Down Stairs Gallery presents new exhibition by Craig Barnes and Dmitri Galitzine (From Hereford Times)

Down Stairs Gallery presents new exhibition by Craig Barnes and Dmitri Galitzine

2:38pm Thursday 19th July 2012 in Visual Arts

WHAT happens when you are given the opportunity to fulfil your dreams?

A year ago, artists Craig Barnes and Dmitri Galitzine were both looking for a way out of London and dreaming of a perfect place to be. Invited to create and curate a contemporary art gallery in rural Herefordshire, they decamped.

When Shall We Set Sail For Happiness? is the artists’ response to the reality of life in a remote village and an ironic take on Baudelaire’s tale of disillusion.

Utopia is rarely what it seems.

The exhibition posits the imaginary against the real. Barnes and Galitzine will show new and recent work, as well as some archival pieces. We are invited to travel with the artists as they pass through other lands and times – some near, some distant, but all equally bizarre when you stop to examine them in detail.

A conversation between the artists is suggested throughout in the way work is deployed through the gallery. Pieces by each are often paired to provide a commentary or additional dimension to the other’s work.

See it at the Down Stairs Gallery, Great Brampton House, Madley, from Saturday until September 16. Call 01981 251094 for more details.