Featuring. KATIE ROCKLEY, ADAM ROUD, SEBANTIAN TANTI BURLÓ, and LYDIA CECIL
FAMILIAR
‘Cecil’s intimate stillness, Roud’s quiet weight and lift, Rockley’s graceful topographies, Burlò’s irreverent intellect, each artist offers a distinct perspective, but the works speak together, not in unison, but in harmony.’
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There is a particular kind of joy that comes from sitting with artists as they talk, not just about their work, but about the world as they see it. In the case of these four, the experience is something richer still. The conversation loops easily between philosophy and paint, bronze and memory, light and form. What strikes me most is the depth of attentiveness to each other, to their materials, and to the quiet significance of their subjects.
FAMILIAr is an apt title. Not simply for the affection and creative kinship that connects Rockley, Cecil, Roud, and Burlò, but for the sense that each piece in this exhibition carries something recognisable, a lived moment, a fleeting mood, a landscape walked many times but seen anew. And yet, the familiar here is never static. These artists don’t pin things down; they give them space to move, to shift in meaning as we meet them with our own experiences.
Their works, though varied in medium and temperament, share an essential clarity of purpose: to observe closely and to translate that observation into something felt. There is a generosity in that. Cecil’s intimate stillness, Roud’s quiet weight and lift, Rockley’s graceful topographies, Burlò’s irreverent intellect, each artist offers a distinct perspective, but the works speak together, not in unison, but in harmony. There is no single manifesto here, and no need for one. The cohesion of this group lies not in ideology, but in a shared understanding that art is not a point to be proven, but a space to be held open, for dialogue, for complexity, for play.
It has been a pleasure to witness this coming together, not only of art, but of artists whose respect for one another has shaped and sharpened their creative lives. This is a rare kind of exhibition: one that feels, in the best sense, like walking into a room full of old friends, each with something new to say.
Hester Baldwin - Managing Director
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You may also get in touch with the Gallery team via call at 020 7352 0837.
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Katie Rockley co-founded College Arts in 2004, an art school in Hampshire which she continues to run, welcoming an array of artistic disciplines and local talent. Her work is well founded in knowledge of oil painting, watercolours, and clay and wax sculpture. These varying mediums bring an integrated approach to her figurative, animal, or botanical studies. In recent years, she has been concentrating on oil landscapes. Her fluid brushwork records the changing scenes of the South West of England, primarily Dorset where she lives and has her studio. Choosing scenes at once both familiar and offbeat, she brings a refreshed gaze tosuch sights as the telegraph pole. This is her first exhibition in London.
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Adam Roud graduated from John Moores Art School, Liverpool in 1994 and worked in abronze foundry in Basingstoke for many years, before establishing his own studio in Hampshire.
His figurative works, particularly his animal studies, are eye-catching, sensitive and majestic. They show a keen sense of anatomy, and the feel of life represented in the hard bronze metal. Sharp observations fuel his studio practice and is as happy working on abstract monumentalpieces as he is on the figurative. Both convey volume, poise, line and balance, and display anintimate knowledge of the whole process.
He has exhibited in Alresford, Hampshire and Wyckham Gallery Stockbridge. He is well represented in both private and public collections. His most recent exhibition was at the Sladmore Gallery, London to much acclaim.
He teaches both painting and life drawing as well as sculpture at College Arts Studios, Hampshire where he has a large and enthusiastic following.
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Lydia Cecil is a representational artist who works between the UK and Malta. She studied atthe London Atelier of Representational Art. She regularly works on commission and tutorsfor Raw Umber Studios and College Arts. Her most recent exhibitions include a solo show ‘A Room with a View’ at Risette, Valletta and group show ‘Time to Fear Contemporary Art’ at 8 Duke Street St James, London.
Cecil uses her representational style to capture a character, amood or a moment. Through a constant battle to balance light, form and chroma, she combines both drama and sensitivity inher subjects. Her mother, Katie Rockley, was the first to teach her to paint aged 11. Growing up in the same village as Adam Roud, shenever missed an opportunity to badge him for his extensive artistic knowledge. She is married to fellow artist Sebastian Tanti Burlò, with whom she shares a life and a studio (but never her paintbrushes).
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Sebastian Tanti Burlo’ (b.1987) is a Maltese political cartoonist, painter and writer, currentlyresiding in London. His political cartoons have been published weekly in the Times of Maltasince 2014.
Graduated in Architecture + Urban Studies from the University of Westminster (London), Burlò’s only artistic training came from the somewhat unorthodox tutorage of his father, therenowned Maltese artist and cartoonist Maurice Tanti Burlò.
After a few years working in an architecture practice in Malta, he decided to swap buildingsfor paintings. Under the name Burlò, he has exhibited in Malta, Barcelona, Florence andLondon. His bold paintings combine current affairs, satire and writing to create a socio-commentary of today’s times. His last solo show ANTIC HAY (2024) was exhibited at Cicek Gallery, London. He is married to the artist Lydia Cecil.
