From figurative painting of hotels to bright inkjet skies a new exhibition at the Transition Gallery in Hackney reconsiders the meaning of holidays.
The exhibition called Resort comprises of work from three artists, each working on a different media. It includes attractive and figurative paintings from Nick Carrick, black and white sutil photographs and hotel screen prints from Sharon Kivland and bright coloured inkjet skies from Paul Greenleaf.
It is centred on the theme of the resort – an idealised place to get away to, treating the idea of escapism with the different points of view suggested by the artists.
Carrick, a 34-year-old artist based in Brighton who has been painting all of his life said: “I proposed the exhibition idea to Cathy Lomax – the director of the gallery, and we decided on Paul Greenleaf and Sharon Kivland to be a part of the show because the idea lends itself to a conceptual and photographic side that they express and that worked well with my paintings.” His oils represent realistic images of all-inclusive hotels and resorts stereotypically associated with holidays and came about from an old polaroid his girlfriend had taken in Morocco of a hotel they were staying in.
British painter Greenleaf’s Optimism Revisited, is a series of images that centres on the idealised manipulated skies that were often seen in postcards during the late 20th century. The viewer can appreciate more than 50 images of the sky and get driven away by the intense blue colour. “[Holidays are] a time to explore, retreat, relax, adventure, a time when anything is possible”, said Greenleaf.
German-born Kivland’s screen prints and photographs entitled Reisen, is a series of 18 photographs that recounts railway related and mountain scenes in a romantic black and white atmosphere. She says she began following holidays taken by Sigmund Freud – the famous Austrian neurologist. She includes a series of engravings and screen prints which she explained are taken from Baedeker guidebooks from the beginning of the twentieth century and the hotel names echo those of other hotels in Freud’s travels.
Carrick concluded that: “Holidays are a time to reflect and temporarily escape the everyday monotony of general life. They are a suspended reality, an artificial existence and you will always have to return to your life after”.
Resort opened its doors June 22 and is on its final display this weekend from Saturday July 13 – Sunday July 14, 12-6pm.
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