Exhibitions
Big Yellow
Big Yellow is a solo exhibition of paintings, works on paper, and Spoken Word, by Artist Ashley Loxton.
Big Yellow is a solo exhibition of paintings, works on paper, and Spoken Word, by Artist Ashley Loxton. The title relates to a house on Cheltenham Road, that became a base for young Musicians and Artists during the early 2000’s. Inspired by the experience, the artist has appropriated the name Big Yellow as a metaphor for creative growth & freedom, whilst piloting a project of the same name.
Ashley collects and reconfigures found materials, showcasing fragments of a body of work accumulated over the past 7 years. Drawing on selected artworks that are both considered and immediate, the show aims to throw a spotlight onto creative periods where the focus has been on the poetics of producing work, rather than applying heavy artistic/academic theory.
‘I’ve been acting on impulse, using a fetishist compass to pick up material with the aim of turning nothing into something. There was once a grandiose plan to make emotionally charged evocative works of art. But from the urgency to produce work, came something separate. There is a loud internal voice that tells me my work needs to meet a number of criteria. Whether it’s set by industry or institutions, that inner dialogue says that my work should be theoretical, academic, meaningful, lucrative, and the rest.
For me, the necessity to just make overtakes all of this. Through the act of doing, the work takes on a life of its own. It inadvertently creates meaning, despite the freedom of concern or the intention to avoid it. The Big Yellow House is a distant memory, but the spirit of creative freedom that came from this period of my adolescence is cemented into my consciousness. It recalls a time when impulsive artistic energy was everything. ’
Ashley collects and reconfigures found materials, showcasing fragments of a body of work accumulated over the past 7 years. Drawing on selected artworks that are both considered and immediate, the show aims to throw a spotlight onto creative periods where the focus has been on the poetics of producing work, rather than applying heavy artistic/academic theory.
‘I’ve been acting on impulse, using a fetishist compass to pick up material with the aim of turning nothing into something. There was once a grandiose plan to make emotionally charged evocative works of art. But from the urgency to produce work, came something separate. There is a loud internal voice that tells me my work needs to meet a number of criteria. Whether it’s set by industry or institutions, that inner dialogue says that my work should be theoretical, academic, meaningful, lucrative, and the rest.
For me, the necessity to just make overtakes all of this. Through the act of doing, the work takes on a life of its own. It inadvertently creates meaning, despite the freedom of concern or the intention to avoid it. The Big Yellow House is a distant memory, but the spirit of creative freedom that came from this period of my adolescence is cemented into my consciousness. It recalls a time when impulsive artistic energy was everything. ’
