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Art - HQ Summer Show
Sara O’Kane has been putting together quarterly group
exhibitions of largely local artists since 1999. First she
put them on in the All Saints, then the Thebes, now HQ. “I’ve
always had the same philosophy,” she tells me, dressed
all in white, having just hung her latest one, entitled ‘Summer
Show’. “I like to put on a few established artists
who are likely to be known to the buying public, and a few
unknown ones who might come as a surprise. I don’t want
to match paintings: the key is variety.” The most established
artist in today’s exhibition is Tom Benjamin, and his
vivid Post-Impressionist-style landscapes are hanging near
the wall.
Walking round both floors of the immaculate gallery (I haven’t
been since it was a building site three days before it opened
its doors) I can see plenty of variety, from Angie McKay’s
confident watercolour shoes to David Bradford’s wooden
sculptures of stylised ships to Tony Owers’ printy abstracts
composed of scribbles, blocks of colour and bits of magazine,
which I like best. Not all the prices have been displayed
yet: they all seem to be in three figures. I tell Sarah which
are my favourites, and she says she’s not surprised.
I tell her I can’t afford one, though, and ask her what
proportion of people who come in are buyers, and what proportion
just want to have a look. Apparently it’s about 20 to
1 in favour of the lookers. Go join them: it’s a fine
exhibition. AL
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