Junko O’Neill | Interlude
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EXHIBITION OPENING TIMES
Monday to Friday 9am - 6pm | Saturday 10am - 5pm
Private View | 20 November 6.30pm - 9pm
It is said the Japanese see space differently. So how does it differ from the West, and how is it expressed in art? The work of UK-based artist Junko O’Neill is influenced by the Japanese spacial and temporal concept of ‘Ma’ which can be translated as ‘gap’, ‘space’ or ‘pause’. O’Neill will showcase her new body of work both in abstract and figurative forms in the solo exhibition Interlude.
‘Ma’ is a Japanese way of looking. It gives the intangible positive meaning. Empty space or time is not considered as a separate entity. The void created does not have a negative meaning, instead it suggests pregnant nothingness.
O’Neill says: “What I portray with my work is space, where time is seemingly halted but also where something has just happened or is about to happen. Emptiness is deliberately expressed in order to suggest potential.”
“Far from being labelled as figurative paintings, these thought-provoking pieces may be more accurately described as portraits of space, populated in order to prompt our sense of relationship within it.” Seline Bullocke, Art Writer, Arttext
Junko O’Neill gained her MA and BA from Winchester School of Art, where she was given the Stephen Heffer Memorial Award in 2008. Junko was shortlisted for the Celeste Prize 2011 and Kudos International 2013. Her work ‘The Intervals’, created for Winchester Cathedral as part of Winchester’s biennial art festival 10 Days in 2013, was displayed for an extended period at the cathedral’s special request. She has exhibited widely in the UK and abroad, including a solo show, Fragments of Time, at GV Art, London, Berlin and Florence. She also co-curated Space Unfolding, a group exhibition at Espacio Gallery in Shoreditch. Born in Tokyo, Junko now lives in Winchester and is a resident artist of the Sorting Office studios in Eastleigh, Hampshire .