Borrowed Light

Borrowed Light
An exhibition in collaboration with Mattias Vendelmans.

Ian Homerston (b.1984), Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923), Pelle Swedlund (1865-1947).

View list of works

Sid Motion Gallery is delighted to present, for the first time, works by Ian Homerston, alongside celebrated artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries: Joaquín Sorolla and Pelle Swedlund. 

The exhibition title alludes to one space having an effect on another. Through their compositions, we are presented with spaces that escape our reach and are offered only a glimpse of passage onto the worlds behind.

The unusual cropping of Homerston’s compositions celebrate aspects of mundane suburban landscapes in which he reveals moments of sublime beauty and unsettling serenity.  All three artists have explored the surprising effect of focusing on peripheries within the landscape - walls, fences, doors and other boundaries, as suggestions of what might be happening beyond the frame.

Although Sorolla is best known for his exuberant beach scenes, full of playful and youthful energy, his garden paintings demonstrate a very different attitude. He used boundaries as a tool to create tense compositions where the viewer’s gaze is controlled allowing only a slice of the action to be revealed.

One of the motifs which Swedlund used so well was the suggestion of mysterious portals. In ‘Door in the Park’, 1913, we are confronted with an impenetrable door offering an entry point to an alternative space, but we are given no door handle or keyhole to access it.

Although painted, in some cases, a century apart, and from very different geographies, all three artists have an astounding ability to depict the particular light of their environments. They focused on flatness, texture and a broad range of surprising colours that demonstrate their fluency in their medium.

The inclusion of these important paintings by Sorolla and Swedlund is possible thanks to the generous support of Mattias Vendelmans.

Artist Biographies

Ian Homerston (b. 1984, Truro, UK) lives and works in Deal. Homerston graduated from MA Painting, Royal College of Art, London in 2009, after completing BA Painting at Wimbledon College of Art, London in 2007. Solo exhibitions include: Paintings, Painters Painting Paintings (Online 2021); Whereas, Cole, London (2014) and Transparent Means, Cole, London (2012). His group exhibitions include: Pathways on Paper: In aid of Maggie’s, South Parade, London (2022); On Land (with Alex Crocker), 53 Beck Road, London (2018); John Moores Painting Prize, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (2018); Re: Re: Re:, The Old Waterworks, Southend (2017) Young London, V22 Workspace, London; SUNDAY (with Cole), Ambika P3, London; What If It's All True? What Then? (Part II), Mummery + Schnelle, London; Needed by Things, Furnished Space, London (all 2011). Homerston’s publications include: Twenty Fences, published by 41/42 Publications(2023) and Forth & Back, published by The Everyday Press and Furnished Editions (2012).

Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923). Recent solo exhibitions have been held at: The Glyptoteket, Copenhagen (2023); Museo Del Prado, Madrid (2022) and The National Gallery, London (2019). He is one of Spain’s most celebrated artists and widely considered to be one of the most important painters of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Sorolla’s work is represented in public and private collection worldwide, including the permanent display Visions of Spain at the Hispanic Society, New York, and his former residence in Madrid, which now houses Museo Sorolla.

Pelle Swedlund (1865-1947). Solo exhibitions include; Per Ekströmmuseet, Mörbylånga, Sweden (2023) and Gävle Museum, Gävle, Sweden (1946). Recent group exhibitions include: Mjellby Konstmuseum, Halmstad, Sweden (2016) and Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm, Sweden (2015). Swedlund won the gold medal at the International Exhibition, Glaspalast Munich in 1905. Swedlund’s work is represented in Swedish public collections and private collections worldwide.