St Leonards – the town I grew up in – has become a fashionable place, a trend accelerated by the pandemic. Consistent with that is a flourishing art scene which one could stretch along the coast as far west as Eastbourne and east into Kent. This past weekend, though, I covered the stretch from Bexhill to Rye. Here are my highlights, west to east:
Lucy Evetts at Flatland Projects to 14 July
Repurposed units on an industrial estate contain artists’ studios, Common Clay’s ceramic facilities and Unit 33 making artist books, as well as the spacious Flatlands Projects gallery. Plenty of artists have played the semi-surrealist game of selecting apparently disparate subjects to connect up, but Lucy Evetts does it with particular panache and painterly chops in her show ‘The Voice Inside My Head’. Such motifs as self-portraits as a half-made-up clown, car washes as pictures of brain activity, and vehicles at night come in and out of coherence – with the teasing addition of painted imitation warning signs scattered around the gallery.
Laetitia Yhap at the De La Warr Pavilion to 2 June
Laetitia Yhap: ‘The Business of the Beach’, 1985-86
You won’t find art shown in a better combination of architecture and location than in this modernist masterpiece by the sea. Currently, there’s an excellent overview of Laetitia Yhap’s paintings of the fishing community on the Stade Beach, Hastings. She was attracted by the fishing community’s free-spiritedness, self-determination and need for a certain obstinacy – and how that mirrored aspects of her painting vocation. This century, the industry has changed rapidly: fewer boats, no longer wooden, more mechanisation, and not nearly as many people working on the beach. So Yhap’s cycle from 1974-99 has become a historical record and the perfect chance for her to demonstrate a rare ability to orchestrate complex peoplescapes and use the shaped canvas to convincing effect.
‘St Leonards Meets The World’ at Electro Studios to 27 May
I wasn’t surprised to find a dozen excellent artists showing in West St Leonards – I chose them myself! The show matches six artists based in St Leonards with six UK-based artists who bring an international dimension. Pairings are founded on the idea that the works have enough in common that a conversation between them will prove interesting: above is the meeting of local resident Geraldine Swayne and London-based Japanese painter Miho Sato. Head to my site for a full overview of the show.
Kevin Atherton at Rogue Gallery to 16 June
Kevin Atherton at Rogue Gallery to 16 June
Norman Road in central St Leonards has a clutch of worthwhile spaces. The pick of the current exhibitions is at Rogue Gallery, where Kevin Atherton presents the thinking behind his long career – he had a solo show at the Serpentine in 1988 – through works related to his conceptually based public sculptures. Here he is with ‘Upon Further Reflection: 72 years over 34 years’, 2023, in which self-portraits from one time gaze into the reflection of different times – rendered darker by the implied water. I made a note to visit the original reflected sculpture in Elthorne Park, Islington, and his elegantly time-travelling pair of figures at Brixton Railway Station.
Elias Sime at Hastings Contemporary to 8 September
Elias Sime: ‘Tightrope Evolution (1)’, 2017 – Reclaimed electronic components on panel
Hastings Contemporary is the next major venue, two miles east. I can recommend the current show, even though I didn’t catch it, from what I saw before it travelled from the Arnolfini in Bristol. Elias Sime has never used computers, email, or social media but sources all manner of computing, electrical and other associated items from worldwide waste disposal through Ethiopia. They are brought together into intricately dynamic configurations that operate well as abstract paintings. Thematically, one might mention communication, the many touches summoned by used objects, the relationship between technological and human worlds, the memorialising of past technologies, and the disposal problem.
‘Assembly’ at Rye Creative Centre
David Ainley: Detail ‘Derbyshire Landscape’, 1996-98
‘Assembly’ (14-18 May) brought together 95 artists in a former school gymnasium hall, mixing Kent and Sussex artists with members of Contemporary British Painting from across the UK and Ireland. Like ‘St Leonards Meets The World’, it brings the locals into conversation with wider geographies. David Ainley’s intriguing composition uses eighteen postcards to make a structure that could stand in for the geological strata of the eponymous Derbyshire landscape, in line with his interest in the labour behind the formation of landscapes, especially mining. But it also reminded me of the camera responsible for stacking the images.
Top Photo: © Artlyst 2024
Lucy Evetts at Flatland Projects to 14 July
Laetitia Yhap at the De La Warr Pavilion to 2 June
‘St Leonards Meets The World’ at Electro Studios to 27 May
Kevin Atherton at Rogue Gallery to 16 June
Elias Sime at Hastings Contemporary to 8 September
‘Assembly’ at Rye Creative Centre