Fine woodcuts on canvas, including new colour works
Josh Bashford
24 October to 16 November 2019
Preview: Thursday 24 October 6pm
Regeneration of body, soul, family and nature surge through the new work of Canterbury artist Josh Bashford, evolving his distinctive, intricate woodcuts on canvas to a new level. Read below for more about the exhibition.
Regeneration of body, soul, family and nature surge through the new work of Canterbury artist Josh Bashford, evolving his distinctive, intricate woodcuts on canvas to a new level. It was a year of new generations amongst his family, and in the environment in the Little River area, which Bashford has embraced in his incredibly detailed woodcuts. Teeming with birdlife, and motifs of new generations, nurtured, swirling, joyous; they reflect a young artist moving into a new period of confident art practice.
There’s a firm nod to his Samoan heritage and tapa cloth in the medium – ink on very large unstretched canvasses – in his black and white works, which have notably evolved from his earlier woodcuts to appear, deceptively, effortless. The new work with colour on embossed woodcut is dramatic, and reflects Bashford’s regeneration of body and soul after a serious injury early in 2019. He first embosses the woodcut into the canvas, then builds colour highlights, and finally overprints the structure of the black woodcut to create works that are powerful but fluid at the same time.
The exhibition will be open throughout Labour Weekend, including Sunday and Monday 12-5pm.