Work

Sam works primarily with painted and cut collages. Also with pastel, pencil drawings and acrylic and oil. He is generally most interested in the place where accidental abstractions in colour and form become structured and recognisable and vice-versa. Also with a nod to what has come before and the wonders of plant life

Some writing about Sam's work:

" Sam Chamberlain describes mental as well as physical environments . His paintings and collages use material forms to encapsulate and frame the transcendent world that is the true subject of his vision , forming relationships between the places of the planet and the places of the mind.

These are images that ask the viewer not only to look again, but to think again: about what is and what isn't , about what we choose to see and what we choose to ignore , about the nature of visual reality and the myriad unseen possibilities that exist alongside the consensual , agreed version of the everyday world.

The full force of the human experience is ever -present in this compelling collection. It's in the primal , sometime primitive accumulation and manipulation of fabric , board and paint . It's in the relentless , supremely organic energy of the brush , blade and glue executions . We find it especially in the almost manic, often humorous, always mysterious and occasionally menacing relationships that Chamberlain constructs and presents between foreground and background. These opposed 'locations', the 'front' and the 'back' of the image , are not just physical or mathematical . They can be interpreted to equal effect and value as 'first glance and second glance' , 'higher and the lower mind' , 'inner and outer reality'.

Spanning 20 years , Chamberlain's work , demonstrates extraordinary dynamism , immediacy and originality. Stately, static , sometimes abstracted still lifes and representative (or at least recognisable) landscapes are literally undercut , simultaneously underwritten and undermined with and by glimpses of the blurred frenzy that seethes beneath. We are witnessing explicit depiction , approaching description , of the two lives we all live : in public and in private , consciously and unconsciously , and very possibly in and out of control . "

Dominic Collier - critic - London 2009

Article about Sam Chamberlain that appeared on the Aesthete's Lament Blog

Critical article, written about Sam Chamberlain's Work: Muted Playfulness by Hubert Decleer

Cut & Paste By Richard Brereton and Caroline Roberts
Book about contemporary collage artists

Art fair:

Elevated Art Fair
Sunday March 6th 2011
Leadenhall Market
48-51 Leadenhall Market EC3V 1LT

Recent show:

Work - one man show
The Subway Gallery,
December 4th - 19th
Kiosk 1 Pedestrian Subway
Edgeware RD /Harrow RD London W2 1DX
Edgware Road tube stations zone 1
info@subwaygallery.com
07811 286503
www.subwaygallery.com


Online listing for the Subway show

This is London / Evening standard
Spoonfed.co.uk
Eventful.co.uk
Artcalendr.com
Artrabbit.com

Article at Saatchi online about the Subway gallery and the show

Some pictures of the show

Other recent shows:

Metro - Land
A group exhibition of new works by 51 London-based artists
Curated by Flora Fairbairn and Rowena Chiu
Merriscourt Farm, near Chipping Norton
Sunday 17th May – Saturday 30th May 2009


Flora Fairbairn and Paul Archard
At Home
A group exhibition of new works by 33 artists
London
Until 23rd March 2009