Patrick Heide Contemporary Art is delighted to present Rhythms & Remedies, a group exhibition featuring the works of Fay Ballard (b. 1957 UK), Dillwyn Smith (b. 1958, UK) and Károly Keserü (b. 1962, Hungary).Rhythms & Remedies explores drawing as both an intuitive and premeditated practice, that conveys a meditative state and serves as an act of reparation. The exhibition introduces three diverse abstract approaches, that strive for balance through gestural marks, vivid colours, monochrome compositions and repetitive geometric shapes and patterns.
Fay Ballard’s practice is informed by psychoanalysis and viewing drawing as a space where the unconscious and conscious merge. In 2018, she began creating circle drawings that marked a shift from figurative to abstract work, following years of rediscovering her mother who passed away in 1964. Inspired by psychoanalyst Hanna Segal’s idea that creativity is a reparative act, Ballard sees her circles as shelters offering containment and stability. The idea of shelter is equally reflected in her visual language, which draws from the fine brickwork of mosque domes and Persian settlements—architectural forms she encountered during study trips to Iran and Morocco.
Each of Ballard’s circle drawings follows a precise set of self-imposed rules: a circle radius of 14, 18, or 56 cm, divided into concentric bands of 5 or 10 mm, and executed on three specific paper sizes. Ballard finds this structure liberating, rather than restrictive, as it allows for infinite variations within a defined framework. The circle, a symbol of perfect balance, is central to her work, yet the human touch remains evident. Subtle imperfections such as a stray pencil line or a brush mark become integral to the composition. Within Rhythms & Remedies, Ballard presents her circle drawings in all three sizes. The domestic scale of her work is significant, as her practice is deeply rooted in family history and memories of home, both physical and emotional. The gallery’s Georgian townhouse setting reinforces this connection, creating an intimate dialogue between the artwork and the space.
As Ballard works around each concentric circle, she builds up graphite or watercolour through repeated gestures. This rhythmic, almost meditative engagement relates to our proprioceptive sense, affecting both the maker and the viewer in a quiet, embodied way.
Dillwyn Smith’s Narcissus Series reflects his ongoing exploration of light and colour and their communicative and spiritual potential. Like his textile works, they are deeply rooted in form, materiality, and the tactile qualities of surfaces. Smith’s practice is rooted in a history of experimenting with homeopathic tinctures and pigments after his mother went through a long period of Alzheimer’s, which led him, like Ballard, to turn to a completely abstract, more reparative language.
Smith developed this series on view during his residency in Rome, where he immersed himself in the study of local architecture, Mediterranean light and colour. His pastels on paper follow a distinct format: two rectangular shapes, either monochrome or composed of two colours, are drawn on either side of a horizontal sheet, resembling windows, which is then folded in the middle. The folded paper is then embossed from the outside with spontaneous and rhythmic gestures to transfer the pigments between the coloured surfaces. When unfolded, unexpected colour interactions are revealed: organic and dynamic gestural compositions where colours merge and reflect unpredictably and beautifully. The luminance and translucency of reds, blues, and yellows, alongside more muted hues, create contrasts that bring out new shades and tones, sometimes more vibrant, sometimes causing the original colours to nearly disappear.
The format of these drawings, compositionally mirrored through the transfer, suggest a sense of introspection, prompting questions about what one can truly see in our own reflection and what remains unnoticed and overlooked. At the same time, this series implies the act of letting go, allowing meditative movement to shape the final result.
Károly Keserü's artistic journey is a profound exploration of the interplay between the physical and metaphysical, between system and chance. Drawing inspiration from both Eastern and Western philosophies, as well as folk art traditions like embroidery and Aboriginal art, Keserü's work is deeply influenced by music, which plays a central role in his creative process. While working in his studio, often during the night, he always listens to music, subconsciously translating rhythmic structures into his intricate, repetitive compositions.
The titles of his XXth Century Masters series refer to selected artists such as Josef Albers and Victor Vasarely, adopting their chromaticity and image compositions, or explore Agnes Martin’s characteristic horizontal stripes and Malevich’s black square in a playful manner. Keserü also experiments with works that involve only paper itself by folding, embossing or puncturing to achieve a minimal yet more tactile feel.
His signature graphite and ink drawings are characterised by meticulous, labour-intensive craftsmanship. These abstract, geometric structures are composed of grids or dots, with each line and dot uniquely distinct. Patterns are frequently drawn freehand, embracing imperfections that allow cracks and voids to emerge. At times, patterns disperse on the surface like notes in a musical work of improvisation, nebulous clouds of differing densities or a flock of indefinable clusters.
Keserü’s “remedy” is a kind of unwavering urge to continuously draw these highly intricate and intense works, bordering on the obsession of an outsider artist despite his rather classical education in Australia and London. His work engages in a continuous dialogue between structure and freedom, reflecting his quest for balance between order and endless possibilities, similar to Ballard.
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Fay Ballard has exhibited widely in the UK, Europe, the US, and Japan, with notable shows at the Freud Museum, London; Centre for Recent Drawing, London; Teylers Museum, Netherlands; S. Togo Sompo Museum, Tokyo; and the Huntington Art Collections, USA. Her works are held in several collections, including Imperial Health NHS Charity Trust, New Hall Art Collection, Cambridge, The Late HM The Queen, HM King Charles III, and the Royal Watercolour Society.
Dillwyn Smith’s solo exhibitions include Light Cages at VO Curations, London; The Windows at Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre, Latvia; and Warp and Weft at the Omani Society of Fine Arts, Muscat, and Leighton House Museum, London. His work has also been exhibited internationally by the British Council. In 2021, he was awarded the Round Chapel residency in Hackney and in 2018 the Abbey Fellow Award at the British School in Rome. His works are included in the prestigious collections of Barclays Bank PLC, British Airways, Delfina Studios Trust, and the British Council, Berlin.
In 2023, Károly Keserü held a major retrospective at the Center for Modern and Contemporary Art in Debrecen, Hungary. Selected group exhibitions include Bauhaus 100, OSAS at the Vasarely Museum, Budapest; Word Dance at the Denver Art Museum, Denver; Die Kunst ist Zurück at the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg; and Anschlüsse London/Berlin at the Centre for Recent Drawing, London. His works are part of significant collections, including the JoAnn Gonzalez Hickey Collection, New York; Minneapolis Institute of Art, USA; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg; The Shirley Foundation, UK; and The MAG Collection, UK.