Quotation Marks
Joel Arthur, New Wave, 2019, oil, acrylic and printed paper on linen. 80 x 60cm.
Joel Arthur
Quotation Marks plays with the physical, perceptual and cognitive processes of making a painting. All works have reoccurring subject and motifs, enabling the paintings to function singularly or together as an interrelated whole. These semi abstract works negotiate reality while continually undermining its logic of representation with the weaving of abstract formalities. I construct a still life situation on my studio wall made of cut out shapes painted with varied colour and patterning, as well as found materials and photography. There is a negotiation between modes of application of materials vs what is described each time an image is made. I think of it as problematic painting while at the same time being pleasant as a means of diverting from what could be read as political environmental statement and draw meaning back to aesthetics.
