Open Space

In the barely six months since Open Space Galleries evolved from an on-line to an actual gallery space, they have established a significant contemporary venue for exhibiting art -  most of which originates in Cornwall. That they should choose to do so in Penryn rather than neighbouring Falmouth, Penzance or St Ives is a decision that is paying off. Benefiting both from the listed architecture and the dual aspects of daylight the large eponymous space has the flexibility to show an eclectic mix,  from oil paintings to installations, that genuinely reflects the vibrant multiformity of work being created in Cornwall today.

The present exhibition features several graduates from University College Falmouth, a link that is important to the gallery and led to the previous 'Revolutions' show and current promotion of Revolver which celebrates the groundbreaking series of back to back exhibitions held in Penzance last year. Artists represented in both shows include recent MA graduate Kaisa Karikoski whose impeccable canvases, built up with almost Rothko like intensity, talk of light and its infiltration through darkness into landscape and Falmouth alumni Simon Thomas who worked with Peter Randell-Page on his monolithic 'Seed' sculpture for the Eden Project (the maquette was exhibited here) and shares with him a fascination for the intricacies of the natural world. Created with high tech and perfectly honed precision the 37 graduated stainless steel discs of  Thomas's 'Planeliner evoke, non the less, a triumph of Fibonacci mathematics – a pine cone perhaps, or a seashell. The seven foot 'Love, Understanding and Soap Bubbles', created in stainless steel wire, conceptualises the forces at work in a bubble mass to ponder both the magnitude of nature and our relationship to it. With work of this calibre, Penryn has more than Christmas to celebrate this December.