Him & Me is a reprise of an exhibition in 2021 that was partially cut short by a van entering the building in the early hours of the morning. The artists are mother and son Lucia Babjakova and 11 year-old Cassius.
Lucia is a Slovak-born artist who grew up in Brno, Czech Republic and relocated permanently to Shoreham in 2010. She studied Aesthetics at Masaryk University Brno and has previously exhibited around Europe in Barcelona, Prague, Brno, Florence and London including the Concrete and Glass Saatchi exhibition in 2008.
Her work is not style specific, it combines abstract and representational painting with a strong colourist verve and symbolist narrative. It is characterised by her deep respect for nature and her ability to hint at ambiguity and uncertainty, implied narrative and, sometimes, a darkness beneath the surface of light.
She is grouping her works around a concept of ‘From Oppression to Hope’ including loose themes of Migration and the Gaze in different contexts: geopolitical and personal.
Cassius is neurodivergently creative across a number of subjects, his work reflecting his fascination with steam engines and buildings of the world. His last show helped him gain the GCSE equivalent Arts Award Bronze certificate and has completed over 500 drawings of buildings and bell towers, continuing to study and draw them. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of steam trains, their numbers, wheel configurations, designers and locations. With this, he’s carefully added a collection of unusual facts to each drawing and can talk extensively on their history and genesis.
The wide variety of styles and content between mother and son make this somewhat of an unusual show. While it resists categorisation, it also exhibits a joy of expression paired with a seriousness that invites attention.
Open Tuesday – Sunday // 10.00 – 17.00