London Paint Club is delighted to present Threads of Perception – Issue no. 3 of our Magazine, featuring 19 international artists from our latest Open Call. All artworks presented in this Online Viewing Room are for sale with 100% of the proceeds going directly to the artist.
Artists
Introduction
In today’s rapidly changing world, the role of art in shaping our understanding of the world is more important than ever. This exhibition is a testament to the transformative power of art and its ability to inspire empathy, promote reflection, and inspire change in society. By embracing diversity and offering space for marginalised voices, this exhibition encourages a more inclusive understanding of the world and the human experience.
I am excited to share with you the works of Marco Arias, Daniel Arteaga, Delphine Carufel, Sichen Grace Chen, Claudiu Ciobanu, Cathleen Clarke, Jens Einhorn, Michael Gao, Luis Rafael Galvez, Lexia Hachtmann, Luna Sue Huang, John Paul Kesling, Jasminka Letzas, Catherine Long, Jeffly Gabriela Molina, Lily Musker, Francis Osborne, Daniel Roibal, and Anja Wülfing. Through their diverse practices and techniques, these artists encourage viewers to engage with the world around them and explore the intricacies of perception, memory, and identity.
Marco Arias re-contextualizes consumerist images by teasing out global visual and audiovisual references through painting, critiquing the capitalist system of image production while offering new meanings to collected graphic material. Daniel Arteaga creates tension between social constructs and personal identity in his paintings, encouraging reflection on the search for truth beyond convention. Delphine Carufel integrates elements such as flowers and jewellery into her paintings to explore the relationship between the body and the world around it while offering a unique perspective on the sublimation of illness. In contrast, Sichen Grace Chen‘s symbolic paintings bridge the conscious and unconscious through pareidolia, creating tension between disparate ideas and identities and sparking a new understanding of memory as perpetual and symbolic. Claudiu Ciobanu uses personal photography in his allegorical paintings to explore contemporary issues and urge us to contemplate the future, challenging our understanding of reality. Cathleen Clarke‘s figurative paintings draw from personal experiences and family albums to capture the essence of childhood and its enigmas, evoking a sense of wonder and mystery through distorted figures and contrasting themes.
Jens Einhorn‘s paintings materialise the fragile existence of humans, capturing the mutable nature of life through playful characters, vibrant colours and patterns, and strange narratives. Michael Gao uses figuration and symbolism to comment on the impact of digital culture and technology on society. His work explores themes of censorship, technology, and the political climate as represented online. Luis Rafael Galvez‘s paintings blur the line between the imaginary and factual, exploring cultural identity and challenging cultural hierarchies, offering a postmodern perspective on the complexity of cultural identity. Lexia Hachtmann‘s paintings create unsettling situations that revolve around social issues and explore the complexities of the human experience, emphasising the sense of displacement and longing. Luna Sue Huang‘s works blend sensory elements to create a multi-dimensional experience and promote self-healing, while drawing inspiration from Eastern philosophy. John Paul Kesling‘s paintings explore the intricacies of human intimacy and connection, emphasising the importance of art in helping us understand and navigate the complexities of the human experience.
Jasminka Letzas, Catherine Long, and Jeffly Molina offer insights into the human experience through their respective explorations of the interplay between the human and non-human domains, the embodied experience of perception, and the complexity of human identity. Lily Musker draws inspiration from historical paintings to create her own transcriptions, while Francis Osborne highlights the beauty of everyday life through unconventional materials and a playful approach to painting. Daniel Roibal‘s art is influenced by Shinrin Yoku, creating spaces that encourage contemplation and mindfulness, and Anja Wülfing merges traditional and abstract painting techniques to generate unique attitudes and moods.
I am grateful to the artists who have contributed to this exhibition and to the viewers who will take the time to engage with their work. Together, we can create a more inclusive and empathetic understanding of the world and inspire social change through the transformative power of art. I hope that this exhibition will encourage viewers to engage with the world around them and explore the intricacies of perception, memory, and identity.
– Kelly Foster, Curator
For Arias, painting is a conceptual resource that serves to formalise massive culture and tease out visual and audiovisual references from a global perspective. By infiltrating contexts where he must work and observing what people consume, he gains insight into the community he is studying. He has always believed that visual signs belong not to their creators, but to their consumers. To accomplish his projects, he collects graphic material, both physical and digital, such as grocery labels, press cuttings from magazines, photographs taken with his mobile, or screenshots from the internet, and derives pictorial interpretations from it, giving signs new meanings.
Arias’s paintings establish a connection between his biography and that of the audience with contemporary art and global culture. They are screens connected to the present, going beyond criticism of our globalised era and its capitalist system of image production. The first time he stepped into a supermarket as a foreigner was in Fairway Market, NYC when he was 20 years old. Seeing the same products and marketing materials he had known since he was a kid aligned and repeated on shelves, far away from the grocery stores of his native Santiago de Chile, triggered memories he had emotionally linked to these images. These familiar forms raised questions such as “Who owns these images? Is everything here mine, or is it theirs?”. That became the main core of his current practice.
Arias’s educational background includes a Journalism degree from Diego Portales University (Santiago, Chile) in 2011 and a Visual Arts degree from the same institution in 2014. He later earned his Master’s degree in Visual Arts from the University of Chile in 2018. He is currently enrolled in Turps Academy’s Studio Programme 2020/2023, London, UK. His largest solo show took place at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Santiago de Chile) between 2021 and 2022, and he has exhibited in South America, Europe, and Asia. Additionally, his work has been cited in several academic publications and press articles, including those in Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Japan, and Sweden.
He focuses on constructing an analogy of the image as a mechanical device of visual relation with the adjacent world.
Through the use of airbrushes and base print colours to layer atmospheric themes, his paintings evoke the blurriness and flatness of screens in contemporary times. By creating tension between the elements that underlie the social construct, such as place, provenance, and essence, Arteaga’s work invites viewers to reflect on the meaning of identity and the search for truth.
His research focuses on ways to represent the truth inherent in every kind of thing, by extracting what seems to have been stripped of all dignity and attention and reconstructing his routes in the desire to form an identity. By exploring the tensions between social constructs and personal identity, Arteaga’s work invites us to reflect on our own relationships with the world around us and our place within it.
Through his art, Arteaga encourages us to consider the possibilities of constructing new meanings and narratives, and to find new connections with the world around us. His work invites us to question the boundaries that divide us, and to imagine new ways of relating to one another and the world around us. By pushing the boundaries of traditional artistic practices, Arteaga’s work encourages us to think beyond the constraints of convention and explore new ways of seeing and experiencing the world.
Using casting techniques, Carufel creates hyper realistic copies of body prints from loved ones with whom she has a trusting relationship. The imprint acts as proof of the existence of bodies and the traces they leave, which are significant to her.
While her primary medium is sculpture, Carufel has recently begun to explore painting as well, using similar ideas to her sculptural practice. She continues to use materials such as plaster and silicone to create three-dimensional works, into which she integrates elements such as flowers, paint, jewellery or found objects, evoking the power of her imagination and the effect of objects on the senses. Through her sublimation of her illness, Carufel integrates her unusual perceptions into her art, offering viewers a unique perspective on the relationship between the body and the world around it.
Pareidolia, a phenomenon where the mind perceives meaningful patterns or images in random stimuli, is one of the ways Chen untangles truth and moulds her unconscious memories into their most authentic presentations. Her emotions manifest through dream-like abstraction and analogous palettes, contrasted with clear, real-world memorabilia and paraphernalia. In her paintings, there is a unique tension between an abstract form and a concrete object that poses as a bridge between the conscious and the unconscious–the past and the uncertain future or the present and the forgotten past. Through her surrealist imagery and imaginary planes, she seeks to spark a new understanding of memory as a vision without an end, perpetual and symbolic.
In his works, Ciobanu often hides the identity of his characters, inviting viewers to reflect on their own relationship to the world around them. His characters, whether camouflaged by plants, mirrors, or astronaut helmets, seem to be searching for a deeper understanding of themselves and the world.
With his recent projects, Ciobanu seeks to communicate the urgency of our current moment and offer a message about the state of the world today. Through his use of vivid colours, composition, and symbolism, he presents a compelling overview of the present, exploring themes such as human memory, communication limits, and possible future scenarios. He also invites viewers to consider alternative social models and post-humanist philosophy.
Ultimately, Ciobanu’s paintings serve as an invitation to contemplate and question our understanding of reality. Through his works, he challenges viewers to think about the future and how we can protect and preserve this wonderful world for future generations.
Ciobanu studied painting through the Erasmus program at the Universidad de Salamanca, Spain where he discovered experimental painting and drawing techniques. The studies in Spain were completed with a drawing exhibition project which was later selected in 2009 for the Young Romanian Art 10 exhibition, “Slightly bored”, curated by Mircea Nicolae at Galeria Nouă, ICR, Venice. He participated in various projects both national and international, being present in exhibitions in Israel, Washington, Berlin, Vienna.
Each layer of paint is an attempt to interpret a moment in time that would have otherwise been overlooked or forgotten, and evokes a reminiscence that is slowly, and sometimes resistantly fading away.
Drawing from her personal experiences, Clarke’s work shares her affinity for the unexplained and unusual. Her subjects are often rendered through the use of contrasting themes – dark and light, hot and cold, left and right, or happy and melancholic expressions, leaving room for interpretation. She is deeply influenced by the personal experience of her childhood, and frequently references old family photo albums, collected letters and notes, as well as films and books that continue to pervade her own thoughts and memories.
Although Clarke may begin a painting from a concrete reference, as she paints, she looks at it less and less, allowing herself the chance to expose and interpret subtleties in everyday moments that are often unseen. Imagination and wonder become key elements in her work, and the reference becomes only a small piece in her process, sensed only as but a fleeting imprint embedded within the end result, creating the space for a life both beyond and outside of the original moment. Through her art, Clarke seeks to capture the fleeting essence of childhood and its enigmas, giving shape and colour to memories and emotions that are difficult to articulate in words, but that linger within us long after we have grown up.
Tracing the fragments of such memories and the fleeting impressions of his surroundings, Einhorn blends these with other influences, ranging from niche punk or graffiti subcultures and poignant socio-political events, to lyrics from records that he listens to while he works, which end up on the canvas’s edges.
These references fuse into strange stories with obscure narratives and a mood of bizarrely joyful play. Turning the canvases as he goes, Einhorn combines painting and collage, layering oil, acrylic, spray paint and ink with materials like mesh, fabric and tar paper in an experimental practice. His surfaces are built up by mark making, removing, collaging, tearing out, pasting, and over painting, again and again. Sometimes he incorporates unexpected found objects — uncalculated moments that take the work in unanticipated directions.
Having previously created large-scale canvases, over the past three years, Einhorn has focused on medium and small-scale formats with his most recent paintings. These bring into existence dreamlike realms, merging swathes of vibrant colour and pattern with a host of playful characters: long, languorous sunbeams, all-knowing eyes, and wilting flowers preside over butterflies, snakes, and horses with human heads, a smiling ladybird and wild blue dogs sprinting into the distance. Einhorn ultimately seeks to materialise a sense of our fragile existence; of the mutable and constantly changeable nature of life, and the shaky ground that we wilfully walk upon, never quite knowing what happens next, or what we might dare to imagine. Einhorn received a Master’s degree from the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, studying under the professorship of Tal R and Andreas Schulze.
With a young Chinese perspective, Gao delves into the meme culture in Asia and the United States, examining themes of censorship, technology, and the political climate as represented in the online world. He blends figuration and symbolism with digital found images, resulting in surprising connections and comical outcomes. Gao captures the absurdity of both the real and digital landscapes, creating a hyper-reality filled with contrasts, satire, and cultural references.
In his recent painting, “They Completely Control Their Hosts’ Nervous System” (2022), Gao references traditional Khokhloma-inspired patterns from northern China and early 20th-century game graphics, creating a dialogue between reality and ultra-reality. Using intense colors, he captures and guides the viewer’s attention, while a disturbing encounter with a grotesque creature is unfolding in the background. Similar to his contemporaries, such as Gao Hang, Michael Gao argues that attention can be dangerous in the digital era, as it can be used to attack and ignore.
Through his works, Gao seeks to highlight the impact of digital culture and technology on society, particularly in relation to politics and censorship. He encourages viewers to reflect on the ways in which we consume information and engage with social media. With his unique approach to blending figuration and digital imagery, Gao’s paintings offer a thought-provoking commentary on our contemporary world.
Through his art, Galvez presents a series of literary vignettes that blur the line between the imaginary and the factual, offering a vision that is both deeply personal and informed by the lost-in-translation nature of postmodernism.
Galvez’s paintings feature figures painted in a neoclassical style, with exaggerated and otherworldly anatomy that creates a glimpse into a cinematic fantasy. By blending different styles and techniques, Galvez seeks to offer a fresh perspective on cultural identity and the ways in which it can be constructed and deconstructed. His work is marked by a deep sincerity that is tempered by a sense of irony, allowing the viewer to navigate the complex relationship between cultural identity and personal experience.
Through his art, Galvez seeks to create a space where cultural hierarchies are levelled, allowing for a more nuanced understanding of the ways in which cultural identity can shape personal experience. By embracing the strange and surreal, Galvez offers a unique perspective on the familiar, inviting the viewer to engage with the complexity of cultural identity in a postmodern world. His paintings offer a glimpse into a world where the imaginary is just as real as the factual, allowing for a deeper exploration of the intersections between personal experience, cultural identity, and the ways in which they shape our understanding of the world around us.
The figures in her paintings are placed in stage-like off-spaces, which aim to create tensions between line and colour, with figuration serving as a vehicle to express her intentions. The close-up framing of the figures in the paintings heightens the perception of uncomfortable intimacy and is further emphasised by her use of colour.
In her work “Tiger,” Hachtmann explores the relationship between the figures in the composition and the objects they hold. The soft toy tiger is held firmly and rigidly by strong hands, while the busts of the figures transcend into the background of the canvas. The smiling figure in the top left corner appears as an uncanny intruder, prompting the viewer to question who is holding whom in place. This tension between the figures and the objects they hold speaks to the larger themes present in Hachtmann’s work, specifically the sense of displacement and longing that is pervasive throughout her oeuvre.
Hachtmann’s use of colour further reinforces the emotional depth of her work. In “where goes the night,” the yellow tears crawling down the pastel body highlight the sense of anxiety and displacement present in the piece. Through her paintings, Hachtmann invites the viewer to engage with the complexities of the human experience and contemplate the intricacies of personal and cultural identity.
Huang’s art is a reflection of her experiences with synesthesia and hallucinations, which have greatly influenced her artistic approach. Her works aim to not only validate the feelings of others but also serve as a form of self-reflection. By blending sensory elements such as touch and hearing into her artwork, Huang creates a multi-dimensional experience for her viewers.
Through her art, Huang seeks to connect with the outside world and promote self-healing. Her works are inspired by Eastern philosophy and poetically depict emotions such as longing, fear, and gratitude for life. Huang believes that everything is fluid and transitory, and her artwork serves as a reminder that we are all connected and that we should strive to live and improve despite the obstacles we face.
Overall, Huang’s art serves as a powerful tool for communication and healing. By sharing her personal experiences, she hopes to inspire others to embrace their struggles and find the strength to overcome them.
His work is imbued with a deep sense of nostalgia, harking back to the excitement and vulnerability of new romantic connections, while also reflecting on the lack of intimacy experienced during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kesling’s “kissing” paintings are a poignant embodiment of his artistic vision, capturing the raw emotion and passion of human connection. His use of richly textured brushstrokes and bold colors imbue his works with a sense of immediacy, while his choice of subject matter speaks to a broader societal moment of isolation and disconnection. Through his art, Kesling seeks to explore the complexities of intimacy and human connection, examining the ways in which past experiences inform our present interactions, and the ways in which we navigate the obstacles that stand in the way of genuine emotional connection.
At the heart of Kesling’s work lies a deep understanding of the power of art to evoke emotions and provoke thought. His paintings are a testament to the profound role that art can play in helping us to make sense of our world, to connect with one another on a deeper level, and to navigate the complexities of the human experience. Through his art, Kesling invites us to confront our own fears, doubts, and hopes, and to explore the many layers of emotion and experience that make us human.
Over the past decade, Letzas has created paintings that evoke the spirit of filmmakers such as Dario Argento and Juraj Herz, imbuing her work with a sense of ambiguity and psychological complexity that draws the viewer in and leaves them questioning the nature of their own reality.
At the heart of Letzas’ work is a profound questioning of anthropocentrism, as she seeks to break down the boundaries between the human and non-human worlds. Her paintings challenge our assumptions about what it means to be alive, and encourage us to look at the world around us with fresh eyes. In her compositions, broken up marks and dense layers of paint create a sense of tension and emotional depth, inviting the viewer to contemplate the complex relationships between the figures and objects within the frame.
Through her use of chromatic language, Letzas imbues her work with a sense of dark humor that is at once both warm and empathetic. As one gazes upon her canvases, one can’t help but feel drawn into a world that is at once familiar and unsettling, a place where the lines between reality and fantasy are blurred, and the only constant is the emotional charge that permeates every inch of the canvas. Ultimately, Letzas’ work reminds us that art has the power to challenge our assumptions about the world and ourselves, and encourages us to embrace the unknown with open hearts and minds.
By foregrounding the embodied experience of perception, Long’s work seeks to create a sensorial engagement that draws the viewer into a richly layered world of history, patina and resonance.
Central to Long’s practice is the exploration of how colour can evoke sensation, affect and mood. Her large-scale paintings are marked by a bold use of colour and a tactile, gestural application of paint that seeks to convey the rawness and sensuality of bodily experience. Through her work, Long engages with the process of layering, building up and erasing marks to create complex compositions that invite the viewer to participate in the process of meaning-making. Long’s paintings are thus a testament to the power of colour, gesture and sensation to evoke deep emotion and meaning.
Long’s extensive education in both dance and fine art has provided her with a unique perspective on the relationship between the body, movement and image-making. She holds a BA and MA in Dance from De Montfort University, and a PhD in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Arts. Her work has been exhibited widely, including at the ICA, Beaconsfield, The Showroom, Deptford X and Art Licks, and she has undertaken residencies at Chisenhale Studios, Siobhan Davies Studios and Pada Studios.
Through her work, Molina aims to highlight the interconnectedness of our experiences, showing how the past continues to inform and shape the present. Molina’s paintings feature a rich tapestry of imagery that spans different times and places, providing a personal and intimate glimpse into her own history and identity. Some of the images in her work are from a time that she never knew, from a Venezuela of yesterday, where her parents grew up in a family not yet dispersed as a result of the dictatorship. Others are inspired by her present-day experiences, particularly her marriage and work in the United States. These paintings are a celebration of the complexity of human identity, demonstrating how our experiences – both personal and collective – come together to create who we are.
Through her artwork, Molina invites the viewer to contemplate their own personal histories and the people and events that have shaped their own identity. Her paintings serve as a mirror, reflecting back to us the complex and multilayered nature of our own lives and the ways in which we become who we are. By exploring the relationship between the past, present, and future, Molina’s work provides a platform for reflection and introspection, offering insights into the human experience that are both personal and universal.
Musker’s first solo show was held in December 2022 at the Tabernacle in West London, which was followed by another solo show in February 2022 at the Lansdowne Gallery in Stroud, Gloucestershire. At the latter, she did a live portrait sitting for one week. She has also participated in several group exhibitions such as ‘There is Hope’ held at the Liverpool Biennale in 2005, a group show in Amsterdam in 2005, and ‘Regret and Embarrassment’ held in Camberwell, London in 2012.
For over a decade, Musker has been working on a series of portraits under the ‘Purifire series.’ These depict the sitter holding fire, symbolizing the burning away of bad spirits, which she believes the paintings as objects do the same. Using a range of media including drawing, painting, and printmaking, her main focus is on oil painting, with many of the colors being made by herself from pigment. Having a profound understanding of painting tradition, she recreates exact layouts of colors in her palettes as used by painters in the 18th and 19th centuries. Some of these palettes contain up to 52 colors on one palette, which she likens to musical scales. Alongside her painting, Musker is currently teaching herself lithography and etching, hoping to incorporate her daily act of drawing into books and prints.
Attending art school in Cheltenham, Musker received a BA Hons in 2006. She was lucky enough to receive a scholarship to attend the British School in Rome in 2005, which she feels greatly influenced her practice. With her profound understanding of painting tradition and the ability to recreate the exact palettes of old masters, Musker’s work often looks back to historical paintings, making transcriptions through looking at the composition and subject matter.
Drawing inspiration from the visual world around him, Osborne explores the idea that the work already exists on some level, and it is up to the artist to puzzle through an index of visual information and physical material to compose images that make an immediate impact.
Central to Osborne’s practice is the desire to bring the overlooked to the forefront of his work and highlight the fact that visual inspiration can be found in everyday life. According to Osborne, anything can be the start of an idea or the basis of a painting, and he seeks to pay close attention to the unnoticed areas of beauty within the urban environment. From textures on walls to construction markings on the road, Osborne’s work aims to draw attention to the unobserved and create images that place these unnoticed elements at the forefront.
In his artistic process, Osborne employs familiar materials and visual prompts that enhance the viewer’s sensory experience, as he poses fundamental questions about the nature of visual communication. His work explores what makes an image and how visual language can be used to communicate effectively, while investigating how we react when it reaches our nervous system.
Through his playful experimentation and close observation of the world around him, Francis Osborne invites us to take a closer look at the overlooked aspects of our surroundings and discover new forms of beauty in the mundane.
The immersive experience of a conscious walk in the forest allowed Roibal to feel the immense power of nature and the sense of interconnectedness that it evokes. He was struck by the notion that everything in nature is in constant motion, unpredictable and spontaneous, and cannot be possessed or controlled by human beings.
Roibal believes that the foundation of his artistic vision lies in the concept of contemplation, which forms the crux of his work. His experiences in the forest made him realize that the only way to truly connect with nature is to be present in the moment, to let go of any preconceived notions or expectations and allow oneself to be immersed in the beauty and wonder that surrounds us. By creating spaces and environments that encourage such a state of mindfulness, Roibal seeks to enable the viewer to become an active participant in the work, rather than a mere observer. Ultimately, his aim is to create a conscious moment of being, where the viewer is able to fully engage with the space, themselves, and the natural world, in a state of heightened awareness and appreciation.
Wülfing’s works are characterized by the harmonious fusion of opposing elements – figuration meets abstraction, tradition meets progression – achieved through the combination of different surfaces and painting techniques. By sewing together fine and coarse canvas fabrics and painting classic elements in oil and abstract ones with acrylics, pencils, and markers, the artist creates a unified whole out of seemingly disparate parts.
In the composition and coloration of her works, Wülfing employs oppositional contrasts, such as light/dark, dynamic/static, strict/playful, and crowded/empty. Yet, she maintains a delicate balance between the two opposing elements, avoiding the dominance of one over the other. The styles seem to be competing for attention, but ultimately, they mutually benefit from each other’s presence.
The painting process is planned and meticulous, with the artist referring to the tried and tested, the familiar, the slowly grown, the matured, and the old. The figures are painted in oil, while the free abstract elements are added with acrylic paint, pencils, and markers. By merging the expressive possibilities of modern painting with the timeless techniques of the old masters, Wülfing creates unique “frequencies” of attitude or mood through the interplay of shapes and colors.
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