RESEARCH
Mike Newton (Fine Art Phd)
My oil paintings explore aspects of MELANCHOLIA using traditional methods of oil paint on canvas and on wooden panels. I work initially with oil on paper combining elements of my own drawing with my photographs and found images. Working directly onto the support with oil glazes, I subvert the original meaning of these images through collage. These sketches form the basis for a loose and immediate style of painting that has a freshness of execution despite the melancholic themes.
I engage with a variety of artists from the history of painting, notably Francisco Goya and Edvard Munch , and draw influence from contemporary painters such as Gerhard Richter, Elizabeth Peyton and Luc Tuymans. I am also very attracted to film, particularly the work of David Lynch, and inspired by this enjoy building fragmented narratives by hanging different combinations of my paintings together.
My current body of work deals with memory and loss, specifically related to my own experience as a teenager. I recall it as a time suspended, waiting for something to happen. Consequently issues of ennui, ritual, role-play, stereotypes and confusion about identity all feature in work. Specific scenes half remembered, half forgot take on a new life as I reinvent them, absorbing inspiration from contemporary film, painting, magazine photography and music.
For me my paintings float somewhere between the "reality" of then and the "actuality" of today.
Recent Exhibitions
- 2008
Feb 14 – Mar 16
Solo Show, Nettie Horn, Vyner St. London - 2007
December
Mike Newton / Thomasin Toohie
Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno, Wales - November
Group Show
Nettie Horn, Vyner St. London
Group Show
John Jones, Finsbury Park - August
RUH, Bath - July
Boundary Gallery, London - 2006
November
Solo Exhibition
The Brick Lane Gallery, London - October
Group Show
Brick Lane Gallery, London - September
Café space, Jerwood Gallery, London - July
Group Exhibition
Full Spectrum
Sherborne House, Dorset - May
Celeste Art Prize (finalist), Truman Brewery, London - February
Hotbath Gallery, Bath (two week residency)