Alice Amati hosts the 2024 Apollo Painting School cohort in the lower ground floor of the gallery space. The exhibition features new works by APS alumni Ally Fallon, Hannah-Sophia Guerriero, Isaac Jordan, Deborah Lerner, and Isobel Shore, who completed the programme in August 2024 after being selected from an open call by a jury panel comprising of internationally renowned painters Louise Giovanelli, Rachel Jones, Aubrey Levinthal and artist and educators Dr Ian Hartshorne, and Dr Henry Ward.

Throughout the programme and through this exhibition, APS demonstrates its commitment to building a bridge between art schools and the art world. By doing so, it generates meaningful conversations and creates concrete, sustainable opportunities.

Apollo Painting School is a non-profit organisation founded in 2024 by artist Louise Giovanelli, gallerist & curator Alice Amati and artist & academic Dr. Ian Hartshorne with the aim to create an alternative model of teaching and unique learning opportunity for emerging painters, regardless of economic background or circumstances. The course combines a unique educational experience focused on building technical skills, and introducing knowledge of professional practice and career pathways, offering an intensive 3-month summer programme that takes place online and in-person between Manchester (UK) and Latina, (Italy).

Ally Fallon’s (b. 1998) abstract compositions take root in his belief that humans constantly experience ‘pre-verbal’, aesthetic encounters with their surroundings. In his works, Fallon interrogates and captures the essence of these encounters, developing his practice from a real image that constitutes the anchoring framework for his abstract painterly explorations.

Hannah-Sophia Guerriero’s (b. 2002) practice revolves around memory, with a specific interest in seizing and analysing the feeling of ephemeral moments, rather than representing them literally. She begins her process by using segmentations of her own photographs, which become the foundation for igniting one’s emotionality.

Isaac Jordan (b. 1998) draws inspiration from varied sources, including YouTube videos and stills from 1970s science- fiction films. His practice is centered on the depiction of still images and revolves around the development of focused series, with each piece being born during a single sitting. In his minimal installations, his aim is to recreate a cinematic effect in which the works become animated in the viewer's imagination.

Inspired by daily observations and references borrowed from the history of painting, Deborah Lerner (b. 1989) is concerned in the painting process as a generative act. Her particular attention to the output of textures, colours and light, becomes a means of bringing to the forefront visual characteristics that are often overlooked within society, as well as a way of creating a spotlight for quietness, as opposed to the brash.

Isobel Shore (b. 1999) explores intimacy to uncover deeper truths, demonstrating how even the most subtle expression can unveil an abundance of emotions beneath the surface of her canvases. The significance of her work primarily resides in the liminal spaces, where subtle variations in brushstrokes unveil poetic truths in a continuous exploration to translate the complexities of emotion and connection into tangible form.