'Mid-Way', A debut solo by Joe Bloom

About

Born in 1995, Joe Bloom is a painter and filmmaker who since graduating from the Glasgow School of art (BA Painting) in 2016 has been living and working in his home town of London. During this time he has exhibited in a handful of group shows and made a number of short films including a recent documentary commission for BBC3 titled ‘Making friends with a stranger changed my life’. From the 15th to the 20th of January 2020 Bloom will be presenting his first ever solo show, titled ‘Mid–Way’, at the Soho Revue, Brewer street.

‘Mid-Way’ exhibits a selection of Bloom’s paintings and films from his past two years of work. Aeroplanes and other vessels which we often find ourselves encapsulated in have been a recurring theme in Bloom’s compositions. The fascination stems from the atmospheric limbo that many people are familiar with when we travel in this way and our subsequent proneness to significantly amplified emotions that come with it, whether that be manifested by seemingly out of the blue, intense feelings of nostalgia and love or uncharacteristically crying at a not so profound film. There are countless possible explanations for this phenomenon, however for Bloom it has something to do with the acceptance that once you step into that vessel, you may never know any other feeling again, so why not let all guards down and allow one’s mind to become this overly sentimental and introspective place. In doing so, feelings and thoughts relating to love are predictably inescapable, which is just one of the themes explored in this body of work.