-TG1- was a showcase of new work from Troy Hammerton and Gavin Kyle. These are two artists exploring very different art forms. Yet mashed up together in PolyMorph’s Gallery Space, they created some sort of ultra-violent harmony.
Gavin Kyle’s clean digital print series Geisha Guns was brilliant. Beautiful women with big guns. This boy obviously enjoys his Asian cinema that, we think, is a good thing.
Kyle also gave us a taste of his interest in more traditional canvas painting. His series of cute, and sometimes sinister, little creatures organically formed from spray paint drips were fun to examine.
Kyle’s use of colour, sharp lines and humor united his collection nicely. Allowing him to experiment with different mediums and themes whilst not feeling disjointed.
Our other star of the show, Troy Hammerton, uses mixed media to create his collages, predominately exploring sex, violence and horror themes. Wonderfully detailed compositions that we could have stared at for hours (one of which was created on the top of a coffee table… really wanted to take it home!) were great.
It was interesting to examine each work and see repeating images pop up, his love of imagery from Nine Inch Nails’ Closer video was almost like a signature. Hammerton uses layers of images and text to build the message and atmosphere of his work. His resin coated canvases give a sense of shiny, clean perfection to his gritty compositions.
We very much enjoyed the layout of the show. The artists chose to hang their works in a jumble, rather than splitting the space into 2 separate area. An excellent move. It gave the show a much more interesting feel, as your eyes jumped repeatedly from Kyle’s clean lines to Hammertons gritty collage.
Another great show at PolyMorph. The crowd was pouring in as we snuck out. It’s nice to see them setting a high standard right from the start. Looking forward to more.
