Viewing Room 13: Molly Thomson and Victoria Fenn

New paintings by Molly Thomson and sculptures by Victoria Fenn.

For Molly Thomson, painting is a process of construction, reconfiguration, application, observation and assessment, repeated until each individual painting achieves a balance between its painted surface and object presence. Born in Perth, Scotland, she lives and works near Norwich. A palette of carefully chosen colour creates a lush colour field in each; from a distance they might be mistaken for the tradition of monochromatic modernist painting, but further inspection proves otherwise. Molly works with surgical precision within the limits of each wooden panel, slicing off a corner and adding a curve or a raised area to change the nature of the surface or reveal layers of underlying colour.

Victoria Fenn is a sculptor exploring memories and landscape, motivated by her personal connection to the Cambridgeshire Fens, where she grew up on a family farm. Coming from a farming family has given her a unique insight into the landscape of the Fens - the machinery and hand tools used and adapted over the centuries, and the lives of the people relying on the land to survive and prosper. Having studied Three Dimensional Design at Camberwell College of Arts and garden design at the Pickard School of Garden Design, she became a successful garden designer. After moving from London to North Norfolk, she spent eight years building and renovating her 17th-century farmhouse; that period of exploring new materials such as concrete, and working with tools daily, instigated the return to her practice.