Friday 11 November 2011

John NIXON – “EPW: Silver”

A steamy hot day in Melbourne and l feel instantly cooled down and refreshed as l am greeted by the ever so cool work of John Nixon’s latest dialogue of “EPW: Silver”. 

These paintings consist of various sizes of canvases and chipboard painted mainly in enamel silver chrome dispersed with white, black and red. The canvases are propped unconventionally, sometimes arranged on top of each other, vertically protruding from the wall, up above eye level or simply made in 3 d as a vertical canvas box.

The artist Nixon is continuing his Experimental Painting Workshop or “EPW”. The project begun in 1995.

In my opinion, the artist is deconstructing conventional painting both in product and sentiment. I believe it is the artists own off shoot of Modernism were traditional format is dispelled and experimentation of material is replaced. The artist seems to also explore the viewer’s relationship to the work.

I found myself wanting to investigate the constructed canvas by trying to stand inside the partitioned work. The subtlety of shadows made from the gallery lights on the chrome silver was also compelling. The shapes that could be seen that were made from the various coloured constructed canvases when standing back was interesting. You certainly start looking at these traditional canvases as sculptural. Each piece was named “Silver Monochrome” with the year it was made. I wonder if the exhibition was hung in chronological order, would this change the outcome or is this own traditional bias appearing? This artist is certainly prolific and l feel it would be necessary if you were to participate in an ongoing project such as this.

I look forward to the next development.

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