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ALEC CUMMING. A Language of Its Own [29 September - 21 October 2011]
PAST EXHIBITION
Click here to view fully illustrated e-catalogue.
Eagerly anticipated by many, Cumming’s second solo show at Alan Wheatley Art, A Language of Its Own, is an enticing visual display of the past twelve months during which the artist has become more consistently daring in his paintings; questioning, pushing, playing and ultimately teasing out more about what he does. With a nod to Modern British Art the twenty-five year old painter takes his tools and produces the freshest contemporary articulations, throwing recognised traditions of landscape and figurative painting over his shoulder.
Constantly pushing his practice, unlike his last solo show where the paintings were made as a series, the twenty-plus paintings in the latest exhibition each have a language of their own and whilst within the artist’s oeuvre, each work can be looked at individually. Taking his earlier vocabulary, the new works have a swiftness of hand which doesn’t dwell and allows the viewer to really get between the layers. The language is the same but we are now offered different sounds.
Cumming’s device of inter-playing large dense shapes of colour with lines that energise the works has developed into a lighter conversation as colours become more translucent and even dense shapes are not solid. It is easy to make lines dance and not as easy to do the same with big shapes of colour but Cumming navigates this beautifully making the larger areas converse with the line so that big areas dance as well. Browns are now buoyant and slip and slide and whites are most superbly articulated, rather than being used to cancel out as often seen in earlier paintings, the new often translucent and just-there whites now let the viewer in. New cultural experiences have led to an explosion of the artist previous formal palette of blacks, browns and oranges and vibrant pinks and blues now nudge alongside.
Like the earlier vocabulary which has been given a good shaking, the same happens with the compositions. Subservience is not something that Cumming does in his work, the shapes do not accommodate those around them and the latest paintings are a testament to this. In a new departure in the artist’s work intricacies that toy with the viewer are nudged right out to the edges, where the things on the edge can only just get in the door. We, in our looking, have to work harder but are given room to breathe in the middle. In other works ever playful shapes that are usually associated with stability teeter on the edge inviting the viewer to put out their hands to catch them.
Flitting between small and large expanses of canvas and paper large paintings are not simply small paintings blown up and are now happier to do less on a big space. There is even more inventiveness as objects tease and become more playful and ultimately we are still kept guessing at just what, exactly, they are.
For more information please contact the gallery.
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