Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
Micky Trioche Fine Art LTD, London.
10 October 2005 to 11 November 2006
Reviewed by: Sarah Lightman
Guy Shoham in Family Album
Beautiful but damaged.
Guy's work is always beautifully and carefully painted to the extent that I find myself examining his work very closely, awed and convinced by his technical skill and capacity to render. I know his paintings are an illusion, yet, when I see them they are just so real to me, and this leads me to ask is his work just concentrated on reproducing an illusion of reality, or is there another aspect of reality alluded to in these canvases?
In the group show 'Family Album' Shoham presents small new works transporting you to your old bedroom, with partially scratched off, Walt Disney characters, like Bugs Bunny, and porn stickers on a wood laminate background. And it is this element of growing up that fascinates him. The moments of transition described here are two- fold through these potent symbols: from cartoon characters and a childish world, to awakening sexual interest and desire. Guy described to me how at some level we seek ' to get rid of, but also treasure these moments and want to go back.. ' and this is certainly true in his work, for there is as much of each sticker remaining as there is removed, and for all that Guy may have left this room behind him, he has spent hours and day painting and recreating it again on canvas.
The work addresses illusion and trompe l'oeil,and Guy admits his work has to do with artificiality and how this is conveyed to the viewer. This is dealt with a level of humour as well. Beneath the stickers the wall is laminate, that fake wood is rendered fake again in his paintings, but is still convincing in its 'fakeness'.
These qualities of illusion contrast with a heavier atmosphere in Guy's work. He described to me how, though he may chose images and objects that have been damaged and discarded, (2nd-hand porcelain, stickers etc), they are not necessarily his own, ' I like them being broken and discarded by someone..it is not necessary my process that has discarded them. but they are always about myself, remind me of myself'. This could be that the elements in his images have universal and ongoing references, who's to say there will be a time when Walt Disney and Pamela Anderson won't be staples in a young boy/man's bedroom? But on a more personal and revealing note,it seems to be that Guy relates to life and living as a process of becoming damaged, and some life experiences leave us feeling broken. This he describes as a sense that pervades his work '. a melancholy feeling.. sadness but not knowing what it is ... It is his great artistic vision to take these damaged moments, feelings and places, and treasure and paint them with the utmost delicacy, revealing their beauty.
www.guyshoham.tk
Writer detail:
Sarah Lightman is a Fine Artist and Curator and is currently concentrating on a series of diary drawings of her life. www.sarahlightman.com
Venue detail:
Micky Trioche Fine Art
21 Market Place, LONDON NW11 6JY
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