GAVIN NOLAN
Mise en Abyme
Private View
Thursday May 16th
6.30-8.30pm
Exhibition
Dates
Friday May 17th
– Saturday June 22nd 2013
Gallery Hours
Wednesday–Saturday 11am–6pm or by appointment
CHARLIE SMITH
london is delighted to host Gavin Nolan’s second one person exhibition at the
gallery.
Nolan’s recent
collection represents an enquiry into the life, mind, thoughts and feelings of
the practising artist. Taking a nihilistic approach to the notion of
portraiture, Nolan undoes many of the modes that have previously underpinned
his work, and embraces the abstract in order to unveil his subjects.
By imagining
characteristics and simultaneously projecting himself onto his subjects, each
painting becomes a representation of an art world type, and most predominantly
the artist. The paintings in themselves might be considered a mirror, and we
the audience find ourselves between two mirrors infinitely reflecting each
other: the painter and the painting. This diaristic approach is revealing then,
but also affirms that while elements of an artist’s life and work are universal,
there is also much that is fleeting and fugitive.
This sense of
self-reflection is magnified by the appearance of paintings within paintings. Means
of Production features a version of itself at an earlier stage of
completion. And the reverse side of a large scale canvas in The Crash
recalls Velazquez’s Las Meninas, where the Spanish master famously
portrays himself looking directly out from the picture plane towards the
spectator, whilst standing before a large canvas. In the distance a mirror
reflects King Philip IV of Spain and his wife the Queen. The spectator is,
therefore, caught between the artist’s gaze and an imagined subject, whilst the
reflection causes a logical conundrum. Nolan, in turn, substitutes himself for
that subject, whilst reminding us that the artist was originally in the
position of the spectator. Thus, artist, audience and subject become inexorably
intertwined.
Nolan employs
research into technological viewing devices in order to reveal his subjects. The
Crash depicts a smoking, drinking artist hero whose form is defined by the
language of thermal imaging. In opposition to traditional figure painting
shadows are represented by hot colours and surface areas by cool. Recalling
earlier work there is an indication of energy emanating from the subject, which
is a reminder of our need of life force in order to create, and of the power of
the individual. This unmasking of the interior world is continued throughout
the collection, where faces are peeled back to reveal skull like visages that
appear to be haunted by the mixed empirical associations of making and showing
work: absorption, paranoia, egotism and anxiety.
Gavin Nolan Means of Production, 2013 Oil on board 122x92cm
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