Allusion, narrative, multiplicity, enchanting spontaneity - these are the integral factors in Simon Ogden’s art that stimulate and inspire.

Ogden’s work evolves from personal memories of landscape and experience as well as a wide interest in modernist biomorphic abstraction whereby organic abstract forms are based on shapes found in nature. Suggesting the world of the subconscious and of dreams rather than everyday life Ogden’s work has figurative elements and often includes recognisable forms such as birds, leaves and stars.

Using salvaged remnants of linoleum Ogden creates collages that have an undeniable sculptural presence. There is a thoughtfully composed choreography of colour, form, mass and volume and rich colouristic and textural treatment of the medium. Surface incisions provide negative detail allowing forms to appear as if transitory: "parts move against and balance each other in a dance of shape that appears natural but has also evidently been laboured over....shapes lock and unlock from each other suggesting objects, and colours interrelate in beautiful balance." (1)

Ogden presents an intriguing ambiguity with multiple layers of meaning open for interpretation by the viewer - not only is there the artist’s narrative to consider but each carefully considered linoleum cut-out is already imbued with its own history, each fragment eliciting the memory of its former location. The intertwined relationship of the material and visual components draws connections between different times and places as if "freeing us to think of what’s to come. It’s this doubleness that gives the work its secret power of enchantment." (2)

1. Mark Amery, Landscape and Artefact, 1996.
2. Damien Wilkins, Simon Ogden: Quiet Reflections, 2007.