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16/1/2007

Michael Simpson

David Risley Gallery, London

Bench Paintings - Recent Paintings 2005-2006

David Risley Gallery is delighted to present Michael Simpson’s first show in London since his solo exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in 1986. Simpson was born in 1940 to a Russian Jewish Mother and Romany gypsy father. He has been working on a series of large paintings relating to the same atheist theme since 1989. He calls them ‘Bench paintings’. They relate originally to his intense interest in the infamy of religious history and in particular to the renegade medieval philosopher Giordano Bruno who after enduring eight years of torture and interrogation, by the Inquisition, was burnt at the stake in Rome"s Campo dei Fiori (the Field of Flowers).

The gallery will be rebuilt to house four of these monumental paintings, the scale of which gives them an austere architectural presence. These new ‘Bench paintings’, introduce different elements to the series. In two of the paintings the benches float, hovering in an unidentified void beneath Roman wreaths. Space is less defined than in previous paintings, where the illusion of an interior fix the bench in a recognizable, yet unspecified place. In these recent paintings only cast shadow locates the benches.

Michael Simpson has increasingly come to regard these works as vanitas paintings. The bench serves as a metaphor of endless waiting, with it’s associations of confinement, alienation, restraint and industrialized death; it is a place where justice and injustice are administered. In this way the paintings can be considered as meditations on death. Although the work is clearly contemporary it’s main influences originate from 15th Century Venetian and early Flemish painting.
The bench also serves as a fixed, coherent form within the paintings. A structure through which Simpson explores the pure language of painting - form, colour, composition- through imagery without figures yet implying a profound human presence.

Simpson’s first solo show was at Picadilly gallery in 1964. He has since exhibited continuously including solo shows at Arnolfini, Bristol and Serpentine Gallery, London. His work is included in several public and private collections including Arts Council England, Arts Council, Northern Ireland, Stuyvesant Foundation, Netherlands.

Image: Michael Simpson Bench Number 63 243 x 534cm

Private view Wednesday 17 January. 6.30-8.30pm

David Risley Gallery
45 Vyner Street - London
Opening times: Thursday - Sunday 12.00pm - 6.00pm

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