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5/8/2009

Two exhibitions

The New Art Gallery Walsall, Walsall

Neal Rock
Fanestra & Other Works

Interview and photo opportunity with Neal Rock and Helen Jones, Exhibitions Curator. Travel costs from outside the region will be reimbursed. Neal Rock creates sculptural compositions through the layering of pigmented silicone. His techniques stem from traditions within Western painting; from 17th century Dutch still life and the Baroque to American gestural abstraction. Alongside these aesthetic territories, his work also displays the impact of gore horror films from the 1970s and ‘80s. This, his first major solo exhibition in a UK public gallery, will feature entirely new work which has been developed in response to Walsall’s gallery spaces. Large-scale wall-based works will spread across the length of the room whilst floor-based pieces will determine our pathway through the exhibition. At once alluring and repelling, Rock’s sculptural forms appear to be in a process of reformation or transition and adopt an anthropomorphic physicality and eeriness reminiscent of the horror movies of his childhood: As I grew up in the ‘80s I began to watch these films during a time when special effects within horror and sci-fi genres were coming of age. Much of my fascination is centred around the illusions created in films like Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’, John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’ and George A Romero’s ‘Dead’ trilogy – all of which pushed the craft of special effects to new levels. (Neal Rock, 2009)

Silicone is very much a medium of our times; from Hollywood special effects to plastic surgery; sex toys to architecture, its full potential is still to be discovered. For Rock, the use of silicone allows him to explore the physical limits of painting and to challenge notions of Western art history: My outlook is very much coloured through an appreciation of, and commitment to, painting. My work is informed by the work of other painters as well as the physical world around me. At nearly 3 metres in height, Fanestra will form the centre piece of the exhibition. Its title is taken from the memoirs of the Italian, Greek born painter Giorgio de Chirico who created the word to describe the entanglement of kite strings in flight. Such intricacy can also be witnessed in the creation of Fanestra as layer upon layer of silicone has been piped, ladled and sculpted to create a deep interlacing abstract form. Fanestra can also be seen to weave together a dialogue and critique of the history of abstract painting – and bring such debates into a contemporary age. Neal Rock was born and raised in Port Talbot, Wales, and now lives and works in Los Angeles, USA. His solo exhibitions include Torch Gallery, Amsterdam (2006), Grand Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, USA (2006), fa projects, London (2006 & 2003), Kontainer Gallery, Los Angeles, USA (2005) and Henry Urbach Architecture, New York (2004). Rock’s work has also been featured in a number of significant group exhibitions including Jerwood Contemporary Painters, Jerwood Space, London (2007), Landscape Confection, Wexner Center, Ohio, Contemporary Art Museum, Houston & Orange County Museum of Art, California (2005), Extreme Abstraction, Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York (2005) and Expander, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2004). Neal Rock is represented by fa projects, London and Mihai Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles.

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Gordon Cheung
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Interview and photo opportunity with Gordon Cheung and Deborah Robinson, Senior Exhibitions Curator. Travel costs from outside the region will be reimbursed. Gordon Cheung creates hallucinogenic visions inspired by a wide range of sources including science fiction, 18th century romantic painting, zombie films, cartoons and current affairs. His works reflect on such contemporary issues as the war on terror, religion, economics, globalisation, the digital age and technology. For this exhibition Cheung will create a significant new body of works including contemporary interpretations of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Goya’s Disasters of War. For the first time, sculpture and animations will be shown alongside his more familiar mixed media paintings. The theme of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse runs throughout the exhibition ranging from a large wall painting to a series of laser etchings to sculptures and an animated video installation. The horse and rider is an evocative symbol loaded with cultural references. The story of the Four Horsemen is a biblical reference which has prompted a range of interpretations. Representing Conquest, War, Famine and Death, Cheung gives them a contemporary twist, transforming them into eloquent metaphors of our own time.

In his brand new animations, references to cowboys and bull riders are clearly apparent. As cultural icons, they commonly represent a romantic image of the pioneering spirit or man’s will to overcome nature but they also mask a history of violence, bloodshed and cruelty. Cheung’s riders are seated on bulls rather than horses. The man and the beast together reference the minotaur, a mythical creature from Greek mythology comprised of half man and half bull. As with his characteristic use of stock listings from the Financial Times, man and bull symbolise the Bull Market or Stock Market and the data-saturated and wealth- obsessed era in which we live. As the viewer of the four projected images, we are surrounded by bucking minotaurs in a post-apocalyptic landscape endlessly circling and struggling to de-seat their riders. To see each animation, we must also turn around, our physical relationship to the work creating a disorientating and unsettling effect. The exhibition also includes two brand new series’ of laser etchings based on Durer’s depiction of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Goya’s Disasters of War. Cheung has taken the original images and manipulated them to further enhance these demonic visions. A brand new series of sculptures has also been created using a cast of a skull of a Long Horn Bull. Cheung has also created a new set of thirty portraits which represent the Top Ten Billionaires, the Top Ten Dead Celebrities who are still earning and the Top Ten Hackers. The first two of these series’ have been visited before whilst the third series is a new one. They are symptomatic of our obsession with wealth, celebrity and power. Cheung has allowed the paint to drip down his canvases, creating an appearance of melting flesh and recalling classic zombie films where the protagonists are motivated by an overpowering will to consume and destroy. At the beginning of the twenty first century, we have already witnessed apocalyptic events in terms of war, natural disasters, the collapse of the economy and environmental change. In his work, Cheung appears to capture something of the essence of this age, by re-visiting history he has created work that is both contemporary and compelling.

Press contact:
Hollie Latham, Marketing and Development Manager on 01922 654402 or email lathamh@walsall.gov.uk

Image: Neal Rock

Press Preview Thursday 6 August, 2pm – 4pm

The New Art Gallery Walsall
Gallery Square - Walsall

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