COMMA14: Vicky Wright
12 - 28 Nov 2009
COMMA14: VICKY WRIGHT
12 - 28 November 2009
Vicky Wright presents a series of new paintings, which draw upon her ongoing concerns with the paradoxical nature of portraiture, politics and patronage.
The paintings, which continue on from her original Extraction series, hint at a hidden history by painting on the reverse of the frame. The works will traverse the rear gallery appearing as windows into the machine or portraits of desire, their gaze looking out covetously. At the epicentre of the gallery will stand a large 'totem' enclosing an illuminated piece of coal, a symbolic source of energy - the prize.
The paintings, simply entitled The Guardians appear as an exploration of portraiture and what might be revealed on the back of such portraits. The history of genre painting generally, especially portraiture, tends to immortalise the captains of industry who have commissioned it. As Wright explains, 'The darker side to this is the extraction of wealth at the price of human misery, whether its coal mining in the North or the extraction of minerals in Africa - they all reveal an exploitative transaction. In a sense, the people who aren't immortalised are the ones who are the exploited'.
Vicky Wright (b. Bolton, England 1967) lives and works in London.
12 - 28 November 2009
Vicky Wright presents a series of new paintings, which draw upon her ongoing concerns with the paradoxical nature of portraiture, politics and patronage.
The paintings, which continue on from her original Extraction series, hint at a hidden history by painting on the reverse of the frame. The works will traverse the rear gallery appearing as windows into the machine or portraits of desire, their gaze looking out covetously. At the epicentre of the gallery will stand a large 'totem' enclosing an illuminated piece of coal, a symbolic source of energy - the prize.
The paintings, simply entitled The Guardians appear as an exploration of portraiture and what might be revealed on the back of such portraits. The history of genre painting generally, especially portraiture, tends to immortalise the captains of industry who have commissioned it. As Wright explains, 'The darker side to this is the extraction of wealth at the price of human misery, whether its coal mining in the North or the extraction of minerals in Africa - they all reveal an exploitative transaction. In a sense, the people who aren't immortalised are the ones who are the exploited'.
Vicky Wright (b. Bolton, England 1967) lives and works in London.