Lyndsey Ingram presents Hurricanes Hardly Ever Happen, the first joint exhibition by the artists Georgie Hopton and Gary Hume. The exhibition takes the form of a conversation spanning three decades, from recent work to pieces from the 1990s. Although the artists have been married for over 20 years, they have always pursued separate studio practices and their work has never been shown together before. The presentation has been curated by Hopton, whose photographs will be shown with her vegetable prints and mixed media collages alongside Hume’s drawings and paintings. The exhibition explores their creative relationship and the subtle synchronicity that runs throughout their work. The show includes a rare example of work created by them both - Love on the Patio (2012)
'A mark in a drawing by Gary echoed a line, thread or piece of organic matter in a work by mine. Photographs by me echoed drawings by him. Abstract compositions by each of us were distant twins... There are indisputable ties to be found in the work and I think often, clear, shared interests’ - Georgie Hopton
Hopton and Hume spend several months of the year on their rural farm in Upstate New York, sowing and later harvesting the produce from their extensive vegetable garden. The garden is central to Hopton’s practice. Many of the photographs are self-portraits, poetically marrying the artist’s body with the organic flesh of the vegetables. Her collages incorporate dried flower stems, leaves and beans. Ripe vegetables and fruit are carved up and used in lieu of a brush, layered with paint and pressed into the paper, like printing blocks. For the rest of the year, back in her East London studio, Hopton assembles collages of found patterned and painted papers. Colourful yarns are carefully guided into abstracted floral shapes, often streaming from the paper beyond the sheet edge.
Hume’s works are seeded from objects and places in the real world. His processes are reductive, abstracting forms that are characterised by their compelling colours and strength of line. Hume's mediums often delight and surprise, from sumptuously painted ‘sized’ paper and gloss paint on perspex to collaged screenprints with metallic elements.
