Julian Montague “Landscape Features”

Black & White Gallery / Project Space

[Image: Julian Montague "Thunderhead" (2015) Aerosol Paint on Medium Density Fibreboard.]

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Julian Montague’s paintings take as their subject the geological features and events that shape the physical landscape of the earth. In their simplicity and stillness the images evoke the very slow, unending march of geological time. The static quality of the landscapes are inspired by Japanese ukiyo-e prints as well as the background landscapes found in cartoons and comic books.

As with Montague’s past work, there is an interest in exploring the way in which language shapes our perception of the world. The text on each piece labels the isolated feature, some of the terms are technically specific (glacial erratic, cuesta, drumlin) others are more general (summit, coast, horizon). The terms that describe the features, like the features themselves, overlap one another. The combination of the text and the isolated element ask us to question the limits of our ability to subdivide the physical world into discrete categories.