ARTISTS
Zina Karaman & Xanthe Soning: Changes
Change is the constant that ripples through the work of Zina Karaman and Xanthe Soning and the title of this 鈥榠n memoriam鈥� show, dedicated to the two artists鈥� friend Armando Zamparini who passed away earlier this year.
Coming to terms with the endless ebb and flow of life and death is, particularly in this present moment, a challenge that art, whether figurative or abstract, poetic or plain text, is perhaps uniquely able to contain. Indeed, change may be the very well spring of art. Humanity鈥檚 attempts to frame the moment or capture the impermanence of it 鈥榓ll鈥� a provocation that begins with the first blown pigment of cave art; these handprints that somehow span both a few inches and many millennia describe the arc of presence and mortality, space and time.
There is something of the primal in Zina Karaman鈥檚 Time (2021) where green and gold seams glisten, the geological scale flash-frozen. Forests of azure dominate Future (2021), where the overall impression is of a chemical expressionism captured, accretions developing at imperceptible rates. In Magic Forest (2021) and Purple Rain (2021) an almost crystalline structure is revealed to us 鈥� ultra-violets, infra-reds and luminous splashes of sulphurous yellow detail Gaia鈥檚 magical ability to mimic itself in myriad ways.
Flowing films of water are found in the puckered, aqueous skin covering Xanthe Soning鈥檚 distorted figures. Reflection 1 (2021) is life viewed through a darkling mirror, blood trickling down the philtrum to the lip an all too fleshy flowstone; imprinted here a scarlet ichor, petrified in canvas. Underwater (2019) plunges us into surreal territory 鈥� traces of Dorothea Tanning seep from the immersed buildings surrounding the flying swimmer in the centre of this sky-sea and in Tallulah (2020) a distorted reality is glimpsed in a rippled puddle of reflection. Likewise, an unnerving hinging of the natural world and humanity鈥檚 increasingly unnatural presence here is captured in Leopard Coat (2020): extinction and rebellion sitting together uncomfortably in the frame.
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Change is the constant that ripples through the work of Zina Karaman and Xanthe Soning and the title of this 鈥榠n memoriam鈥� show, dedicated to the two artists鈥� friend Armando Zamparini who passed away earlier this year.
Coming to terms with the endless ebb and flow of life and death is, particularly in this present moment, a challenge that art, whether figurative or abstract, poetic or plain text, is perhaps uniquely able to contain. Indeed, change may be the very well spring of art. Humanity鈥檚 attempts to frame the moment or capture the impermanence of it 鈥榓ll鈥� a provocation that begins with the first blown pigment of cave art; these handprints that somehow span both a few inches and many millennia describe the arc of presence and mortality, space and time.
There is something of the primal in Zina Karaman鈥檚 Time (2021) where green and gold seams glisten, the geological scale flash-frozen. Forests of azure dominate Future (2021), where the overall impression is of a chemical expressionism captured, accretions developing at imperceptible rates. In Magic Forest (2021) and Purple Rain (2021) an almost crystalline structure is revealed to us 鈥� ultra-violets, infra-reds and luminous splashes of sulphurous yellow detail Gaia鈥檚 magical ability to mimic itself in myriad ways.
Flowing films of water are found in the puckered, aqueous skin covering Xanthe Soning鈥檚 distorted figures. Reflection 1 (2021) is life viewed through a darkling mirror, blood trickling down the philtrum to the lip an all too fleshy flowstone; imprinted here a scarlet ichor, petrified in canvas. Underwater (2019) plunges us into surreal territory 鈥� traces of Dorothea Tanning seep from the immersed buildings surrounding the flying swimmer in the centre of this sky-sea and in Tallulah (2020) a distorted reality is glimpsed in a rippled puddle of reflection. Likewise, an unnerving hinging of the natural world and humanity鈥檚 increasingly unnatural presence here is captured in Leopard Coat (2020): extinction and rebellion sitting together uncomfortably in the frame.
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