Parafin is open during August, Wednesday to Friday, 11–5, or by appointment. On display is a selection of works by gallery artists, including new and previously unseen pieces by Hynek Martinec, Indre Serpytyte and Nika Neelova.
The motifs of Tim Head’s Flesh and Blood (1987) include chromosomes, brain tissue and Monster Munch snacks. Derived from schematic renderings of cells and the repetitive patterns and textures found on mass-produced packaging, they reference man’s intervention in the natural order, the artificiality of processed food. Flesh and
Blood was made shortly after Head won the prestigious John Moores Painting Prize and another painting from the series, Deep Freeze (1987) is in the Tate Collection.
Hynek Martinec’s new paintings combine a realist figurative mode with abstracted representations of the digital or artificial to suggest contrasting types of information or knowledge. The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp (2023) is titled after Rembrandt’s painting of a public dissection. Pomegranates, an ancient symbol of death and fertility, feature prominently in the new paintings. It is suggested that the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden was a pomegranate, not an apple.
Uwe Wittwer’s painting, Charon (2022), is titled after the ferryman who, in Greek mythology, transports souls across the Styx and the Acheron, the rivers that separate the lands of the living and the dead. However, Wittwer’s imagery is drawn from nineteenth century ethnographic photography, suggesting a connection between the ferryman, the medieval motif of the Ship of Fools, and European explorers.
Melanie Smith’s Anel (2010), Regency I (2012) and Regency II (2012) are formal puzzles, painted surfaces depicting patterned surfaces that appear to disintegrate before our eyes. Smith is interested in the dissolution of boundaries, the collapse of perspectival order and the transgression of rationalist space. The floral motifs of Regency wallpaper become a visual analogy for the forests and jungles of Mexico but also a symbol of European colonialism in South America.
Indre Serpytyte’s works The Blue Horizon of my Childhood (2019) and The Taste of Black Soil (2019) employ ceremonial sashes specific to the Baltic region, woven through with short phrases from the artist’s childhood. Away from the Baltic context the works also address a different history, that of international Modernism and in particular the development of abstraction. Using traditional materials, Serpytyte collaborates with weavers to produce the sashes in vibrant colours that recall the chromatic intensity of Pop and Op art, furthering the layered
referentiality of the works.
Fred Sorrell’s work, Dapple iii (2020), attempts to create a viewing experience analogous to that experienced before nature. His abstract images are not merely an objective record but an emotional response that also reflects the fluid dynamism of the experience of looking. Within Sorrell’s open grid, delicate hues produce a soft and gently rippling visual matrix.
Nika Neelova’s work, Lemniscate XXV (2023), is constructed from reclaimed wooden handrails that reveal years of use. It explores the relationship between material object, human presence and architectural space. The title refers to the world of algebraic geometry and the infinity symbol.
The title of Tania Kovats’ Sea Mark (Payne’s Grey) (2022) references a paint colour named after the 18th century watercolourist William Payne. It is often used to create atmospheric perspective, for example a fading horizon line. Kovats creates an impression of the sea, her meditative mark-making suggesting the movement of water and the horizon as a place for mental escape.
Alison Watt’s recent works are an exploration of the still life genre. Parallel (2018) presents us with a minimalist object in Watt’s characteristically pared back palette. The title perhaps refers to the paradox of painting and representation: the lines of the box are not parallel, but converge in order to create a sense of perspective.
