David Fitzjohn presents his latest exhibition Fimbulwinter at Oriel Mwldan, Cardigan. The exhibition will launch with an opening at 3pm on Saturday 11th October where tea, cake and fizz will be served, with a warm welcome to all and will run until 29 November.

David Fitzjohn uses natural forms and themes of landscape, especially wilderness and woodland, as metaphors for both a lost ideal (Elysium) and a hoped for future, to explore his concerns regarding climate issues and economic imperialism. Themes focused in our consciousness by the recent storms that devastated our coastline and in doing so for a time revealed the petrified forest of Borth, reminding us of the fluid and changeable nature of our reality and the cyclical order of destruction and rebirth embedded in our landscape.

The installation is titled Fimbulwinter, which in Norse mythology is a period of three successive winters without any intervening summer, an environmental disaster that is the immediate prelude to Ragnarok, the end of the world. While the world may not be ending, it is changing and Fitzjohn’s installation is a response to this, his imagining of the end of things as they are, the mutability and adaptability of nature and the hope embedded in possible futures.

The paper-cut that Fitzjohn has constructed in response to these ideas exists as a physical representation of his efforts to imagine an impossible future. The delicacy and simplicity of the paper and the multiplicity of forms as the cuts interweave suggests both the fragility of nature and the meandering and illusive nature of the dream-like state, which is an integral part of his imaginative process.

David Fitzjohn studied at Canterbury College of Art B.A. Fine Art 1983-1986 and then at the Royal College of Art M.A. Painting. 1993 - 1995. He was the Abbey Scholar in Painting at the British School at Rome 1995 – 1996. He has exhibited in Britain and Europe and his work is held in private collections in both London and Paris. He currently lives and works in Wales where he is Programme Director of Fine Art at Cardiff School of Art and Design.

Further details can be found on David’s website: www.axisweb.org/artist/davidfitzjohn

A free artist lead workshop will accompany this exhibition – please contact lisa@mwldan.co.uk for details. Admission to Oriel Mwldan is free, and the gallery is open every day from 5-8pm Mondays, 10am – 8pm Tuesday to Saturday, and 12pm – 8pm on Sundays. Visit our website www.mwldan.co.uk or see our season brochure for full details of our exciting exhibitions and gallery events.