>>PREVIEW
MALCOLM RAINS
Runs until April 28
Paul Kuhn Gallery
The paintings of Malcolm Rains currently on view at the Paul Kuhn Gallery have a kind of tranquil austerity. This cohesive body of work perfectly accents the precise modernist surroundings of the space. On a day of grey spring drizzle, it seemed natural to linger and contemplate the minimal, nuanced work, listen to the various activities within the gallery and muse introspectively.
Not that Rains's work is without punch. Each painting (oil on canvas, primarily depicting crumpled pieces of paper) has a Caravaggio-esque feel, with great attention paid to effects of light and the subtle tonal shifts of reflection and diffusion. Rains has obviously noted some of the Italian Baroque master's techniques and the folds of his subject paper could just as easily be one of Caravaggio's stunning fabric flourishes from the Supper at Emmaus. The process and feel of the work also pay homage to past masters and artistic sensibilities concerned with order, observation and rich, crisp forms.
But to situate these works as part of an isolated dialogue with baroque or mannerist art is far too limiting. Rains's paintings are at least formally related to the relationships between flat and representational space and the schism between painting and photography that have so dominated modernist concerns. There is a palpable tension between objects and their representation in his work. We are at once convinced of a representation, only to come upon a pictorial surface that is so flat only the faintest traces of a brushstroke belie the artist’s hand.
The effect is uncanny, seemingly creating an oscillation between a photo-real surface at a distance and an arrangement of minimalist colours and patterns at close quarters. This is not quite in keeping with the photorealism of Chuck Close or Richard Estes, but there is a sense that Rains is aware of the context. In many ways, his work seems to hearken back to an era when painting was the dominant visual media technology while uniting this sentiment with a sly knowledge of our contemporary image saturation. The result is work that deals with representation and resists the urge to focus on the inadequacy of painting as its raison d’etre. Ultimately, the effect is one of filtered refinement.
In the content of the work we find yet another layer of meaning that extends these paintings beyond the labyrinths of formalism. The choice here of subject matter is fascinating and complicated. Aside from the piece Four Pears on a Shelf, March 2007 (which is comparatively banal), all of the works deal with a familiar trope of contemporary life: the crumpled ball of paper. This image accepts a wide variety of social implications associated with the creative act. In this case, the scientist, musician, architect or artist might all be seen to sketch ideas, discover some hidden inadequacy and then destroy them by balling them up and throwing them away. The relationship between failure and creativity emerges as a possible subtext for the work. Contrary to demonizing failure, Rains seems to take inspiration from it, giving each of his subjects a kind of sensitive uniqueness. It is as if he personally cared for each ball of paper as a living thing, finding the seduction lodged amongst their folds and revealing an unforeseen esthetic by-product of some grander, doomed scheme.
In comparison to the David Blatherwick show in the basement of the gallery, Rains's work is a reminder that painting is more complicated than simply arranging blobs of paint. The two shows provide a striking contrast as to the nature of contemporary painting with Rains ultimately prevailing over the multi-coloured globules populating the downstairs exhibition. And despite the hackneyed abstractions of Blatherwick, the comparison is beneficial for its revelation of a certain lack in much contemporary painting. This lack is one of substance – a situation where paint has become universally representative only of itself, trapped in a self-referential universe. Rains provides a comforting, if slightly romantic, memento that painting has a history and this history is still relevant. |
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