JOEL DICKENS - Like Noise From A Party You're Not Invited To

JOEL DICKENS Like Noise From A Party You’re Not Invited To 28th February - 16th March 2019 Opening night: Thursday 28th February, 6-8pm

76 Paddington St Paddington NSW 2021 ph. +61 2 9660 7799 info@piermarq.com.au www.piermarq.com.au

JOEL DICKENS Like Noise From A Party You’re Not Invited To 28th February - 16th March 2019 Opening: Thursday 28th February, 6-8pm Joel Dickens was born in London, grew up in Essex and studied Fine Art in the Lake District. Upon graduating he returned to London, working and exhibiting there for a number of years before moving to Sydney in 2003, where he has continuously worked on developing his unique style.

One is initially drawn to Joel’s work by the striking colour, the raw immediacy of lineal gesture and the spontaneity and simplicity of the image as a whole. However, there is something simultaneously carefree and intense about these works, invoking a sense of unease.

It is upon closer inspection of the painting's surface that one appreciates the origin of this dichotomy; the multiple layering of specifically mixed colour and the fact that the gesture is subtracted from the top colour, as opposed to being added. In this sense, technically speaking, the gesture is in fact the negative space in the work.

Joel spends hours experimenting and mixing paint to give him the combinations he desires and many canvases are abandoned along the way, when the combinations are ultimately unsuccessful. The carving of the motif is both painstaking and nerve wracking, this tension evident in the finished product.

When we appreciate this process we now read the painting as a disciplined and time consuming exercise, constructing the metaphor for life that threads these works together; spontaneous expression is harnessed, compressed and edited into something which, for Joel, more accurately represents modern reality.

76 Paddington St Paddington NSW 2021 ph. +61 2 9660 7799 info@piermarq.com.au www.piermarq.com.au

Loneliness Of The Long Distance Thinker, 2018, acrylic & oil on canvas, 198 x 152.5cm

Big Flowers Smell Twice As Bad, 2018, acrylic & oil on canvas, 198 x 152.5cm

Like Noise From A Party You’re Not Invited To, 2019, acrylic & oil on canvas, 198 x 152.5cm

To Be Honest You Could Both Do Better, 2018, acrylic & oil on canvas, 168 x 152cm

I Know, One Day, You Will Use This Against Me, 2019, acrylic & oil on canvas, 137 x 112cm

You Were A Most Untrustworthy Bridge, 2018, acrylic & oil on canvas, 137 x 112cm

When Adding Logs To Put Out A Fire, 2018, acrylic & oil on canvas, 121 x 102cm

Your Heart Bleeds, Like A Stone, 2018, acrylic & oil on canvas, 112 x 91.5cm

There Was Nothing Left To Do And We Did It All, 2018, acrylic & oil on canvas, 112 x 91.5cm

The Invitation Said Fancy Dress, 2018, acrylic & oil on canvas, 112 x 91.5cm

Scoring The Job I Never Wanted, 2017, acrylic & oil on canvas, 112 x 91.5cm

Looking The Wrong Way Down A One Way, 2018, acrylic & oil on canvas, 112 x 91.5cm

Returning To The Scene Of Your Crime, 2018, acrylic & oil on canvas, 112 x 91.5cm

Not Yet Gone Mad Or Boring, 2018, acrylic & oil on canvas, 112 x 91.5cm

My Siren Didn’t Suit Your Emergency, 2018, acrylic & oil on canvas, 112 x 91.5cm

Hell Is A Party Without Alcohol, 2017, acrylic & oil on canvas, 112 x 91.5cm

Friends You’d Like To See Fail, 2018, acrylic & oil on canvas, 112 x 91.5cm

Given Infinite Time We Shall All Commit An Act Of Evil , 2018, acrylic & oil on canvas, 112 x 91.5cm

Destroyed In The Move, 2018, acrylic & oil on canvas, 112 x 91.5cm

Confessions Of A Half-Arsed Martyr, 2018, acrylic & oil on canvas, 112 x 91.5cm

Where Do The Flies Fly At Night?, 2018, acrylic & oil on canvas, 106 x 89cm