8 Clarendon Cross | W11 4AP laceycontemporarygallery.co.uk
COVER/BACK IMAGE: Ubique 2 (detail) Oil on Linen, 190x160cm, 2014
LOUIS SAVAGE
submerges the audience in vast canvases of densely latticed brush marks, lines and reality. of malleability the evoke that drips At the root of Louis’ artistic practice is identity, perception and the nature of reality. He draws inspiration from interests in science, psychology, history, literature, music, and art, to create great swathes of fragmented, layered information, designed to touch the viewers soul and enlighten them to an equal level of understanding with the artist. Each piece treads a line between, and attempts to come to terms with, the mixing of personal experience and collective shared consciousness. Louis’ canvases have an almost hallucinatory effect. As your vision moves across the surface recognisable areas form then disappear, figures and faces pulse in and out. The work has a rhythm and a melody that guide you.
PENTHEUS Louis Savage creates a space and a catalyst for the viewers own mind to wander, drawing from physics, psychology and neurology in trying to understand the ideas of ‘The Self’ and how that further fits into the question of what is reality. My practice involves constructing a large array of preparatory work which is then rather randomly applied in strata during the painting process. The finished work finds itself out of this conflict and the visual vibration between the layers. - Louis Savage These early pieces in the ‘Pentheus’ series, were intended to become the preparation of a larger tableau, however became a self contained unit on their own. In the Greek myth from which this series draws its’ title, Pentheus meaning ‘man of sorrows’ meets an unfortunate end, being torn limb from limb after being mistaken for a wild animal. These paintings are an investigation into different ways of heightening a viewers emotional response to the work, and using alternative means of achieving it from figuration through to complete abstraction.
Pentheus 1, 2 & 3 Oil on Linen, 100x70cm, 2012, £3000 each
Ampersand Oil on Canvas 155x122cm, 2014 ÂŁ4000
Quine Oil on Canvas 155x122cm, 2014 ÂŁ4000
UBIQUE My interest lies in an explosion outward, of imagery and the connections and possibilities between the images, finding that within this ungraspable plane that some form of essential personal internal development can arise. - Louis Savage In this series of works, Louis was captivated by the transmission of ideas through time and across the ages. Ubique meaning “locate”, looks into ideas as chains of information built up over time, not born in isolation, but a sequence and compounding of ideas to create their present form. Through the work you as a viewer are able to regress to a previous state of an idea in glimpses due to the densely layered and stratified way in which the works are constructed. Each layer involves both creation of new and destruction of previous states, leading to a visual frisson across the image surface
Ubique 1 Oil on linen, 190x160cm, 2014, £5000
Ubique 3 Oil on Linen 190x160cm, 2014 £5000
Ubique 4 Oil on Linen 190x160cm, 2014 £5000
OVIDIAN WOODLAND The Ovidian Woodland Series are an exploration of the idea that environments have a personality of their own. Louis describes how forests, simultaneously exude ideas of tranquility and escape, and isolation and malevolence. Influenced by the myths of Ancient Greece as well as the contemporary beliefs of ‘Aokigahara’ in Japan, Louis’ Ovidian Woodland paintings form a non-navigable space - both vast yet claustrophobic. The richness of the colours and the movement of forms entice the viewer in, then wrap themselves around - like a modern day Daphne.
Ovidian Woodland Oil on Linen, 190x160cm, 2014 £5000
Studies for Ovidian Woodland Oil on Linen, 100x70cm, 2014 ÂŁ3000 each
NEW WORK Louis’ upcoming and most recent paintings deal with a number of different themes, but are losely tied together through ideas of isolation in its various forms - whether that is physical, pyschological, or emotional isolation, or more abstract notions of the isolation of time, or reality. “...an investigation into the promotion and assimilation of ideas and how they carry through history but are ultimately constantly in the present.” - Louis Savage
Insubstantial Country (Scherza-infida) 1 and 2 (diptych) Oil on Linen, 155x122 (each), 2014 ÂŁ4000 (pair)
Kintsukuroi (Lateral Inhibition) Oil on Linen, 190x160cm, 2014 ÂŁ5000
The Porousness of Certain Borders Oil on Linen, 190x160cm, 2014 ÂŁ5000
LOUIS SAVAGE | CV Born in Cornwall, 1983, Louis Savage studied Fine Art at Kingston University, graduating in 2005 and having his first Solo show at 6 Neals Yard, London in November that year. Louis remains living and working from his studio in Kingston. EDUCATION Fine Art – BA (Hons), Kingston University, 2005 SOLO SHOWS: 2005 The Space Between, 6 Neals Yard London, November GROUP SHOWS: 2014 Reality Departure, Lacey Contemporary Gallery, 3-23 December 2014 London Life, LA Noble Gallery, 6th – 17th August 2014 Summer Celebration, McAllister Thomas Fine Art, 28th June – 2nd Sept 2005 Trifle, The Empire Gallery, 7th-11th July 2005 Graduate Show, Kingston University, June