28th March – 6th April Forge & Co 154-158 Shoreditch High Street London E1 6HU
In his third solo body of work, A Splendid Isolation, artist Chris Moon invites the viewer on a road trip to California and beyond.
A Splendid Isolation narrates Moon’s bittersweet journey through the West Coast of America. Travelling through the demi-wilderness juxtaposed with the most iconic locations, Moon’s imagination has captured the majesty and desolation he found in Venice Beach, San Diego, Death Valley, Joshua Tree, LA, Las Vegas and beyond. He transports his British identity onto this extraordinary landscape allowing, through his visceral perception, the archetypal West Coast spirit to break free from our preconceived ideas.
Moon’s vision sees much more than the enigmatic blue skies, golden vistas and healthy living associated for so long with the Golden State. Instead he finds amongst the beauty a landscape redolent with a splendid isolation, where self-reflection overtakes self-promotion.
Injuring himself surfing on the first day of his travels, he sets about on a very different journey than the one he had anticipated. Torn between the open road and spectacular scenery and a powerful feeling of solitude, thoughtless drifting and isolation, Moon has captured both sensations in this remarkable work.
Unearthing the transient eeriness of the West Coast, A Splendid Isolation addresses our preconceptions and sets them
against actual experiences. Utilising his characteristically fervid style, Moon captures his memories of places, scenes and emotions – a candid photo album forged into paint, revealing the artist to be an accomplished storyteller.
Highlights of the show include a reappropriated drawing of a tropical pattern, created 20 years ago when Moon was yearning to travel, which has now been incorporated into his striking interpretation of American iconography. In amongst the larger pieces, there is an array of atypical American landscapes, Art Deco architecture, and townscapes; all carried out in trademark re-worked, re-painted strokes. The culmination of the show takes the form of a reinvention of all the works, allowing the trip to come full circle – a dreamlike moodboard of his road trip.
A Splendid Isolation is curated by Gilly Fox and opens to the public on 28th March. The exhibition is the inaugural show to be exhibited at the new gallery space at Forge & Co on Shoreditch High Street.
chrismoonart.com forgeandco.co.uk
In Conversation:
Chris Moon and Gilly Fox with Francesca Gavin – Mon 31st March 7 – 8pm frontdesk@forgeandco.co.uk
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