Exhibits,
Gian Manik Marouflage
Opening: Tuesday 19 January, 2021 Dates: 19 January - 27 February, 2021
So the work that I’m doing for the show are all of these drop sheets for painting houses, some used some not. Im kinda stitching them all together but working on them separately beforehand to sketch the different panels out. And the panels are kinda as disparate in application/technique and subject as all the other shit I’ve been doing, there’s one thats like this nude model and its like 30 of him tumbling around and then another one is all animals and then theres one of objects and still lives etc…I’m frustrated about how to pull imagery together, not ideas idk, its hard to explain perhaps on the phone.
I’m planning to finish the works in the space over summer when the gallery is empty and then stitch them together and rig them up so its hung from the lighting rig to make some kind of mural painting, so something that somewhat imitates kind of permanency (a-la sistine chapel etc) I don’t love that reference but its pretty unavoidable. I guess that if there was that reference or a collage of imagery that’s harmonious only in its exhibition then it can somewhat be a cooked view of ‘heaven/hell” etc but also friezes that fill architecture, like Klimt friezes in universities or bathhouses or even that horrible train station in Oakley LOL. Also that the lighting is covered. I might have lighting from the floor pointing up but thats not confirmed and also tis summer so pretty bright.
Gian Manik’s practice is defined by an ongoing investigation into the boundaries of representation. Previously, the artist staged reflective and malleable materials – such as tin foil – to mirror environments, which he then documents and faithfully reproduces as non-representational paintings. More recently, Manik has broadened this approach by entwining abstraction with figuration.
Continuing to work from digital photographs, Manik’s paint application fluctuates between delicate and sumptuously excessive as he combines preparatory sketches with assured and adept brushwork. References from the fabric of his daily life contend with gestural passages to form a palimpsest of representation and memory. These layering techniques provide visual texture and energy to the artworks while adding depth and weight to his complex review of representation. Nostalgic, melancholic and facetious, Manik’s works vibrate with emotional and compositional intensity.
