Mike Silva
dal 19/6/2002 al 28/7/2002
Segnalato da
19/6/2002
Mike Silva
Anthony Wilkinson Gallery, London
Mike Silva's series of painted landscapes are based on photographic images and focus the viewer’s attention on abandoned sites made of colour and light. Beaten tracks lead through deserted parks, woods, among fallen leaves and muddy reflective puddles, vanishing into patterns of light and shadow.
Green light is creeping through the shrubbery. What ever
took place here or might happen in the next moment
remains open. Bare of evidence the situation gives a
delusive impression. Mike Silva's series of painted
landscapes are based on photographic images and focus
the viewer’s attention on abandoned sites made of colour
and light.
Beaten tracks lead through deserted parks,
woods, among fallen leaves and muddy reflective puddles,
vanishing into patterns of light and shadow. While in past
exhibitions Silva combined studies of anonymous urban
landscapes with indoor-portraits of his friends, his latest
series leaves out any obvious connotations of human
relationships.
At first sight Silva's work resembles
conventional landscape painting but the familiar aesthetic
he creates is deceptive. What initially comes into view as
a realistic reconstruction of a snapshot or part of an
imaginary storyboard dissolves into a luminescent
camouflage structure that undermines the perception of
the motive as a whole. Behind their surface Silva's
paintings don't reveal romantic desires but an abstract
view of urban life, structured by scepticism and hedonistic
curiosity, the interest in nondescript moods, encounters
and actions.
Mike Silva graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1994
and was included in the 1995 New Contemporaries. Since
then he has had a one person shows at Galerie Barbara
Thumm, Berlin (2001/2000), Anthony Wilkinson Gallery,
London (2002/1998/1995), Galeri Bouhlou, Norway (2002),
Stephen Friedman Gallery, London (1996) and has been
included in a number of group shows including Lombard
Freid, New York, Barbara Gillman Gallery, Miami. Victoria
Miro Gallery, London. His work is in a number of
collections including: British Council, British Airways,
Government Art Collection, Simmons & Simmons.
Image: Mike Silva, Puddle II 2001, oil on canvas 183 x 132 cm / 72 x 52 inches
Anthony Wilkinson Gallery
242 Cambridge Heath Road, E2 9DA
tel 020 89802662
fax 020 89800028