We’ve left the shadow of bourgeois modern art , overcome the inflated installation intellectualism
and sidestepped the conceptual police, today painting still remains as one of the most popular
forms of art today. Yes we’re still not prepared to turn our backs to our caveman roots and scribe ,
mark paint and express the society and environment we are surrounded by.
It wouldn’t be thoughtless to claim that right now we’re experiencing one of the greatest
outbreaks of painting in modern times . As we gradually pull out of the pandemic we can relish the
possibility of numerous meaningful contemporary painting exhibitions every week. And if we don’t
feel enticed to rejoin the outside world , we can now access these exhibitions in numerous ways
through new online platforms . Only the other week I found myself navigating my way successfully
around a virtual gallery of an incredible painting exhibition by Kai Samuel Davis at the Dolby and
Chadwick gallery .
From my sofa I was projected via google into a cute Philadelphian gallery in the states viewing
Kai’s painting from all manner of angles , what really got me is that luscious oil paint shine could
be viewed from side angles as the light hit these exquisite paintings on wood , I was almost
there , well virtually.
But, as-well as the internet cyber transportation into the myriad of painting exhibitions going on
now , it’s the incredible depth of what is out there . Painting now is for real we’re not playing
around anymore even Tracy Emin saw what was happening with the transition in art from being
stuck in tents conceptualizing that now people are crafting, artists are getting noticed for being
artists, so it’s no surprise to see Tracy and Damien Hirst suddenly shift to become self proclaimed
canvas daubers along with the rest of us and as now painting is also business , well, they fit right
in !
The recent article written by David Hockney about the decline or end of abstract painting is
testament to the rise in realistic painting , painters needed to narrate what is happening in the
world now . The reality has gotta be told in colour and form , faces and figures. Jerome lagarrigue
is a powerhouse of a contemporary painter where you can see portraits and figurative painting
drift between realism and abstraction like the sound of Coltrane Jazz.
As I discussed in my previous entry , politics needs art we don’t need politics , however art can
fight and paint certinately is being splattered all over social issues we are going through and
whether I like it or not what could be a better vehicle for voice and outcry ! So much incredible
painting now is riding high above the social injustice that it narrates. Painters that could be worth
checking out in that bracket a few are Sebas Velasco and Axel Void
