Alex Bray
dal 12/10/2004 al 12/12/2004
Segnalato da
12/10/2004
Alex Bray
The Crown Gallery, London
'Trace': fourteen large-scale paintings rendered (literally) from nature. Using the river Lea in London as subject and material, Bray immerses un-stretched canvas into the river, allowing the chemicals and organisms to take over the initial creative process. The pieces are inspired by the elemental impact on canvas, but the paintings' tension arises from the stretching, framing and sculpting of the work in the artist's studio.
TRACE
Alex Bray’s latest work ‘Trace’ consists of fourteen large-scale paintings rendered (literally) from nature. Using the river Lea in London as subject and material, Bray immerses un-stretched canvas into the river, allowing the chemicals and organisms to take over the initial creative process. The pieces are inspired by the elemental impact on canvas, but the paintings’ tension arises from the stretching, framing and sculpting of the work in the artist’s studio.
The River Lea, an ancient trading route runs from Luton in Bedfordshire to the River Thames in east London, through urban environments and Bray’s backyard. As well as the natural chemicals in the water others such as Nitrates, Phosphates and Ammonia are added by the local council. Illegally dumped waste and debris are also present. The various elements in the water become his medium.
Executed over the past two years using a technique similar to photography, the developing image is exposed in the river for up to a month until Bray sees the raw material he wants to use. It is then transposed, edited and cropped in his studio to form a visual mapping of the river’s path. The works textural disorder transforms the simplest of available elements into artworks.
Bray’s previous shows have been concerned with the dialogue between painting and sculpture and the blurring of those two disciplines. The three-dimensionality of his practise is again to the foreground in Trace where the rhythmic, savage quality of the piece flows over the customary boundaries of the painted canvas emerging within the gallery’s formal and rigid architecture.
Trace is the residue of a series of actions and reactions, elemental paintings of nature’s scars that also questions the nature of painting. The work offers the viewer an atmospheric, meditative experience that is as mutable as it’s source material.
Private View 12 October, 9-11pm
For more information or images contact Alex Bray at 0790 608 3173
The Crown Gallery
@The Crown
223 Grove Road
Victoria Park
London E3 5SN