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About

Peter von Kant is delighted to present Jack Otway (b.1991) in his first solo exhibition. Otway obtained his BA (Hons) in Fine Art (International) from the University of Leeds (First Class), which included one year on an Erasmus scholarship at the celebrated Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow.

This new body of work, in over-saturated colour and in its handling of emanating light calls to mind low-budget horror film effects. Orangey reds and nuclear greens seep into one another to form a nauseous palette, reiterating cheapness and a DIY attitude. Otway is interested in how we encounter performed violence from a distance and how its detritus can be re-evaluated through paint. He questions superficial bodily representations, and how they manifest materially, as important sites for meaning-making. Imbued with a new, physical sensitivity, these ‘dirty’ paintings hold their fleshy images and fleshy layers in crude tension. By allowing the work to occupy a semi-domestic gallery space Otway trades on a false sense of security, echoing the mindset of unease and unknowing with which he approaches painting.