St Ives Society of Artists, the Crypt Gallery, Dangerous Friendships

This exhibition runs until the 6th March.

Four artists have come together to put on this exhibition.  Each of the artists is very different in style and material.  This exhibition looks at how such differences come together and connect and what emerges from this.

Jaki Marshall was my least favourite artist in the sense, that I wouldn't want to take any of her work home with me and have it on my walls.  Her art is not comfortable beauty, it's an emotional voice shouting out into the world, making you stop and react.  I can see her work being in museums, it has something to say and it is not quiet.  Abstract and emotional images of females bodies.  As a woman, I appreciate what she has to say and I want her to keep saying it.  It's really important.  Uncomfortable things often are.

Graham Pullen is a screen printer and I really liked and appreciated his work.  As someone from a printing family who has worked with technical drawing, I really appreciate his skillset and incredible attention to detail.  His work is so precise and perfect, it looks simple.  It isn't.  My favourite pieces were the ones that referenced printing techniques that used four colours and overlaid them, except he took one print and overlapped it in the different colours, creating a more complex and random seeming image.

Susi Gutierrez explores memory and travel with interests in archaeology, print making and textiles.  I enjoyed her work but it is always hard to describe work that is abstract!  Her work was emotional, but it was more considered and layered than Jaki's.  It was also more completely abstract.  I would happily take her art home with me!

Jen Donkin Gourley creates bright and cheerful ceramics that you can take home and use and they will make everything a little more fun.  I especially liked the pieces with a little sass, like her plates.

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