Matthew F Fisher, The Rose of Nowhere, 2015, Acrylic on canvas , 71.1 x 55.9 cm
As we continue to embrace gender fluidity and focus less on the binaries that have been historically defined as male and female, it is interesting to examine and question the ways in which artists use colour as a tool for subverting social constructs, or rather, why they focus purely on its aesthetic power as a means of challenging existing paradigms.
While these gendered boundaries are slowly being dismantled can we reclaim pink as gender-neutral? Does it now reveal itself as a universal colour? Can the artist challenge the preconceived ideas of gender, sensitivity and personality infused in its shades and use it as a way of dismantling the very assumptions that accompany it? Or, rather than being embedded with meaning, is it simply a matter of aesthetic choice?
Albert Riera Galceran, “Untitled I”, 180×140 cm, Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 2018
These are all questions that are addressed in ‘The Politics of Pink’, a group show that includes the works of seven male artists: Richie Culver, Matthew F Fisher, Elliot Fox, Albert Riera Galceran, Jonathan Lux, Reuben Beren James and Konrad Wyrebek. Each artist has either created specific work for the show or have carefully selected canvases from their practice that they feel engage with the socially charged debate around the relevance of a specific colour and the associations it brings to mind. The exhibition attempts to dismantle pink semiotically, hoping to differentiate between an artist’s personal associations with the colour and any sentiments about it that we assume to be objective truths. By focusing exclusively on the male artist, ‘The Politics of Pink?’ intends to examine a topic that is strongly linked to cultural dynamics that we find increasingly in a state of flux.
Artists: Richie Culver, Matthew F Fisher, Elliot Fox, Albert Riera Galceran, Reuben Beren James, Jonathan Lux and Konrad Wyrebek. Curated by India Whalley, Lara Monro and Marta Szymura
The Politics of Pink: Private View: Thursday 12th April 6pm – 9pm April 13th – May 27th The Dot Project, 94 Fulham Road, SW3 6HS
