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Alan Salisbury and Steve West
When: Friday 10th April 2009 -> Saturday 9th May 2009
Where: BayArt, 54b/c Bute Street, Cardiff Bay, Cardiff CF10 5AF
A painter and sculptor, who both share an interest in surrealistic humour, displacement and imagined environments.
Tuesday - Saturday 12 -5pm
The paintings by Alan Salisbury fit into the figurative tradition but are influenced by contemporary ideas related to Post Modernism. The works are frequently transcribed or appropriated from historical sources, within the canon of European figurative painting.
In some cases a painting is reproduced as faithfully as possible but then modified with the inclusion of contemporary elements. Other paintings employ pictorial structures and concepts from the past but with Alan Salisburys imagery as a substitute. Humour and irony are used subversively to adjust the narrative interpretation.
Steve West makes complex sculptural instillations, often combining elements of personal narrative with precisely referenced literary sources. These develop into obsessively worked pieces which display an exactitude and attention to detail.
West’s work exploits traditional processes such as modelling and casting to create an amalgamation of parts made from the figure; architecture; organic forms and domestic household objects.
Through subtle interventions the apparently functional is rendered useless, the familiar becomes anomalous and the serious becomes humorous. As John Russell Taylor has written “(West’s work) references the art of the past as well as the present, relying on the clarity of pure sculptural form to resolve it’s ambiguous narratives”.