Uncertain Spaces



A solo show of paintings by Andy Cropper exploring Sheffield's in-between places and non-spaces.

Preview Wednesday 30th March 6.00 - 8.00pm

Open 31st March - 11th April 2016
Monday - Saturday 11.00am - 4.00pm
Closed Sunday


For me this show is about mystery. My work of the past few years has been about observing uncertainty within the spaces of daily life. Looking at places and scenes that make me pause, and question what it is about that given place that produces a feeling that something is different. That something is an uncanny "not quite right".

The scenes show the world around me here in Sheffield. Some are immediately recognisable. Others fall into a unique space of appearing to be depictions of specific places that could exist anywhere if not everywhere, yet somehow existing in a sort of unknown distant 'other' place too.

I believe some of the spaces have a feeling that they are on the edge of a moment where something is about to happen. A feeling of potential. Some have a feeling of deep uncertainty, both of place and in atmosphere. What is it about a given scene that may have a feeling of safety, threat, quiet, or disquiet about it? I'm not sure so that's why I paint it.

I'm not aiming to glamorise the mundane, but searching to find interest in the things around us that we usually ignore. There are fascinating things, often unobserved, around each of us. I'm interested in those things that we miss, that we tend to use 'entertainment' to distract us from. I'm fascinated by the world around me, not in an engaging way, but as an observer. I love watching the world go by. I am a voyeur. I'm a painter responding to the world around me and using what is in front of me as source. I'm not a painter of dreams, desires, distractions or romances but a realist painter concerned with issues relating to the ordinary, everyday and unremarkable.

From an interview with Sam Walby of Now Then magazine, November 2015. "Uncertain Spaces"

“..we’re forever in the state of going in between, but always looking outside of that. You go into town to go to a shop, and almost everything else in between is so familiar, but also so banal and mundane, that it just gets ignored. This project is me engaging with that, trying to come out with investigations of spaces that we don’t want to look at, and trying to find something within that.”


Recent shows of the past year
2015 Foyer display, APG Works, Sheffield
2015 Still City, group show, Cupola Gallery off-site exhibition at The Blue Moon, Sheffield
2015 Overlooked, group show, The Scottish Queen, Sheffield
2015 The Harley Open, group show, The Harley Gallery, Nottinghamshire
2015 Stillness, group show, Arts Council Funded exhibition at Bloc Projects, Sheffield



16-20 Sidney Street
Sheffield, UK
S1 4RH
Tel 0114 263 4493

Opening Hours
Monday - Saturday 11.00am - 4.00pm
Closed Sunday