Contemporary Art at Cristus Gallery, Sandgate

Cristus at Greenwich!

Dan — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:34:48 +0000

We are pleased to announce that you can now find Cristus Gallery at Greenwich Market on the first and last Sundays of each month. We have the usual fine collection of new paintings, signed original prints, ceramics and unique art greetings cards that you can find at Sandgate, but now available to our legions of followers in London.

Come along, say ‘hello’ to Deborah, and have a browse. We’ll be featuring special offers, taking commissions for our stable of extremely talented artists, and inviting customers to our Sandgate first night openings.

There’s lots of other stuff happening at the Market and it makes a great day out with the Maritime Museum, Observatory and Cutty Sark just around the corner, and lots of other artists and craftspeople exhibiting too…

One customer was so carried away by the quality of the raku pottery that she tried to make off with a piece before Debs could wrap it…

While this man was apoplectic at the scandalously high value and low prices of the art…

See you in Greenwich, first and last Sundays!

Anna Phelps ~ ‘painting from memory and imagination’

Quigley — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:28:53 +0000

Cristus gallery is very pleased to welcome Anna Phelps to its winter exhibition. After two exhibitions of ideas’ paintings, we were looking for work that could complement in terms of technique and richness of palette, and we were also keen to leave the known world and all its troubles. Anna’s ‘Bacchus’, with its dark crimson, purple and golden hues, seemed the perfect painting to build the exhibition around. Like all of her work, it is highly stylised, theatrical and captivating.
The figures are calm and still but distracted, staring beyond the viewer as if frozen in a moment. It is as though they have stepped forward from their reality, to be painted. They comply.

Anna’s statement on her website http://www.annaphelps.co.uk explains how she arrived at such a distinctive style, by rejecting the trends of art teaching and production, in order to find a method of painting that comes naturally from within. The result is personal and spare, but never ‘primitive’, as the attention to detail is truly breathtaking. Come and see for yourself, at the winter exhibition.

Victoria Fontaine-Wolf ~ ‘ideal beauty’

Quigley — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:28:38 +0000

Victoria, good friend of Cristus, has twice been reviewed on this site and has for some time been available for portrait commissions at the gallery. This is, however, the first time that we have tempted her to exhibit, with two paintings in the winter exhibition. Both feature contemporary pre-Raphaelite subjects of exquisite charm and beauty. I say contemporary, because they are not the lost or fallen mid-Victorian females of the PRB; rather, in their contentment and demeanour, they are more representative of our times. Isabella (and the pot of basil), featured above, even wears Victoria’s own favourite dress, though painted in a style that would no doubt find Ruskin’s approval.

Sumptuous in colour and detail, elaborately framed, they look magnificent!

Philip Lee’s tempestuous ‘Deluge’ paintings

Quigley — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:28:22 +0000

Two large and dramatic canvases from Philip Lee form part of the Cristus winter exhibition. They come from the artist’s surrealist period, and have been carefully restored and framed at the gallery. Here’s what Philip has to say about his work:

‘The circular theme at the centre was the starting point of Deluge. The monalith and the pyramid have become more substantial, the monalith falling and the pyramid as if seen through broken glass. The bone-like structure in Subterranean has become a skeletal building or ship, and behind and through everything comes the deluge - of water or snow? Turner’s ‘Hannibal crossing the Alps has had an influence here. As with the whole series, Deluge is designed to be ambiguous; understanding the picture is intended to be as fluid as the picture is painted, and personal to the viewer’.

Deluge 2 is a development of the bottom left corner of Deluge. ‘The pyramid and shiplike structures have been combined in the building/ship structure on the left, while the monalith has been somewhat eroded. To its right a cascade of treasure pours from the destruction caused by the deluge of water’.

A time to reflect ~ Cristus winter exhibition - starts 30th October

Quigley — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:03:10 +0000

Please call the gallery for opening times, or to arrange a special appointment (01303 223005 or 07759 33 77 499)

Deep rich colours feature in our winter exhibition, with raku ceramics from Shaun Hall, digital art by Dan McCarthy and paintings by Anna Phelps (featured above), Philip Lee, Tracey-Anne Pryke, Saffron Eve, Dee Taylor, Sarah Stokes, Marjorie Wilson and Victoria Fontaine-Wolf.

Jane Kelly: Britain’s most controversial artist?

admin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:41:40 +0000

Opening Night Private View on Friday 25th September 6.30 - 9.30. Public Exhibition 26th September - 18th October

Please call the gallery for opening times (01303 223005 0r 07759 33 77 499)

Jane Kelly’s retrospective at Cristus Gallery starts on Friday 25th September, 2009 with a Private Viewing from 6.30pm to 9.30pm. The exhibition covers Jane’s work from 2004 to the present and includes three stunning new paintings on spiritual themes.

We will also be showing Jane’s two most recent paintings which were specially produced for the HG Wells Festival. In typical Jane Kelly style, the interpretation of Wells and his life is far from conventional to say the least, and she forces us to question the boundaries of private lives and public art in the context of both “The Invisible Man” and “The War of the Worlds”.

Please email us for an invitation to the Private View.

The Tripods are coming… HG Wells Festival

Dan — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:32:09 +0000

We’re delighted to include a specially commissioned Tripod by Neil Jones in the upcoming HG Wells Festival. The Tripod - inspired by Wells’ War of the Worlds - will be on display at the gallery from Friday September 4th.

HG Wells Festival - Griffin’s Escape by Dee Taylor

admin — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 16:34:37 +0000

To mark the upcoming HG Wells Festival, Dee Taylor has created “Griffin’s Escape”. According to Dee, it is an image that refers to a take on two of Wells’ creations - The War of the Worlds and The Invisible Man.

“…A chaotic scenario of the inexorable, destructive march of the tripodic extra-terrestrials, and a single clue that Griffin, the Invisible Man, has been present. His abandoned sun-glasses lay broken, reflecting his fleeing figure”.

Cristus Gallery will be exhibiting Wells related pieces by Dee Taylor, Neil Jones, Jane Kelly and Parallax from 4th - 20th September.

See more Dee Taylor paintings…

A special weekend for lovers of contemporary art

admin — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 18:18:34 +0000

Bank Holiday Weekend Specials at Cristus

To mark the final weekend of the summer exhibition Cristus are discounting prices by 20% this weekend (does not include ceramics) so that we can make way for our exciting new season of exhibitions.

In addition, we have some very special offers which are open only to our Newsletter readers. To take advantage, sign up for our newsletter here and we will send you a coupon code. Then drop into the Gallery on Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday (28th - 31st August 2009) and simply tell us your coupon code to qualify for these offers…

1.Buy any painting, ceramics, prints or photographs with a retail value of £400 or more and choose from one of two free gifts

EITHER a) any unframed print currently on display in the gallery, including signed limited editions!

OR b) Two packs of high quality art reproduction greeting cards (5 cards to a pack). Normally the two packs would retail at £30.

PLUS

2. Receive a massive 20% discount on future opening night Private View purchases (as a Newsletter subscriber you will automatically be invited to all future Private Views)

PLUS

3. Collectors Special: we would like to keep our artist’s work together in single collections as far as possible. We want to encourage this with the following offer: buy two works by a single artist and receive a third at a 50% discount - this weekend only! This offer applies to the lowest priced work of the three pieces. Paintings, photographs and prints only - does not apply to ceramics.

More importantly… here is a selection of some of the beautiful art available this weekend…

Plus lots more art by many more artists… we look forward to seeing you at the weekend - have a great Bank Holiday.
Tel: 01303 223005
Mob: 0759 33 77 499

Dee Taylor to exhibit at Cristus / HG Wells Festival

admin — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:20:03 +0000

Dee Taylor will exhibit a new painting to mark the HG Wells Festival at Cristus Gallery, starting on Friday 4th September 2009. Dee’s painting will be joined by specially commissioned works by Jane Kelly and Neil Jones. Dee is pictured here with two of his recent works which feature vast dystopic landscapes of the near future.

See more Dee Taylor paintings…