|
Gimpel Fils: Michelle Dovey : New Landscapes Downstairs : littlewhitehead - playing dog - 29 May 2009 to 4 July 2009 Current Exhibition |
||||
|
MICHELLE DOVEY Austrlian Outback Tree 2009
oil on canvas 24 x 22 in/60.9 x 55.8 cm |
|||
|
||||
|
||||
|
Michelle Dovey New Landscapes 29 May � 4 July 2009 private view: Thursday 28 May, 6-8 pm Michelle Dovey has been painting trees and landscapes for several years. In this new body of work she presents a series of landscape scenes that have been created from memory and which do not depict specific places. In previous work, Dovey explored the use of trees in the work of eighteenth century painters such as George Stubbs, JMW Turner, and Antoine Watteau. If these new fictional landscapes are reminiscent of earlier artistic traditions it is because Dovey has internalized a formal vocabulary and is now using it to create paintings that express deeply personal, yet universal emotions. In her work Dovey is attempting to realise an image that comes from a moment of stillness. The wet, thinned oil paint provides a clue to its intuitive application in energetic strokes and daubs. Pathways and horizons feature heavily in these works. Below a swirling sky, full of heavy pink clouds, a discrete muddy path leads to a valley and a hill beyond. Trying to make sense of the seemingly chaotic world around us, the path through the landscape transforms into a passage through full and varied emotional situations. It is only after the painting has been completed that Dovey is able to reflect on its underlying emotional content. As portraits of a day, these imaginary trees and landscapes can be understood as vehicles for conveying a particular frame of mind at a particular time. A cluster of skinny grey trees in one painting might be interpreted as conveying a sense of loneliness or despair, while the acid green grass and soft pink clouds in another canvas seem hopeful. Collectively, Dovey�s works recall sensations experienced throughout the everyday. Born in Oxford, Michelle Dovey was raised in New Zealand and received her Masters at the School of Visual Arts, New York in 1998. She has exhibited at E31 Gallery, Athens (2005) and OneTwentyGallery, Gent (2007). Her first solo exhibition was held at Gimpel Fils in 2006 and she lives and works in London. DOWNSTAIRS littlewhitehead playing dog 29 May � 4 July 2009 private view: Thursday 28 May, 6-8 pm A tall, pear-shaped man stands facing a wall. He is dressed head to toe in an old, matted, novelty dog costume. The man�s papier-m�ch� mask lies on the floor next to his feet as he repeatedly bangs his head against the wall. Looking at the man, we are invited to ask why he is wearing the creepy costume and perhaps more importantly, why is he banging his head against the wall? As a scene of desperation or depression, or both, are we prolonging his suffering through our act of watching? This tension between the active and passive role of the viewer is central to the work of littlewhitehead. littlewhitehead utilise strategies of humour, fantasy and desire mixed with fear and anxiety in such a way as to make their sculptures and installations attractive and repellent simultaneously. Exploring the nature of voyeurism their work reminds us that witnessing is not neutral or impassive. Three white canvases are empty but for a small peephole in the middle of each. In a gesture that echoes Marcel Duchamp�s Etant donn�s, we are invited to look through the peephole lens in order to see the scene behind the painting. In a mixing of public and private space, vision and violation converge. littlewhitehead seeks to play in the grey zone between reality and unreality. By presenting sculptural installations that combine realism and theatricality, they examine the relationship between the realisation of a fiction and the fictionalisation of the real. By adopting a very accessible, tabloid visual vernacular their work appeals to the viewers� sense of intrigue and makes us collaborators; Much is left unsaid and we are encouraged to construct our own stories and narratives as a means of negotiating the often macabre subject matter. littlewhitehead (b 2005) is an artistic entity comprising Craig Little and Blake Whitehead. littlewhitehead have exhibited in Bloomberg�s New Contemporaries, London, Dec 2008 - Jan 2009 and Conjunction 08, Stoke-on-Trent, November 2008 and will be exhibiting at the Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, in June 2009. littlewhitehead was awarded a Scottish Arts Council Visual Arts Development Award in 2008. For further details please contact the gallery: Gimpel Fils - 30 Davies Street - London - W1K 4NB Tel: +44 (0)20 7493 2488 Fax: +44 (0)20 7629 5732 www.gimpelfils.com [email protected] Gallery opening hours: Mon - Fri 10am - 5.30pm, Sat 11am - 4pm |
||||
re-title.com
International contemporary art
SIGN UP FOR NEWSLETTERS
SIGN UP for ARTIST MEMBERSHIP
SIGN UP for GALLERY MEMBERSHIP
Click on the map to search the directory