A Gesture, An Action …..Touching at APT Gallery, Deptford, London – “This one could be interesting, certainly some interesting painters taking part although they do like their little boxes” we said as part of the latest Five Recommended Art Things piece that picked out this show as one to go to last week – “An exhibition by ten abstract painters exploring a collectively deep engagement with the physicality of paint, colour and the visceral impact of gesture, rhythm, and haptic sensation”. It looked like it might well be worth making the effort of an overseas journey on a Saturday afternoon, the twenty minute train ride from Hackney to New Cross and more of that constant search for whatever is next that eats up so much time. Well not so much about whatever might be next with this particular show, more of a consolidation and not so much in terms of a gesture in relation to the direction of wherever art might be going. This is simply a gathering of paintings and painters. “A Gesture, an Action…Touching brings together the work of ten contemporary artists, all of which are painters for whom the gesture in its broadest context is a principal component to their painting practice”.

Apparently the idea for the exhibition initially derived through reading a John Berger poem ’Twentieth Century Storm’ where the line ‘In origin, a gesture an action touching’ resonated with curator and participating artist Stephen Buckeridge’s practice; “the word ‘touching’ seemed to offer a meeting point not only between the gesture and the action, but also a kind of interface between possible polarities where the result becomes something intangible and sensuous, both delicate and physical. For the title of the exhibition, I wanted to emphasise the ‘Touching’ as a juncture between the gesture and action. Gestures reflect evidence of the hand or body or remnants of past actions, each mark navigating its surface independently, feeling and searching, pressing, and touching. Actions reveal themselves through the history of the making; and touch reflects an action that can present itself as sensitive as a breath, or as physical as a dance. Each artist engages and experiments with these infinite possibilities and offer encounters where the intimate questioning of material, surface, boundaries, and edge can reveal multiple spaces and gestures where the absent self is still somewhere present within. All the selected painters engage with the process of layering in some way, building layers and the erasure of marks create complex compositions that invite the viewer to participate in the process of meaning and making”.

What we actually have here is a substantial gallery show and an equally substantial collection of paintings from ten painters united by a what is a clear love of paint, by the possibilities of paint, the art of making decisions about paint and so so much more besides. This is a deeply engaging pleasure of a show, a powerful exhibition, it really does feel good to just be standing in the middle of it all, to be surrounded by a perfectly hung well balanced show. A big room full of big paintings (not just in terms of size). There’s so much rhythm in here, a show rich in very considered colour, in exploration. A contemporary painting show, a very physical exhibition and a show that isn’t really looking forwards or indeed for that matter backwards, it is simply a very positive collection of rewarding contemporary paintings mostly from names that will probably be familiar to those who pay attention to artist-led shows of the London art scene. Here comes another #43SecondFilm of one of the three rooms….   

There’s visceral impact here, powerful gesture, a delight in the movement, the energy,  each painter both engaged and engaging. A group show is generally only as good as the weakest piece, there is no weak piece in here, everything is good, everything is right, and yes of course I could start analysis individual pieces of work or picking out highlights, but this is is about the feeling, the whole, about the everything in here, the collective need for exploration, nothing settled, nothing unchallenged. A proper set of processes, paint constantly renegotiated as the pieces hold great conversations with each other across the space, as the pieces pull each other up and take turns to pull you in. Intense, sometimes beautiful, pretty much nearly all of it demanding closer examination, demanding attention and the respect of your time. This is intuitive, you don’t want to have to debate it, you just want to enjoy it, not superficially, there’s a depth here that demands more from the viewer than just the enjoyment of it all but you surely know what I mean? This is about reaction, response to the gesture, about the spinning around and not knowing which one to be pulled into next. I’ll read the accompanying essay by Dan Howard-Birt later, right now I really don’t need too many words, I just need the paint, the colour. This is an excellent show, a show that is actually rather hard to leave, it is a joy to be in here… (sw)   

Exhibiting Artists – Sabine Tress, Lindsay Mapes, Karl Bielik, EC, Tony Antrobus, Stephen Buckeridge, Dido Hallett, Catherine Long, Patrick Jones and Steven Walker.

APT Gallery is at Harold Wharf, 6 Creekside, Deptford, London, SE8 4SA. The gallery is open Thursday to Sunday, Midday until 5pm. The exhibition goes on until April 27th 2025.

As always, do click on an image to see the whole thing or to run the slide show…