About the Exhibition
The Wood for the Trees brings together Al Bell, Jonathan Hooper, Sophia Ponté, Tereza Horáček and James D. Wilson, five contemporary painters who approach the natural landscape through distinct ways of seeing and making. Trees, woodland and organic forms recur throughout, with each artist occupying a different position between observation and interpretation.
Together, the artists show how far the same subject can be shaped through the act of painting. Transformed by material, memory and feeling, each landscape becomes less fixed and more subjective, while still retaining a sense of familiarity.
The title borrows from the expression “can’t see the wood for the trees” and turns it around. The exhibition becomes a playful invitation to move between the details and the bigger picture. In doing so, it returns to one of painting’s oldest subjects and asks what it can still reveal.