Clive Hodgson

16 Nov-16 Dec 2017

Overview

Spread over the surfaces of Clive Hodgson’s paintings are different coloured oblongs, circles, brush strokes, lines, and other effects that might be stencilled, drawn, scratched, removed, sprayed, splattered, washed, layered. Amongst these forms two others: ‘C.Hodgson’ and the year of production are constant presences. They are not quite like an artists signature but integral parts of the paintings themselves – painted above and below, behind or in front or as negative shapes. In some of the 2017 paintings they are so formally integrated that you don’t even spot them at first. Whilst some of the shapes – lures and hooks to our imaginations – might variously spark associations of targets, punctuation, decorative motifs, snow or eyelashes, the paintings seem to resist those references, or even the very idea of reference. But what of the marks that name and date?