Immanuel Adelowo (b. 1996, London) makes precise paintings and drawings that depict highly specific but imagined places. These works use memory, digital images, and observations from the real world in a single place. His marks come from his feeling for the materials he’s using and a careful design of the composition. In all his pieces, colour-blending becomes a way of showing us the relationships between things and how they fit together. Adelowo often paints open spaces that contain intricate domestic details. This produces intriguing, surreal contrasts, like a small table sat in a vast mountainous landscape, or a tray of drinks offered up in a desert. The movement of the sea, caves and the horizon are repeated motifs. His work invites us to think about what is seen and what is remembered, creating a world where an atmosphere of strangeness houses everyday objects.

Donald Fasanya (b. 1995, London) creates figurative artworks that are inspired by the natural world and human history. Fasanya’s inspiration comes from animals and plants, landscapes and space, the universe and people. He works intuitively and regularly finds new sources to work with, sometimes blending source images with his own creative imagination. Fasanya works primarily in oil pastel, paint and pencil, carefully building up layers of colour to show sharp details and flowing landscapes in the natural world. His intentional use of light and shade adds depth to his scenes, setting his work somewhere between realism and abstraction.

James Heath (b. 1990, London) has a dynamic, immersive practice, mixing performance, percussion, sculpture, collage, charcoal and painting. He blends the natural world with mechanical forms in his work, constantly evolving and undoing actions as he makes. Within his sculptural work, he invites viewers into these forms, using participatory performances to guide participants through their own memories. Heath’s stripped-back colour palette sets the stage for these experiments, where multiple layers and intuitive collage are used to construct backdrops. Alongside this, he uses drawing – primarily with charcoal and a rubber – to explore his ideas around the “complications of life”. Heath’s process is activated through storytelling and themes such as ‘the rhetorical nightmare’, ‘Nick Cave’s hands’ and ‘blank like it’s the nothingness’.

Charlotte Maclean (b. 1991, Edinburgh) works with paint and fabrics to make abstract artworks. Fields of colour reference sky and sunsets, using paint intuitively to create compositions. More recently, Maclean has been experimenting with fabric in her pieces, carefully selecting and collating the material to create unique compositions.

Ibrahim Okeyere Keelson (b. 1995, London) works in both acrylic paint and pastels, moving between larger and smaller surfaces to paint coloured patchwork grids. The artworks shift between regularity and more fluid, wavy rectangles in response to the shape and texture of the canvas. Okeyere Keelson uses a wide range of colours, composing vibrant yellows and pinks with muted beiges and browns that further add to the patchwork feel of his artworks.

Nicky Harris (b. 1973, London) makes portrait pictures of superheroes. His drawings reference comic books and films, depicting well-known superheroes re-invented in his own style with his unique colour palette. Harris also creates his own characters and works primarily in pencil, pen and ink to bring them to life. The artist works prolifically, with portraits coming together to create a larger band of heroes from both dreamt-up and famous characters.

Adelowo, Fasanya, Harris, Heath, Maclean and Okeyere Keelson are all members of ActionSpace and work together every Thursday at ActionSpace’s South London hub at Studio Voltaire. 

ActionSpace supports artists with learning disabilities and creates innovative projects for people with learning disabilities to engage with the visual arts. ActionSpace has four professional art studios in North, South, East and West London. They nurture artists through an ongoing programme of supported studio sessions led by a team of specialist artist facilitators. ActionSpace works with each artist on an individual basis to develop creative and professional development opportunities and supports them to develop and maintain thriving artistic practices.

actionspace.org

To create a specific atmosphere, the space has low lighting and low-volume sound. There are fabric panels dividing the space, which visitors are invited to move around to see more of the artworks. 

We want everyone to enjoy this space comfortably. If the current environment presents a barrier for you, please let a member of our team know. We are happy to adjust the lighting, pause the audio, or clear space between the fabric panels to make your visit more comfortable.

If you have any questions or need assistance with your visit, please feel welcome to contact us at +44 (0) 20 7622 1294 or info@studiovoltaire.org. Read Studio Voltaire's full access information here.

1. Immanuel Adelowo, 01. Pencil on paper. Image courtesy of the artist and ActionSpace.
2. Donald Fasanya, A Flower Field. Acrylic and watercolour on paper, 30 x 42 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and ActionSpace.
3. Nicky Harris, Untitled. 40 x 40 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and ActionSpace.
4. James Heath, The Night Sky. Acrylic on paper, 40 x 54 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and ActionSpace.
5. Ibrahim Okeyere Keelson, Patchwork with circles (Detail). Acrylic and oil pastel on paper. Image courtesy of the artist and ActionSpace.
6. Ibrahim Okeyere Keelson, Patchwork with Shapes. Acrylic, oil pastel, and paint pen on paper, 115 x 150 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and ActionSpace.
7. Charlotte Maclean, red yellow silver pink blue. 50 x 36 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and ActionSpace.