West relies for her aesthetic effects on heavy impasto and on her brilliant command of colour, juxtaposing strong, almost screaming, flakes of pigment to broad shores of muted shade. In these paintings people and objects become patterns, and through repetition these shapes and forms acquire a wondrous touch.
Read MoreIt’s an opportune moment to explore the bicycle in art history. Chris Froome’s fourth Tour de France puts him within touching distance (some 23 days and 2,200 miles) of the all-time greats of Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Miguel Indurain. Since the Champs-Élysées, Prudential’s ‘Ride London’ was as popular as ever among amateurs and spectators alike—albeit, the local cabbies were less than impressed. So, this small article traces some of the connections between the bicycle and art. In particular, with reference to the print-works of Thomas Yang.
Read MoreI catch the artist in a liminal state: Patrick Palmer the Portraitist is moving house. Patrick himself has carved a career out of catching others in a state of emotional undress; I suspect he endeavours to give form to physical and psychological vulnerability in such a way that the beholder will find himself compulsively attracted to the curvaceous qualities of its shape and the enigmas of its tone. He also paints pretty women naked.
Read MoreOverlap was recently published on the ‘art aesthetics’ Instagram. It’s clear that many of us recognised ourselves in the painting. We’ve all been there, surely? ‘[F]olded with problems,’ opined one of our commenters. It’s a fair interpretation, and one with which many of us can probably identify. It’s as if there’s something especially vulnerable about us in the early morning.
Read MoreColour is the most noticeable element of the paintings, and is used to delineate ‘emotional spaces’. Heading through the exhibition, the viewer becomes aware of the plethora of ways it is utilized. In Ludlow Street (2017), a couple is portrayed in a green and red that slowly merges across their two bodies creating a unified whole. Whereas Déjà Vu uses colour to isolate. The nude female figure is depicted in saturated colours, distinguished in her brilliance. The neutral tones of the men around her isolate her further, and at the only point of physical contact, her fingertips, they leach her of colour. This makes the emotional distance and unequal power dynamic within the grouping immediately evident.
Read MoreHelen Masacz is a well-established artist working in Britain. She has studied at the prestigious London Atelier School, exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery and won The Arts Club Award in 2011. ‘Self’ is a particularly thought-provoking painting. Ostensibly, it’s about the Anthropocene. It critiques the impact of the ‘human’ on our planet. It’s also, however, about the ‘human’ as such. Masacz’s ‘Self’ is carefully composed and offers the viewer an intelligent picture of contemporary issues regarding the ‘self’, ‘subject’, and ‘human’ of our contemporary moment.
Read MoreSalman Khoshroo’s diverse oeuvre encompasses many styles of painting, and, more recently, sculpture. ‘Head Jig’ (2017) and Entwire Series (2017-) use brightly coloured electrical wires wrapped around a wire frame to form the shape of a ‘human’ or ‘post-human’ head. In fact, Khoshroo’s evolution from painting the human to sculpting the post-human reflects the philosophical thought of the visionary futurist, FM-2030, as well as that of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. ‘Head Jig’ and Entwire Series’ ‘HEADMA01’ and ‘HEADFB01’ thus offer a clever commentary on aesthetic and philosophical concerns of the last forty years.
Read MoreDenis Sarazhin’s Pantomime Series (2016-) forecloses ‘language’ in returning to the painterly and figural. He focusses our attention on the body by cleverly frustrating the viewer’s instinctive glance toward the subject’s face. In this way, the artist challenges us to reconsider the communicative potential of the body. Compellingly painted; they reward contemplation. Sarazhin’s ‘return to the body’ without reference to the ‘face’ is an important contribution to the post-language debates that reverberate inside and outside the gallery
Read MoreThe painting “Lake O’ Hara” 30” x 40” (oil on linen) is a monumental work by American landscape painter Clyde Aspevig. Located in the alpine area of Yoho National Park, in the province of British Columbia, this high mountain lake has inspired artists for hundreds of years, including John Singer Sargent who painted the lake in 1916. At first glance, this piece may appear to be have painted by a 19th century artist, yet there are elements to Aspevig’s painting that gives it a modern flavour, firmly rooted in current scientific thought and contemporary culture.
Read MoreThe oil paintings of Swiss native Conrad Jon Godly offer an immersive hybrid of paint and sculpture. For Godly, the perimeter of the canvas does not define the physical limitation, and the term mountainous applies not only to the subject matter, but also describes the heavy application of paint. Sol 23 is one such mountain.
Read MoreFrom Sara Zaher’s Baudrillardian ‘new media’ prints to the ‘present past-ness’ of Carl Grauer’s still lifes; Art Aesthetics chooses their five favourite artists at The Other Art Fair NYC. Cesar Finamori’s fictional portraits are explored in relation to Henry Darger and Wilhelm Worringer. Ekaterina Popova’s canvases are battlefields in the wars between the artist’s brush and her paints. D.S. Graham also recounts interviewing Anne Vandycke on the topic of ‘duality’ and climate change.
Read MoreJohnson Tsang is an established sculptor based in Hong Kong. His ‘Security Summit’ is composed of eight porcelain sculptures. One ‘putto’ or naked cherub sits in the centre, crying; seven others surround him carrying baby-sized machine guns. The putto is armed with only a bow and arrow. He’s no match for their modern weaponry. He’s surrounded and unable to react to the bullying of those around him...
Read MoreCarl Grauer’s still lifes suggest an imaginary museum commemorating our everyday objects: old jars; perfume bottles; salt and pepper shakers; pliers; clips; even laptop chargers. In fact, the laptop charger is my favourite. Computers. It’s difficult to think of a more perfect example of the present becoming the past so quickly. There’s something especially collectible about these paintings. Perhaps, because the objects already seem to have been collected, curated, and arranged by the artist himself.
Read MoreThe faceless businessman stands before the rising wave. There’s something uncanny about the shadows and lighting; as if the wave were merely a ‘green-screen’ and the businessman an actor. It’s no doubt purposeful. Perhaps it’s a commentary on our uncertainties regarding representation and the real?
Read MoreTrudy Good professes that her ‘works are never narratives, merely moments.’ I’m going to suggest that there’s a paradox at work in this statement. But it’s an intentional and productive one; precisely the sort of contradiction that good art often reveals and explores. Her style and subject matter accordingly make for an interesting artistic proposition vis culture, technology, and aesthetics.
Read MoreIn Quiet Between Us, the scene is downcast. The staircase fragments into nothing, there is no definite figurative form. There is only white, blue, and grey…each scrapped across the canvas so as to obliterate the steps. But before these are lost to the canvas’s abstract spaces: a young girl rests with her back against the wall. She is a ballet dancer...
Read MoreIt’s easy to forget—amid the ‘blockbuster’ shows of 2016: ‘Abstract Expressionism’ at the RA; ‘Anselm Kiefer’ at the White Cube; ‘Conceptual Art in Britain' at the Tate Britain; and ‘Jeff Koons Now’ at the trendy Newport Street Gallery—that some of the city’s other institutions and spaces are witnessing a veritable revival in the worlds of figurative and representational art.
Read More
