Ib Geertsen and Martin Sexton exhibitions.

I just caught a small exhibition of Ib Geertsen's work in the Tea Building on Shoreditch High street. It was the bright colours on his paintings that I saw through the window that drew me inside for a better look. His work had a familiarity about it, though this apparantly is the first solo show of his work in London. But as he has been painting for over 70 years and his work and style has been used in glass on paper and in furniture, I think many other artists using graphics etc have been influenced by him.


Round the corner in Redchurch street was the exhibition I was in the area for, "Beneaththepavement....The beach" at the No More Grey gallery in Redchurch street. both Martin Sexton and Dominique Lacloche had work there. Dominique has used huge tropical Gunnera leaves on painted yellow sun discs on the floor
There were connections and relationships between the fact that these leaves had come from one continent to another and inspired by the natural photosynthetic properties of the leaves, she has created landscapes on their surface which lent a sense of time or history to them.

Martin was showing a number of pieces including an installation on entering the gallery of London concrete paving stones and local builders sand as well as sand collected from Golgotha., and split screen film taken from Stanley Kubrick,s Clockwork Orange." Another installation combines Martin Sexton's golden reliquary which contains the levitating head of John the Baptist, with Dominique Lacloche's Gunnera leaf witha silver moon finnish representing Salome.

Martin was also showing "Diotima Teaches Socrates in the Ways of Love" A mask of Socrates constructed from a 4.5 billion year old meteorite, facing a projected film of the moon on the opposite wall, with a soundtrack using the oldest surviving example of a complete musical composition, including musical notation.

Martin's work is full of layers of symbolic meaning, asking us to investigate the nature of reality and the possibility of universal truths. The exhibition is on till 5th April Thursday to Sat 11am till 6pm and by appointment.