Thread Painting: Ptolemy Mann

Taste Contemporary is proud to present Thread Painting, a solo exhibition of new work by Ptolemy Mann at the Wing Gallery, Cromwell Place, London.

Ptolemy Mann’s unique approach to hand dyeing and weaving wall-based, architectural art works has become the basis for a modern-day Bauhaus philosophy of art making and design underpinned with intelligent colour theory. Having developed a unique approach to creating her work over a twenty-five-year period, Mann has now developed a new series entitled Thread Painting as she explores the relationship between paint and textile.

In this series, warp threads of the ground cloth are hand dyed and woven on the loom and then stretched over a frame. A further application of acrylic paint onto the finished surface results in a gestural colour field that contrasts with the linear woven ground. The result is a merging of the ‘soak stain painting’ technique of the Abstract Expressionist movement with a Bauhaus vision of art making through craftmanship. This combination of techniques creates a dynamic three dimensional play on the real definition of what painting can be.

Breaking the ‘rules’ of both weaving and painting, the brushstrokes in Thread Painting are, according to Ann Coxon, curator at the Tate Modern, ‘loaded with paint and with meaning’. A gallery conversation with curator Sarah Griffin on May 15th, Ptolemy Mann discusses this relationship between paint and textile.

Visit

Where: Wing Gallery, 4 Cromwell Place, London, SW7 2JE, UK
Private View: Tuesday 14 May 2024; 17:00 - 20:00
In Conversation: Wednesday 15 May 2024; 18:00 - 19:30
Exhibition: 14 - 19 May 2024