Gavin Nolan | Phantasmagoria | Solo Exhibition | Charlie Smith London, Soho, London

CHARLIE SMITH LONDON is delighted to present Gavin Nolan's highly anticipated solo exhibition 'Phantasmagoria' in Soho, London.

Nolan presents nine new portrait paintings that continue a mature style introduced in 2023. Each painting depicts a figure, real or imagined, engaged in the creative process. Deep in concentration or caught in a moment of contemplation, Nolan's subjects represent Modernist archetypes who defined visual culture towards the mid-20th century. They are also, however, referred self-portraits. Nolan approaches this series in the knowledge that his own assumptions, beliefs and judgement tendencies influence the making process. In doing so, he is manifesting alternative realities where each portrait acts as a cipher for a confluence of personal, objective, real and imagined events.

The construction of the paintings is in part left visible, again referencing the act of making by revealing the artist's process. Each layer - primer, under-painting, and grisaille - leads to a refinement of illusion and signifies the history of the object. The black and white colour palette serves as shorthand for objectivity, whilst suggesting dream or memory. The spaces the figures inhabit are simplified and provisional, emphasising the flatness of the picture plane and the primacy of the subjects and the objects they create. Brush marks metamorphose into sculptural forms, smoke and other phantasmagoria, and the individuals depicted dissolve, becoming immersed in the composition. Subject, objects, environment and material ultimately merge into one thing in itself.

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Category: Arts | Visual Arts | Galleries / Art

Artist / Speaker: Gavin Nolan