Memory is a crucial part of human experience.  Inevitably filtered through perceptions, experiences and emotions and continually recreated, our minds either consciously or unconsciously filling in gaps and our imagination enhancing and giving context.  Nowhere is the relationship between memory and imagination seen so clearly than in art.   

Remembrance features three very different artists whose work centres on remembered experiences and emotions.

Sonia Martin’s subject matter has arisen from her response to past and present experiences, in which her subjects fuse together the ‘here and now’ with the world of imagination.  She is drawn to how experiences can be simultaneously everday and extraordinary and her paintings give expression to this paradox. 

Christine Taharian’s work uses colour and collage to capture emotionally impactful moments in her own life particularly in relation to places she has visited.  She values the use of colour and strong line, giving less weight to details, allowing the viewer to contribute with their own experience and memory, creating a version of the painting which is uniquely their own.

Paul F Bennett is an artist of the Northern School.  Growing up in the 50’s and 60’s, and then studying and working in and around Manchester, he was influenced by the music of those eras and how the world looked as he was growing up.  Each of his beautifully constructed drawings perfectly capture the era, whilst cleverly containing hidden references and clues as to the song that inspired it.