Amanda Ross-Ho

Amanda Ross-Ho works across painting, sculpture, photography, and drawing and these varied components of her practice regularly gather within her surreal installations. Often blending more utilitarian matter such as polystyrene, sharpie ink or thread with discarded everyday objects such as clothing or receipts, Ross-Ho brings these ephemera together in a deeply observant context— using varying techniques to “conflate or collapse the authentic or the performed from the everyday”. Borrowing from the techniques of the Dadaists and their ready-mades, a wine-soaked piece of notepaper might provide the surface for a silk screen print, or a pair of workwear trousers could spark a series of gigantic sculptures. Uncanny-drawn motifs such as cartoon faces or calligraphic clockfaces continue to surface in varying forms, reincarnated in textiles, photographs or sculptures, building an otherworldly language and oeuvre for Ross-Ho to manoeuvre within. Experimenting with scale and these alternating processes, Ross-Ho is able to extract the bizarre from the seemingly banal, contorting associations to reveal the thin line between artifice and nature in our everyday environments. ...

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. ...