GL Brierley : Matersatz

7 Oct-28 Nov 2010

Overview

The artist embraces paint as a base matter – the word comes from mater, the mother – and a tool for frenetic sensorial experimentations. It’s poured, scratched, dissolved. Colours that wouldn’t normally sit together are forced to mix, creating a dazzling array of accidental patterns, highlighted by lovingly applied glazes. Ripple by ripple, drop by drop, Brierley’s painting invents its own language. These experiments aren’t control-free. The theatrical dark backgrounds, pedestals, and spectacular light effects allow Brierley to enclose and restrain the central pictorial frenzy. In Brierley’s work, painting doesn’t simply exist, it becomes.