Adelaide Cioni

Central to Adelaide Cioni’s practice is an exploration of colour. Brightness explodes from the surface of her images creating an immersive space for the viewer to inhabit. Employing shape, pattern and dimension, her use of form fills the space. Despite her matte application of paint and flat surfaces, there is depth to her images, her minimal colour blocking, and neutral backgrounds create an endless space. Cioni’s work draws from the canons of Italian painting, from Pascali, Novelli and Merz, her primary influences, to employing the same shade of pink as Giotto and della Francesca. Her colour choices are rich, and her masterful application of paint is almost velvety in the thickness of its concentration. Her work is joyful, there is a youthful exuberance and wonder to her minimal depiction of subjects like ice-creams. What Cioni demonstrates through her body of work is the seductive nature of colour, her subjects are the means rather than the ends, an opportunity to explore the expansive possibilities of colour in itself. ...

The Approach is co-directed by Jake Miller and Emma Robertson. Located in Bethnal Green above The Approach Tavern, for over twenty years it has operated an internationally recognised programme from its East London base. The gallery is known for discovering artists and establishing their careers as well as making inter-generational curated group shows a strong focus. The list of represented artists includes the Estates of important overlooked female artists Heidi Bucher and Maria Pinińska Bereś, as well as seminal British collage artist John Stezaker, together with established and emerging artists including Magali Reus, Peter Davies, Lisa Oppenheim, Sandra Mujinga, Pam Evelyn, Sara Cwynar, Sam Windett and Caitlin Keogh. Over the years the gallery has operated parallel programmes in additional gallery spaces in London’s West End (The Approach W1) and in Shoreditch (The Reliance). The gallery is currently based solely in its original East End location and continues to expand its programme, showcasing its represented artists in the main gallery space, and both represented and non-represented artists in The Annexe, a smaller, more experimental space at the back of the building. ...