 Hidden by the Calami, 2004 122 x 147cm Neil Gall Atoll Villas At times Neil Gall's paintings seem to be referencing Dutch still life or surrealist landscapes, at others they appear to be entirely contemporary and without precedent. It is as though Gall has built up layers of art history with the illusory dexterity of paint itself. This is in part due to the strata of his working process: modelling and assemblage, photography and painting. When the paintings are shown on their own they might be read as perverse abstractions; when, as here, the sculptures appear too, the interplay between two and three dimensions amplifies the oscillation between abstraction and figuration. The sculptures make sense from a single viewpoint, like theatrical models. The shapes, colours and textures become a cast of characters, like dissipated masks and puppets or Paul Nash's anthropomorphised driftwood. Gall's spheres of wrapped tape, fluffy balls, globs of plasticine and mangled wire, however, create a tableau that is more involved in formal relationships than narrative. The push and pull of colour and shape finds its lineage in the paintings of Hans Hoffman, the tawdry manipulation of material in the mutilated dolls of Hans Bellmer. The final, photorealist execution of the paintings, on the other hand, places the work in another camp - the precise re-rendering of grunge may recall Glen Brown's flattened Auerbachs or Will Cotton's candy landscapes, but Gall confounds us by removing collective reference points. These are quotations of his own fantastical universes. Neil Gall studied at The Slade School of Art and has completed artist residencies at the British School in Rome and Durham Cathedral. This is Gall's first solo show at Hales Gallery since joining the gallery in 2004. Exhibition: 9 June - 30 July 2005 Gallery hours: Thu-Sat 12 - 6 pm, and by appointment Hales Gallery Tea Building 7 Bethnal Green Road GB-London E1 6LA Telephone +44 20 7033 1938 Fax +44 20 7033 1939 Email info@halesgallery.com www.halesgallery.com |
 |