In February 2020, Artereal Gallery will present Incandescent Bloom a solo exhibition of new paintings and digital artworks by Sydney-based artist Kenneth Lambert. The exhibition will be Lambert’s first collaboration with Artereal Gallery and takes its title from the lyrics contained within a 1964 Charles Mingus track, Freedom. It is a poetic way of expressing the potential of the human condition. A gathering of complex molecules to make life in its variant’s, our potential for creation and also self-destruction.

The exhibition will begin with the presentation of a diptych comprised of a digital (video) work paired alongside an abstract painting (made by painting with melted biodegradable glitter). Using this diptych as a central starting point, the works that follow are visual exploration of the concept of acceleration, as articulated through the artist’s own creative process – with each work essentially breaking apart the piece that has come before it.

Working with a palette dominated by blue and black, Lambert explains “I mostly work in monochrome, however I am greatly influenced by music in my practice, it is the score that drives the creative output. In music there is a history the colour blue being used to describe the complexities of the human condition. So for me the value blue becomes intrinsic when describing the human condition and the natural world that encompasses it.

When asked to further articulate his creative process Lambert describes his mode of working as a need “to question, to gather, to mix, to grind, to dissolve, to encase, to propel, to scrap, to compress, to expand, to persuade, to wait, to wait, to wait, to wait, to revise and then start again. This is the process I’ve engaged in over the last 6 months an attempt to express the notion of acceleration onto surface. As a digital based artist it felt like the next logical step to escape the screen and spill out from the virtual world and into the physical.

The investigation began out of frustration, politicians misrepresenting the truth pertaining to climate change. The science had a reoccurring theme of acceleration, which triggered my interest. Whilst on residency in Finland in early 2019 I began the process of understanding the concept of acceleration through the lens of physics, the natural science that studies matter, its motion and behaviour through space and time.

Emulating the scientific approach I decided create work that is to be process led. The process of acceleration had to contain the key factors, a change is velocity within a time frame. I liken the processes to that found in the study of physics, one hemisphere is the “Theoretical”, through mathematics there is an attempt to understand the forces that define the natural world. The second which is known as “Experimental” is the real world proof of the theories. There is a natural tension between theory and proof which I wrestle with as I transition through both hemispheres to make the work.”

Kenneth Lambert is a contemporary artist born in Cape Town, South Africa, who migrated to Australia at the age of 10 to the western suburbs of Sydney.

With a background in museums, design and filmmaking his conceptually driven practice lies at the intersection between psychology, philosophy and technology. He often translates raw data and scientific methods to deliver works that span across digital, video, and installation.

Since first exhibiting in 2016, Kenneth’s work has been recognised internationally by winning the 2019 Grand Prix Prize – See Me competition for his work “Data Blue”, which explores anonymity in the digital age. Most recently he has been a finalist in the 2019 Incinerator Art Prize; Art for Social change, for his particle and installation based works on climate change. In early 2019 he completed his first international residency in Finland which sparked the recurring theme of acceleration in his work.

In the last 12 months Kenneth has been a finalist in the 2018 Alice Prize and 2018 Churchie Prize, 2018 Lismore Portrait Prize, 2018 Hidden Sculpture Prize for which he achieved a Highly Commended as well as the 2018 Armory Prize, Artist in residency. He has exhibited in both solo and group shows with Coma gallery, Galerie Pompom, Articulate Project Space and Stacks Projects. Most recently he has been invited to showcase his work, “Data Blue” at the 2019 Scope in Miami and is currently planning his first international solo show in New York for mid 2020.