About Venice - recent work by Duart Bel Silva

About

“Venise à la qualité de disparaître en un instant,de ne pas courir derrière le train avec des clins d’œil à gauche et à droite comme le font d’autres villes, mais de sombrer aussitôt, comme si elle n’existait pas, comme si elle n’avait jamais existé.” 
[ "Venice has the quality of disappearing in an instant - not spooling out right and left,as the train passes,as do other towns, but of lapsing totally,as if it ceased to exist: as if it has never existed.” ]
― Nina Berberova, Le Roseau Révolté

This exhibition remembers Venice.

My work contains a figurative element, but expresses itself in abstraction: these paintings are About Venice - not just in the sense of subject, but in the sense of proximity, connection …they are roundabout Venice. 
I started from a part-remembered, part-imagined landscape - Venice, which I knew as a child - overlaid with the accumulations of subsequent experience.

The intention is to develop a painted object that will communicate a visual equivalence of the initial sensation. To re-create it as a pictorial reality. 
My practice is rooted in an exploration of colour and line, and how these mark out space, sensation and form. The process is improvisational, aiming to produce objects that require no narrative or conceptual reading. 
They are the painted expressions of a dialogue between my process and my reaction to the experience.

Here,the elusive, ever vanishing, ever re-appearing, light reflecting,City of the Lagoon.

Also exhibited are smaller works, relating to the wild fires in Portugal 2017, and a series of linear abstractions called Small Sounds.

Duart Bel Silva studied Fine Art at the University of the Arts,
(Camberwell and Hornsey Colleges).

Recent Exhibitions include:

‘Dulwich Festival Artists Open House’: Artemidorus, Herne Hill: June 2018
‘Perspectives’: Espacio Gallery, Shoreditch: May 2018
‘-and…Repeat’: no format Gallery, Deptford: solo exhibition: October 2017

There will be an artist talk to accompany this exhibition – please see details below.

Developing the Painted Object – Artist Talk by Duart Bel Silva

Thursday 23rd August, 6.00pm – 7.30pm

Exhibition Space, 1st floor, Westminster Reference Library, 35 St Martin’s St London WC2H 7HP.

The session will conclude with a Q & A session, providing you with the opportunity to quiz the artist!

Booking for the talk is essential. Book your free place on Eventbrite: https://developingthepaintedobject.eventbrite.co.uk