John Hiom
www.john-hiom.co.uk
Statement:
Periodically, painting has been dismissed - deemed irrelevant. As other art forms have changed considerably in appearance and presentation etc, it could be an easy - if a little lazy - mistake to make. Paintings' history and format could seem an anachronism alongside today's technology. One could perceive "nothing has changed" - paint is applied to a ground then in the most part pinned to a wall - however, on the contrary, "everything has changed". On a single canvas (or whatever) there is still a multiplicity of potential to exploit - interior, exterior, colour, suggested correspondence and connections to all manner of interactions best suited (maybe even only) to the practice and medium and painting.
The "act" of painting has changed little. Artists who choose to paint still scrutinize earlier artists, studying how to resolve challenges and how to achieve certain effects. Having a dialogue with the past - consciously or not - it is almost impossible to make a painting without quoting.
But "everything has changed". The dizzying and diverse source material e.g. from memory to internet images, cinema to mathematical forms, can be employed to recreate a pictorial dialogue.
I paint what might seem to be realist imagery - though what is represented eschews any real intent to be necessarily of that thing. The invitation is to offer an array of possible readings. They pose no answers, only questions. Permission to be read from a safe distance is unintentional. The intention is to open up a whole space, to involve an audience - a kind of collaboration.
www.john-hiom.co.uk
Statement:
Periodically, painting has been dismissed - deemed irrelevant. As other art forms have changed considerably in appearance and presentation etc, it could be an easy - if a little lazy - mistake to make. Paintings' history and format could seem an anachronism alongside today's technology. One could perceive "nothing has changed" - paint is applied to a ground then in the most part pinned to a wall - however, on the contrary, "everything has changed". On a single canvas (or whatever) there is still a multiplicity of potential to exploit - interior, exterior, colour, suggested correspondence and connections to all manner of interactions best suited (maybe even only) to the practice and medium and painting.
The "act" of painting has changed little. Artists who choose to paint still scrutinize earlier artists, studying how to resolve challenges and how to achieve certain effects. Having a dialogue with the past - consciously or not - it is almost impossible to make a painting without quoting.
But "everything has changed". The dizzying and diverse source material e.g. from memory to internet images, cinema to mathematical forms, can be employed to recreate a pictorial dialogue.
I paint what might seem to be realist imagery - though what is represented eschews any real intent to be necessarily of that thing. The invitation is to offer an array of possible readings. They pose no answers, only questions. Permission to be read from a safe distance is unintentional. The intention is to open up a whole space, to involve an audience - a kind of collaboration.
Untitled
147 x 46cm
Acrylic on board
2022
147 x 46cm
Acrylic on board
2022