"When the wild beckons" - Art of Endangered species and Wildlife by Animalier Rachel Gray

Rachel Gray is a British Artist who specializes in wildlife portraiture. Rachel has always been drawn to animals and art from a very young age. Her admiration and love of animals have led her to wildlife conservation, and she is committed to using her work to raise awareness of endangered species from around the globe. With this goal in mind, Rachel has worked with charities such as the WWF and has collaborated with the British High Commission, COP26 “Together for Our Planet” (2021), Namibian High Commission and Expo 2020 Dubai.

"I live for colour and animals, so combining them both is just brilliant!"

Wildlife calls Rachel Gray to her bosom from where births her magnificent portraits of the wild. She also paints pets. Her animals are lifelike and look ready to spring to life from her screen. Her digital rendition that mimics oil painting is full of life and Painter is a tool that gives her that provenance to capture the interesting, intriguing facets of animals and their environment. Rachel captures her own photographs and uses them as a reference. She has travelled extensively from the dunes of Namibia to the rainforests of Malaysia, she has slept under the stars and riverbeds. She feels that one must capture these animals in their own habitats to observe them at their best – to capture their true personality, soaking up the colours, details, behaviours and surroundings. Raising awareness about endangered species has always been one of the hallmarks of Rachel’s works.

Rachel Gray

Recently I had an appointment with Rachel at the Malaysian Pavillion where she was displaying her works during the sustainability week, particularly for this blog post. It was a short but inspiring conversation. With the backdrop of the wooden panels of the pavilion and the green around it was a perfect setting.

“I’m always thinking about art be it mine or someone else's.”

Focus - Rachel Gray

Rachel, however, doesn’t strive for photorealism. Her aim is to convey their character and the moments they share. She creates the images on the tablet/computer using Wacom, which is touch, tilt and weight-sensitive tablet, and a stylus that simulates the texture of oil brushes for her works and uses the software Corel Painter.

“Painter is the best software that bridges the gap between traditional art and digital art, making it more accessible for traditional artists to make the crossover into the world of digital art.”

She was the first British female artist to have a solo exhibition, ‘Instincts and Experiences’; a collection of digital wildlife portraits and abstract oil paintings, at the National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur coinciding with the 60^th anniversary of the gallery.

Rachel Gray - Wildlife Art

Below is the video of the conversation I had with the immensely talented Rachel Gray who in spite of her hectic schedule took out some time and spoke to me. Here, Rachel Gray speaks about “Below the Canopy,” her exhibition that was showcased at the Expo2020, Malaysian Pavillion during Sustainability Week. 

watch this video to hear what Rachel has to say about her practice and more

You can reach Rachel Gray at:

Website: www.rgportraits.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rachelgray.art/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rgportraits

When Art and Words Meet on Women's Day – SHE: A Creative Dialogue

Art and Literature have always been intertwined for ages. Though it can live, one cannot exist wholly without the other. They intersect at some point or some stage tugging the chords and embracing each other. It is such intersections that make the whole process and conjugation much more interesting and stimulating rather than the normal path.

One such intersection is about to happen on Mar 8 at Dusit Thani where art, conversation and high tea meet with a lovely author and eight UAE-based artists from various backgrounds. SHE is an expression of hues, shades and forms imbibed from the pages of the International journalist-best-selling author, Purva Grover’s latest book “She” which I recommend that all girls (for that matter, guys too) must-read. It is more an experience than a 212 pages book. When I read the book, it offered me the feeling of hearing a friend in conversation over a cup of coffee in a quaint café or chitchat on the living room couch over hot tea and snacks. The book itself as mentioned by the author can be treated like a handbook with spaces and pages for exercise or filling-ins.

The exhibition is curated by Slava Noor, Founder-Editor of Arte & Lusso Art Magazine. Ms. Noor wishes to open up a space for the creative dialogue that is one of the key ingredients for any creative communion. The saplings that sprout from such fertile soil are bound to hold the earth for favourable growth. What makes this particular art exhibition stand out is that the artworks have been created through conversations, enriching dialogue and exchange of ideas.

The Curator

Slava Noor (@SlavaNoor)

Slava Noor is passionate about various forms of art and believe in its power to inspire people and bridge different cultures. She has created Arte & Lusso in order to promote both local and international talent and help artists, fashion designers and other creatives get the exposure they deserve. She is also passionate about different cuisines and enjoys reviewing restaurants in Dubai and Europe.

Slava can be spotted at major art and fashion events as well as sipping her favorite karak tea or espresso at one of the hidden cafes in Dubai.

The Author

Purva Grover, India (@purvagr) 

Purva Grover is a best-selling author, international journalist & editor, TEDx Speaker, award-winning playwright & stage director, published poetess, spoken word artist, and creative entrepreneur. She is the founder-editor of The Indian Trumpet, a quarterly digital magazine for Indian expats, and works as the assistant editor with a UAE national daily, and editor, for a magazine for young adults. She is backed with a post-graduate degree in mass communication and literature. She resides in Dubai, UAE. 

She made her debut as an author with The Trees Told Me So(December 2017, Niyogi Books). Her second title, It was the year 2020 (February 2021, Kindle India) was instantly recognised for its profound pandemic prose. Her third title, She (August 2021, Ukiyoto) is currently making waves for its honest, relatable and fun approach on the topic of womanhood. 

Artists in Alphabetical Order

Abda Fayyaz, Pakistan (@artbyabda)

Abda is a self-taught artist. Her work is the reflection of the understanding of the universe and the constant changes and transformations that take place within and around us.

With a Degree in Banking and Finance, she holds over 15 years of experience in brand development, marketing and advertising, strategy management and more.  Her main mediums are oil and acrylic mediums. From abstract paintings to calligraphy, the artworks represent a fusion of modern and contemporary art and traditional techniques. Abda’s art emphasizes the importance of finding our true purpose, and that each one of us is enough in our own capacities and that resources are always available if we have the right connection with our inner conscious, curiosity, energies and the holistic purpose of the universe. 

 

Christine Dessa, India (@cdessart) 

Christine Dessa is a self-taught artist of Indian origin, who has called Dubai her home for the last 25+ years. Art has been her passion since childhood. Decades of practice, self-learning and brush strokes later, she has evolved into the accomplished artist of today. She called herself a ‘closet’ artist, painting for her pleasure, experimenting with various mediums and techniques, while using her home as an art gallery. 

Combining real-life and symbolism together with the application of light, Christine Dessa allows her subjects to emote and have their own voice. She incorporates realism juxtaposed against fantasy as a means of storytelling, also allowing her viewers to connect with her art on a personal level.

Her forte is Watercolours Portraits, while her Horses and Oceans, require a special mention. Christine enjoys the beauty and magic of watercolours with its fluid dynamics and transparency. Working with this less forgiving medium has refined her painting skills a thousand-fold. She is also very skilled with Acrylics and uses this versatile and vibrant medium for her larger exhibition paintings on canvas.

Deepa Gopal, India (@dee.huesnshades)

Deepa Gopal is a visual artist-creative writer currently based in Dubai. Winner of 2021 ‘Artgram’ Award at the Orange Flower Awards, she conceptualized and curated her latest, brainchild – an online exhibition of art and poetry, ‘IGNITE-from within the confines-‘ (2020) inviting artists and poets from across the world. Author of the blog, Hues n Shades, she has done her Masters in English Language and Literature. Diversity is her forte as she loves to explore and experiment with various mediums and techniques. Most of her works are “mindscapes” as she calls them, an introspection into the emotional and psychological states. Her protagonists enjoy detachment; creating parallel worlds. Myths, dreams, visions, people and their tales, the emotions and the unbridled feelings kindle her creative juices. She sometimes couples her art with Haiku (Japanese poetic style) or micro-poems.

Fatema Fakhruddin, India (@notnotart__fathz/) 

As a person who always wears her heart on her sleeve, Fatema decided to bring her heart out onto her canvases and pursue her avant-garde artistic career in early 2020. Originally from India, she now lives in the UAE with her husband and two loving children. Known for her predominant use of bright and colorful acrylics, oils and other mediums, her paintings evolve through words and intended puns, which compliment her bold personality. All created in her home heart studio.

The intricacy of human nature, accepting and acknowledging one’s emotional, mental, and intellectual mindset being legitimate and powerful, is the never-ending source of her inspiration. Her artworks challenge the viewer to accept who they are. Portraying this through conceptual art, she thrives on evolving and developing her artistic process and continually learning. It allows her to communicate her emotions, which she otherwise struggles expressing. Her artworks are a visual diary into her being. 

Julia Smolenkova, Russia (@julia_smolenkova)

Julia Smolenkova is an international artist, publisher of two art magazines, galleries owner, Ph.D. in the field of the history of art and architecture, curator of international art projects, festivals, symposiums. In her artworks, the connection between the abstract and the real creates a new space level. Her success has been cemented with great demand from galleries in  Europe, the USA, Russia, UAE, Julia’s art is regularly purchased by enthusiasts globally. Her original pieces of sculptures and paintings can also be found in public and private collections, around the world as well as in the United Nations collection. Her monumental mosaics adorn the streets of Moscow. Her colorful paintings adorn the walls of hotels like Mandarin Oriental Jumeira in Dubai. Julia is an avid traveler and explores worldwide cities to acquire her inspiration, which results in the development of new collections that are exhibited regularly.

Poonam Chathurvedi (@c.poonam) 

Poonam is an Artist of Indian Origin and based out of Dubai, UAE since 2007. Over the years, Poonam has been a part of many major local, regional, and international exhibitions. Additionally, Poonam has also presented her work as a Solo Artist in a few prominent places including, Fakih University Hospital Dubai, Indian by Nature, Arte’s on several occasions. 

Samantha Lomas aka The Sassy Crayon (@the_sassy-crayon)

The Sassy Crayon, is a UK-born, UAE-based artist, avid traveller and martini connoisseur. After graduating in Interior Architecture and Design, she has spent several years travelling, living in, and embracing, the cultures of South East Asia and Australia. No matter where she has been in the world, her love for art has not diminished. After several years in the business world, she decided it was time to turn to art full time. Her knowledge of interiors and design along with intense training through several top art institutions, enable her to create beautiful bespoke works of art for any environment.

Snehita Gehlot, India (@snehiart) 

Snehita is a Licensed Indian Artist (Painting) & Entrepreneur based in Dubai. She is a Visual Content creator for Art Magazine, Fashion and Art Brands, an IT Engineer (Website, graphic design, and digital products), an MBA and Director at Luxy Flare.

As an Artist, she believes ” Art is Experimenting Fearlessly ” No fear of judgement, and freely exploring the endless possibilities. She has always been a creative person since her childhood, she started learning and creating at a very early age as her mother is also an artist and art instructor.

Zumrud Zeynalli, Azerbeijan-UK (@zumrud_contemporary)

Zumrud Zeynalli is a contemporary artist who blends Eastern and Western cultures in her art that is also largely inspired by childhood fairy tales. 

Zumrud is a British artist born in Baku, Azerbaijan in 1981 and developed a passion for art and craft at an early age. Living and working in London, United Kingdom allowed Zumrud to travel a lot and she visited 74 countries, explored unreal parts of the world and different cultures that widened her horizon and inspired her to create. Coming from a very caring family and society and moving to London, she has faced many challenges but learned how to become an independent woman. As a woman who leads a large company in the competitive and male-dominated oil field – she still got a chance to nurture her creative side and express herself through painting. 

“SHE” will be open to the public until March 30, 2022. The exhibition will take place at Dusit Thani Dubai located on  Sheikh Zayed Road.

'I'm Not A Robot' An Inaugural Exhibition Exploring And Integrating The Physical And Digital Art

In the pleasant urban neighbourhood at the City Walk, Dubai, the inaugural exhibition <I'm not a Robot> explores the nuances of the in-between where the digital and the traditional meet. Edward Gallagher, the Director and Curator of Galloire Art Gallery, presents six renowned artists from across the globe who are ingenious in their chosen field. The exhibition that opened on 8 Feb 2022 has works by Daniel Canogar, Jonas Lund, Addie Wagenknecht, Xavier Sole Mora, Jonathan Monaghan and Anne Spalter. The works displayed range from real paintings to AI (Artificial Intelligence) programmed and collaborated works, from virtual reality to Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs).

Almost all the artists have developed a unique algorithm for their works that have helped their insignia. They also have an interdisciplinary approach. All of the artists point towards a technology-driven future and the many facets of consumerism that affect our day-to-day lives.

Galloire Art Gallery

The Artists and The Works

Daniel Canogar

Canogar’s works seek audience participation and multiple perspectives. The two works – Loom and Amalgama are fine examples of how our day-to-day engagement with technology is used in creative ways of art-making. The screens are placed like sculptures. The colourful stripes passing through Loom remind us of the warp and weft of the textile as if weaving is in progress while we catch some phrases in between. They happen to be the day’s top five Google searches and it is those searches their order which gives colour to the moving stripes. In Amalgama, the best 500 artworks that start from Renaissance to Contemporary art are morphed into fluid forms or organic abstractions where search data is used for artistic reinterpretations of electronic information. Canogar embraces technology and draws inspiration from them to satisfy his creative outpour. He also mentions that our lives are interlaced with technology and a future without its existence is unthinkable.

Memory and loss are constant reminders in Canogar’s works. They involve in the stimulation of our senses by actively participating in his works by touch, by google searches and generated data, by movement, or by mere presence of our body temperature. They react in real-time to different data sets. Our movements are choreographed in a way that adds life to his works as in Dynamo, a site-specific audio-visual installation in the Atrium of the Spanish Pavillion at Expo 2020 Dubai. Anyone who has visited the Spanish Pavillion wouldn’t miss it. Peoples’ movement – physical and virtual, is a crucial component of his works.

Daniel Canogar's works - 'Loom' and 'Amalgama'

Jonas Lund

Lund is a Swedish conceptual artist who critically engages in the networked systems, the power structure and commercial culture. Presenting a set of parameters, his works usually need viewer involvement. Lund investigates issues related to the increasing digitisation of contemporary society through the means of intellectual property, participation, and authority. He explores the complicated relationship between art and commerce. There is a game-like structure, a playfulness to his style. Lund is at once criticizing and taking advantage of the technological evolution as his works are redesigned and rearranged as a commentary on the current system and practices. 

The gallery has displayed two abstract works of Lund. They are mosaics of his successful artworks that had performed well in auctions. Each work records the performance metrics and is with inbuilt near field communicators that give meta-narrative about the painting’s life to the viewer who places the phone near the canvas. It also takes you to a special portal as a collector where you can have chat and interconnectivity with other collectors of Lund’s works. Technology and art connect a community. One of his works is the only NFT in this exhibition. Since we mention NFT, Jonas Lund has his own cryptocurrency, the Jonas Lund Token (JLT) that has a worldwide community of its own.

Jonas Lund's Untitled

Addie Wagenknecht

Wagenknecht’s Alone Together series and Ghost series uphold female presence while being absent. These works are strong reminders of where we as women were and are. Wagenknecht’s take on Yves Klein’s “human paintbrushes” in his *Anthropometry paintings is absolutely stunning and noteworthy. She in turn avoided the display and made a negative space of her reclined nude, a deviation perhaps from the classic odalisque. The painting is technically assisted by a Roomba with a custom algorithm that helps it to navigate around her body until the whole canvas is mapped with Klein’s Blue. The result even when it’s a void “serves to evoke the duality of being invisible while simultaneously claiming presence.”

Ghost series refers to the modern-day slang where a person disappears without explanation in the dating environment after a short stint leading to confusion and disappointment. The hope, the temporary highs, the leading negotiations, and the final vanish are documented through still life-like images of flowers veiled in tulle and organza showing different stages of progress from hope to disappointment and to renewal.

The female lens through which the subjects and situations are examined is what adds to its beauty.

Victoria admiring Addie Wagenknecht's 'Self Portrait - Snow on Cedar'

Xavier Sole Mora

Intensely influenced by Goya, Xavier’s works explore the playfulness and viciousness side by side. A satire on the violent, grotesque and dark world with a fresh impishly nasty perspective, Sole Mora engages the audience verging on the absurd. The theme of good and evil, power-play bordering on cruelty making it tempting and voyeuristic through seemingly naive setups are his insignia. As an artist, Sole Mora’s practice explores the possibilities of technology such as virtual reality, augmented reality and artificial intelligence to create narratives around social commentary.

The work in the experience room of Galloire, the Golden Feast is a revisit on Goya’s Fool’s Folly from his series Disparates. The etched bulls are here replaced by floating golden hippos that keep bobbing in the air like balloons. A dangerous animal, the deadliest land mammal, is made playful and borders on the comic as virtual reality take us to a farcical land.

In virtual reality and video work, Sole Mora examines our guilty pleasures and our ability to indulge in them. The artist has glamorized the hippos by displaying them in an all-golden hue. As we put on the VR, we are transported to a world surrounded and threatened by the golden hippo presenting a dream-like state. Sole Mora plays with the sense of threat and the beauty assigned to the hippos; the stark contrast of things provoking us to “enjoy” what actually is unenjoyable.

Slava Noor, Founder and Editor of Arte & Lusso experiencing Xavier Sole Mora's virtual reality 'Golden Feast'

Jonathan Monaghan

Drawing inspiration from a wide range of areas from art history to video games to contemporary materialistic culture, Monaghan produces fantastical, candy-colored and otherworldly realms. They provide critical reflection as it examines and uncovers unsettling anxieties associated with technology and consumerism perhaps indicating a bionic future. He creates new mythology for a contemporary society based on technology and materialism.

Monaghan’s two works, Soft Power I and II, replicate aristocratic and royal portraiture and are embellished to the point of being dramatic – portraits of ominous figures. One can observe the signs of the corporate logos and consumer electronics of modern-day also reminding us of pop art, in a blend of his own. It may very well signify our current pandemic state with the face covered in velvet masks evoking us of a Baroque aesthetic with its pomp and grandeur. The portraits are a study of power in the digital age. In the Alien Sofa I (series- A Trace Left by the Future), the real and the artificial seem to fade in ambiguity. The compositions are so textured that it plays with the sense of touch but the reality is otherwise. Again, the real and the artificial worlds collide; Monaghan seems to love to toy with that idea and offer a dystopian (or is it utopian?) glimpse.

Jonathan Monaghan's works Soft Power I, Soft Power II and Alien Sofa I

Anne Spalter

Anne Spalter is an academic pioneer and a digital mixed media artist. In her artistic process, Spalter synthesizes a consistent set of personal symbols with traditional mark-making methods and innovative digital tools further combining AI algorithms with oil paints and pastels to create her unique and incredible works.

Spalter presents a surrealistic landscape in Lost Signals, a video loop and two of her pastel on paper works that abound in personal symbols even while striking a chord with the collective unconscious. The works are AI-generated and combined with traditional media integrating art and technology. One can see the use of light and lighthouses, an interest in signaling as a form of communication, as a warning and the connection that ensues through portals. There’s a sense of spiritual lacing with lighthouses as anchors that guide the wayward travelers, cautioning and communicating to them to be careful, all the while shedding the light and Spalter exploring that base. Again, this work is quite meditative to an observant viewer and deals with subconscious layers. Lighthouses and water are common themes and symbols in Spalter’s works.

Anne Spalter's work 'Electric Pathway to the Lighthouse'
In the background, Addie Wagenknecht's 'Ghost' series

You can also find an incredible code poem by Kenny R Brown.

Code poem by Kenny R Brown

Edward Galleghar, the Director of Galloire Art Gallery, giving a tour of the exhibition

At a time like the present when we are badly hit by the pandemic and when physical communication has been curbed, where our life is lived through digital screens, reminding us of the impact of technology and the reliance on it 24x7, this exhibition raises pertinent questions and becomes more prominent. Technology is advancing at such a pace that there’s no discerning as to where it will take us. It is not only forecasting but also generating and establishing a future.

<I am not a Robot> will run until 28 Feb 2022 at Galloire Art Gallery, London Street, City Walk, Dubai. You can also view the works via the gallery’s website https://www.galloire.com/

It is always better to see such exhibitions in person. Do visit the gallery and experience the show. Addie Wagenknecht and Daniel Canogar happen to be my personal favourites. Who are yours?

Thanks to Slava Noor and Edward Gallagher for the invite. 

*Anthropometry paintings are paintings where Yves Klein dipped nude women in his patented International Klein Blue paint in front of an invited audience along while the musicians played Klein’s Monotone Symphony – a single note played for twenty minutes followed by twenty minutes of silence.

"Vetera Novis Augere" - Latif al-Ani - Father of Iraqi Photography

The talk was just beginning after the salutations as I entered into a full house at the Folio – Majlis Talks at Alserkal on a cold evening last December. The seating itself was quite informal and audience-friendly, making us shed our inhibitions (if any!). I took an empty seat behind in between two seated, made myself comfortable and slid into the conversation. For the convenience of the audience who didn’t understand Arabic (it’s a shame that I don’t know the language and I really long to understand it), there was a translator as well. The conversation was directed by Beirut-based Iraqi photographer, Tamara Abdul Hadi and was translated by Iraqi writer and researcher Maryam Wissam Al Dabbagh. The 87-year old Latif al-Ani had the smile and gesture of an innocent child, particularly with his mischievous laugh. I loved listening to the familiar string of sounds and cherished what they said even though I couldn’t discern the complete meaning of it. I patiently waited for the English translation each time.

“I was documenting for the sake of archiving. I never thought Iraq would arrive at what it has today.”

Latif al-Ani

Latif al-Ani is an Iraqi photographer par excellence, also known as “the Father of Iraqi Photography.” I actually went in there without knowing the magnificence of this humungous personality only to be delightfully enlightened. Born in 1932 in Karbala, he has witnessed the glory and the fall of Iraq, alike. His photographs are both ancient and modern in nature with the changing times. What started as an assignment in the Iraqi Petroleum Company he worked for took him to new heights. His job was to document the modernization and industrialization of Iraq during the socio-economic boom of the time. His love to capture moments that he found beautiful and uncanny at the same time took him on a journey across the region by foot, by car and even by plane. Al-Ani was the first photographer who took the aerial shots of Baghdad. His experimental nature along with the right opportunities at the right time gave him the impetus to produce excellent works. His intention was to capture those moments for the future generations not knowing the plight of what was to come. His extensive and invaluable archives of the radically shifting socio-political and economic climate and the cultural landscape have scaled to history photographs for they are documents of an era that the country has long lost amid revolutions, coups and wars. He remembers his camera weighing 16 kgs with only 12 films to capture and what with the kind of technology that everyone is a photographer these days and al-Ani chuckled.

“I wanted to ensure each image was beautiful, in addition to being beautiful. I was always preoccupied with beauty.”

Al Ani was gifted a camera at the age of 13 or 14 by his brother if I remember right. Probably, that was the turning point in his life. Black and white photographs are what he prefers and his unique gaze documents the late 50s until the 70s with utmost flair. He shows women at work, girls in gym classes, mechanical engineering students, high-speed urbanization, modern architecture, tall office towers, and even Western tourists strolling through archaeological remnants. It’s a social documentary, one replete with information and education. Architecture, landscape, portraiture, cosmopolitanism, daily life are all seamlessly presented in his oeuvre. Until the restrictions were imposed, photography was a mode of life that was curbed with the turbulent times. He lost a good number of archives as the aftermath of the war, he mentioned. 

“I was repulsed by the fact that holding a camera became a dangerous act, and I didn’t want to be a photographer anymore. I left Iraq briefly, but came back because it is my home.”

The Talks were part of Latif Al Ani’s solo exhibition Vetera Novis Augere - ‘augment the old with the new’ that happened at Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde at Alserkal Avenue, in collaboration with the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut. The exhibition was from 18 Nov to 28 Dec 2019.

That day I got back home with different images of Iraq that we have never seen anytime recently; happy beaming faces of men, women and children alike, robust and well-managed cities, well-clad, urban-fashion women, confident and formidable young girls and much more. Even I could feel the sense of loss of a wonderful heritage and what the place has become now. It’s a terrible plight to lose everything to war. It just slaps on the face of how transitory everything can be. In 1979, al-Ani stopped capturing images when photographing in public was prohibited during the Iran-Iraq war. Later in 2003, most of his works were destroyed by the U.S led invasion of Iraq. What remains of his photographs thus become quasi-miraculous, salvaging an era from oblivion.

“I think viewers are surprised or shocked when they see them in contrast to what they see of Iraq today. I hope that they make people think and feel the pain we feel, and get inspired to help Iraq have another “golden age”. I’m happy that my work has had the interest it has had, this late in my life.”

P.S: This happened in December last year and am sorry for such a delay but I wanted to share the experience and let my readers know about this legendary personality.

Hope you liked this post. Do leave your comments and feedback, also do like, share and subscribe. Thanks.

Courtesy: Gallery Isabelle Van Den Eynde, National – Arts and Culture, Art Forum, Studio International

...between the eye and the brain - Cecily Brown

“I want to make forms that are either just dissolving or in the process of just becoming something and to play with the relationship between the eye and the brain.”

From time to time I go through works of many women artists, I don’t do that intentionally but they catch my eye more than their male contemporaries. I think there’s so much more happening in the canvas with all the told and untold stories that may or may not relate but for the most part, it’s the former that happens where ever they come from. I think there’s an invisible thread, a link that runs through the lives of the likes of us that coincide at some point. There lies a universal phenomenon beneath each surface.

Cecily Brown was born in London in 1969. A graduate from the Slade School of Fine Art, Brown moved to New York from London in 1999. She was just 29 when she made it enormous in the International Art scene; the Allbright-Knox, the Tate, the Whitney Museum, the Rubell Collection, the Broad Museum all made major acquisitions of Brown’s earlier works, certainly an incredible achievement for a young artist of her time. She is already in the echelons of the expensive female artists in the world.

Cecily Brown

Brown addresses herself as a figurative painter. As a child, she used to sneak into painting books of Francis Bacon and George Grosz, the German painter (known for his Butcher Shop paintings) and she liked the horror and scariness that it imparted more than anything else. Brown needs a body as a vehicle to talk about being alive and to understand the world else she feels that there remains nothing but smears of paint. She feels concerned with completed figures and finds the need to break it down. The cacophony of glaring, grimacing and fragmented figures as subjects, some evident, some loosely drawn and some hidden, all the same unmistakeably figurative like some elusive short-hand Brown’s adept at, reduced to complexions and sometimes veiled expressions and a whole kaleidoscope of fleshy pinks, oranges, browns, purples and grey fill up her canvas. There’s a tug and pull of painterly effect and figurative content amid the brimming human presence. Her aesthetic is characterized by sexual imagery and abstract expressionistic gestural style.

Brown likes it when nothing’s pinned down or determined, to be in a state of flux, in the process of becoming which I think is quite a wonderful place to be just as we might say that the journey is much more enjoyable than reaching the destination. She’s not into pure abstraction like later Rothko or Barnett Newman as she herself mentions. She conjures up images and is influenced by Masters like Rubens, Poussin, Goya, Titian, Degas, Miro, Gorky, Joan Mitchell and William de Kooning, the abstract expressionist. Brown takes in from history paintings and places it in her own aura of the canvas where she strips them of their past and breathes into them a new lease of life unconnected to where they belonged. The Young Spartans Exercising and La Coiffure (Combing the Hair) of Degas influenced Brown immensely particularly with the fleshy tones and figures in the former and the inherent menace in the latter which were brought to her notice by Bacon, she mentions.

Be Nice to the Big Blue Sea - 2013

Borrowing the names of classic novels, plays, and Hollywood films such as The Fugitive Kind, The Bedtime Story, Those are pearls that were his eyes, High Society, or The Pajama Game, she utilizes it to her best and makes her titles quite fascinating.

Sexuality, eroticism and attraction are important themes in her works which Brown explores through the churning of embracing couples pressing against one another forming and dissolving into a gorgeous watery landscape, the palette is luscious and fleshy, the subject is romantic and athletic in execution but refined all the same. Figures in a Landscape 1 and Figures in a landscape 2 are sister-paintings both in prestigious collections. These were two of the exceptionally famous works that fetched her an incredible sum to begin with.

Figures in a Landscape 1

Cecily Brown’s Bunny painting reminds me of Paula Rego’s earlier bunny paintings as well and Rego happens to be one of my favourites. What I find appealing in Brown’s canvases are the fleshy tones and the painterly texture that extends all through her wide canvas. Her story-telling has a signature style which she instills from a series of source images that are laid out in her studio and she works from them without directly holding, looking and drawing from it as she has become an adept after years of working from images, some are repeated too.

Where, when, how often and with whom? is a 30-foot-long triptych (donated to Louisiana Museum of Modern Art) The 2 central figures appear like apparitions, veiled as their eyes are washed off. They remind Adam and Eve’s expulsion.  Another aspect that appears in the same work is the shipwreck as in Delacroix and Gericault. Brown speaks of the impending violence when the French cops surrounded a lady in *burkini and asked her to remove the excessive clothing on a beach in Nice a couple of years ago which happened to catch the news. She speaks of the viewers who appear to be complicit voyeurs on the beach. I agree when Ms. Brown mentions that even in this century women are told how they can and cannot appear at a particular place say here a beach. Voyeuristic viewing appears as the subject in her painting; there’s always a voyeur there. She likes to respond to the things that she has seen. It just happens to point that how violent our society is, there’s always an underlying menace. She likes to think of herself being the intermediary feeding off the past and giving it to the future. Horror and sweetness are the constants in her canvas and of course some drama. 

Where, when, how often and with whom?

One needs to be physical and performative at a bigger scale like Brown’s. They are incredibly ambitious and fill up entire walls.

The ones I admire more are of a darker nature along with the above mentioned like All the nightmares came today and Black Painting 1. I like the ominous quality to it. 

All the nightmares came today

Amidst all the cacophony nowadays people wear headphones and weave in and out not realizing that they are going to bump in on someone at the last instant. They are totally unaware. They are so engrossed in the gadgets. The phone has brought about the death of society in a way. The figures in the paintings are unaware of the other though they are in the same physical space but they are not connected. This disconnectedness in today’s society is the tipping point.

Agreeing on those terms, I feel we are totally engrossed in our petite compartments that we are no longer bothered about what’s happening at the larger picture. If only we took some time to pause and look around, we would notice where we are heading.

*Burkini - a portmanteau of burqa and bikini - a woman's swimsuit that covers the entire body, leaving only the hands, feet, and face exposed. A type of modesty swimsuit for women.

images: Artspace, Pinterest, Sotheby's, Artnews.