Corinna Button
In everyday encounters, I see something else quite fascinating happening beneath the surface. It could be a restless energy or unspoken words, all tangled up with different emotions. I use this to conceive characters and situations to reveal an imagined world. I want to compel the viewer into seeing new and significant aspects of the human experience of our time.
My inspiration comes from many sources, often presenting itself quite unexpectedly.
It can manifest itself as something that ,on the surface, appears quite ordinary. For example, brushing hair, or sitting on a train, seeing an advert in a magazine, or it could be a word or a comment, a particular fabric in a dress or curtains. Sometimes, it‚s autobiographical and personal. Whatever the trigger, I frequently draw on these disparate sources and bring them together to capture and exaggerate identity or to emphasize a particular something about the human condition
Currently I am exploring the complex relationships that are formed between teenage girls and young women. This theme initially grew out of my daughter‚s numerous recounted experiences and snatches of conversations overheard from her school and college days experiences. It has since been further developed to reflect the wider picture - street culture (ie; the build up of this Œ‚new wave‚‚ of street culture amongst teenagers, particularly females.) The media , obsessions with image, gossip, fashion, the minutiae of celebrity life and materialism have further enriched this theme and it is indeed a fertile arena to harvest !.
I have a very turbulent and physical way of working . My intense, passionate affair with Etching and other forms Printmaking has been the most instrumental in uncovering and establishing my true visual ‚voice‚ so to speak. It continues to be a medium that intrigues me and is hugely influential in the way I approach my paintings. I use print techniques qnd tools as well as the brush. I paint with a roller or make marks by printing onto canvas. I bury and flood my surfaces with texture, then dig my images out - excavating and scraping away to carve out and then impregnate the surface again - intent overlaps accident .
I‚ve started to use fabrics either as collage or to print through them . I print impressions from patterned embossed papers to leave traces of memory, fragments creating a mood or to hint or glimpse at the character of someone.
Recently more and more fabrics have entered my work - references to fashion and pattern , ie; lace and how it has a multifaceted and yet entirely feminine image in all its guises. The tangle of fabrics, and the knitting of threads, has become a strong metaphor describing the complexities of female friendships.
Net curtains - something old fashioned, familiar, safe and homely perhaps, but also parochial and insular, - you can hide behind them.
I want my work to reveal a strong sense of atmosphere and feeling, combining boldness with ambiguity, which projects, sometimes an obvious, but nearly always an unspoken experience.
C.V
ART EDUCATION
1980 – 1981 : Foundation Course, Sheffield Polytechnic
1981 – 1984 : BA Honours – Fine Art, Leeds Polytechnic
1984 – 1986 : Advanced Printmaking, Croydon College of Art
SOLO EXHIBITIONS (from 1990)
2008 Chelsea Arts club, London
2008 Wildwood Gallery, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
2007 Gallery kaleidoscope, London
2005 Kew gallery London,
94/96/98/2002/2004/ 2007 Cupola Gallery, Sheffield
95/96/99/2002 : Nutley Gallery, Reigate
2001 : Gallery at Wrenn - Northampton
1999 : Windsor Arts Centre
1996 : Tam Tam Galerie, Budapest
1995 : The Davies Bailey Gallery, Battle, Sussex
1995 : Paris bas Bank, Luxembourg
1994 : The Custard Factory, Birmingham
1994 : The European Commission, Luxembourg
1991 : Finegold Contemporary Art, Halifax
1991 : Ross Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS (from 1990)
2008 Hicks gallery, Wimbledon
2008 ‘’ Originals’’ The Mall galleries, London
2005 / 06 / 07 : Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston - U - Thames
2005 : RAC 'The gallery', London
2004 : 'Mother' exhibition, west end centre, Aldershot
2004/05/ 06 : ‘Originals’ – Mall galleries – London
2004 : National Society, Painters & Printmakers, Atrium Gallery,London
2003/04 : C2 Comtemp’ Art – Bucks,
2003 Royal Academy Summer show
2003 - 06 : Gallery Kaleidoscope - London
2002 - 06 : Gallery One, Barnes,London
2001 : International Print Exhibition, Yale Gallery, Wrexham & touring
2001 : ‘Relativities’ International Exhibition, Abu Dhabi
2000 : ‘The Discerning Eye’ Mall Galleries, London
2000 : The National Print Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
2000 : British International Miniature Print Exhibition, Bankside Gallery
1999 : Open Print Biennale, Atrium Gallery, Queensway
1998 : Sefton Open, Atkinson Gallery, Merseyside
1996 : Kunstgarden, Denmark
1995 : Gallerie Rose, Hamburg
1995 : FBA. National Print Exhibition, The Mall Galleries, London
1994 : Rothenstein Trophy, Scarborough & London
1993/94/99 : Royal Academy Summer Show, London
1993 : Galerie Editions, Simoncini, Luxembourg
1993 : Eastleigh Museum, Hampshire (plus 1 year tour)
1993 : Gardner Arts Centre, Brighton
1992 : National Theatre, London
1992 : The Royal Festival Hall, London
1990 : Seldown Gallery, Poole, Dorset
1990 : The National Theatre, London
1990 : National Museum of Fine Art, Malta
1990 : Barbican, London
RELATED PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
2007 Ran a series of workshops for teachers
2006 Article in ARTISTS AND ILLUSTRATORS magazine
2006 Winner of university of wales Aberystwyth purchase prize
2004 : Elected into the Royal Society of Painters & Printmakers
2005 Workshops for pupils at Teddington School.
2001 : Workshop for (A-level) & teachers / Northampton schools
2001 : Work chosen for ITV production
1999 - 2000 : Artists access to Art school’, Wimbledon school of Art
1995 - 1998 Lived, worked and exhibited in Hamburg, Germany
1990 : Teaching foundation students, Croydon College of art
Work in Private& Public Collections internationally incl’ the BBC & Ashmolean Museum, Oxford