Robert Fry
dal 26/2/2009 al 2/4/2009
Segnalato da
26/2/2009
Robert Fry
Alexia Goethe Gallery, London
Paintings and Etchings. This project is a refreshing interpretation of figurative painting with his most recent series of works continuing along themes of sexuality, the relationship between artist and subject and the potent energies within that dialogue.
The Alexia Goethe Gallery is proud to present the first solo exhibition of Robert Fry’s figurative mixed media paintings. Robert Fry’s work is a refreshing interpretation of figurative painting with his most recent series of works continuing along themes of sexuality, the relationship between artist and subject and the potent energies within that dialogue.
Produced mainly in acrylic and oil his work tests the boundaries of abstract figurative painting as he explores the types and degrees of tension that exist between the two figures that appear in every work. He locates his figures in a non-space, a vacuum lacking the naturalistic elements of the human environment. There is no gravity, no tangible compass point by which to navigate. The viewer is absorbed entirely into Fry’s imagination wherein spatial perspective is rendered through a complex series of vantage points.
In one work the viewer is presented with two figures, one seen in aerial perspective and the other in a ¾ portrait-style view. The figures are placed opposite one another and the space between them becomes as charged and interesting as the figures themselves. Through the use of highly saturated pigments and the inclusion of often multiple sex organs, the physical tension between the figures manifests to the level of the psychological.
Sex and sexuality has been and continues to be a central theme in Fry’s work. In his new paintings we see a departure from his earlier interest in the male body in exchange for a more intense emphasis on female anatomy, in particular the breasts whose bulls eye-like heavy outlines endow them with an iconic status. Many of the female figures in this series are reduced to the bare semiotic essentials; breasts are the sign - sometimes as many as five on one figure. The faces are rendered through a jumble of swirling lines, as minimal a suggestion of the human physiognomy as one can imagine. The faceless, potently sexualized women are phantom presences in these new works. They loom and taunt the viewer from the safe space that they occupy within the bold red frame of the canvas.
Fry’s paintings seek a resolution to the relationship between artist and subject inviting us to redefine where one begins and the other ends; each Study from the series of Drawing Room Studies being a rehearsal for a final resolution to a painting that can never be made.
Robert Fry’s solo exhibition follows the success of his recent participation in the Alexia Goethe Gallery’s 2008 Group Exhibition. Following his BA in Fine Art at Oxford Brookes he went on to work between Paris and London and now lives and works in London. He was recently exhibited as part of the Concrete and Glass festival in the Make Believe exhibition alongside Boo Ritson, Ruth Claxton and Ryan Mosley. His work was shown in Miami in early December 2008, will be shown at ARC09 and is included in several European private collections.
Alexia Goethe Gallery
7 Dover Street - London
Free admission