Closed
6.5 – 6.6 2021
John Copeland:Heavy Reverb
3–5 Swallow St
John Copeland:Heavy Reverb
06.05 – 06.06.2021
Closed
Hours
Monday to Saturday
10:00 am – 5:30 pm
Gallery
3–5 Swallow St
London
W1B 4DE
In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up, 2021
© Huxley-Parlour Gallery
Huxley-Parlour gallery present their first exhibition with American artist, John Copeland, opening in May 2021. The exhibition includes six large scale paintings, and is Copeland’s most ideologically wrought, and formally succinct to date.
John Copeland’s work is characterised by expressive mark making; thick, impasto oils, and heavily wrought scenes where exuberant brushstrokes disrupt and distort the narrative. Using found photos and print media as a starting point, Copeland appropriates and transforms his chosen imagery, using a fierce intensity of mark making to create complex compositions that hint at insidious, visceral drives amongst otherwise ordinary tableaux.
The Exhibition
7
The Works
6
John Copeland
Amplifier
2020-21
Oil on canvas
John Copeland
Omnivore
2020-21
Oil on canvas
John Copeland
Violent Music/ Fragile Feels
2020-21
Oil on canvas
John Copeland
Bad Dog/ Good Boy
2020-21
Oil on canvas
John Copeland
Mind Your Viscerals
2020-21
Oil on canvas
John Copeland
In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up
2020-21
Oil on canvas
B. United States 1976
Biography
The relationship between abstraction and figuration has been a continuous focus throughout Copeland’s career. He has stated, ‘I’m more interested in using the language of painting and working with the edge of abstraction, working with the push and pull of paint, image, readability and texture.’
The artist’s figures are often drawn from found images, which he distorts in thick layers of paint. In building a thick impasto upon his canvas he imbues his expressionistic paintings with a darker tone that references libidinous human drives which are concealed within everyday experiences. Often working with established art historical tropes, such as the nude and the table and the skull, Copeland aims to explore the complexities of image-making and representation. Process driven, Copeland creates his works around a given idea in order to build compositions that explore the balance between everyday realities and the violence and drives that underlay human existence. His work has moved increasingly towards abstraction, in which his figures blend more and more into the background as he works with numerous colours which combine together, never allowing a single colour to dominate the canvas.
Born in California in 1976, John Copeland studied at the California College of Arts and Crafts, where he gained a BFA in 1998. Copeland’s work has been exhibited internationally in Copenhagen, Bologna, Zurich, New York, Leipzig and most recently at the Newport Street Gallery in London.
He lives and works in New York.