James Aldridge
dal 4/2/2005 al 13/3/2005
Segnalato da
4/2/2005
James Aldridge
Chapter Gallery, Cardiff
James Aldridge's paintings are full of birds, moths, flowers, skulls and mountain ranges, and embrace opposites. Using Field Guides as a starting point for much of his imagery, his paintings recall hunting scenes and heavy metal album covers, Renaissance landscape and 17th century French scenic wallpaper.
SEASONS IN THE ABYSS
James Aldridge's paintings are full of birds, moths, flowers, skulls and mountain ranges, and embrace opposites. They invite us to enter a world that appears to be both personal and universal, mundane and fantastical, contrived and emotional.
Using Field Guides as a starting point for much of his imagery, his paintings recall hunting scenes and heavy metal album covers, Renaissance landscape and 17th century French scenic wallpaper. They are constructed using a reverse process, in which the background is painted around the foreground forms, resulting in an emergence of the image from an intuitive position, where the space unfolds in unexpected ways.
The large-scale paintings use pictorial clichés to create new places that engulf the viewer - alone in the landscape. A similarly strategic process is employed in his intricate cut outs where the negative space is removed, allowing the image to slowly come into being.
Selected from open submission by Hannah Firth (Visual Arts Programmer, Chapter) and Patricia Ellis (Freelance writer and curator), Aldridge was given a studio space at Chapter in December and January, where he created new work to be shown in the gallery. This will be his first solo exhibition in a public gallery in the UK.
James Aldridge was born in Kent in 1971 and graduated from Manchester School of Art in 1993, completing an MA in painting from the Royal College in 1995. He has had solo exhibitions at Annina Nosei Gallery, New York and David Risley Gallery, London. He is one of six artists, including Cornelia Parker and DJ Simpson, commissioned to make site-specific work for St Barts Hospital in London in 2004.
James Aldridge is represented by David Risley Gallery.
For more information about the exhibition, press prints or to arrange an interview with the artist please contact Hannah Firth or Robert Lowe on 029 2031 1055
PREVIEW: FRIDAY 4 FEBRUARY, 7-9PM
CHAPTER ARTS CENTRE, MARKET ROAD, CARDIFF CF5 1QE
Gallery opening times: Tuesday - Sunday 11am-8pm and Monday 11am-5pm