18th Jan – 4th March 2012
Art Work Space’s first show of 2012: ‘ILLUMINATING THE VOID’ is the UK debut by upcoming British artist Eugene Wood. The show consists of a series of new oil paintings, which see the artist continue his exploration into the glory that can be found in the ordinary.
Wood trained at the prestigious Institut Supérieur de Peinture Van der Kelen-Logelain (Brussels), where he learnt methods associated with nineteenth-century artistic practice. Combining these techniques with contemporary sensibilities, he focuses in on details from familiar objects and surfaces, to create abstract but intrinsically and instinctively balanced compositions. The artist’s sensitivity with colours and gradations of tone subconsciously remind the viewer of the skilful alchemy of the Old Masters, whilst the influence of surrealism within his work, and its reductive nature, exposes unexpected potential within his seemingly traditional medium.
Isolation is key in Wood’s work, whether it be the isolation of elements within the ordinary until they become extraordinary, or his self-imposed isolation in order to identify these elements, without distraction. Through this isolation he transcends the presumed and offers us a view into the, otherwise hidden, unusual within the norm.
“The revelation of the strangeness, the sinister and even infernal otherness that hides in familiar things.” Aldous Huxley
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Eugene Wood is a graduate of Cleveland College of Art,Cheltenham school of Art and the Institut Supérieur de peinture Van der Kelen-Logelain (Brussels). Group exhibitions include The Bayliss Beltane Show London (2011).The Macmillan Cancer Research Auction,Bonhams,London (2011) (2010). SHUNT, London (2010). The Threadneedle Prize, Mall Galleries, London (2009). The Medical Foundation Art Auction, SUMARRIA LUNN, John McAslan + Partners/Royal Institution of Great Britain, London (2009), Candid Arts Trust, London (2005), Storm Estates, London (2004) and The Now Gallery, Birmingham (2003).
