Explore Figures in Space at dot-art gallery

Artists who place abstract figures into their paintings to explore how changing surroundings affect their memories and perceptions are at the heart of a new show at Liverpool gallery dot-art.

Figures in Space, which is being staged at the Queen Avenue gallery off Castle Street, encompasses the work of Liverpool’s James Hallinan and Wirral-based Julie Lawrence.

It runs from August 23 to October 5 with the venue open from 10am to 6pm on Tuesdays to Saturdays.

Irish-born Hallinan, who has exhibited in Ireland, the UK and Mexico, works primarily in oils, acrylic and pastels on canvas and his work is currently concerned with themes surrounding heightened periods of emotions and the effect they have both on the mind and body, while reflecting on the root cause.

Using the body as a focal point in his work, he creates a visual language that externalises these internal experiences using symbolism throughout to represent past experiences or present beliefs.

His paintings Identity and Hill Street, along with the series Rooms, are represented in the exhibition.

Lawrence’s work meanwhile references the spiritual painting language of the visionary landscape tradition.

She explains: “The paintings selected for this exhibition are a response to my walking shadow; my shifting, momentary intuitions, where light and shadow improvise unanticipated harmonies experienced on this simple daily walk.

“Using predominantly pastels and water-based media, my work reveals my shadow as a transitional, ambiguous figure moving through space – an unresolved tension within the landscape that evokes the fleeting mixture of memory and perception. #

“My instinctive working process involves building up layers of wet and dry media on a small scale. The ambiguous images that emerge strive to invite the viewer into a quiet psychological territory and a liminal space which hovers between nostalgic association and something unknown.” 

Lawrence has exhibited in the last three Pastel Society Annual Open Exhibitions at Mall Galleries in London, where she won the 2023 Yoshimoto prize, and is currently one of five female landscape artists working on the Wirral today being highlighted by the Lady Lever Art Gallery.

Figures in Space is at the dot-art gallery in Queen Avenue from August 23 to October 5. All artworks on show are for sale.

Top: Works by James Hallinan (left) and Julie Lawrence (right).