Nessie Stonebridge's first solo show is the product of four years of dialogue, support and collaboration with Debbie Carslaw, the livewire owner of young gallery, Madder Rose, that opened in June this year. Stonebridge's work comprises a mixture of delicate but dramatic charcoal drawings and paintings that veer widely in scale from small works measuring no more than 20 x 20 cm to gargantuan triptychs almost 3 x 2m.
Although Stonebridge's very early work was largely figurative, she has moved towards a more abstract, intuitive way of working that is almost impossible to describe without drawing from musical metaphors. The quality of the mark-making is so varied and carefully accented in drawings such as 'Blood Rush' (2006) that it reads almost as a musical score. The piece hangs unframed against the wall, curling onto the floor like a Baroque scroll. Little flurries of fly-like squiggles punctuate the heavy white cartridge paper on the left hand side, and these are offset by a long, sweeping curve in the centre that resembles the serpentine line of a woman's back or the body of a cello. Half-moons of dense black appear to attract stray scribbles to their environs like hubs of energy, whereas in the painting that followed this drawing, 'Blood Rush 1' (2006), an opposite force appears to be at work, flinging out bolts and dashes of paint like molten lava belching from a volcano.
Stonebridge cites the 19th-century painter John Martin as an influence on her work, and it's not hard to see why - especially in the painted diptych 'Vibrate with Menace 3' (2006) which bubbles away in sulphurous yellow and angry red against a white-hot ground with all the fury of an impending apocalypse. But more evident in Stonebridge's work is the role of music as inspiration, and the performative aspect that comes through in the energetic physicality of her work. Carslaw tells me the story behind 'A Piece in F and Nothing More' (2006):
'Nessie always listens to music while she works. Sometimes it's hard rock, at other times the strains of Radio 3 fill her studio. As she was painting one day over the summer she heard the plummy tones of the Radio 3 presenter pronouncing "A Piece in F and Nothing More" and it both amused and intrigued her.'
The incident provided a creative spur for Stonebridge, resulting in a drawing and two paintings.
Listening to Carslaw talking, it's clear that she enjoys a good rapport with all the artists she shows. The gallerist doesn't come from an arts background herself. She grew up on a Gloucester council estate in a house which had what she describes as 'the standard kitsch seventies prints on the wall.' A lawyer by training, she still works in London as a partner in a large American law firm - a job so demanding (she confides that last week she didn't go home from work for three days) she relies on her three gallery staff to do most of the running of Madder Rose.
But Carslaw manages to remain very much at the helm, and her commitment to the gallery and her artists springs from her belief that artists need to be supported and nurtured. When she began collecting herself, she was intimidated by the attitude of some of the West End galleries which she describes as rather unwelcoming, and so turned to auction houses which she found less threatening. But it was meeting artists who lived and worked in the East End, like Nessie Stonebridge, that encouraged her to find out more about the people behind the work, to make studio visits and to talk with artists about their practice. Carslaw found that she had much in common with many of the artists she visited, who, like she, often found themselves working late into the night to finish a project. 'The only difference' she muses, 'is that I get paid when I put in long hours, whereas an artist can often struggle to even exist.'
This fired Carslaw's passion for art and collecting to such a degree that she describes it as having become a 'drug-like habit'. The rush of adrenalin comes not so much from an acquisition, but more from the stumbling across work that she feels is really special, and the desire to cherish talent when she finds it. One of her employees fondly describes her method of working with artists as 'gestating'. As a patron of the Royal Academy, Carslaw is in a privileged position, being able to sample young talent before it emerges from the confines of the art school. But she's very careful not to move too quickly or to push an artist too hard; she prefers to wait - as she has with Nessie Stonebridge - for the 'right' time to flag up an artist's work (in this case, for four years).
As well as working with young artists, Carslaw is also happy to represent artists who began their careers later in life, or who haven't 'done the rounds' of art school, post-graduate school, and post student group shows. Neither is she necessarily impressed by cvs bursting with laudits. 'I always look at the work first. It isn't what college an artist went to that makes them good, or which competition they've won - it's the work - which is why it's often great to work with second career artists who've had some experience of life.'
Nessie Stonebridge in fact falls into this category - she began her working life as a graphic designer and has been very involved with dance - both from a performative aspect and as a committed observer.
Listening to Carslaw talking and watching her become animated as she recounts her tales and experiences, it becomes apparent that the way she chooses to run her gallery, and particularly the way she privileges her artists' needs above her own, is refreshingly rare. She's invested a great deal of thought as well as energy into the gallery, producing a varied and enticing programme of artists to date. To inaugurate the gallery Carslaw showed the fragile sculptures of Rachel Kneebone, followed Jason Shulman's wacky, solpadeine-inspired creations.
The work of each artist exhibiting at Madder Rose is set off by the fabric of the gallery itself - a hidden, light-filled gem of a building that was designed and renovated earlier this year by the winners of the 2006 Young Architects of the Year, Lynch Architects.
Carslaw's plans for 2007 include looking at ways of introducing her artists to a wider audience - both in and out of the art world, and working towards securing them the recognition she feels they deserve. 'It's not about the money. I mean, sales are great especially for the artists, but what this gallery really exists for is to help them to become known and their talent recognised. If I can succeed in this, then I'll be happy.'
Jane Neal
Nessie Stonebridge
Until 6 February
Madder Rose Gallery
137 - 139 Whitecross Street
London EC1Y 8JL
T: +44 (0) 20 7490 3667
www.madderrosegallery.com
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