you, me and the art
an exhibition by Helen Waldburger and Elliot Jack Stew.
An exhibition created through shared experience and combined vision. Galerie 10 is pleased to present ‘Threesome; You, Me and the Art.’
After meeting in 2014 at Central Saint Martins, London; Helen Waldburger and Elliot Jack Stew have cohabited and worked in the same space for six years. Art plays a vital role in their relationship making it the welcome third player in their ‚threesome’. There is a cohesion within the exhibition that is a testament to their ‚threesome’. Art has become a functional, perhaps even fundamental element of the relationship. Bound by core ideas and aesthetic values the pair have created this show in response to time shared in St Moritz and their lives working together as artists in London. In parts this exhibition is informed by the cultural history of Sankt Moritz and aspects of that culture such as local painters, writers, philosophers and folktales, which the artists have used to create from. Other influences come from the mundane and daily life and the stories that lie within that. The result is a balancing act between the influences of two ever changing and international cities, Sankt Moritz and London.
Helen, a Zurich born Swiss national spent her winters here as a child and subsequently introduced Elliot, who was born in Brighton (UK) to the Engadine Valley, its history and artistic culture. The symbols and tableaux’s associated with St Moritz have become motifs in both of their work overtime. Though both living and working in London the pair see an opportunity to add to the cultural dialogue here in St Moritz that has blossomed since the 90’s. The recent changes in the cultural landscape of Sankt Moritz and its ever growing importance in the world of art makes Threesome at Galerie 10 their ideal Swiss debut. Showing over 25 recent works the artists hope to engage in a dialogue with the audience surrounding the ideas of partnership and its transcending significance in all our lives.
Waldburger has long focused on the concepts of recollected memory and contemporary womanhood - her own experiences or these of others and the diaristic nature of portraying these through drawings and large scale watercolour/ oil paintings on translucent fabric. The translucency of the material is testament to the often personal and revealing nature of her work, an exposure to an audience. This results in a pictorial language that in times seems incomplete referencing the ephemeral nature of memories and thoughts. Helen Waldburger has shown extensively across the United Kingdom. She was most notably shortlisted for the NOVA award and was a co-founder of the ‘Collective Cuba Project’ a two month artist residency programme in Havana, Cuba.
Stew uses his paintings to discuss the sentimentality and impracticality of his own life. His paintings reflect an ever changing world and how we alter as we navigate through it. Through the merging of images and motifs Elliot aims to re-invent and challenge painting as a medium and create works that act as a path towards a digitised era whilst retaining elements of historical art practice, images and techniques. Elliot has exhibited in Somerset House, London, was shortlisted for the CASS Art Prize and selected for the AUC.ARTLAB Residency programme. He has exhibited extensively throughout the United Kingdom
