COMMA 10 / 11: Stuart Cumberland / Melissa Marks

A highly respected painter, born in 1970, Stuart Cumberland has, more consistently and for longer than practically any one else in the UK, maintained a flirtation with the visual power of Modernist painting. Cumberland enjoys the possibilities opened up by an almost endless expressive recombination of artistic styles and statements. His paintings are a satisfying mix of knowing, disciplined gestural abstraction and a riot of referential ambiguities.

Cumberland paints in series with the intent to humorously communicate specific themes, for the most part relating to Sigmund Freud's idea of 'sublimation' - the channeling of 'lower' sexual urges into 'higher' aims such as art or science. Responding to the opportunity to develop his practice through his commission for COMMA, Cumberland proposes to exhibit a new series of six oil paintings that have an ambitious change in size, paint application and use of colour.

COMMA 11 Melissa Marks Melissa Marks' works take the form of drawings, paintings, large-scale wall-drawing installations and animations. Often executed on a grand scale her work reveals her fascination for epic narratives, comic book illustration and the performative quality of painting and drawing. Since 1993, she has continuously developed a body of work based on a central character named 'Volitia' (as in volition). Part Superman, part Eve – Volitia is a narrative force that has been driving Marks' oeuvre. For her new commission at Bloomberg SPACE, Marks will take over the rear gallery, investigating the spatial quality of the balcony area to present the latest installment in her adventure cycle – Adventures of Volitia: Expulsion from Paradise. Exploiting a unique opportunity for her circular, abstract storytelling, Marks combines eleven large, full-colour framed drawings with extensive double-height, black and white wall drawing to form a frieze around the atrium. In a representation of "The Fall" the lines of the drawing will run along the walls, ascending and descending, floating and crashing, mimicking the speed and movement of rushing water.

COMMA focuses entirely on the commissioning of new work providing exceptional opportunities for artists to experiment and expand their practice in relation to the particular nature of Bloomberg SPACE.

Twenty of today's most outstanding established and emerging international artists have been invited to create new work, installations and architectural interventions in a fast paced succession of exhibitions created in response to and seen for the first time at Bloomberg SPACE.

The new programme continues Bloomberg SPACE's reputation of presenting the unknown alongside the very well known drawing on a group of artists from across the globe. The programme spans a wide range of media – during the year painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, performance and film are all featured – and retains the potential for one-off or performative events.

About Bloomberg SPACE Bloomberg SPACE is a gallery based at Bloomberg's European headquarters in London and is dedicated to commissioning and exhibiting contemporary art. It welcomes visitors six days a week and admission is free.

COMMA continues with commissions including: 14 – 31 October 2009 COMMA 12 Lidwien van de Ven COMMA 13 Martin Westwood

Bloomberg SPACE, 50 Finsbury Square, London EC2A 1HD

COMMA 10 / 11
A dynamic new series of monthly commissions
Stuart Cumberland and Melissa Marks