Transit presents JAKE CLARK

‘Golden Homes’
Tuesday 20 November 12 – 6 pm
with a private view 6 – 9 pm

and an artist’s talk 7 pm

This is a group of new paintings made in response to a curated show
called the ‘Perfect Nude’. The original show consisted of 100 artists
making a painting of a nude. This was organized by Dan Coombes and
Phil Allen. The show was put on at Wimbledon School of Art, the
Phoenix Gallery in Exeter and at the Charlie Smith Gallery.
The painting I made for that show has been part of an ongoing project
to create a group of similar works; all on the same scale. This ‘Transit’
project is an opportunity to bring these paintings together as one body
of work.
My original response to the theme of the nude was to make a series of
collages; these became the reference material for the paintings. I
became interested in a figure being entangled in the space behind it.
The figure references came from a life-drawing manual. The title of the
show comes from a DIY magazine called Golden Homes. Images from
these were used for some of the backgrounds to the figures.
The juxtaposition of these two disparate images creates an almost
believable space or ‘scene’. The female forms are made up of marble or
wood textures, these give the figure an impression of a statue or
mannequin. The plinth they lean on emphasizes this. Sometimes the
background spills through like a hand pressing down on wet clay.
The paintings in this show are a diversion from my normal studio
practice. These works involve a different approach and have been a
refreshing shift. Each of these paintings in the Transit show has the
same systematic approach. Albert Oehlen talks about this idea of
giving yourself certain restrictions or ‘rules’ when making a painting.
For example paint the left half of a canvas with the cheapest paints and
the right half with the most expensive. I am interested in these ideas of
restriction in this group of paintings.
As the Transit show is akin to a ‘studio visit’ I am also going to exhibit
some small works on paper that were made along side the nudes.

Jake Clark, November 2012