Sabina Lucia

Husband and wife, Stuckist artists: Edgeworth Johnstone and Shelley Li, are showing a large range of their paintings at Nolias Gallery in Great Suffolk Street, five minutes from Tate Modern (where some of Johnstone’s paintings were recently displayed in the Turbine Hall) and well worth a look if you’re in the area and even if you’re not. Both figurative artists ( key to being a  Stuckist), their work is distinctly different from each other’s.

Edgeworth’s paintings are deep and emotional with an incredibly adept use of colour; often bold and confident, reminiscent of Matisse’s later paintings.

In Nightrider, a man merges with a dog or is it a fox or some other creature of the night? ‘In the flesh’, the colours I found to be slightly more subtle, evoking a spooky atmosphere and a sense of an illicit journey through the dark.

As well as people (including a painting afterh the Mona Lisa), animals feature heavily: a bird with eyelashes, cows, rams, cats, dogs and not forgetting (pun intended), elephants, as above. Never before have I seen such realistic texturisation of an animal skin in a painting; the grey of the large elephant is crackily and coarse just as it should be – a serendipitous outcome of using house-hold paint – rising above a background of contrasting colours.

Shelley Li’s paintings are fun in style, depicting sexy and and slightlydark  scenes. In Black And White (above) we see the duality of one woman’s personality; black expressing her wickedly sexy desires and white, her every-day picture of innocence and lady-like qualities. Shelley’s paintings are beautifully decorative, with a attention to the details: lace work, furniture, floral carpets and hair accessories. The latter of which she also makes and can also be found for sale at the gallery.

Deep in her den of iniquity,a sexily clad woman (‘Woman With Whip’),  resplendent in her stockings and suspenders, checks herself out in a mirror as she prepares herself for her willing ‘victim’. The cat’s ears costume and bows bring lightness and humour to this sexy scene painted in oils on canvas.

This two person show started on the 28th of May and runs for another week or so depending on bookings. Check with the gallery or on the artists’ sites for details. There are hundreds of paintings, many of which you can flick through like records and with small paintings starting at £10 there’s even something for the most budget-conscious recessionistas.

Paintings © Edgeworth Johnstone and Shelley Li 2010.

Text © Sabina Lucia 2010