Elysium Gallery, Swansea
Fri 3 – Sat 18 Feb
This year, the Elysium Gallery is celebrating its 10th anniversary; a decade of contributing to the Welsh arts scene through hundreds of exhibitions, supporting and showcasing endless artists, both local and international, and in turn, becoming an integral part of South Wales’ artistic landscape. Prior to its opening in 2007, the Elysium Gallery was Exposure Gallery where its very first exhibition was Shropshire born Swansea based artist Bruce Risdon. Now, 10 years later, Risdon is the first exhibition of 2017 at the Elysium. His career starting there, he is now coming full circle. Risdon’s work is a combination of both landscape and portrait paintings in oils and has a very bold style with deliberate brushstrokes with a musical arrangement of colours. The gallery describes his work as having a gestural style “with themes ranging from underlying erotic narratives to confident landscape vistas.” But this exhibition will show his work now leans more toward the figure as a subject, showcasing a new collection of paintings which focus on breaking down the traditional social stereotypes of identity, sexuality, and gender roles. His work is created in an attempt to reflect the contemporary departure of these accepted norms and look at conveying the individual’s “former peculiarities that have now become disparate guiltless pleasures.” Very relevant work in this era indeed.
Admission: free. Info: www.elysiumgallery.com