Richard Walker "House Paintings"
Alexandre Gallery
This event has ended.
An exhibition of nineteen new small and medium-scaled paintings by the Scottish-born artist in his second show at the gallery.
Since his first public exhibition in 1983, Richard Walker (b. 1955) has explored various genres and styles, but his work has always had at its core a commitment to working from direct observation. Working from life allows Walker a unique engagement with reality that allows for complications of depth and complexities of color and tone. These new interiors have an intimate semi-abstract quality that is defined by rough loaded brush marks and simplified blocks of color. Precedents include Fairfield Porter’s paintings, among others.
The subject of Walker’s new work involves using rooms of an old mansion house as a cross between a theater stage, artist’s studio and film set. The furniture, paintings, mirrors and painting paraphernalia become props in the paintings. He also makes use of projected images to challenge the viewer as to what is “real” in the paintings and to deal with ideas related to image making in general. The work depicts light in different forms: projected light, spotlight, daylight, reflected light, all of which have their own psychological, visual and symbolic possibilities. Light obscures and reveals, with cast shadow, silhouette and negative light.
Walker has had numerous exhibitions, including solo shows at the Talbot Rice Gallery in Edinburgh and at the Andrew Mummery Gallery, London. He has been the recipient of a Pollock/Krasner Award and a residency at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in Connecticut. In this new show at Alexandre Gallery, Walker exhibits the work from a recent Royal Scottish Academy Residency.
[Image: Richard Walker "Curtain I, 2011, oil on panel, 15 x 22.5 in.]
Media
Schedule
from November 30, 2012 to January 05, 2013
Opening Reception on 2012-11-29 from 17:30 to 19:30
The Artist will be in Attendance.