Jason Sumray: Oil Paintings and Etchings 2020 – 2026

Gallery times

• Wednesdays to Fridays 13:00-17:00
• Saturdays & Sundays 10:00-16:00
• Mondays & Tuesdays closed
• Private View: Friday 11 September

Jason Sumray returns to the Highgate Gallery for his second solo show, where he continues to explore the fertile ground of imaginary Still Lifes in oil paintings and etchings.

He depicts ordinary objects set on a table, juxtaposing them to give new meaning: jugs, bowls, spoons, pans, lemons, pears and ladders are arranged and rearranged.

Sumray is interested in a ‘narrative’ being played out in his imaginary theatre world, where the objects seem to exist autonomously; he gives importance to their relationship to one another and to the empty potent space. The ‘conversations’ between the protaganists lend to anthromorphic associations and a drama where the push-pull tensions become an expressive force.

With the chiaraoscuro language he loves, Sumray creates ‘slow time’ images. The dark colour behind sets the tone of the whole image, pervading the entire mood; deep red-blacks, dark greens or blue-blacks. There is seldom a recognisable reference in the background that would locate the images; the theatrical stage-like arrangement of the still life in front is isolated in time and space.

Sumray etches from his paintings and paints from his etchings; they inform each other. He loves the blackness of the etching ink and approaches the medium with a painters attitude; trying as much as he can to manipulate, urging it to respond in more painterly terms.

Jason Sumray lives and paints in North London. He has exhibited in various galleries in London and else where and has been shortlisted for a number of Open Competitions. He won the Discerning Drawing Bursary in 2011 and was joint winner of the Marshwood Arts Award in 2017. His series of paintings based on Samuel Beckett’s ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’ were exhibited as part of the inaugural International Beckett Festival, Enniskillen, NI, in 2012. In 2016 his Fisherman paintings were shown in the Fishing Museum in Cromer. Sumray studied for his Fine Art degree at Brighton Polytechnic. He gained his Masters in Fine Art from the Sir John Cass School of Art. He was awarded distinction for his research on the nature of symbolism and metaphor in paintings. In 2016 he was proud to curate the exhibition of paintings of his friend and mentor Ron Delavigne at the Highgate Gallery.

Contact:

Artist Jason Sumray:

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Coordinator for Highgate Gallery Dawn Finn:

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