OWTSIDE #3: ABI CHARLESWORTH, ALISON DIAMOND, DAVID KENNEY & MPUMELELO BUTHELEZI
Artist: Abi Charlesworth
Title: ‘Exuviae’ (2024)
Info:
Abi Charlesworth (b.1997) is currently finishing her MFA at Glasgow School of Art and will be working towards her debut solo show at GLOAM, Sheffield in March, 2025. She has recently had work shown in Chaos Reigns, Warehouse at David Dale Gallery, HFBK x GSA, Hamburg and GSA x HFBK, The Glue Factory, Glasgow. She was also awarded a Gane Trust Grant Award in 2023 and a Gilbert Bayes funding award in 2024 to make new work and has been supported by GSA Student association in the development of Chaos Reigns and for an online postgrad critique series.
Artist website: www.abicharlesworth.co.uk
Artist instagram: @abi.charlesworth
Artist: Alison Diamond
Title of work: ‘Hold Tight’
Info:
Alison’s work explores printing techniques such as etching/aquatint, screen printing, linocut, wood engraving and monotype, with a practice reflecting experiences in the artists life, influenced by her background in the North of England. Alison’s work features the figure and individuals carrying out the everyday activities.
“I aim to imply that the individuals depicted, experience a genuine quality of life that may not, on first impressions be apparent” - Alison Diamond.
Employed as an Academic tutor at Sunderland University teaching printmaking for Illustration, Alison also works as a freelance artist/consultant within community settings, initiating projects.
Artist website: https://alisonturnbulldiam.wixsite.com/artist/gallery
Artist instagram: @alison._.diamond
Artist: David Kenney
Title of work: ‘Diverge 02 (From Coast and Rust)’
Info:
David Kenney is an Artist living and working in Stockton-on-Tees, having grown up in Murton, Co. Durham, and spent several years living in Peterlee.
His sculptural work explores similar themes to his paintings, with recurring motifs of basic architectural forms included throughout. David uses cast and mould to create precise, geometric forms in Jesmonite, using acid to remove surface layers to produce a concrete-like texture; often using coal, rusted iron and moss to create variation. In all of his visual work, David pays particular attention to texture, shadow and light to give the pieces a feeling of past use and interaction; surfaces worn by the passing of time and human intervention occupy seemingly timeless landscapes; liminal spaces devoid of human presence.
This hand-made sculpture is formed from Jesmonite and measures 9cm x 9 cm x 10cm. Small shards of coal and iron were added to the mix in places.
Artist website: https://davidkenney.art
Artist instagram: @davidkenneyart
Artist: Mpumelelo Buthelezi
Title of work: ‘Isolation’
Info:
Mpumelelo Buthelezi is a South African photographer who lives and works in Johannesburg. His practice explores the themes of social activism and religion as well as the ways that people sustain themselves. Mpumeleloʼs work finds itself at the intersection between documentation, storytelling and activism.
Through a series of self-portraits and portraits, Mpumelelo has produced a new body of work that takes inspiration from the isolation experienced during the national lockdown. In the initial stages he used his bedroom as a studio to make the self-portraits. In essence, this work is about what it means to be human. An existential question that most people grapple with, even more so during the isolation of quarantine implemented during the first national lockdown. Mpumelelo came face to face with the precariousness of (Black) life and in turn sought aid from what he perceived as an entity beyond the self.
Artist instagram: @icreateimageseveryday
