DAMAGED GOODS.
The shimmer of once precious, now discarded artifacts radiates with a kitsch that entices as much as it may repel. Guy Shoham’s paintings are confusingly almost three-dimensional, just like the porcelain figurines that serve as his inspiration. He attains a true cubistic twist to his provocative and outrageous arrangements.Reminiscent of works from the early 20th century, Shoham blends a decorative design with a glistening surface, both of which are alluring to the viewers’ eyes. Yet Shoham’s oeuvre remains true to principles of composition. Several of Shoham’s scenes are set up as if in a shoebox diorama; invoking the influence of Joseph Cornell’s assemblages of found objects. He stages his compositions theatrically and preserves a certain element of melodrama in the mundane. What evolves is something that is even more incongruous once it is translated to the canvas; Shoham elevates pretentious cast-offs to a bonafide art form.
Shoham’s take on the still-life is a contemporary expression of the age-old tradition of copying statues, a technique which dates back to the ancients. He breathes life to the inanimate, but his universe is filled with detachment and even tribulation. The silence in his compositions, while palpable, is also shrieking with ambiguity. His inorganic subjects are anything but still. They literally burst through the surface, and in doing so, enter our world. They peep out, mocking our disjointedness. The damage is conspicuous and analogous to all the mutilation in our world. Shoham makes a violent yet fanciful statement about our incoherent existence, about our own fragile nature as damaged goods.
Audrey Levy