This exhibition presents a selection of work from the artists ongoing practice entitled ‘Chromogenesis’, produced over the last six years. Blythe explores the innate visual possibility of photographic material, in a collaboration between the artist and the natural forces to which all matter (ourselves included) is subject. Gravity, fluid dynamics, surface tension, inertia, molecular level interactions, all come together to create images of uncanny familiarity and strangeness.
 
Blythe’s practice is driven by the question: ‘how do you go about finding that thing, the nature of which is totally unknown to you?’ Through random and unplanned experiments, Blythe feels his way, looking for intuitive responses and moments of connection, allowing instinct to take precedence. The resulting images are “concrete manifestations of a specific set of conditions” (Walead Beshty, 2009).
 
Biography:
 
John A. Blythe was born and raised in East London and Essex and became enthralled with photography at an early age, experimenting widely. After studying with the legendary fine art photographer Rotimi Fani Kayode, Blythe went on to establish a professional commercial photography career, working from his south London studio and producing campaigns with high-profile advertising and design agencies for over 20 years. Keen to return to his fine art interests, Blythe started teaching in 2010, graduated PGDip (ArtEd) in 2016 and went on to complete a Master of Fine Art in Fine Art from Oxford Brookes University School of Art in 2019.
 
In 2017 Blythe was awarded an artist development grant by OVADA (Oxford Visual Arts Development Agency) for his ongoing project ‘A little light’, which led to his first join show Accord at The Old Fire Station Gallery, Oxford. Blythe has since exhibited widely, including the CICA Museum, Gyeonggi-do, Korea; the Bath Photography Festival; Siggrou 24 Project Space, Thessaloniki, Greece; gallery@oxo, Southbank, London; Zuleika Gallery, Woodstock, (awarded joint ‘best in show’); The Fabric of Photography at The Old Fire Station Gallery, Oxford; Unit 1 Gallery Workshop, London as part of Radical Residency VIII, and most recently in the Salon de L’automne ed121 in Paris.