ART MATTERS

BY ENZO MARRA

Chris Hawkes is an artist who, having graduating in 2017 with a Fine Art Painting BA at University of Brighton, has since exhibited in London, Brighton and Liverpool, as well as completing a two-month residency in Chongqing, China, which culminated in the MORE + MORE + MORE exhibition.

The work he developed in Chongqing having become very playful and loud, the result and reaction to exploration of a new place, photographing everything around him to become part of what was initially an alien culture to then muse upon and working from the images back in the safe confines of the studio.

Working with multiple visual languages, which blend figurative and abstract elements, which explore ideas of the sampled image, gender, taste and queer identity, all playing out simultaneously within each work.

Heavily connected to pop art, they consciously acknowledge the role of signs and simulations within representation, deliberately re-engaging with the autobiographical and personal through the considered layers of accumulation.

With a camp unapologetic aesthetic, Chris’ work presents a more femininely pronounced style as an act of rebellion against the potential machismo inherent in the act of painting.

Chris works within a vibrant studio at Phoenix Art Space. Colour being the foundation for each of the works, with their restricted palette creating a structure for the artist to respond to with each subsequent painting stage.

Combined with imagery sourced from research into art history and more personal photographs, the final achieved paintings provide indefinite potential conclusions despite the initial set of restrictions.

With a mixture of different manners of painterly application, vivid colouration and linear portrayals of figurative juxtapositions, his works are equally informed by the manner of execution as well as the concepts that initially spurred them on into being.

Having the initial drawings projected onto canvases before they are integrated into more abstract additional elements. They gain the appearance of sampled images, whether they are or not sourced in such a manner.

The process allowing him to translate and mistranslate images into something that fits into a preferred visual language. The painting process informed by the hand applied collaging over canvas of all these collected elements.

Their strong graphic presence, an indicator of how we all now live in an increasingly digital age. Chris uses imagery and references that relate to the busy world of Instagram, Photoshop and selfies, with all of the advertising and consumerist associations that accompany them.

Sourced from photographs from his own life, as well as figures from Old Master paintings. The chosen imagery strongly relates to his queer and nonbinary identity, his work making steps to elevate a cultural understanding of queerness.

His drive to ignore traditional gender roles and subvert them when necessary, informed by a well-reasoned combination of both being highly aware of visual gender signifiers, while spending most of his social life around people that reject traditional ideas of gender, naturally influencing his works.