A compelling exhibition by Charlie Kirkham & Robert Walker

What does love cost? How can we pay it? Why do we pay it when the cost is often tears, blood, heartache? Lost love and the politics of love feature in every mythology. Drawing on figures such as Narcissus, Apollo and Daphne, Adonis and Aphrodite, and Saint George and the Dragon, each work questions aspects of the human journey. Think of them as not so much retelling familiar tales but creating newly painted landscapes of the psychology that drives humans to love and myth make. The myth becomes the vehicle for expressing the present; the pull between self and other and the cost of longing.

Kirkham and Walker approach painting with a shared commitment to technical rigour and compositional clarity, each brings a distinct voice. The paintings share figures shrouded in narrative. Referencing the ancient explores the continued resonance of these myths, how they appear within contemporary life and speak to broader human experience. 

Walker’s works utilise geometry and a distinctive palette. His works navigate the figure as a key to the narrative, navigating the canvas through the unexpected, be that the petals falling from Daphne or the stamen tormenting Narcissus. Kirkham’s drawings and paintings fixate on tiny moments, questioning the relationships between the participants. Pulling on multiple, often conflicting mythologies surrounding dragons she repeats motifs until they become fluid and dreamlike.