Simon Keenleyside
dal 1/4/2004 al 8/5/2004
Segnalato da
1/4/2004
Simon Keenleyside
Mogadishni Cph, Copenhagen
Rainbows in Dark Places. Despite landscape apparently being the primary subject of his recent paintings, Simon Keenleyside asserts that he does not see himself as a landscape painter and feels no particular affinity for the landscape tradition. The model that provides the impulse for these paintings derives from a source far more domestic: the garden.
(b. 1975 - lives and works in UK)
'Rainbows in Dark Places'
The leisure club MOGADISHNI is pleased to present 'Rainbows in Dark Places' by Simon Keenleyside.
Despite landscape apparently being the primary subject of his recent paintings, Simon Keenleyside asserts that he does not see himself as a landscape painter and feels no particular affinity for the landscape tradition. The model that provides the impulse for these paintings derives from a source far more domestic: the garden. Keenleyside was raised and continues to live in suburban Essex, much of which is reclaimed marshland so fails to provide a great deal in the way of the rolling hills and dramatic vistas that are grist to the mill of the typical landscape painter. The landscape of Keenleyside¹s youth was that of back gardens, school fields, and parks - the familiar habitat of British suburbia and the subject of a recent trend in painting typified by the work of George Shaw and David Rayson. Unlike these painters, however, Keenleyside does not seek to merely assert the banality of the suburban context but rather to present a transformed, fantastic, synthetic landscape for which the suburban experience is only a starting point.
The subject of some of Keenleysides paintings is a reservoir in Hadleigh, a small town in Essex where Keenleyside would go night fishing as a youth. In the painting it is a vast, volcanic presence dwarfing the trees and vegetation around its lower slopes. As Keenleyside remembers it this structure loomed equally large in the minds and imaginations of him and his fellow night fishermen: this place, along with other favoured sites, was the subject of local legends concerning ghosts, murders, monstrous pike and such. As well as these imaginary threats Keenleyside remembers more present dangers like bullying gypsy boys on horseback and sinister old men who would sit and stare for hours on end. The echo of these memories may account for the somewhat sinister atmosphere but the core theme of this and other similar works is memory itself. The many silent hours spent examining a still, dark landscape have imprinted a permanent image into the mind of the artist: as much as anything these paintings are an acknowledgement and a celebration of the continued presence of the past into the future.
In 2002/03 Keenleyside won "THE BOC EMERGING ARTIST AWARD" who specifically focuses on UK-based artists under the age of 30 on the brink of starting a career. Keenleyside beated nearly 200 other young artists from the UK.
Simon Keenleyside graduated from The Royal College of Art, London in 2002 and "Rainbows in Dark Places" is his first solo exhibition in Scandinavia.
April 3 through May 8, 2004
Opening reception Friday, April 2, 7-10 pm
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AFTERPARTY
Tuesday through Friday 12-5 pm, Saturday 12-3 pm, or by appointment
the leisure club MOGADISHNI
Carl Jacobsensvej 16 stair 6 floor 2
2500 Valby/Copenhagen
Denmark
tel +45 32543535
fax +45 32543545