Oxmarket are delighted to welcome Sylvia Kopeček and Maureen Brigden to the Wilson Gallery with their exhibition Terra Firma. The sculpture and the paintings in this exhibition demonstrate how two artists have developed their work alongside each other, sharing similar ideas about the human condition and interpreting, in complementary ways, issues of representation, time, place and change. Sculptures and paintings have been brought together to remind us of the changing physical environment in which we live.
Sylvia Kopeček gained a first class honours degree in Fine Art at Reading University and subsequently an MA from the University of Brighton. She has spent almost a lifetime painting, drawing and making. Sylvia’s work is concerned with the exploration of issues of fragility and the vulnerable nature of human, animal and plant life. Imagery is used to convey ideas. All the work is figurative and often contains elements of the tragic and the comedic. Humour, or at least a lightness of touch, often plays a part in these works.
There are usually clues to be discovered in each painting which offer the viewer the opportunity to explore a narrative about the content. These clues might be few in number or scattered and legion within a field of colour. The suite of small insect watercolours and the paintings on canvas appear to include anthropomorphic figures – are they human, part human, part imagined, or do they represent real insects?
Sylvia says ‘When beginning a new painting or drawing, the aim is to create something worthy of being looked at and enjoyed and hopefully to offer something that has not been said in quite this way before’.
The title of the exhibition Terra Firma, indicates a concern for the environment and the future of living things. The paintings are intended to celebrate the diversity of life. The purpose of exhibiting these paintings is to create a dialogue between the viewer and the work. For the viewer, the visitor to the exhibition, it is hoped that time is spent looking and considering what might be discovered within the layers of colour and imagery. Each title can give a clue as to how the content might be approached.
In 2000 after a career in nursing, Maureen Brigden changed direction and studied Sculpture with the Open College of Art leading on to enrolling on the B.A. course, part time at Chichester University, completing her Fine Art Degree in 2007.
Maureen works with smoke fired clay and has a fascination with the material remains of our human history. To illustrate this she works instinctively using different clays including locally sourced clay from Chichester harbour. This clay has a debris of past times including stones, roots, organisms and ferrous metals left over from previous occupations. The process of hand-building and firing the work renders it vulnerable, capable of sagging, or at worst, collapsing, drawing parallels with the human condition.
As a member Of Artel she exhibits regularly at the Oxmarket, her work is mostly figurative and reflects her interest in local history and more recently environmental issues. She has exhibited in Chichester, Brighton, London and Harrogate.
In 2015 Maureen won The Sculpture prize for “Earworm” at the National Society of Painters, Printmakers and Sculptors annual exhibition in London and also had work selected for the National Open Arts Exhibition in Harrogate. In 2020 she won 2nd Prize for Her Sculpture “Reaching Out” at the “Knockout Lockdown Exhibition” at the Oxmarket.
