria. She studied at the National School for Fine Arts in Sofia and the Avni Institute in Tel Aviv before completing her degree at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam.
Following a holiday to the UK in 2003 Paola knew she wanted to live in London and moved here 2½ years ago. 2010 is her first year working as a professional artist and she has been exhibiting nonstop since January.
Paola’s paintings are concerned with movement and energy and often depict dancers and performers. Striking and original, her images are also delicate and lyrical capturing the magic and atmosphere of live performance as well as the grace and beauty of the human form.
Paola’s first solo exhibition was in City Tower in October 2010. The show was linked to a Ballet Gala Night at the Britten Theatre on November 7th, raising money for ‘Honeypot’, a charity which supports vulnerable children in the UK. Paola has worked with dancers from the Royal Ballet and Ballet Black to create 2 original paintings especially for this event.
Another recurring theme in Paola’s work is the relationship series ‘Echoes of Romance’, and she will present the first few works of this series in her second solo exhibition, which opens in the Carnegie Library in Herne Hill on November 12 2010. Paola’s website is www.paolaminekov.com.
Gabrielle Bradshaw 'Kissing Gate'
Originally from South London, Gabrielle Bradshaw has spent a lot of time over the years drawing in the woods of Cushendun Northern Ireland.
Following a degree in Fine Art Sculpture at Camberwell School of Art, she continued her studies at the Rural Development Centre in Salisbury completing several courses in Forgework and Blacksmithing. She also worked for a year as a welder and set builder at the National Theatre being commissioned to create sculptures for several theatres and restaurants in and around London.
Her forged and welded metal sculptures reflect the organic lines in her drawings which all have a ‘sculptural’ feel to them, dominated by strong black lines.
Gabrielle now has her own forge set up in Forest Hill and regularly exhibits both her sculptures and drawings. Her work can be seen at the ‘Landscape of Angels’ show at The Gallery in Shepherd Market W1 from 2 – 6 November 2010.
Torie Wilkinson 'Room With A View'
Torie Wilkinson is another native South Londoner. She did her foundation course at the Kent Institute of Art and Design in Canterbury and her degree at The Ruskin, Oxford University.
Now based back in South London Torie’s work displays a love of paint as a medium. She uses a range of techniques and a loose organic style evident in the rich layering of paint. Her ethos is to try and work with the medium allowing it to flow, build and dissolve earlier elements as much as possible to enable each piece to develop over time.
Her recent work focuses on urban street scenes, each imbued with an inherent lightness or human touch which she has noted and rendered. Torie has scrupulously studied her native South London and it is from this collection of images of the city and its inhabitants that she has drawn her inspiration.
Torie’s work can be seen at www.toriewilkinson.com
All three artists have enjoyed the task of putting together the fourth SLWA exhibition at Dulwich Library. The exhibition is curated by Emily Druiff, the director of Peckham Space and she was joined on the selection committee by Mella Shaw the head of Exhibitions at Dulwich Picture Gallery and Maria Chevska, artist and Professor of Fine Art at The Ruskin School Oxford University.
The exhibition runs from 31 October – 27 November, admission free. The Private View is on 3 November 8pm – 10pm and everyone is welcome.
Take the opportunity to view some of the most exciting, original artworks produced in South London this year and you may well find you end up taking one or more of them home with you.
