 Untitled 2006 mixed media on paper, 57 x 77 cm, 22 1/2 x 30 1/3 in Neil Farber Ruby Throats Houldsworth is proud to relaunch from its new West London project space with the first UK solo exhibition of surrealist comic bad boy Neil Farber. Having spent a year researching new artists and trends to create an international programme of established and emerging talent, Houldsworth promises to be an important barometer for the cutting-edge of contemporary art in the Capital. Houldsworth recognises the importance of artist run spaces and projects as the bedrock of creativity within the UK and therefore has restructured itself to offer its artists a home for the display and discussion of their work based upon a collaborative concept. Canadian born Neil Farber has shown internationally both as a solo artist and as part of the infamous comic collective the Royal Art Lodge. Farber's work tessellates an astounding array of imagery to form surrealist fantasies, where material acts as foil to his audacious desire to push a cast of frogs, boys, birds, fried eggs, blood and bones to the extremities of decency. The figures in the images seem sorry, hapless subjects of their inner disorders and the alienating confusion of their external realities. Just when we feel we may have a grip on Farber's work he surprises us by producing a piece of profound morbidity or, conversely, picturesque delicacy. "Ruby Throats" echoes the beguiling and disturbing nature of Farber's works. The diaphanous pools of paint swirl around the hunched figures of round headed boys, humming birds and long haired maidens, but all too easily these pools of flowing colour become the excesses of bleeding necks and drowning seas. Farber explodes illustration outwards, creating a spiralling coil of tragicomic absurdity and gesture, with a poetic sensibility. Farber's work has been widely reproduced, most recently as the cover artist for Comic Release: "Negotiating Identity for a New Generation" and a monograph published by Richard Heller Gallery, Santa Monica. He is currently part of "Darkness Ascends", Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto and will have a solo exhibition at Mogadishni, Copenhagen in October 2006. Exhibition: 8 September - 6 October 2006 Gallery hours: Tues-Fri 10am - 5.30pm, Sat 10am - 4pm Houldsworth Gallery 50 Pall Mall Deposit 124-128 Barlby Road UK-London W10 6BL Telephone +44 (0)20 8969 6166 Fax +44 (0)20 7434 3636 Email gallery@houldsworth.co.uk www.houldsworth.co.uk |
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