Susan Gunn: GROUND

A series of paintings responding to The Portico Library collection and exploring the medium of traditionally made gesso, layered and manipulated to evoke associating references of control and chance, aerial grounds and psychological landscapes. Through varying factors such as tension in the canvas, the consistency of the gesso and the speed and temperature at which the work is allowed to “dry-out”, Gunn creates landscapes of cracked areas and accidental nuances, engineered but ultimately beyond the control of the artist. Finally grinding down and polishing the surface by hand to a marble finish, the divisions and spatial outlay in the canvases marry regimented geometry defiantly against the organic, free-roaming fissures tenuously embedded in the surface and spilling over the strict linear divisions, refusing to be contained.

Held in collections alongside David Hockney, Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud and having received awards, commissions and mentoring from Callum Innes, Arts Council England and The European Sovereign Art Fund, Susan's paintings were shown at The Portico for the first time in her native North West, with support by Castlefield Gallery's New Art Spaces.