Vortex Redux Exhibition: ESTUARY

Date: May 2026 (8th – 24th )

Times: Mon-Sat 10.30-18.30, Sun 11.00-17.00
Venue: 5 Fitzroy Square, London W1T 5HH

Paintings: Paul Davey
Soundscape: Irving Kinnersley

Free entry

Estuary is a collaborative exhibition which draws inspiration from the unique landscape of  windswept saltwater marshes on the edge of Bridgwater Bay, in Somerset. These recently restored reserves form part of the Severn Estuary, which experiences the second highest tidal range in the world. The restoration provides a sanctuary for threatened saltmarsh birds and a protection for the low-lying land of the Somerset Levels, which extend from the bay to Glastonbury.

Paul Davey: Paintings

Paul Davey’s paintings are inspired by daily walks on the Steart Marshes reserves on Bridgwater Bay. Eschewing the horizon of traditional landscape, they gaze downwards to the ground around the artist’s feet or into the ever-moving texture of the vast reedbeds. Davey admires Peter Lanyon’s late abstracts such as ‘Thermal’ or ‘Soaring’, but his downward perspective is less panoramic, focusing instead on the quotidian and overlooked: lichen, effluent, algae, duckweed, cracked mud and sedge, where he discovers new worlds and exotic micro-landscapes, and renders them in works of vibrant saturated colour and texture. For the series of reed paintings, Davey’s handling of paint is virtuosic and has affinities with the work of Gerhard Richter. Applied in multiple layers it is scraped, dripped and rubbed to produce a range of canvases in which a single motif is rendered into a remarkable variety of images.

Irving Kinnersley: Soundscape

Irving Kinnersley has composed the ambisonic soundscape for the exhibition using a combination of field recordings collected at different locations along the shoreline of Bridgwater Bay, historic sound, and abstract  sound. The soundscape complements the paintings by providing a panorama of the Bay’s aural environment. The elemental sounds of rocks, pebbles, sand, waves and wind form much of the sonic texture of the piece which evokes both the gentle and destructive forces at play in the estuary. Woven throughout these elemental sounds are sonic traces of bird calls, and of human voices and activities.

Biographies

Paul Davey studied at Folkestone School of Art, Walthamstow College of Art, North East London Polytechnic and has a Masters degree from Chelsea College of Art. He has exhibited widely in group exhibitions,  including the Royal Academy Summer Show and European Art Today at the Metropole Folkestone.

He has held collaborative exhibitions with numerous artists including Noel Forster, James Faure Walker and Jim Jack and Irving Kinnersley. Solo exhibitions include Vortex Gallery (London), The London College of Furniture, ANA Newham and Taunton Library (Somerset).

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Irving Kinnersley is an electro-acoustic and soundscape composer. He studied electroacoustic composition at Bath Spa University and University of Manchester.

He was awarded first prize at the KLANG International Electroacoustic Competition (France) and gained first place in the recent British Electroacoustic Network call for works, as a result of which his work has represented the Network at several international events. He was also finalist at the MUSICA NOVA international Electroacoustic competition (Prague). His solo works and video collaborations have been played extensively at concerts and music festivals across the world.

http://www.irvingkinnersley.com