Rowan Newton – Delphian Gallery

Articles Tagged with: rowan newton

Rowan Newton – Episode 8 of the Delphian Podcast is now live!

Rowan Newton – Episode 8 of the Delphian Podcast is NOW LIVE!

episode 8 - rowan newton

South London born painter Rowan Newton joins us for this episode of The Delphian Podcast where we talk about his debut solo exhibition, Fractured Integrity, with Jealous Gallery as well as surviving as an artist, the role and state of art fairs in London and his own podcast Art Proof.

Listen now on our website HERE, or search DELPHIAN PODCAST in iTunes, Spotify, or Podbean.

Please don’t forget to Like, Share, and Subscribe!

Clutch // Agarrar – Robin Footitt interview

Clutch // Agarrar – Robin Footitt

Carlos Carvalho Arte Contemporânea, Lisbon, Portugal

Opening: Wednesday 26th June 2019; 6 – 8pm

Dates: 26/06 – 07/09/19

Clutch // Agarrar

Tell us about your new body of work, am I right in thinking it ties in with your last exhibition in London?

That’s right, it has been 6 months since ‘Open Window’ at New Art Projects, London and I felt that I needed to develop and revisit this sense of loss when using your hands creatively on digital operating platforms. Open Window was thematically concentrated on the language shift of meaning from its basis as a means to escape towards a term for single-minded focus when working on a computer. The solo exhibition at Carlos Carvalho Arte Contemporânea, Lisbon is titled ‘Clutch // Agarrar’ and is intended to reply to that instinct of snatching or grasping at something instinctively with your reactive hands.

It’s reasonable to say that the theme of detachment has reoccurred in many of my pieces, particularly in relation to hands – I’ve always been fascinated how hands can affect composition with specific signs in religious and historical paintings almost like their purpose is to gesture towards meaning. Personally, living as I do with a hearing impairment I always take gesturing as a clue to what I might not be hearing 100 percent of the time.

In Open Window you almost had three separate sections. Have you done that with Clutch // Agarrar and can you explain some of the pieces of work?

I’ve enjoyed the evolving language that the past two exhibitions at New Art Projects (Modern Grammar, 2016 and Open Window, 2018) have afforded me – working in the same space twice has given me the chance to play around with some of the disconnect I sometimes feel when working across different media outside of the studio. I see presentation as a medium in itself and the gallery space at Carlos Carvalho is vast and open – many works can be seen from one viewpoint and I want to see how these dynamics playout. So this was my starting point to develop new work, open space can sometimes give a virtual perfect thumbnail view of an artwork before you see it close up. I’m thinking of how colours were manipulated by the impressionists to see form when standing at distance from the canvas. So many of the works in Clutch // Agarrar operate differently when seen from those two points of view, an image will be solid and then unravel on closer inspection whether it be like the impressionists or from other forms of image manipulation. This has also meant that I have worked on a larger scale to realise such an impression from distance.

Clutch // Agarrar

What was the process of putting together this body of work?

Like I said previously, I needed to revisit a theme that came out of Open Window by facing it head on – a sense of loss when creativity is detached from touch and the mechanical use of your hands. I’ve been working on an intimate scale for some time, crafting larger work from smaller beginnings. One such beginning was the construction of cut paper collages using red, green and blue to replicate magnified pixels on various display screens from mobile phones, gaming consoles and digital tablets. I knew I wanted to show this work at the centre of the exhibition having previously used them to make patterned Lycra textiles and at Carlos Carvalho I have the opportunity to show these for the first time.

The Lycra artworks have returned but this time the stretching is minimal, I’m using the surface as a means to show subliminal images on top on the pixel RGB patterns with minimal distortion around the edges. An important work for me is a version of French Impressionist Gustave Caillebotte’s ‘Les raboteurs de parquet’; the original painting revealed its process by having the floor strippers peeling away the wooden boards and in doing so took the surface back to the bare canvas beneath. This has always struck me as quite a performative painting, like you feel the action of stripping down the basics of painting and that gives it a very special energy. Now in the context of Clutch // Agarrar there is a disconnect when viewing the image as a composed screen of pixelated dots – just as there would be if you were to do an image search on your phone right now to look up the painting that I’m talking about. It would be backlit as if Caillebotte were painting with light itself fully realised rather than mastering its effects with paint and canvas.

Would you say that exhibiting in a new country adds some fear or excitement? Did you feel you were second guessing or working with more freedom?

I’ve approached this show with the idea of a new audience in mind, the majority will have never seen my work before and may approach it from a completely different context. I wanted to be sensitive to that, to have a clear objective and a strong visual element but then again I always enjoy the uncertainty of two opinions. Having a bilingual title was my way of introducing this thought of duality – the English term clutch has a host of meanings, I found out that it’s even used in sports as a way of describing someone who came through in a difficult or trying time. Now, I asked a Portuguese friend if there was a similar term and he gave me two suggestions “agarrar” which means to grab, grasp, hold, cling, seize, clutch… the other was “apertar” which is to tighten, press, squeeze, pinch, clamp, clutch… so even in this I was reinterpreting meaning! Ultimately it will be about finding an unsettled middle ground – I’ve also played with the Portuguese language in some of my titles, finding symmetry in palindromes such as ‘Luz AzuL’, ‘SaraS’ and ‘SeleS’. The visual influence of Lisbon is included in a use of repeated azulejo tile patterns from Museu Nacional do Azulejo as well as producing a tile pattern directly from a sample of ‘Les raboteurs de parquet’.

This will be your first time exhibiting with Carlos Carvalho but you also were featured last month at PHOTO LONDON at Somerset House. How have you found working with the gallery so far and how did the relationship begin?

It began with a recommendation from fellow artist Tatiana Macedo, who is represented by Carlos Carvalho and a good friend of mine for over 15 years. We studied together at Central Saint Martins art college 2001-2004 and have kept in touch. I curated a solo show of her photography and video at 4 Windmill Street, London titled ‘Seems So Long Ago, Nancy’ in 2012. The process with the gallery took 2 years from initial dialogue and meetings to arranging the dates and content for the exhibition – I feel excitement from both sides about my involvement in Lisbon and they were kind enough to invite me to show a series of works from 2014 called ‘Closed Circuit Saga’ at PHOTO LONDON art fair this May alongside some of their artists (Anthony Goicolea, Isabel Brison, Jessica Backhaus and Mónica de Miranda). Their interest and engagement with this work gave me the confidence to expect great things from our collaboration.

Clutch // Agarrar

So its fair to say you’re looking forward to this new experience? Carlos Carvalho has a strong emphasis on photography, where do you see the placement of your work in this context?

Absolutely! I see the focus on photography that the gallery upholds as a useful one when approaching the visual work that I make. I mean visual in the sense of an overall image, we live in a digital culture where even text information is read visually before the content is absorbed on websites and banners. The work was collected post PHOTO LONDON so as I speak the artwork has arrived ahead of me! With the time I have before arriving in Lisbon to install I have made plenty of notes for how to hang these pieces and researching the rest of my trip. For the first time I have collaborated with a graphic designer, Jacinto Caetano to continue this identity beyond the exhibition so even the title of show has a strong visual presence. I’m looking forward to attending the opening night on Wednesday 26th June.

Interview by Rowan Newton

@robinfootittart

Fractured Integrity – Rowan Newton

Rowan Newton’s highly anticipated and long-overdue debut UK Solo Exhibition ‘Fractured Integrity’ opened at Jealous East for an exclusive 10 day launch, featuring 6 large-scale paintings and a series of miniature studies, marking a new direction in the artists work and a renewed, unique reflection on figurative painting.

Figures are poised in almost cinematic realities, instigating a sense of familiarity, yet these worlds are disrupted with sharp glitches and gestural sweeps of colour; a disrupted reality which isn’t quite as familiar as it first seemed. Motion swirls around the carefully constructed figures as they move through the canvas, expressed through the artists loose, confident and textural application of the medium and liberal use of vibrant colours which surrounds and interacts with them.

‘Fractured Integrity’ explores an emotive narrative, told through the female form with a series of frozen moments exploring the psychological darkness which accompanies our human need to connect; insecurity, power, isolation and vulnerability. Identity is subverted by the concealment or obscuring of the face, drawing our focus directly to the body. The gaze of the voyeur, however, is irrelevant. These characters recoil and turn away from our stares, an ambivalent nonchalance to our presence is created. Though beautiful and elegant, they make no attempt to seduce us with their naked forms. As we move past the beauty of colour, we are left with subtle suggestions of darkness, pain and anxiety, moments which create for the viewer a context to reflect on their own unique experiences.

Why did it take you so long to do a solo show?

I always knew that I wanted to produce a show that was more then a series of portraits. When I first started out I was painting figures. But after a couple of years I fell into this loop of constantly painting portraits. So I waited till something pulled me out of that. And then it hit me, nothing was gonna pull me out of that but myself. Like I was waiting for some devine intervention. But really I just needed to pull myself away from it, and start producing the work I really wanted to. That took time, and it took even more time to be really happy with what I was producing when I went in this new direction.

$fractured integrity$

Seeking Hidden Sins – Oil on canvas

Why did you decide that you needed this new direction?

I was tired of the box I had been put in by the galleries and the audience. “Oh you’re a portrait painter, we want the portraits” and I’m thinking, I’m a painter, full stop, not a ‘portrait’ painter. I wanted to remind myself I was capable of paintings more then a portrait. I wasn’t happy about the box I had fallen into and wanted to break free. Time has also helped with that. As it’s been a while now, people do seem to have forgotten about the portraits, or certainly aren’t so expectant that everything they see of me would be a portrait. Which is nice and refreshing.

Do all of the works feel like they are a part of one series for you, or is each work an autonomous piece?

It was important for me that this felt like a body of work when viewed together. There is a narrative to it all. It tells a story in a sequence. Which is explained to some degree in the zine I’ve made for the show. But at the same time I was very much aware that I wanted each painting to also stand up on there own individually. I really didn’t want the viewer to feel like they were looking at the same painting over and over again but maybe the colours had changed slightly.

In terms of the narrative, did you decide what this was going to be beforehand and then create works to illustrate it, or did the narrative develop from the paintings in retrospect?

At the start I was just painting. I took time to just paint anything but portraits. When in that zone, I think what happens is, what’s on your mind ends up coming through. How conscious you are of that at first I’m not sure. You step back from the painting look at it and think, wow ok where did that come from, and then days or even weeks later you realise that small thought at the back of your head really influenced the way you put paint down on the canvas that day. After a while of just painting it then naturally became apparent what was most important to me to communicate with this body of work. From there it became a conscious effort I’d say, so almost half way through. But lots of paintings were done at the beginning, communicating various things, paintings that will never be seen, that have now been painted over.

$fractured integrity$

Beyond The Shadow Of Doubt – Oil on Canvas

Where did the title Fractured Integrity come from, and what connection does it have to the paintings?

The title relates to the fact that u own your integrity. That’s yours and yours only, no one can take it from u. You’ll always have it. But people can question it, sometimes rightfully so, sometimes not, it’s just the other persons insecurities been forced upon you. Sometimes you will do things that are questionable, which can put your integrity under scrutiny. Other times it will be at its best. We are humans, our integrity will be up and down over our life time. Causing our emotions to be the same, which is what the paintings communicate. Emotions stirred due to your own actions and others. The fractured part is a reference to that fact that it can never be solidly good at all times, but up and down.

So how does the title inform the works themselves, and does this body of work feel complete and finished with the show, or will it continue?

The paintings represent different emotions, feelings we’ve all felt, moments we have all lived. The women’s face is hidden or partly covered, because it’s not about them in particular, but the feeling the painting evokes. Hopefully they start a dialogue with the audience about those feelings and emotions. In turn causing the audience to talk about those situations they have been through.

At this point the body of work feels complete for me. The paintings in my own head took a narrative arch. The story was told. I now look forward to the next story. In my head there is always a story to communicate with the art. A movie told in a number of stills as it were.

$fractured integrity$

Lost – Oil on Canvas

For more from Rowan, see his website HERE.

For more interviews

Making Bad Decisions – Richie Culver

Travel As A Source Of Inspiration – The Jaunt

Guest Article – Rowan Newton interviews Robin Footitt

For this Guest Article – artist Rowan Newton interviews Robin Footitt about his work, and his current show at New Art Projects in London. For more about both artists and the gallery, see their website links at the bottom.

Rowan Newton - Robin Footitt

RN – One of the first things I noticed as I entered the exhibition is that it seems to be in 3 parts. Tell me about the theme to this show and how each part plays it role within that theme?

RF – ‘Open Window’, is the second solo project I’ve had at New Art Projects, and continues a theme which takes modernism into the realm of communication through image abstraction when using technology. The perception of an open window has changed in recent times from a sense of escape and outward potential to a much more singular, internalised, anxious pursuit born out of working on layered computer screens. I liken the stages of my treatment to the exhibition theme as a series of acts, much like in opera – the topic can be a central focus in the work or a subtext to underwrite other more intimate narratives. This is similar to the way in which I work, using different materials and time signatures (“instant” objects versus labour intensive craft) to resolve and set a rhythm in the installation.

Perhaps the first act in Open Window is the series of dots connecting together, plotting grid compositions and dividing lines throughout the space. These are patterns made on Lycra, which replicate the magnification of various phone and display screens. These red, green and blue tessellated shapes were initially assembled as paper collages to reclaim the handmade and tangible act of touching a pixel. The 90 degree angular forms they make on the wall are much more mechanical and are reminiscent of linking dots together to unlock your phone or make a chain of matching candies to make them dissolve… Relationship to the screen is echoed throughout the other works – I’ve made drawings about the passing of time and maintaining your place within it, using visual significations such as placing a napkin over a drink to claim your absence (Holding Object) or indeed taking that napkin and repeatedly unfolding and refolding it in different ways as a means to kill time (Napkin Variations).

RN – The geometric shapes, can you tell me how these pieces were made?

RF – The two yellow windows, titled ‘Outlook’ and ‘Explorer’ are good examples of what I referred to earlier as instant objects. They are both made from Dibond aluminium sheet material, which I draw on with permanent marker and their shape is predetermined by this relationship. Those drawings were at the same scale as my phone screen (9:5) and these parallelograms were cut to size and produced instantaneously. Whilst the pair have a simple hard edge abstraction I enjoy the multiplicity of their purpose, like having the spectre of a ray of light cast on the wall through a window.

Rowan Newton - Robin Footitt

RN – When you say Outlook and Explorer, I instantly think of the email host and search engine, are they the source of these names? And why?

RF – Again ‘Explorer’ and ‘Outlook’ respond to the window theme but you’re quite right that they are in reference to android software. There was something attractive about those names as if you were being a pioneer looking out on the vastness of all this information. In regards to the pieces one is reflective and the other is a more matt surface so I titled them respectively.

RN – Now having a little time to live with the show as an exhibit, how do you feel about it?

RF – The work I keep returning to is ‘You Left Me’ a photographic altar piece-style triptych that hangs off the corner in the second room. The three images come from an undeveloped camera film, which I found sat inside my aunt’s camera after her passing. It was half-used and had been there for some years previously forgotten. When I processed the negatives each print had a bleached, dreamlike quality, which came partly from the fixed perspective lens, but also the deterioration of the film. It seemed apt to keep this analogue production so I scanned the prints without retouching and housed them in a bespoke hinged frame. The lack of focus toys with the arrangement to maintain a constantly shifting focal point, which I admire. It makes me nostalgic for less immediate forms of photography I suppose, where the first exposure isn’t instantly lit up by a screen and consumed just as quickly.

Rowan Newton - Robin Footitt

RN – You have worked with New Art Projects for just over 2 years, tell me about that journey?

RF – It has grown pretty organically since ‘Modern Grammar’ which opened in September 2016. Fred Mann, Director of New Art Projects has put the trust in me to develop over that period with a solo project booth at VOLTA New York in 2017 and that invitation extended to me curating group show ‘The Toast’ alongside Open Window this November.

RN – If you could make one thing disappear from the Art world what would it be?

RF – Application fees

RN – Do you have a piece of your own art hanging in your home, of so, why that piece? If not, why?

RF – I do yes. Many works hanging in my home are from years of swapping with other artists that I have either curated, collaborated with or studied alongside, and the odd bit of collecting from independent online stores.

RN – What’s next for you?

RF – Nothing I can reveal just yet but all being well I should be travelling much more in 2019…

Open Window can be viewed at New Art Projects, London until 21st December 2018

Website: www.robinfootitt.com and www.newartprojects.com

Instagram: @robinfootittart and @newartprojects

Facebook: New Art Projects London

Guest Article by Rowan Newton

Instagram: @Rowan_Newton

Website: RowanNewton.co.uk

Facebook: Rowan Newton

FOR MORE GUEST ARTICLES CHECK OUT:

Nicholas Burns – Inside the Bug Jar