Ian Grose, Refrain
Stevenson Gallery, Joburg
Until 31 July 2015
Nothing on the painting board, 2015.
About:
Ian Grose is interested in the philosophy of painting, particularly the ways in which the world, viewer and picture come together to propose or define meaning for each other. He employs the subject matter in his paintings as pretexts, to research how the paintings function as objects of experience, and how they might act as metaphors for the experience of seeing and representing the world.
One of the guiding principles for him is the idea, or ideas, of materialism, especially in regard to representation. Being faced with both an image of something from the world, and the image’s physical existence as an object – the painting – Grose seeks to navigate the contradictions and relationships between these realities.
Intercessor 2, 2015
Using printed fabric as subject matter allows him to use repetition as a device to further investigate his philosophical enquiry. Not only does the fabric have a repetitive pattern, but also the act of repeatedly creating a painting from this resource is a tool for him to emphasise the operation of contingency, accident and process that is central to his work.
View from my desk, 2015.
In his words, “The picture-metaphor mimics elements of the world, but after some time the world seems to adopt attributes of the picture. What might be behind it? What is its texture?”
Boy 1, 2015.
Selfportrait in gold foil, 2015.
Ian Grose was born in Johannesburg in 1985 and lives and works in Cape Town. He completed a postgraduate diploma in painting at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, in 2010, after a BA majoring in English Literature and Art History. His first solo exhibition, Other Things, took place at Blank Projects in Cape Town in 2011. He was awarded the Absa l’Atelier prize in 2011, as well as the Tollman Award for Visual Arts, and spent six months in residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris in 2012. Works produced during his residency were exhibited at the Absa Art Gallery in Johannesburg in 2013. He has had solo exhibitions at Stevenson, Cape Town, in 2013 and 2014.
Courtesy: Stevenson Gallery, Joburg.