To celebrate the opening of our new London gallery space on Newman Street, The Albemarle Gallery features a selection of paintings by Kyle Barnes, Iain Faulkner, Park Jieun and Christopher Thompson that present distinctly personal scenes, imbued with stillness, solitude and reflection.
Northern Irish painter Kyle Barnes creates highly accomplished figurative portraits, capturing intimate moments that feel distinctly raw and undistilled. We encounter his subjects through a painterly lens that does not mask blemishes, but focuses upon them, holding them up to the light to be inspected and celebrated. Marks and gestures build to display exposed skin in its entirely honest, imperfect form.
Scottish artist Iain Faulkner paints figures paused between activities at a moment of reflection, pre-occupation or self-absorption. Rootless and world-weary, these images imply a sense of a nomadic existence. The fact that the faces are obscured or turned away allows us to see Faulkner’s figures as both familiar and universal.
Born in South Korea, Park Jieun's work is born from a combined fascination with travel and traditional Korean methods of painting. Revealing hidden cityscapes through windows of broad, expressive brushstrokes, Park Jieun evokes the subconscious emotions that are inspired by interactions with places. The artist explores these urban landscapes, exposing them as fleeting glimpses seen through the potent lens of the brushstroke.
English painter Christopher Thompson deploys a classical method of representational painting, built on analytical draughtsmanship and a thorough understanding of his palette. The combination of muted, sombre colour and Caravaggio-esque 'chiaroscuro' work together to evoke mood and atmosphere. His technique nods to the past and underlines a sense of continuity with the painters he admires. His ability enables him to appropriate such formats and manipulate them.
