JAMES GUPPY Counterpoint 29 October to 24 November 2016
JAMES GUPPY Counterpoint 29 October to 24 November 2016
For the past few years my work has been driven by an inner malaise and dissatisfaction with “the way things are”. This time I am relieved to be returning to a favoured theme...a focus on intimacy, and the body. These paintings are a celebration of flesh and touch. I wanted to get back to the essence of our being...the complex joy of love, and play between people. The touching suggests a “music” of intimacy to me...the duets and trios play together in melodies and patterns that flow as they make contact. There are still dissonant moments but this becomes another part of the energies... The entwined flesh is a fugue of shapes and shadows. Moved by the rhythms and textures of cherished bodies, I have played with these elements to transform lovers at play into a cantata of forms. - James Guppy, 2016
▶ ARTIST BIOGRAPHY (b. 1954. London, United Kingdom) James Guppy exhibited a series of diptyches and interiors with Access Contemporary Art Gallery in 1991, a relationship that has led to over fifteen solo exhibitions with Access Contemporary Art Gallery/Brenda May Gallery, as well as an extensive exhibition history nationally and internationally in the USA. Guppy’s powerful and enigmatic narrative-based paintings travelled to eleven different locations in a solo survey show (2009 - 2011) and his 2015 series In Flagrante Delicto has travelled across NSW from Brenda May Gallery and Sydney Contemporary (September 2015) to Tweed Regional Gallery (September 2016 to February 2017). Guppy’s artworks are in numerous collections including Queensland Art Gallery, Artbank, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Lismore Regional Art Gallery, Tweed Regional Art Gallery, Warwick & Stanthorpe Regional Art Galleries, various university collections and private collections in Australia, Asia, Europe, UK and the USA. A socially and politically minded person, Guppy was a mural artist for the first fifteen years of his career before converting to canvas, as he enjoyed the democratisation of having his works on the streets. Throughout his career, Guppy’s subject matter has varied from surreal moments, scenes of tension, billowing explosions, formidable women and anthropomorphic beings, all executed with a refined and intelligent approach, appearing both dramatic and lifelike. A part of the lure of Guppy’s works lies in his capacity to convey tangible impossibility, whether that be endeavouring to represent the fluidity of sexuality by creating alternate genders, constructing coiled, ribbed and looped genitalia (1998); producing images of labourers nailing down the edge of the ocean to the sand (2002); or portraying men in suits navigating roaring oceans, pastoral scenery, apocalyptic landscapes and clouds heavy with suspense, all the while remaining disconnected from the world around them as they carry out their “business” (2014 - 2015). Guppy has worked as a visual arts lecturer in the UK at Lancaster University (1979 - 81) and Preston Polytechnic (1980 - 81); in Australia at Griffith University (1995), Flying Arts Inc. as a travelling lecturer in Outback Queensland (1996) and Southern Cross University in Lismore (2005); as well as in the USA as an Adjunct Professor of Arts and Media at Long Island University (Southampton College) in New York (1999 - 01).
James Guppy, ‘Kissing the Wrist’ 2016, acrylic on linen, 61 x 56cm
James Guppy, ‘Counterpoint I’ 2016, acrylic on linen, 61 x 56cm
James Guppy, ‘Caressing His Shoulder’ 2016, acrylic on linen, 50 x 40cm
James Guppy, ‘Counterpoint II’ 2016, acrylic on linen, 61 x 56cm
James Guppy, ‘Kissing Her’ 2016, acrylic on linen, 61 x 56cm
James Guppy, ‘Kissing the Foot’ 2016, acrylic on linen, 45.5 x 61cm
James Guppy, ‘Touching Her Back’ 2016, acrylic on canvas, 71 x 51cm
James Guppy, ‘Embrace’ 2016, acrylic on linen, 50 x 40cm
James Guppy, ‘Fugue’ 2016, acrylic on linen, 50 x 40cm
James Guppy, ‘Interlude’ 2016, acrylic on linen, 61 x 45.5cm
James Guppy, ‘The Spaces in Between’ 2016, acrylic on canvs, 71 x 56cm
James Guppy, ‘Touching His Back’ 2016, acrylic on linen, 40 x 50cm
B R E N D A M AY
G A L L E R Y
2 D a n k s S t r e e t Wa t e r l o o N S W A u s t r a l i a 2 0 1 7 www.brendamaygallery.com.au info@brendamaygallery.com.au tuesday - friday 11-6 saturday 10-6 t. 02 9318 1122