PSL (Project Space Leeds) and Axis presents Future50 featuring 50 of the most interesting and significant UK artists of 2008, handpicked by curator and gallerist Ceri Hand and Axis curator Liz Aston from the Axis website.

Andy Denzler's figurative paintings have evolved only in the last few years after a long period exploring the possibilities of Abstraction. Starting with his 'American Paintings' series (2005) Denzler has since been involved in an examination of imagery drawn from various sectors of popular culture. Despite this seemingly dramatic shift between the abstract and figurative, what links the two bodies of work is the artist's continued dialogue with art history and, more specifically, the history of painting.

Whilst the photographic/cinematic origins of many of Denzler's paintings are explicit, he renders them in a distinctly gestural style, lending them the appearance of a long photographic exposure or fast movie camera pan. His subjects are reduced to a blurred set of generic features, positions and clothing, thus echoing the reductive tendency present in much mainstream film and advertising, one that seeks to erase any imperfection or difference that the viewer may find unappealing. Likewise, the 'landscapes' that his subjects inhabit are most often reduced to a series of horizontal and vertical planes of muted colour. His work questions the surety of perception, both through its combination of appropriation and painterly technique as well as its playing with notions of memory and observation.

21 - 23 November 2008Future50 artists:
Pio Abad, Edward Ashton, Stuart Bailes, Chris Barr, Catherine Bertola, Miranda Blennerhassett, Emma Bolland, Mel Brimfield, Tereza Buskova, Rachel Cattle, Petros Chrisostomou, Emily Cole, Martyn Cross, Nick Crowe, Fiona Curran, Andy Denzler, Samantha Donnelly, Tracey Eastham, James Evans, Erica Eyres, Ian Gonczarow, Rachel Goodyear, S Mark Gubb, Anthea Hamilton, Lia Anna Hennig, Hideko Inoue, Candice Jacobs, Jesus Jimenez, Doug Jones, Penny Klepuszewska, Simon Le Ruez, Rebecca Lennon, Bob Levene, Hayley Lock, Jo McGonigal, Paul Merrick, Heather & Ivan Morison, Yuko Nasu, Robert Orchardson, Katie Orton, Olivia Plender, Ian Rawlinson, David Sherry, Sarah Staton, Rebecca Stevenson, Mimei Thompson, Rachel Thorlby, Miranda Whall, Katy Woods, Frances Young

Paul Stone, 2008