Elise Ashby & Lisa Denyer - Strata

Strata is two-person exhibition featuring new work by Edinburgh-based artist, Elise Ashby and Manchester-based Lisa Denyer and curated by the Fourdrinier writer, Laura Harris. The show takes its title from the processes of layering present in both artists’ work. The exhibition is the result of a year-long process of conversation between Ashby, Denyer, and Harris, in the supportive and generative context of a wider project with artists and writers at PAPER. The scheme, initiated by PAPER and generously funded by Arts Council England, has partnered artists with writers in experimental pairings, each of which will result in an exhibition of new work at the gallery.
Ashby’s drawings take as their subject curious metal objects found at Wardie Bay beach in Edinburgh. Formerly the materials of industry, the objects have since been caught up in the elemental processes of Scotland’s coastline and corroded. Ashby finds, arranges, and draws these objects with a degree of geological or archaeological precision. The resulting drawings combine the careful and attentive style of Ashby’s work with the charm and intrigue of objects with richly layered histories.
Denyer’s paintings are themselves highly textured, densely layered, and vivid objects. Denyer works on heavy plywood, clay, panel, sandpaper, or wood; surfaces which assist, and disrupt, the application of paint. With spontaneity and instinct Denyer thickly layers the surfaces with paint, before deliberating over the careful placement of additional geographic elements. The paintings on show in Strata include weighty works on plywood as well as explorations of the fine abrasiveness of sandpaper, all of which result from Denyer’s deep fascination with layering paint, colour, and material.
To accompany the exhibition Laura Harris will write a two-part text to be featured in the August and September issues of the Fourdrinier.
Lisa Denyer Artwork

Beetle
Acrylic on sandpaper,
23x28cm
2021
SOLD

Buren
Acrylic,  collage and filler on panel
25x20cm
2021

Hex
Acrylic, emulsion, collage and filler on plywood,
32x26x3cm
2021
SOLD

Arrangement
Acrylic, emulsion, collage and filler on plywood
37x30cm
2021

Frost
Acrylic, emulsion, collage and filler on plywood
32x26x3cm
2021

Tropic
Acrylic, emulsion and filler on sandpaper,
23x28cm
2021

Bend & Fold
Acrylic and emulsion on sandpaper,
28x23cm,
2021

Token
Acrylic, emulsion, collage and filler on found wood,
23x26cm
2021
SOLD

Deep Freeze
Acrylic, emulsion, collage and filler on plywood,
32x26cm,
2021

Elise Ashby Artworks

Ceramic Stilts
graphite on washi paper
37cm x 26cm
2021

Ceramic Stilts #2
graphite on washi paper
37cm x 26cm
2021

Chain Pieces
graphite on washi paper
26cm x 37cm
2021

Polished Beach Metal I
graphite on washi paper
49cm x 65.5cm
2021
SOLD

Polished Beach Metal II
graphite on washi paper
49cm x 65.5cm
2021
SOLD

Polished Beach Metal III
graphite on washi paper
49cm x 65.5cm
2021

Polished Beach Metal IV
graphite on washi paper
26cm x 28.5cm
2021
SOLD

Polished Beach Metal V
graphite on washi paper
25cm x 35cm
2021
SOLD

Installation Views
About Elise Ashby
Elise Ashby is a visual artist working in contemporary drawing and printmaking, currently based in Edinburgh. In her work Ashby explores drawing as a materialist approach to thinking. Ashby has been shortlisted for the Derwent drawing prize (2016), and received the Lieth School of Art Figurative Prize. Her work has been shown at Leith School of Art (Edinburgh), and Coburg House (Edinburgh).
About Lisa Denyer
Lisa Denyer graduated from Coventry University in 2009 with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art. Since graduating Denyer has received awards, including first prize in the PS Mirabel Open 2015, and been in residence at Galerie Martin Mertens (Berlin). A selection of galleries that have exhibited her work include: Volume Gallery (Berlin), Kir Royal (Madrid), and The National Museum of Poland (Gdańsk).