FLAT PAINTINGS Simon Callery

About

Callery's new paintings are flat and rectangular - the two physical characteristics that define conventional image based painting. However, it is clear from the punctured surfaces and layered structures of these paintings that the artist is recasting the constituent elements of painting and developing convincing alternatives to established conventions.

The large-scale flat paintings on show originate in the landscape where Callery has worked for the last two seasons alongside excavations led by the Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford in Moel y Gaer, Bodfari, North Wales. The impact of this landscape and excavation site on the painting results in a group of works that expose all evidence of the making process as significant features in the completed work. They reveal to the viewer multi-layered external and internal surfaces and voids. These canvasses have been soaked with highly saturated pigments and have been cut and stitched. They are ragged, torn and perforated.

This new work will be shown alongside Wallspine (Leaf) 2015, a painting incorporating 125 metres of canvas made with assistance from a team of fine art students from Nottingham Trent University earlier this year. His recent shows include Soft Painting (2015), Bonington Gallery (solo), Nottingham, Real Painting (2015), Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, Within/Beyond Borders: Works of art from the European Investment Bank Collection (2014), Largo di S. Julião, Lisbon, and Shelf Show (2014), curated by Torgny Wilcke, Galleri Tom Christoffersen, Copenhagen.