JAMES LIEUTENANT

It's Only The Support

James Lieutenant uses painting vernacular to abstractly articulate opposing pursuits of visualising trauma, vulnerability and beauty simultaneously. It's Only The Support explores the relationship between paint, the surface and its support. Marks and fields of colour are made onto highly charged found surfaces in this immersive painting installation.

The objects that act as supports in the show have been gradually found and collected by the artist. Once taken into the studio, each object is handled with care and painted in a way that responds to its surface. Some objects have thinly glazed veils of paint built up with many layers, while others have pools of high key pigments that have been poured onto them or are built up with loose painterly mark making. 

If it was not for the unique supports holding the paint, these works could be seen as minimal and sublime. However, within this installation texture, colour and form comes together in an abject and awkward manner. There is a feeling that the artist’s aspirations have perhaps fallen short, adding to a sense of vulnerability in the sometimes fragile works. The gritty textures and their abject associations link to a visual articulation of trauma, both in the artist’s own personal history or that of his greater context historically.

Self-described as a ‘slightly pathetic’ body of work, James Lieutenant is using humour and syntax to draw viewers into the space and question the integrity and relationship between the paintings and the supports. There are plenty of traumatised surfaces in the show, but looking closely you will also find moments of sublime beauty. 

At the end of the exhibition the paintings will be discarded, with some photographed to be used as images to inform new artworks.