Ruth Mulvie & Claire Knill: The Great Escape

This exhibition brings together the work of two British Artists Ruth Mulvie and Claire Knill. Due to the unfortunate van crash at Colonnade House last year, their exhibition was postponed. They will now be exhibiting from November 8th until November 20th 2022, closed on Monday 14th November. 

Knill and Mulvie both share a preoccupation with colour and light, Knill exploring her interest through sculpture and kinetic forms and Mulvie through painting and print  – there are similarities in the way they use shape and form in their artwork.

Claire Knill

Claire is a Hove based artist working across various disciplines including sculpture, textiles and digital collage. Through kinetic sculpture, Claire creates moments of pause, reflection and connection within the busy environments of our lives offering moments of escape. The work’s meditative yet playful quality brings a sense of calm to the spaces within which they are hung. 

Using hand-cut metals and acrylic to create evolving three dimensional work, Claire’s style is characterised by intriguing colour combinations, geometric forms and a joyful refined aesthetic. In this installation, she combines the moving sculptures with sound to create an immersive gallery experience.

Interested in the play between what is physically there and what is not – the colours cast through the transparent materials, the reflections of light and the changing composition of the shadows are as important as the solid materials in the mobiles. In the same way light can change our perception of the reality of this piece of work, so too can feelings, thoughts and memory change and shape the reality of our day to day experiences.

Ruth Mulvie

Ruth is exhibiting a selection of paintings & prints from a collection called ‘Xanadu’. Using the first paragraph in Coleridge’s poem Kubla Khan (Or, a Vision in a Dream), Ruth has developed these latest pieces.

Ruth Mulvie is a contemporary fine artist, known for her vivid palette and for the delightfully unexpected detail in her paintings. She graduated from the Glasgow School of Art and over the years comparisons have been made with Hockney.

She cherishes that visceral connection that Kodachrome™ gives us with our past. That single moment frozen in time that one can look at forever.  Old photographs are her initial inspiration for each new piece; a digital springboard atop which she dives into her latest delicious fantasy landscape.

Mulvie’s colour choices yell and fizz. They quicken the heartbeat. Sherbet yellow next to candy pink or lime green besides turquoise, they all elevate the mood.

In her paintings we are invited to join the most wonderful party or shared experience. Mulvie’s realms surprise and delight. Hers are playful, glamorous worlds with pure glee for oxygen. And in each we are granted a day in happy valley.

At the heart of Mulvie’s pieces is the palpable joyfulness in her response to colour.  She is at her happiest when mixing and combining paint, waiting for the thrill of the perfect shade. For her, colour is emotion, colour is memory, colour is her favourite place to be. And we are all invited. There’s no place like it.

Tuesday – Sunday (Closed Mondays) // 10.00 – 17.00