Knife Edge: New Paintings by Howard Rogers and Nelson Diplexcito
APT Gallery, London, 2021
Knife Edge (2021) APT Gallery installation view
The Paintings in this exhibition have been made in a time of difficulty and uncertainty where Francis Bacon's reference to the Brutality of Fact seems more relevant than ever.
In his essay on The Dehumanisation of Art written in 1925 Ortega y Gasset expressed anxiety as to how much of the Art of the century created 'bravely out of nothing' would produce that would be of lasting value. We are a hundred years on from that thought and much has indeed been made of value, but the worry remains. That mortality lies at the heart of the urge to create is not a new idea, nor the need top make images that neither dehumanise nor re-travel the roads already made.
Painting has survived its many critics, and it is in its unique relationship, between the viewer and the viewed, that a rapprochement between aesthetics and humanity can be reforged.
The paintings in this exhibition are an attempt to give expression to that ambition.
HOWARD ROGERS
NELSON DIPLEXCITO
The Art of Painting
Copeland Gallery, London. 2021
Nelson Diplexcito and George Wills in conversation
March 2019
ND George, we’ve been speaking a lot about the activation of paintings recently.
GW Yes, for me, there is no activation without an act. It’s the pivot point in making a painting whereby a revision of sorts is often required, but always of great psychological consequence. It’s the moment at which temper meets its maker for the first time, and they agree the road back is long and it’s time to talk.
ND I know that in the way that we work there is always a form of optimism initially in setting down the marks. If there is a joyous moment in painting it is perhaps this moment for me of marking the surface. In setting down the mark, the surface very quickly establishes itself as a space. The painting then takes on an appearance and a presence. The channel is wide, the painting and you are travelling in the same direction. In time you believe yourself closer to the end than to the beginning but this is only blind belief because the painting starts to work against you. You show all the signs of knowing too much.
GW I know exactly what you mean, it is a channel. But also sometimes it feels as if the painting knows too much. When this happens, I’ve gone too far - I meddle with the real - I realise it’s foolish and pull back; but the exchange is vital to ‘true’ painting. You know, painting which speaks most often says very little, painting balanced in precision and ambiguity. Of course the psychological impact of a painting relies on the logic the image proposes, but it’s crucial not to falsify; I’m suspicious of invention.
ND Yes, but the channels that once were wide are now narrower and so also is the margin for error.
GW Definitely.
ND But, knowing that the way back is longer you sign a treaty of sorts and the deeper you go down this road, the less you appear to be able to see. The work slows down for me because I no longer recognise what I have painted. The initial transmission of energy has led to a form that is more antagonistic than co-operative and you begin to realise you no longer call the shots or possess the measure of the work. Then, there is a moment when you cannot stand the silence, its unfamiliarity and the inactivity any longer. I know I have to do something radical to regain a connection to the work.
GW Yes, I agree. But I think this is made doubly difficult when working with photography. The photographs are at once abundant and hollow. It’s often said they mediate the real, but it’s not at all the case. They’re seductive, yes, but lack exactly what it is the painter desires most. And what the painter desires most can only be trapped at its most alive in paint. To activate a painting is to act quickly, there’s one chance, perhaps two, three and you’re dealing with a different kind of painting.
ND You’re absolutely right. What begins is a series of activations that need to take place, I agree. There is always a risk of losing the painting but you have to take it. Often only your instincts provide a guide. What you hope is to bring it back into your consciousness and keep it alive.
GW Absolutely!
ND For me, painting is about an arrival, where the space acts simultaneously as seeing point and revealing/appearance point. This arrival can act both as a point of coalescence and of division. If division, it is the divide between what can be described and what cannot be measured or known. One without the other is a form of closure that works against arrival.
Nacht und Traume, (2017), Turps Gallery installation view,
Painting, Smoking, Eating
Painting, Smoking, Eating, (2014), Lewisham Arthouse, installation view
Press Release
Painting,
Smoking,
Eating.
Six Painters Working In London: Philip Allen, Jake Clark, Nelson Diplexcito,
Freya Guest, Dave Leeson, Tom Rapsey
Preview: Wednesday 7th May 2014, 6.00 – 9.00pm
Exhibition Continues: Thursday 8th – Sunday 11th May and Wednesday 14th – Saturday 17th May, 12.00 –6.00pm
Closing Event: Saturday 17th May, 6.00 – 9.00pm
“There is a delicate form of the empirical which identifies itself so intimately with its object that it thereby becomes a theory”.
This statement by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe summarises the pre-occupations of the six exhibiting artists in Painting, Smoking, Eating. The selected artists in this exhibition are painters who are driven by their experience to then reflect that experience through painting.
The artists in this exhibition know their object. They are aware of the histories, the debates and the challenges in making painting today. These artists are in it for the long haul; singularly independent but also marked by a collective distrust of the convenient and anything that would compromise their vision. The place of looking is the studio. It is work, a routine and what begins is a quarrying of the object.
To make paintings is to always be looking. It is the nature and particularity of this looking for the object that is central to both the experience and appearance of a painting. If the painter is fortunate the image will emerge quickly. In general it is never so immediate and will require time. The painter knows that with time there is also a danger in the work becoming too knowing and compliant. In order to establish distance and identify with the object, a risk or chance is taken, usually in the form of a radical decision. This decisiveness can awaken the object of the painting. It is a very particular form and condition of the work presented in this exhibition.
In the quarrying of the image – there is always a movement towards this moment, where truths and lies are expelled between painter and painting. It is difficult to predict, to know when and if it will happen. It should never appear to be forced, although there may have been innumerable revisions and detours in getting there. There is no one way to the object. Sometimes this decisive act comes from a suspicion or doubt that what has been set down previously does not communicate the 'tone' of the object. What is certain is that this encounter can only be revealed through an intense looking at what is present. To paint the object is to always live in the moment.
The painting that does this often locates itself between states, being surface and mirror and window and wall, never quite prioritising one above another. The painter if attentive will immediately recognise and see the experience and surface, as a likeness of the object and in so doing the object becomes a resistant image. As it is only then that the painting turns and has the ability to meet, disarm, transfix and immobilise the painter. It is the myth of the Gorgon and the painters in this exhibition know its stare and the tale intimately.
The paintings in this exhibition talk about this quarrying towards immobilisation. It should never be confused as an end for a painting, far from it. It is an opening-out into the possibilities of painting. Neither should it be mistaken for a closing down of the image. Good paintings are always at work and continue to be at work, as they never know their moment. This is the case whether they were painted two hundred years ago or yesterday. Robert Frost talks about it at work and the moment, in a literary form. Frost says that a poem should be like “ice on a stove – riding on its own melting”.
There will be an opportunity to meet the artists on Saturday 17th May at 6.00pm in the Arthouse in an open discussion and all are welcome. The preview evening takes place on Wednesday 7th May between 6.00 and 9.00pm and again all are welcome. The title of the exhibition is taken from the Philip Guston painting of 1973, Painting, Smoking, Eating (Collection Stedelijk Museum).
Thank you Ellie Watson and all at the Lewisham Arthouse for giving the artists this opportunity to present their work.
Nelson Diplexcito 7.5.14
Nelson Diplexcito: New Paintings
Galleri S7, Stockholm 20 Aug - 18 Sep, 2011
(Above) Installation shot of four paintings from the exhibition, Nelson Diplexcito: New Paintings, Galleri S7, Stockholm 20 Aug - 18 Sep, 2012
(Below) Flyer for the exhibition
