Welcome to ‘Wild Corners | A Portrait Of Hackney’s Green Spaces’ - our first exhibition at the new Clapton gallery space, featuring a new body of work by local artist Sarah Barrett.
This exhibition is Sarah’s love letter to the quiet, overlooked bits of nature tucked into the edges of Hackney and its marshlands. Shrubs, hedges, and roadside thickets all - often passed by without a glance - are all given the centre stage in this glorious new collection of paintings, sketches and limited edition prints.
Each piece began with a walk, a photo, a fleeting moment: frost on brambles, a flash of pink leaves, the chaos of growth in a patch of nettles. Painted between realism and abstraction, these works heighten what the camera flattens - colour becomes emotion, and brushstrokes echo the wildness they depict.
From large, sweeping canvases to intimate, tightly observed studies, Wild Corners invites you to slow down and really look: beauty is everywhere, even in the scruffy edges of the city - especially there.
The exhibition runs from 31st May to 26th June.
guache on paper
unframed size 16 x 23 cm