Artist Spotlight is a feature highlighting the incredible artwork and achievements of individual ActionSpace artists. We want to celebrate the developed practices of our artists as we start to return to our three London-based studios.
This Artist Spotlight will focus on the work of artist Hymie Aaronberg.
Hymie Aaronberg creates dense drawings using strong, layered, overlapping lines to create colour-saturated forms. Sometimes these forms are abstract or show direct links to Hymie’s inspirations, such as flowers or a window.
Over the years Hymie’s drawings have become more abstract in their nature, often expressing a feeling and incorporating the sounds or movements of the objects he is describing. He works intuitively with a clear picture in his mind, which he discusses while he is making. Hymie likes to dramatise the scene or the movement of a particular object within his vision, which is often a rabbit in the garden or the rain dripping down his window. Sometimes it is something that has grabbed him in a television programme.
Often in one drawing, Hymie explores the possibility of line. Whether that is an exploration into how line can be compactly forced together to form a block, a pool of colour, how line can be descriptive of texture, or even exploring a line that lightly brushes the surface to create a break on the page. It is these dynamics that make Hymie’s drawings so captivating.
Hymie is a member of the Cockpit Arts Friday studio. Hymie has continually exhibited in ActionSpace’s biannual Cockpit Arts Open Studios exhibitions since 2016. Hymie has also exhibited at the Royal Academy in the exhibition ‘Art is Part of The Equation’ in 2019. Hymie was selected by artist Rachel Jones to be in the group exhibition ‘8×6’ at Anderson Gallery in London. Unfortunately, the show has had to be postponed due to COVID-19.
Artist Rachel Jones shares more about Hymie’s practice and why she selected Hymie for the exhibition. Rachel volunteered with the ActionSpace Cockpit Friday studio group and got to know Hymie and his practice in the studio.
Hymie Aaronberg’s ability to create complex compositions that, through the use of colour, describe and celebrate the natural world around him whilst simultaneously reimagining it, is a testament to his incredible skills as a draughtsman. His intuitive knowledge of how to combine intricate linear patterns with layering techniques evidences his exceptional understanding of depth and spatial awareness within a drawing. Alternating between darker hues and bright pinks and greens, Hymie’s drawings are lustrous and alive with colour, providing endless possibilities for the viewer to lose themselves within the resplendence of his work.
– Rachel Jones, artist.
Artist facilitator Lisa Brown has worked with Hymie for many years. Lisa details more about Hymie’s practice in the ActionSpace studio:
“Hymie is a pleasure to have at the studio. He is a well loved member of the group who is a true gentleman, wishing everyone a good morning when he arrives and saying good bye to everyone individually as he leaves.
He quietly works on his pieces, usually over several sessions and is very sure of when a piece is complete. He likes to show his finished work to the group and is keen to encourage others in their work.
His work is based on his memories of playing as a child, his love of nature and the activities he now does, like walking in the park. He is animated when talking about his ideas and plays out movements and sounds like that of his dinosaurs or animals within these pieces.
He works in coloured pens and is quite adamant that this is now his medium.
He is a gentle and very talented, enthusiastic member of the group who I am very much looking forward to welcoming back into the studio.”
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Further Reading
