curated by Juan Bolivar
ha•lo [hey-loh] noun
1. Also called nimbus. a geometric shape, usually in the form of a disk, circle, ring, or rayed structure, traditionally representing a radiant light around or above the head of a divine or sacred personage, an ancient or medieval monarch, etc.
The artist Peter Halley of the late 80′s Neo-Geo movement, describes his use of ‘Day-Glo’ colours, characteristic of his ‘cell’ and ‘conduit’ paintings, as a signifier for ‘low budget mysticism’ and the ‘afterglow of radiation’. Halley maintained his synthetic palette refers to social, economic and other kinds of systems replacing the natural world or real experience. “Air conditioning is a simulation of air; movies are a simulation of life; life is simulated by bio-mechanical manipulations”.
In this exhibition by Canadian born artist Raf Zawistowski, we are presented with a new body of work produced for this, his first London solo exhibition. The paintings in HALO examine a relationship between the materiality of paint and image and in the words of Halley the ‘afterglow’ that exists when this are stripped down of their hierarchy. In doing so Zawistowski questions the perceived value images hold as these silhouettes evoke auras despite their stripped down iconography.
I work with landscapes as well as figures, though I keep both aesthetically separate. This separation is because the landscapes evoke a feeling of otherness and a presence that is not seen. I evoke feeling through the materiality of paint. If photography captures a moment and sculpture captures form, painting is a half way point between the two that lives on through time.
I address how the anti-sublime and the sublime are perceived through painting. I also explore the co-existing symbiotic relationship between the environment and the anti-environment. The trees are an archive of time – as a tree grows so do the rings in its trunk. In the way an old solitary tree becomes an icon and a cluster of trees overwhelms our senses.
Raf graduated MA in Fine Art, Wimbledon College of Art, 2011 and Ontario College of Art and Design BA in Fine Art in 2006. Selected exhibitions include: One Giant Leap: Works from the Saatchi Collection, Hyatt Regency, London (2012), Bloomberg New Contemporaries, S1 Space, Site Gallery, ICA, London (2011), CCW Salon Chisenhale Gallery. London (2011), Pathways Profetti, Dismari Gallery. Toronto, Canada (2009). His work is in the Saatchi Collection, the Robert Rose Collection and various private collections in London and Ontario.
Image: Matthew the Apostle, 2011, oil and wax on board. (private collection)
