Homecoming: A Solo Exhibition by Richard Mynett
31st August – 14th September
Opening night: Friday 30th August, 6pm - 8pm

Surface is pleased to welcome Homecoming, a solo exhibition by Nottingham-born artist, Richard Mynett.

Homecoming comprises a combination of Mynett’s new figurative and abstract landscapes, a series examining place and myth. Mynett’s practise considers the spaces that surround us and looks to challenge our perception of the natural environment and its inhabitants. The work uses a muted palette and simplified composition of images that are recognisable as landscapes to examine our relationship to the natural world. Essential elements, water, earth and sky are the foundation of the work, but the perspective is challenged; foreground, background and subject jostles for position and horizons are disrupted. Where wildlife appears, they are the everyday (but vanishing) animals of northern Europe, deer and hares. Except of course, there is magic in these creatures. Magic that exists in the landscape too, magic that we bury away from our modern technology focussed lives. 

These works, then, are reminders, prompts and signs that we exist as part of this world, not apart from it. The materials are crucial too. There are so many ways to create imagery that in using paint, the work has to be about the paint—at least in part. The way the paint moves, the marks the brushes make, the drips, the lines and the edges, they, too, are part of the story.

Artist Talk
Saturday 14th September, 12pm
Mynett will discuss his diverse body of work, including drawings and acrylic paintings that have progressed from his figurative roots, to his more recent abstractive landscapes. He will address the important environmental themes in his work, and how his new methodology and artistic processes allow him to explore local mythology and his connection to the landscapes of the East Midlands.

These talks are informal and there will be time for questions throughout the tour.

Homecoming opens in the Main Gallery. As always, there will be a donation bar with ales from local brewery, Pheasantry.

Free Entry: Everyone Welcome