V1 GALLERY PROUDLY PRESENTS
Electric
A solo exhibition by John Copeland
V1 Gallery proudly presents Electric a solo exhibition by John Copeland consisting of 19 new paintings, a series of modifications on vintage magazines and 2 bronze sculptures.
Vibrant, fragmented, tense, sexy, humorous, urgent, bold, violent, voyeuristic, engaging - the new work jolts you as you enter the gallery.
Each of the paintings vibrates between figuration and abstraction, composition and collapse, a struggle amplified by the many layers of visual information and oil paint. Copeland’s painting style is both extremely precise and seemingly nonchalant, engaging a painterly tradition of abstract and neo- expressionism. The new works are jabbed, stabbed and slashed with paint. Executed with an energy that remains embedded in the final work. As you contemplate the paintings, it’s easy to lose yourself in them, to get lost in an abstract corner of greens and reds or a nude figure, until you get the uneasy feeling that you are being watched. Like shattered mirrors, the paintings reflect and distort. In Copeland’s work, it is always an active exchange and negotiation between the viewer and the work.
An ominous looking pile of bronze axes rests on a wood log in the work “If You Wan’t Good Friends, They’re Gonna Cost You”. A work that resonates the mood of the exhibition, all things come at a cost, this work comes out of hard work and dedication. The works in the exhibition did not come easy, you sense this in every work, a rare earnest feeling that stays with you. The sculpture works as entry and exit to Electric.
John Copeland born 1976, USA, lives and works in New York. Copeland has recently held solo exhibitions with Galleria Marabini, Bologna, Italy and Reflex Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He has participated in numerous curated exhibitions; Bad Painting in Leipzig (Spinerei), Wonder Works – Master Works from Private Danish Collections (KUNSTEN museum of Modern Art, Aalborg), Hell Raisers, Switzerland (Galerie Lange + Pult), Summer Reading and Chicken or Beef, New York (The Hole). He is prominently featured in the new book Walk The Line. The Art of Drawing available from publisher Laurence King. Electric is John Copeland’s third solo exhibition with V1 Gallery. A book on Copeland’s work will be available this summer.
