Respective Perspectives

Patrick Hughes & Paul Critchley

the drumcroon gallery, Wigan

17th January - 8th April 2011

17 paintings shown

Flyer for exhibition Respective Perspectives; two man exhibition with Patrick Hughes at drumcroon gallery, Wigan January - April 2011

Drumcroon gallery programme schedule for Spring 2011

catalogue of the exhibition 'Respective Perspectives'

Exhibition Catalogue available

An exhibition of works by Patrick Hughes and Paul Critchley, two artists whose playful approach to perspective will intrigue and delight visitors of all ages.

Respective Perspectives is a key exhibition celebrating Drumcroon's 30th anniversary year. It has been made possible through an enduring relationship with Flowers Galleries London and New York, who have again supported the work of Drumcroon in securing the loan of works by Patrick Hughes.

"It was perfect - the warmest welcome ever…" Patrick Hughes.

Photo of Patrick Hughes and Paul Critchley together at the opening of the exhibition 'Respective Perspectives' at drumcroon gallery, Wigan 14th January 2011

Patrick Hughes, Matthew Flowers Anne-Marie Quinn and David Davies at the opening of the exhibition 'Respective Perspectives' at drumcroon gallery, Wigan 14th January 2011

From left to right: Patrick Hughes, Matthew Flowers, Anne-Marie Quinn and David Davies

Drumcroon is currently celebrating its 30th anniversary year. This exhibition by Patrick Hughes and Paul Critchley is one of the highlights in the exhibition programme. Both artists are renowned across the world for their playful and intriguing approaches to perspective. It is a fantastic show with artworks which dazzle and amaze the viewer.

The preview saw the gallery filled to the rafters with Wigan's art lovers of all ages and they gave the two artists a warm Wigan welcome which Patrick described as the 'warmest welcome ever'. Rod Taylor, the former Wigan art advisor whose vision enabled Wigan to establish its only art gallery in 1980, formally opened the event by reflecting on the important work that the gallery pioneered and its impact on gallery education and art education all over the country. His personal anecdotes communicated the enormous value that first hand art experiences of art have for all ages and sectors of the community.

View of exhibition at Flowers Gallery, Cork Street, London

Matthew Flowers of Flowers Gallery London and New York was also present at the preview. Flowers Gallery have been a generous supporter of Drumcroon Gallery over many years, resulting in exhibitions in Wigan of work by some of the country's leading contemporary artists. Patrick Hughes first exhibited at Drumcroon in 1985, followed by a succession of artists including Peter Howson, Lucy Jones, Amanda Faulkner, John Keane, Boyd and Evans, David Hepher….. the list goes on and on.

In celebration of it's 30th anniversary, Flowers Gallery gifted a work of art by Patrick Hughes to the Drumcroon Collection - an extensive resource of artworks and artefacts for use by Wigan schools. Anne-Marie Quinn from Drumcroon Gallery and David Davies, Chairperson of The Friends of Drumcroon, were delighted to receive this piece of art which will undoubtedly enrich and inform countless numbers of children and young people in the future.

View of exhibition at Flowers Gallery, Cork Street, London

Manchester Evening News

Sarah Walters

"Artists' different ways of seeing. Respective Perspectives."

1/19/2011

Paul Critchley's painting 'Rauric 12'. Patrick Hughes with his painting 'Venice'

A first encounter with a painting by Escher, Magritte or Dali could well be the first time you have seen artists pervert the rules of perspective on canvas.

They are pioneers in their field, their contorted and often exquisitely detailed manipulation of perspective – or how we perceive things in terms of distance and volume – influencing many artists since.

Contemporary artists continue to explore the possibilities of perspective, and two of them have come together for a new exhibition at Wigan’s Drumcroon gallery to celebrate the centre’s 30th anniversary. A retrospective of the work by artists Patrick Hughes and Paul Critchley, who lives and works in the north west, Respective Perspectives shows a collection of recent and archived paintings by the two artists who both create very different optical illusions using the same perspective tools.

For Hughes, perspective is something to be turned on its head and inside out and his large-scale panoramas lead the viewer into Escher-like never-ending landscapes where foreground, background and scale are utterly disrupted into a confusing trompe l’oeil.

Critchley’s work differs in both scale and purpose. When he messes with perspective it is with the intention of exploiting what we think we know about the world with a deceptive version of familiar, homely scenes that bend our understanding of depth and the relationship between objects. Nowhere is this playful approach, or Critchley’s attention for detail, better illustrated than in Rauric 12, a star-shaped collage of Critchley’s apartment flattened out and thick with information and misinformation. Among the many delightful touches in the image is the depiction of the artist in his apartment studio painting the canvas we’re looking at.

Some of his work borders on the sculptural. His paintings have a 3D effect, but Critchley also adds three dimensional objects to the 2D paintings to muddle the viewer’s reading further.

Anne-Marie Quinn, of Drumcroon, says: “These (details) trick or tempt the viewer to delve further into the painted trompe l’oeil space. At Drumcroon, young visitors are encouraged to see, to look and to look again,” she adds.