Small Obsessions
24 Nov to 24 Dec 2009 

Photos of the exhibition 

Notfamousyet presents a selection of emerging artists from Germany, China and the UK with highly exciting contemporary works: paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures. All works come in small sizes but are great in impact, quality and fun. 

Small can be big. Small art works can excel in meaning, in impact, in substance. It requires a special skill to create small works that communicate in a concentrated, up-to-the point way. How do artists achieve this? In different ways: Ethan Pollock creates his small paintings with highly elaborated and detailed paintings, his small work of “Untitled Interior 3.1 ” shows perfection of craftsmanship. Other artists – like Jana Schroeder – respond to the challenge of small in a more careless way, showing that a handful of strokes can give more than enough impact to a small size canvas.

Smaller is harder. Less space demands reduction. Whereas size in itself gives impact, a small sized artwork has to achieve effect with other means … with content, with style, with craftsmanship.

The exhibition continues the concept of the gallery showing highly contemporary works from emerging artists. The exhibition will be hosted in an empty shop in Oxford, 10 St Clements, OX4 1AB.

Madi Acharya-Baskerville works primarily with found/discarded materials to explore issues around migration and cultural differences.   Mohamed Bushara has the ability to give traditional techniques a new edge: highly contemporary but still maintaining references to his African roots.   Dan Feit presents a selection of his degree show featuring portraits    James Green surprises. Many know only James Green’s abstract works, but in these works he refers to French masters.    Dominik Halmer shows some of his distinctive smaller gouache works in a unique care-free style.   Ping-Yeh Li invents plants and creates models, paintings, and drawings of his creations. Exciting contemporary work, a whole series for plant and (especially) art lovers.   Ethan Pollock shows works that is reminiscent  of former Dutch masters, but his approach his clearly contemporary. Tiny precious pieces highly crafted, with an enjoyable  naughty wit.   Karen Purple paints with nature, using  ancient natural colours.This creates works that give a meditative sense of calmness, a feeling of being united with nature.   Sam Race tells stories. In addition of being a painter Sam Race is a musician and writer. His art works are full of intriguing stories.   Jana Schroeder normally paints large canvases, but  for this show we have obtained  some very rare smaller pieces in her characteristic style.   Luke Skiffington provides a high impact with abstract works in reduced colours.     Jo Stannard revisited the same location tp collect the colours of every season.  Colour panels were meticulously painted, but then fragmented and re-arranged in a collage.   Chris Succo shows textile prints. For a change. His sculptural work has already won prestigious awards.   Anna Tannerhas an  unusual, in fact unique, style  -   highly crafted pieces that tell intriguing little stories. Anna Tanner is an American painter who recently had a solo show at the ZOO fair in London.       Jacob Wolff Jacob Wolff translates modernist ideas into contemporary language. He follows formal aesthetics, carefully orchestrating colours and lines, but injects every-day topics