expressionism
 A dark urban expressionism has been shaped by a sense of deep history and the pathos of its passing. Adopting the vivid drips of Jackson Pollock and the glimmering vision of Mark Rothko, angel 41 paints canvases that resemble urban graffiti as much as they do the work of abstract expressionists gone by.
Lines are stabbed, scratched and scralled, sporadic energy and violent brush strokes overlap half erased layers and take on new tortured forms which evolve into psychosexually charged dremscapes.
Graffiti-like strokes surface into view suggesting the fantasy of reconnection to a mythical past. The work amounts to a form of Abstract Expressionism with a raucous energy of the streets where past and present violently collide in a new demonic language.
His paintings exist between representation and abstraction, shot through with suggestions and glimmerings of recognisable form. They are intelligent objects, constantly in dialogue with the art of the past, whilst striving forward on the edge of an unstoppable force.
The cryptic intensity of angel 41's art stems from the artist's passions and fears, his aspirations and his anxieties. The humanity of his art is both touching and profound. It investigates the notions of time and of experience and finds a tension between exuberance and melancholy.
He has reinvented his own manner of painting to produce a brutal vision imbued with apocalyptic overtones and deep rooted urban decay, which flirts with a fatal confessional character of raw energy and feeling. |
