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As light is to dark, Nixon’s dramatically lit paintings speak of distance, isolation and cinematic foreboding; Collantine feels through paint to create poetic connection between the physicality of the sea, to that of the land and the body.
Following a co-residency and exploration of the Anglesey coastline, this exhibition presents a new body of work by artists Sophie Nixon and Nan Collantine.
Throughout the residency and ongoing conversations, these two painters have responded to the topographical and atmospheric landscape of the island, centring on its position within the universal elements of sea and sky. Their paintings invite the viewer to see what they see, feel what they feel and perhaps consider what it is to be human and conscious of the wider forces governing our world.
Sophie Nixon’s paintings are influenced by light and dark, how light can change the mood of a landscape and in turn how dark can create a sense of mystery and foreboding. Whilst usually devoid of people, her landscapes explores the relationship between humans and nature and how each in turn shapes the other.
Sophie is a Manchester based painter who graduated from the University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne with a degree in Fine Art.
Visiting family in the Southwest and many breaks in Anglesey, Pembrokeshire and the Gower offered stunning coastal sunsets inspiring her most recent paintings for her 2022 exhibition, “Between the Dog and the Wolf” and her upcoming joint show. Views across industrial landscapes and end of the land coastal scenes lit by the sunsetting in huge skies provided source material for these new paintings. In many ways these are a return to and development of her earlier paintings of sulphuric lit car journeys and petrol stations from around 2009.
A huge advocate of the Arts she co-founded the Sale Arts Trail in 2014, a CIC established to provide professional paid opportunities for artists and makers based in the NW. She is a supporter of Forever Manchester, the Manchester communities charity producing work for their charitable auctions since 2014, Her work has been shown in solo and group shows across the UK and Europe. She is represented by Comme Ca Art.
The sea has been a significant subject in Nan Collantine’s painting over recent years, working from drawings, she is concerned with its edges, depths, rhythms and stories and she attempts to paint its presence, energy, feeling and form as a channel from which to bring forth ideas and to capture feeling with paint.
Nan lives in Manchester and is a recent recipient of the Castlefield Gallery Award and finalist in the 2022 Beep Painting Prize. After completing an art foundation in 1990, Nan worked in advertising and communications for 25 years. From 2020-22 Nan completed two years mentorship with the Turps Banana Correspondence Course 2020-22 and she is a former student of an alternative art school, the Islingon Mill Art Academy.
It was whilst living in Australia from 2016-17 that Nan returned to her art practice and became immersed in Australian landscape painting, citing Nongirrna Marawili, Tony Tuckson, Brett Whiteley, Aida Tomescu and John Olsen as significant influences in her own work. More recently she has been looking at the aerial landscapes of Carol Rhodes and Richard Diebenkorn as well as looking to Joan Semmel and Georgia O’Keefe for its relationship to the body.
Chasing the light and tracing the tides of Ynys Môn: Comme Ça Gallery at The Lowry Hotel Salford
Preview: Thursday 5 September RSVP claire@commecaart.com
Exhibition open daily from 10am, 6 September-15 October
Header Image: Pull (After Joan Semmel) by Nan Collantine. Oil on canvas
