august (adj)
Flowers Gallery, London
7 August – 30 August 2025
In Another Country, 1998
Oil on canvas, 92 x 71.5 cm
© John Kirby, courtesy of Flowers Gallery
London Pub - Blue Sky, 1997
Oil on canvas, 122.5 x 163
© Renny Tait, courtesy of Flowers Gallery
Flowers Gallery presents august (adj), a group summer exhibition bringing together paintings and sculpture made between 1960 and 2005 by artists who have exhibited with the gallery over the past fifty years.
Featuring thirteen artists—Stephen Chambers RA, Bernard Cohen, Edward Dutkiewicz, Amanda Faulkner, Nicola Hicks, Derek Hirst, Lucy Jones, Michael Kidner RA, John Kirby, Tom Phillips RA, Jack Smith, Richard Smith, and Renny Tait—august (adj) is a vivid and wide-ranging presentation of colour, form, and feeling.
Touching on Black, 1992
Oil on canvas, 152.5 x 152.5 cm
© Jack Smith, courtesy of Flowers Gallery
Through the dialogues formed between the artworks, the exhibition explores how artists visualise internal realities, whether emotional, psychological, or social. From Bernard Cohen’s painterly maps of thought to Amanda Faulkner’s layered expressions of identity, and from Jack Smith’s silent musical abstractions to Renny Tait’s dreamlike, geometric structures, each work gives form to the unseen.
The Boat, c.1989
Oil on canvas, 175 x 213 cm
© Lucy Jones, courtesy of Flowers Gallery
St. Just, 2005
Oil on canvas, 40.5 x 35 cm
© Stephen Chambers, courtesy of Flowers Gallery
Some artists take the self as subject, like Lucy Jones, whose bold colour and brushwork reflect how we see and are seen. John Kirby's quietly surreal figures explore the complexities of gender, religion, and sexuality, while Stephen Chambers’ curious cast of characters hover between worlds, playfully enigmatic yet psychologically charged.
Surface I, 2009
Acrylic on canvas, 101.6 x 106.68 cm
© Richard Smith, courtesy of Flowers Gallery
Others, like Michael Kidner and Richard Smith, approach perception through structure and rhythm, using pattern, repetition, and scale to create sensory impact.
Maquette for Big Horse, 2002
Bronze, 60 x 72 x 17 cm
© Nicola Hicks, courtesy of Flowers Gallery
Sculptors Nicola Hicks and Edward Dutkiewicz bring two distinct approaches to form and feeling. la NicoHicks draws on the physicality and psychology of the animal world, creating vividly animated figures rendered in straw and plaster, and painstakingly cast into bronze. In contrast, Edward Dutkiewicz’s colourful, abstract shapes radiate joy and movement, underpinned by personal struggle.
Tom Phillips and Derek Hirst introduce ideas of place and memory through layered symbols and maps, Tom Phillips drawing from urban walks and daily life, Derek Hirst channelling global traditions and Native American art, as seen in Cherokee Paqueno, 1973.
august (adj) reflects on how we navigate the space between what is felt and what is seen, and how, across decades and practices, artists have found distinct and powerful ways to make those experiences visible.
FLOWERS GALLERY
21 Cork Street, London W1S 3LZ
