Root of the Madder / Simon Middleton
–
Opening Times Monday - Saturday 10am - 6pm
Root of the Madder is the debut solo exhibition by British artist Simon Middleton, presenting a substantial body of work that includes works on paper as well as oils on canvas. The exhibition brings together pieces developed over the last two years, during which Middleton’s practice has expanded rapidly in ambition, scale, and expressive intensity.
Middleton’s paintings explore the territory between inner states and the external world, drawing on myth, history, elements of faith, and his own experience of mental illness. He describes his approach as emotional impressionism — work that seeks to give form to thought, feeling, turbulence, and memory, all seen through what he calls a “fractured lens” of imagination and lived experience. Rather than seeking realism or abstraction for their own sake, the drawings and paintings pursue a more instinctive kind of meaning: work that resonates rather than represents.
Across the exhibition, patterns of gesture, rhythm, and improvisation emerge, but the emphasis remains firmly on the emotional charge of mark-making. The canvases and works on paper share a sense of immediacy and psychological depth, with compositions that are both urgent and reflective. While Middleton’s materials range from oil paint to wax-oil pastel, watercolour and pencil, the works are unified by a consistent search for a visual language capable of holding complexity, ambiguity, and feeling.
Middleton came back to visual art after life-long creative practice involving writing, music (he fronted bands for over thirty years), weaving, and photography. This broader creative background informs the layered, narrative undertow of his work, but the drawings and paintings stand apart as their own fully realised practice. His recent progress has been fast and focused, with exhibitions, representation, and collector interest developing alongside a commitment to pushing the work itself into new territory.
Root of the Madder marks a significant moment in Middleton’s artistic trajectory — the first full presentation of a practice defined by curiosity, intensity, and a willingness to embrace both the seen and the felt.
For more information, visit www.simonmiddleton.net