Doubles and Trebles

Doubles and Trebles at Ramp Gallery is a collaborative project between artists Hamish Coleman and Emily Hartley-Skudder.

 >>Download and read the exhibition ESSAY: 'The gamble' by Ellie Lee-Duncan

Hartley-Skudder’s process begins with the obsessive searching and collecting of commonly found objects; mostly miniatures, toys and plastic trinkets. Drawing upon the still life tradition, these objects from ‘life’ – yet already existing as replicas – are assembled, photographed and translated into intricate paintings.

Coleman’s painting practice similarly explores ideas of removal and representation and is grounded in acts of searching and collecting, seeking ‘in-between’ imagery of unimportant film stills to disrupt any obvious imagery narrative. Through selection, isolation and then a process of departure and adaptation into paint, Coleman elevates these abstract qualities, exploiting the tension that lies between figuration and abstraction.

For Doubles and Trebles, Coleman and Hartley-Skudder combine their practices to expand and explore the process of making and the act of viewing. References to representational painting play off against formal qualities; the surface is emphasised and the ‘paintings’ pose as backdrops, objects, photographs, and shadows on walls. The artists’ studio approaches are deconstructed and begin to fold back into each other – disrupting the viewer’s notions of order and completeness and broadening discourse around the medium of painting by moving beyond the picture plane.

>>Download the gallery text

Join us for the opening preview of Doubles and Trebles on Thur 23 Mar from 4:30pm - 6:30pm.

The artists will be in conversation about Doubles and Trebles in the gallery on Thur 23 Mar from 4pm.