Friday, July 29, 2011

William Bradley


























Scale is an unavoidable issue in much of Bradley’s work. With his most expansive canvasses measuring more than 2m squared his paintings seem designed to confront.  
This size combined with bold, flat colour makes for work which on first glance appears quite competitive. These are not however art billboards selling abstraction. The imagery is at odds with the rest of the package. Bloated, bulbous abstract forms don’t bring home a message; they do not tell you something you need to know. Instead Bradley’s structures compete with the slickness of their execution. They remain elusive. Graphic yet slippery they seem intentionally obscure; like diagrams that fail to explain.
Bradley manages to deal with painting’s recent history without compromising his own activity, he makes pictures which avoid the obvious; work that both intrigues and absorbs.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Clare Price







Well structured and expansive.
Clare Price’s paintings open up space while retaining a clear sense of their own materiality. They are vibrant, dynamic works which catch the eye and pose interesting questions. The pixelated frameworks that hold the images together simultaneously look forwards and back, describing a digital world through the use of a now defunct computer program. It is painting that highlights the enduring need for painting; engaged work that does not labour its point.