30 April – 7 June / Exhibition Opening Event: Thursday 1 May 5-7pm

Celebrating the arrival of spring after a long winter, Yeovil Art Space is delighted to present a solo exhibition of new work by dorset-based artist Andy Rollo.  

‘Our Time on Earth’ features a collection of paintings and an installation of a large-scale drawing as well as mixed media collages, photographs and animation which the artist has worked on in collaboration with his family members. The exhibition aims to show that there is soul and beauty everywhere you look and to encourage you to stop and look harder.

Over the last four years, artist Andy Rollo has immersed himself in the landscape and woodland of Dorset near his home. He has created a new body of work on what he considered to be unassuming, almost incidental subjects; the complexity of moss clad trees, the quality of light falling on the woodland floor and abstract shapes and forms. 

The paintings on show juxtapose dabs and dashes, palette knife marks, washes and impasto together with a mix of oils, acrylic and spray paint. They depict the striking landscape of the local area which has become a place of sanctuary in recent years for the artist. 

‘You see how the transformational quality of light has enabled areas of woodland to take on an almost cathedral-like quality, awe inspiring and magnificent with their juxtaposition of grandeur and the spiritual. They are intentionally uncomposed, in an attempt to give the spectator the feeling of an incidental view, echoing the way you observe nature when surrounded by it. 

It symbolises strength and protection, steadfastness and long life. The tree withstands whatever nature throws at it, and we have had to do the same, whilst continually being reminded of our own mortality and the passing of time.’

About the artist

Andy Rollo is an artist and Lecturer in Fine Art and Visual Culture who has lived in North Dorset for the past 15 years. He has work in private collections in Europe, Australia and the United States and has had his work exhibited in London, Paris and Barcelona over a thirty-year career. His creative practice has always been in response to his immediate surroundings and explores the concept of time, memory, cycles, connections and patterns in nature. The work also explores the thin line between abstraction and figuration, most obviously observed on the surface of each painting with its juxtaposition of differing mediums, descriptive marks and intuitive gestures.  https://www.andyrollo.com