Gavin Nolan
Gavin Nolan’s recent paintings are perverse and contradictory. Delicately rendered territories of water and earth recede into atmospheric perspective. Waterfalls, rainbows, sunsets and whirling vortices are glorious and resplendent. It is possible to be lulled and subdued by such seductive scenes, however more often than not one is reminded of the cruel explosions of flesh and sinew which tortuously or languidly snake and stretch across the surface. Figures are brutally rendered; appearing before and aft torrid splashes drips and smudges. Occasionally the stark physicality becomes gargantuan, blurrily receding into the wonderful trippy landscape. One element plays host to another. The rains, clouds and waters of the land play over and emit from bodily orifices, entwining the bony limb like supports which combine to dissect the canvas into a patchwork of negative space with the result being a cyclical, elemental synergy between body and environment. Sources including science journals, medical books and news clippings ensure that the fantasy that is created has a stark and alarming resonance with the world at large.
Nolan’s dialogue is appropriately diverse. The delicate brushwork of gaseous clouds (or in one painting a swirling, Baroque gust) is at odds with brutally applied splashes, swathes and scumbles. Despite this contradictive language, the rigorous glazing and twisted compositional tricks combine to harmonious effect, discordant, disquieting and beautiful.