ART REVIEWS
The stark and arresting picture of the skull towards the left of the top picture is entitled Vessel. It forms the centrepiece of this new exhibition and faces you as you enter the Unit London gallery. It’s typical of what Tom French has earned a reputation for – monochrome works featuring an illusory quality. Recent circumstances have given such works an extra poignancy.
Continue reading “Tom French – Transcend”
Confusion, paradox, contradiction, illusion. These are the kind of abstracts that American artist Joshua Hagler addresses in his new London exhibition, Chimera. The title is a reference to the Greek mythological beast that sported the head of a lion, the body of a goat and the tail of a serpent. It has come to symbolise something that is hoped for but impossible to achieve.
Continue reading “Joshua Hagler – Chimera”
Strewn around the floor of his Hastings studio are paper images, torn out of books, of many Old Master paintings from which British painter Jake Wood-Evans takes inspiration. It might be Turner, Stubbs, Landseer, Gainsborough or Constable. Over a period of time, the pages have become creased, torn and splattered with paint, which the artist admits, makes them more interesting.
Continue reading “Jake Wood-Evans – Legacy and Disorder”
Exhibitions at Unit London are always glitzy affairs. Videos of the featured artists playing at the entrance, thumping music, a slick social media and strong digital presence make for what the commercially savvy owners, Joe Kennedy and Jonny Burt term “an immersive experience”. They’ve reached out to a younger crowd who queue around the block in their hundreds for opening nights.
Continue reading “Zhuang Hong Yi – Earth”
When I look at Johan van Mullem’s paintings, I’m reminded of that Bob Dylan phrase “smoke rings of my mind”. For the Belgian artist’s instantly recognisable works are ethereal evocations of his subconscious, dreamily configured as abstracts within a barely recognisable face. The artist pours his emotions on to the canvas, almost peering inside his head, and using expressive brushstrokes to create something striking, haunting and mysterious.
Continue reading “Johan van Mullem – Reverence”
American artist Peter Gronquist draws on a wide range of media for his works – fabric, metal, ceramics, frosted glass, mirrors, even taxidermy. Working from his barn by a lake near Portland, Oregon, his oeuvre is multi-disciplinary – sculpture, painting and installation.
In whatever medium, his themes have revolved chiefly around American obsessions with material wealth, consumerism, guns, and religion. He once said, “Our culture puts money and violence on way too high a pedestal. I think these days people no longer see the line between entertainment and reality.”
Continue reading “Peter Gronquist – Shape Shifter”
Brightly coloured horses rear, sharp-toothed lions roar, a blade from a cubist figure flashes, a French policeman appears (what’s he doing there?), helicopters and swans and cruise missiles hover while drill bits hang ominously above computer error messages.
Continue reading “Philip Colbert – Hunt Paintings”
Considering Art 