BasementArtsProject

“Through art alone are we able to emerge from ourselves, to know what another person sees of a universe which is not the same as our own and of which, without art, the landscapes would remain as unknown to us as those that may exist on the moon.”
Marcel Proust: In Search of Lost Time (vol 6)

In a time long before the advent of the mobile phone and the ability to document the world in real time, there were artists. During the lockdown of 2020, as the outside world was divested of the majority of its population, artists became once again, just as in times of war, the people who remained to document a dangerous world that threatened our humanity. Whilst artists are not considered key workers they are the keepers of the flame. They are the people tending the light at the end of the tunnel towards which we all flock like moths around a bulb, constantly banging up against the glass that holds us back from the light and at the same time stopping us from dying. One day we will be able to take the hand of the artist as they gently coax us towards an open window where once again we can fly and be free.

Bruce Davies | January 2021

Paul Digby. Garden (2020) Graphite on paper

Back in December of 2020 I paid a visit to the Corn Exchange in Leeds, actually several visits, to look at the work of

Garry Barker: Back Newton Grove. Chapeltown, Leeds. Pen & Ink on paper

Paul Digby. Park (2020) Gouache on paper

Howard Eaglestone: Headrow (2020) Oil over Acrylic on canvas

Jonathan Hooper: Highburys (2020) Oil on canvas

Alison McIntyre: Tree (2020) Ink and pencil on watercolour paper

Liz Stirling: Lake of Daphnia (2020) Watercolour on paper

Adam Stone: Edge (2017-20) Oil on canvas

On the Friday before Christmas I paid one last visit and conducted an interview with Paul Digby, an artist who has previously exhibited with BasementArtsProject, on his latest project ‘The Imagined City’. The exhibition took place in the brief period of freedom between Lockdown 1 & 2. The exhibition took a phenomenological tour of the city of Leeds at a time when we were all being kept away from it.

A socially distant interview with Paul Digby about his group exhibition. at the Leeds Corn Exchange with Garry Barker, Howard Eaglestone, Jonathan Hopper, Al...

All of the artists featured in this exhibition have works for sale and can be contacted directly. Details below: