Discoveries: Bernardino, Lellouche, Rezaei & Urie

Fiumano Clase, opens the new year with its second exhibition, Discoveries, from 30^th January – 8^th March 2018 at 21 Wren Street, London WC1. The exhibition features work by four of the most intriguing emerging artists, and recent graduates scouted by Fiumano Clase in the past 12 months.

Rhine Bernardino’s striking sculptural series, “Regla”, which uses glass, water and her own menstrual blood, will be on show to the public in its entirety for the first time in Discoveries. "Regla" is made up of 12 sculptures, one for each menstrual cycle of the year- the last one will be completed this December. Bernadino’s work is a comment on human perception and her belief in the potential of art to encourage  social change. She describes her piece as "a makeshift laboratory wherein collections of menstrual blood are not associated with disgust but regarded as objects of inspection and conversation.” Bernadino’s work is provocative and aesthetically beautiful. Originally from the Philippines she graduated from the University of the Philippines with a BA in Film and Audio Visual Communication and went on to complete an MA in sculpture at the Royal College of Art.

Another fascinating work featured in Discoveries is “When the Curtain Falls”, a video installation by Shadi Rezaei. Born in Tehran, Iran, Rezaei is a London-based interdisciplinary artist who has recently graduated from Chelsea College of Arts with an MA in Fine Art. Inspired by her country of origin, Iran, Rezaei’s passion for the visual arts comprises an exploration of the relationship between traditional and contemporary art. Her works bring a series of mutable and spontaneous gestures that negotiate the relationship between stability and uncertainty. 

Tom Lellouche, a seasoned Plastic Artist, Scenographer, and Filmmaker, makes his debut at Fiumano Clase. He specializes in interactive sculptures in space, meticulously crafted with organic matter. Combining a multitude of media, he is on a mission to create an alchemical and all-encompassing experience with his intricate, soul-gripping creations. After graduating with a BA in Performance: Design and Practice from Central St Martins, Lellouche is currently studying at the Royal College of Art.

Alex Urie, who graduated with a BA in Sculpture from Camberwell College, then with an MA in Fine Art at Chelsea College, brings a selection of abstract paintings to Discoveries. Urie views the canvas as an empty plane on which to create paintings populated by anonymous and indeterminate forms. He first draws figurative elements onto the canvas and then applies the paint in thick layers, allowing it to literally bleed through both sides of the skin like surface of the work.  Urie states: “my paintings occupy an awkward territory between painting-as-object, and remembered, liminal spaces”.