LONDON.- On behalf of Aleph Contemporary, Alistair Hicks, author and former curator of Deutsche Bank, curates an exhibition by two leading British artists: ‘Henry Ward and Mark Wright: Lost in Abstraction 1, 2, 3’. Audiences are encouraged to join Hicks’ exploration of the pleasure of disorientation when caught adrift in a seemingly anti-referential abstract space of pure artistic gesture. The exhibition inspires child-like play in resisting to decode the abstracted languages Ward and Wright have respectively built. While Ward’s artistic process is made clear through the sum of its melding parts, Wright’s use of material and media influences the various moods of his pieces; left open for you to dive into. With both artists’ works, the onus is on the viewer to react.

In the exhibition foreword, Jonathan Watkins, Ikon Gallery Director sums up the particular pleasure of experiencing the work of these two contemporary artists in the current socio-political climate: “Henry Ward and Mark Wright are, aesthetically, at the abstract end of the spectrum. We get their references but, most of all, enjoy the here and now – the ‘I was here’ – quality of their paintings. How refreshing, given the academic, research-based nature of much art work being made these days … Simply, let’s have more of this unpretentious, unportentous creativity. Given the privations visited upon us since the advent of the pandemic, it is just what the doctor ordered.”

Henry Ward
Born 1971 London, UK Lives and works in London

Henry Ward is an artist, writer, curator and educator. He primarily works as a painter, but also makes drawings and small sculptures. Ward is the Creative Director for Freelands Foundation and was the Head of Education at the Southbank Centre. His other work in education includes roles at Welling School, a visual art specialist collage, and lecturing at art schools across the UK. Ward established the alTURNERtive Prize, an annual award celebrating outstanding student practice.

Mark Wright
Born 1962 Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK Lives and works in London

Mark Wright is a painter and curator. He was a founding member of Cubitt Gallery and Studios in London, where his practice is currently based. He was the Visiting Fellow in Painting at Winchester School of Art, 1991 and Research Fellow in Fine Art, University for the Creative Arts, Canterbury 2000- 2003. He has exhibited widely throughout the UK and internationally. He has also curated a series of exhibitions focussed upon contemporary painting at & Model, Leeds, Pippy Holdsworth Gallery, London, James Freeman Gallery, London and Galeria Cadaques, Spain. Wright has work in a number of collections including the Wellcome Trust, David Roberts Foundation, Dundee Museums Collection and Deutsche Bank. He has taught at many Art Schools and Universities, most recently Wimbledon College of Art, Loughborough University, University of Brighton and Glasgow School of Art.

Aleph Contemporary is a London-based contemporary art gallery with an international roster of emerging and mid-career artists and a forward-looking programme of curated exhibitions and events as well as collections, publications and virtual exhibitions. The name Aleph is inspired by Jorge Luis Borges' story of the same name and expresses a commitment to the importance of dialogue, invention, and the value of experiencing and understanding art today.