Page 21 - Art at VIPERGEN Korr

James Aldridge: Snakes, 2017.
Acrylic and ink on canvas, 152 x 175 cm
James Aldridge’s work Snakes is a painting made up of many layers and many types of figurations
in different styles. Flowers, cobwebs, birds, foliage, and snakes weave in and out of each other
and create a unified, dark whole with a condensed image space, where the up and down of the composition do not exist but instead entangle into an energetic and enigmatic image space. James Aldridge is inspired by many different forms of visual culture. Thus, he paints with references to natural history guidebooks, 19th-century watercolors, and Renaissance landscapes, just as his flowers are inspired by Dutch painting tradition. The many stylistic features in the work Snakes evoke the artist’s multifaceted pictorial interest, just as they emphasize the mannered and complex nature of
the work. The motifs appear as a kind of symbols taken from nature. It is a chaotic and mysterious darkness, and the painting’s many details reveal themselves the deeper you investigate the work.
James Aldridge (1971 UK) holds a Bachelor of Fine Art from Manchester Metropolitan University and a Master of Fine Art from the Royal College of Art, London. He lives and works in Småland in Sweden. James Aldridge has exhibited at David Risley Gallery, DK; Galerie Gabriel Rolt, NL; Poppy Sebire Gallery, UK, and Galería Casado Santapau, ES. He is represented at the Tate Modern in London..
21