David Mullen’s paintings in The Pleasure Principle at Tank Gallery are an appealing sculptural form. By applying monochromatic layers of thick impasto oil paint to his canvases and then covering with one or more layers of gloss paint, Mullen has been able to allow the surface to dry solid whilst the interior remains liquid enough to peel the surface back into a sculpture with the surface of the painting cut away and hanging off the wall. These works, particularly the grey Placebo Syndrome are almost like a sardine can that has had its lid curled back halfway, exposing the yellow filling, whilst the framed work The Perfect Crime directly illustrates the paint coming out of the canvas, peeling back the layers towards the found picture beneath. From a similar thought process Eunkyung Lee’s circular paintings Collected Samples in the Slade MA show are on castors and invited to be kicked around the space to knock against one another and reveal the multiple layers of imagery that are built up on their surfaces. Hence the work becomes an interactive piece in the creating of new, constantly evolving work through the combination of fragmented images akin to peeling back the layers of adverts on a traditional billboard.
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The Studio
Whilst graduates of Central St Martins Jessica Windhorst and Hanping Feng depicted domestic interiors, as did Zsofia Schweger at the Slade School of Fine Art, it seems that a number of graduating students have turned their attention to the environment in which they work: the studio. Alexander Duncan has observed the sloping end of the […]
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Everyday Life at Central St Martins 2015
Reflecting on works from 2015’s degree show at Central St Martins (MA and BA) it seems many of the artists have reflected upon the everyday in their practice. Stephen Johnstone (The Everyday 2008: 12) writes “the rise of the everyday in contemporary art is usually understood in terms of a desire to bring […] uneventful […]
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Are We Communicating Yet?
Recently a theme has emerged of artworks addressing communication modes and creating interventions in language. In The Pool Exhibition for Goldsmiths MFA, Jin Wook Moon has created a new language using a variety of everyday objects as symbols, like a variation on sign language. This was presented plastered across the exhibition space walls, in a newspaper […]
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Life as a Veneer
In retrospect, at a selection of exhibitions in London over the winter a number of works emerged which use veneers and discuss thin surfaces. At the end of 2012 Henrik Schrat exhibited a series of two dimensional works at IMT Gallery made in the marquetry tradition from tessellated pieces of different woods that form scenes for […]
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A Return to Classicism
Correlations between art and politics have been repeatedly shown and this is clearly apparent among a selection of this year’s graduates that have returned to classical forms, responding to economical situations in Greece particularly. Perhaps this will become known as Post Neo-Classicism or Anarchaic Art. At Goldsmiths Hannah Lyons (BA Art Practice) has created a […]
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Index of Articles
- The Studio
- Everyday Life at Central St Martins 2015
- Are We Communicating Yet?
- Life as a Veneer
- Frieze London 2012 Takes A Look Outside
- A Return to Classicism
- Creating Distorted Figures
- Mapping the Collection
- The Sculpture of Gabriel Kuri and Others
- London Art Fairs 2011: Bold and Textured
- When Does Minimalism Become Too Minimal?
- Works of Art for All Surfaces
- The Kinetic Flow of Light
- The World in Miniature
- The Art of Selling and the Selling of Art
- Under the Surface
- Nothing’s Ever As Simple As Black and White
- Explorations in Materiality and Texture
- Artists Making a Mark with their Bodies
- A Comparative Study in Space and Sound
- The Gallery as a Dance Hall
- All That Glitters Isn’t Necessarily Gold
- Constructing Photography Now
- Drawing in space
- Curated to Confuse?
- New Contemporaries
- Gauguin, etc.
- 2011, The Year Ahead
- Still (expanded post)
- Welcome to ArtCritiqued.com