Bringing together recent paintings and drawings inspired by Cornwall and Italy, the exhibition explores the relationship between observation, memory, colour and the shifting nature of perception.
MARK DUNFORD
Spaces: Paintings and Drawings
5 November – 3 December 2026
Browse & Darby is delighted to present Spaces: Paintings and Drawings, their first solo exhibition by Cornwall-based artist Mark Dunford.
Dunford’s practice begins with looking. Working directly from the subject, often en plein air, he observes patiently and attentively, allowing each picture to develop through an investigative process rather than towards a predetermined result. The works in the exhibition move between close observation and imaginative reconstruction. Landscape, still life, flowers, fruit, trees and skies provide points of departure, but the paintings are ultimately concerned with the relationships between colour, form, light, rhythm and space. Dunford frequently returns to his
own drawings as a source for new paintings, while constructed set-ups inspired by works from art history offer another means of testing and reinventing visual ideas.
His work is informed by a sustained engagement with artists including Cézanne, Chardin, Piero della Francesca, Vermeer, Matisse, Van Gogh, Duccio, Fra Angelico and Giacometti. These influences are not treated as fixed models, but as part of an ongoing conversation about how paintings are constructed and how images can transform experience.
The resulting works occupy a space between recognition and invention. Grids, measured intervals, changes in tone, layered colour and simplified forms reveal the physical process of looking and making. Light is particularly important as its constant movement alters both the subject and the artist’s perception of it.
As Rupert Loydell writes, Dunford’s paintings are ‘complex, hard fought for skirmishes with the very nature of visual perception and human understanding.’ The exhibition offers an opportunity for the viewer to encounter that process at close range and to see how an image can emerge through revision, rather than immediately arrive as a fixed or resolved statement.
Browse & Darby
34 Bury Street, London, SW1Y 6AU
020 77 34 7984
www.browseanddarby.co.uk
5 November – 3 December 2026
Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 10am – 5.30pm
Admission: Free
