Sabina Lucia

The first thing that struck me about The Brick Lane Gallery was how nicely the exterior is decorated; the bird and flower- painted black walls promise an interesting show inside and the gallery doesn’t fail to deliver. Art In Mind is a regular group exhibition showcasing the works of emerging UK and international artists. I took my friend Paul who, once he got over the fact that he was missing the football, enjoyed the private view experience. He particularly liked the work of Argentinian artist, Claudio Gianni whose confident, sweeping paint strokes depict modern day city life and iconic characters from the old Buenos Aires tango scene. His favourite was a very striking painting of three black figures on a red background entitled Guapitos, that could be the three musketeers or swaggering cowboys.

We wondered at the technical achievement of Sharmila Agnihotri’s intricate mandala-like black and white symmetrical ink drawings. With her experience as a midwife you can see she has drawn on nature as inspiration, I found them very pleasing and loved the fact that although on first inspection they looked flawless, each drawing has little, intentional imperfections .

Of the 10 exhibitor’s work, I found myself most drawn (pun intended) to the digital textile prints by Norwegian, Didi Bjornerud who after studying at Central St Martin’s did an internship with Alexander McQueen. Depicting fantastical, dark scenes; Wonderwood -  a horse rearing as if through time with lightning and supernatural light emerging from a dark forest being my favourite.  Didi maintains her fashion link, having designed a series of prints for the designer Deborah Henning and prints for handbags which would add an arty edge to any outfit.

The exhibtion ends today and the next show begins April 15th. If you’re an artist and you’d like to submit your work email info@thebricklanegallery.com

© Sabina Lucia 2010