re:action
dal 19/5/2003 al 14/6/2003
Segnalato da
19/5/2003
re:action
The Blue Gallery, London
Paintings by Oliver Marsden. In a sense re:action may be seen as Marsden's singular interpretation of action painting; it is reliant upon the gestural in its conception, but ultimately in the eradication of any evidence of the artist's 'mark' it subverts the genre.
Paintings by Oliver Marsden
The Directors of the Blue Gallery are pleased to announce Oliver Marsden's
fourth solo exhibition with the Blue Gallery and the first at their brand new
space in Clerkenwell. At just 29, Marsden has also had two solo shows at the
Spencer Brownstone Gallery in SoHo, New York, as well as others in New
Zealand and Edinburgh. He has shown with Galerie Anne de Villepoix and at
FIAC in Paris, at the Cologne and Young Basel fairs and at the Cleveland
Institute of Art in Ohio. By any standards, this is a remarkable, even
precocious, CV, especially given that he only completed his MFA at Edinburgh
in 1997.
During his last exhibition, one critic observed of Marsden that he transcends
our usual perception of painting and in turn elicits responses above and
beyond those that we would expect when viewing paintings. With a much larger
gallery to respond to, he has used the opportunity to push this still further
and the body of work, that constitutes re:action, is remarkable both in terms
of its technical virtuosity and its contribution to the perennial debate as
to the contemporary status of painting.
Marsden has always produced startlingly varied bodies of work, but what
unifies them is an intense curiosity as to how paintings work optically on
the viewer and how he as an artist is able to challenge the perceptions we
have of the medium. In this his sensibilities match those of Kapoor, Jason
Martin and in this show, in particular, Turrell: As James Turrell makes Form
out of light, I try the reverse, to make substance seem immaterial, to create
a virtual perceived space in the mind of the viewer.
In a sense re:action may be seen as Marsden's singular interpretation of
action painting; it is reliant upon the gestural in its conception, but
ultimately in the eradication of any evidence of the artist's 'mark' it
subverts the genre. Indeed, apart from simply existing in two dimensions,
his work manifests none of the conventional trappings of paintings and
although each piece works on its own merits, the exhibition is very much an
installation, which reaches its peak with two works, 6' x 10', facing each
other and enveloping the viewer in a pulsating, almost holographic aura.
Private view TUESDAY 20th MAY 6-8.30pm
The gallery is open
Monday - Friday 10am - 6pm
Saturday 12pm - 4pm
For further information and/or visual material,
please contact Giles Baker-Smith or Philip Godsal
on 020 7490 3833.
The Blue Gallery
15 Great Sutton Street
London EC1V 0BX
Tube: Farringdon, Barbican
T +44 (0)20 7490 3833
F +44 (0)20 7490 5749