Velarde Gallery launch their 2024 schedule today (February 3) with an exhibition by five exceptional artists who bring material and form together to create intriguing objects and statement works of art. Abstraction is a vehicle both for the expression of ideas and emotions, and for refining the essential characteristics of the material world. In all its forms, the power of abstract art is in its ability to remove us from the ‘now' and to expose us to the wonder of sensory experiences outside the everyday.

British sculptor Richard Perry makes work which explores the dynamic relationship between organic and geometric forms. Beginning with paintings and drawings, he develops ideas inspired by his interest in the natural environment and the unique physical and spatial characteristics of landscapes and living entities. The resulting forms, sculpted from limestone, alabaster and Carrara marble, balance the underlying sense of their subject with a pure and unrestrained approach to abstraction. Richard graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Leeds Polytechnic in 1981. His drawings, paintings and sculptures have been exhibited across the UK, and he has created numerous large-scale public sculptures by commission, including the ‘Starstone' in Armagh, Northern Ireland, the ‘Freedom Tree' and ‘Needle' in St. Helier, Jersey, and stonework for the re-modelling of the Peace Gardens in Sheffield, which won a RIBA National Urban Design Award.

Scottish born artist Jo Barker brings the historic craft of tapestry together with the form and feel of abstract painting. With a focus on the emotional impact of colour, she creates her compositions digitally or in collage before weaving a vivid combination of threads together to create seemingly painted and scribbled marks in a rich palette of colours and powerful shapes. Jo graduated with a First Class Honours Degree in Design in Tapestry with Printmaking from Edinburgh College of Art in 1985. In 2016 she was awarded the prestigious Cordis Prize for Tapestry, and her work is held in collections including those of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, and the House of Lords.

Chris Brook RSW makes abstract mixed-media works inspired by rural and urban landscapes. Pursuing the creation of his own visual language, a kind of ‘shorthand' for the expression of insight and information, his marks and symbols are scored into the surface of his textured, painterly works with a pure and primal simplicity. Chris's paintings have been exhibited at Visual Arts Scotland and the Royal Society of Scottish Painters in Watercolour. In 2023 he became an elected Member of the RSW.

Jack Paffett graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Falmouth University in 2016 and has since established himself as a rising young talent, exhibiting his work in London, Los Angeles and Venice.

Sketches and studies of his environment, and of personal memories, are the starting point for his abstract paintings and prints, which he creates through a spontaneous interaction with the painting surface. Every mark is made in response to the previous mark, in an ongoing construction and deconstruction of works which celebrating the fluid nature of paint.

Artist Kinsley Byrne creates sculptural forms in wood which reflect the coming together of the artist's hand with a maker's sense of the ‘primitive' in its purest and most expressive sense. His physical approach to direct carving and sculpting, with hammer and chisel, is a labour guided by the unique grain of the wood he is working with, resulting in curious and emotive forms. Kinsley studied furniture making at Leeds College of Art and Design, with placements at the Ecole Boulle in Paris, France. He worked as a cabinet maker for David Linley and restored boats before relocating to Cornwall to become a full-time artist and sculptural furniture maker.

See Altered & Abstracted on now until March 16 at Velarde, 86 Fore St, Kingsbridge TQ7 1PP. www.velarde.co.uk