Wells Tempest & Rita Nowak

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Wells Tempest is a self-taught British sculptor whose enigmatic wood and bronze sculptures are influenced by nature, ancient cultures and mythology, particularly Egyptian and Meso­-American. Geometry and mathematic formulae are recurrent throughout his work, making use of naturally occurring geometric forms, vortices and the Fibonacci sequence. Modern influences include Bauhaus and Art Deco design and architecture and artists such as M.C Escher, Constantin Brancusi and Barbara Hepworth. His present collection, ‘Aegyptiana‘, is comprised of various representations of deities and primal elements from ancient Egyptian mythology.

Rita Nowak is an established Austrian artist who uses staged photography as her medium. Her approach is painterly, occasionally referencing iconic imagery from art history. A strong sense of visual metaphor runs through her work, and the mise-en-scène and symbolism are often authentically linked to those depicted. In terms of atmosphere, it is less photographed than 'painted' with the camera, insofar as what is actually depicted manifests the symbolic and mysterious, as well as the enigmatically intended.