Vitalistic Fantasies 2020

Vitalistic Fantasies, a Contemporary British Painting exhibition that coincides with the 2020 BEEP Painting Biennial. Launched in 2012 the Beep (Biennial Exhibition of Painting) is a contemporary painting prize that brings together artists from all over the world. This year Beep returns with an expanded programme of satellite painting led exhibitions and symposiums around the main prize show in partnership with Swansea and Cardiff galleries.

Venue: College Street Gallery, 16 College Street, Swansea SA1 5BH, Wales

Opening: Saturday 3 October 2020, 3pm – late.*

Exhibition dates: 3rd October – 31 October 2020

Artists: Iain Andrews, Amanda Ansell, Karl Bielik, Day Bowman, Julian Brown, Deb Covell, Lucy Cox, Gordon Dalton, Pen Dalton, Natalie Dowse, Fiona Eastwood, Geraint Evans, Susan Gunn, Suzanne Holtom, Barbara Howey, Phil Illingworth, Bryan Lavelle, Paula MacArthur, Enzo Marra, Nicholas Middleton, Stephen Newton, Joe Packer, Stephen Palmer, Ruth Philo, Narbi Price, Freya Purdue, James Quin, Molly Thomson, Judith Tucker, Joanna Whittle and Sean Williams.

Curated by Paula MacArthur.

Ground: ‘Mona Lisa’ X - VIII - IX 2019

“... the dark gauze of the varnish the lines

of the craquelure she wears as centuries of tiny

wounds that do not heal but only cut more deeply...”

‘Mona Lisa’

by Raoul Schrott

The Triptych was inspired by Raul Schrott’s, ’Mona Lisa’ poem. The paintings explore a personal pre-occupation with the psychological wounds effected by trauma, held buried in the subconscious.

Cracks and fissures are provoked in the gesso surface that art authoritarians such as Mayer consider to be ‘highly undesirable’. Prior to gilding the works are washed in a Lapis Lazuli pigment that for centuries has been used to paint the robes of the Madonna in Christian iconography.

In an abstract spiritual sense; the intention is to reference the trinity; the idea of separation, loss, ritual, and the bond between Mother and Child.

The loose threads from the warp and weft of the frayed canvas convey a tangled vulnerability. Like memory, experience, and connection, they overlap and are intertwined.

The gilded reflective quality of the gesso surface mirror the idea of ‘the gaze’ and both a solitary and shared experience.

Title | Triptych | Ground: ‘Mona Lisa’ X - VIII - IX 2019

Materials | Platinum, Palladium & White Gold leaf, natural earth pigment, lapis lazuli and gesso on canvas & wood block

Dimensions | Approx. 19 x 40 cm Triptych 3 panels (19 x 13 cm per panel)