Tales from the North Exhibition

by | May 20, 2024 | Blog post

Cynthia Corbett Gallery is thrilled to present Tales from the Northan exhibition of recent works by two of the UK’s most exciting painters, Alastair Gordon and Elaine Woo MacGregor. The exhibition will take place in the year of the Gallery’s 20th Anniversary, two decades on from one of the Gallery’s first exhibitions ‘Young, Female, and Scottish’ which also featured work by Woo MacGregor.

The exhibition includes a series of Alastair Gordon’s extraordinary, meticulous illusionistic paintings that explore the possibilities of ‘quodlibet’, a form of trompe l’oeil that proliferated in 17th Century Northern Europe. Quodlibet (a Latin word meaning ‘whatever you please’), usually includes a board with objects and implements that speak to the artist’s own surroundings and life.

Elaine Woo MacGregor’s work is engaged with the processes of making, and the narrative and imaginative possibilities of painting. Her subjects are drawn from popular and high culture; the life of Audrey Hepburn, Matisse drawing his muse, Peggy Guggenheim in her prime. Black and white stills are reinjected with colour, drenching the past in new colours. The work also embodies a cultural fusion of east and west, painted from her perspective as a Scottish artist brought up by traditional Chinese parents who moved to the U.K in the late 70s from Hong Kong.

31 May – 15 June 2024, coinciding with London Gallery Weekend, Location: Gallery 67, York Street, Marylebone, London, W1H 1QB, Open daily, 11am – 6pm, (Sunday 12pm – 5pm)

Alistair Gordon – Silver Birches, Wimbledon Common, 2004, oil and acrylic on canvas, 56 x 76 cm, 22 x 30 in.