The Historical Context of my Art Practice (Part 2).

In addition, there are a number of currently practising artists that relate to my work and creative philosophy. As marbling is a factor of my practice, the art of Robert Wu is of particular interest. This artist practices traditional marbling, the process of applying inks to water and placing paper on the waters’ surface to transpose marbled effects and patterns. An example of Robert Wu’s work can be seen here.

Another notable artist whose work I find intriguing and influential is Kadar Brock, born in America, New York in 1980. His large-scale abstract paintings are a seemingly discordant combination of complex techniques, styles, and tones that also involve marbling and additional painted detail, thereby relating to my own work. Brock is described as a post-graffiti artist, as his art is in reference to the history of abstraction, yet also incorporates an element of chance and idiosyncrasy that informs the determination of his unique style of mark making. An example of Brocks’ work, named Demiusfim, 2004-2011, can be seen here…

In addition, a related artist is the Dutch painter Frank Ammerlaan, who resides in London and was born in 1979. Ammerlaan has won numerous awards, and his work has been exhibited throughout Europe and America. Ammerlaans’ work is subtle and intriguing, as the viewers’ experience of his paintings depends largely upon the distance from which they are observed. They are full of dynamic tonal variations which probe the cerebral tenacities of viewers rather than directly exhilarating the emotions. This artist also created a method of painting with chemicals; a unique process that relates to the shimmering, nacreous, yet toxic configurations one might see in oil spills. An example can be seen here, named ‘Untitled, 2012’.

I would also like to draw attention to the work of Janne Parviainen, a Finnish Light Art and Photography artist who resides in Helsinki. This artist is well known and his work has been featured in various magazines and newspapers such as The National Geographic and The Guardian. The style he utilises, namely Light Topography is an art form in which photos are manipulated manually using different kind of light sources during long camera exposure times. Parviainen, traces entire rooms with a hand held LED laser light to create light cartography; essentially three dimensional maps of a particular space. In addition he also combines this technique with topographical drawings constructed with chalks, permanent markers and charcoal. I find his work original, inspiring and unique; the energy and tenacity of his art feeds into my own practice, inspirations and motivations to create complex, multi layered artworks. An example of Parviainens’ work can be seen here, named ‘The Time is Now’.

Another relevant artist whose work can be seen as a modern, technological continuation of the early abstract art genre Rayonism, pioneered by Mikhail Larionov and Natalia Goncharova in Russia during 1911, is Bill Dolson. The image here is taken from Dolson’s 2006 New York project ‘Rift’, which is part of his ‘Trajectories’ series. These are ephemeral wall drawings created through the use of beams of laser light. The light beams intersect the wall at very shallow angles, are rebounded by mirrors, and dispersed by diffraction gratings which create a highly textured light beam. This work connects to my own practice and artistic philosophy in being directly related to scientific pursuits and exploration, yet simultaneously being linked to the development of artistic abstraction, whilst preserving an otherworldly mystique by focusing on the ephemeral qualities of light to stimulate and provoke emotional and intellectual reactions.