Greg Hertault   ||  Discoazure  ||  Alfred Camp Gallery  ||  30.06 - 29.07.2001 ||  
 
 

Greg Hertault describes his work as a direct response to the heavily codified conceptual art of recent decades. The result is a slick, self-consciously 'empty' style that nevertheless, targets the underlying beauty of the everyday world. 'In the age of digitalisation and lost romanticism' says Hertault, 'I explore the possibility of re-contextualising the sublime, eroticising the banal'. Heavily stylised popular imagery, such as bricks, vegetables and animals, dominate each canvas, deliberately under painted and often luridly coloured. The imagery itself is culled from a variety of sources, but often takes the form of line art from the technical diagrams of old cookery books or similar learning resources. Hertault's imagery is largely chosen at random but once appropriated each image is incorporated into his personal lexicon and can reappear over a series of paintings, sometimes simply repositioned or reoriented within the canvas, whilst at other times completely reworked as a central focus within a painting. Hertault employs a mixture of styles from crude impasto to techniques more familiar to colouring by numbers. This adds to the child-like or contemporary cartoon feel of his work which, wherever possible, seeks to undermine the solid technical and conceptual work that lies behind. A closer inspection reveals highly worked, subtle canvases, which interact with the more playful foreground imagery to create what Hertault refers to as 'landscapes'. The interaction often takes the form of duo tone, light sensitive surfaces, and playful shadows that disorientate the spatial depth within the painting, simultaneously defining and undermining any particular reading. A recent MA graduate of Goldsmith's College, Hertault has rapidly established himself in a number of high profile graduate shows such as 'Assembly', and 'Contemporary Dialogue 1' at Marlborough Gallery London. This will be Hertault's first solo show.

Venue: Address: Dates: Opening: Press contact:

Alfred Camp Gallery 97-99  Sclater Street London  E1, UK 30th June- 29th July 2001 ||  Fri - Sun 1 - 5pm || and by appointment Saturday 30th July 2001 ||  7 - 9pm Alfred Camp  || E.mail: alfred@alfredcamp.com ||  Tel: +44 (0)20-7729 9498

 
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Press Information Compiled: 24.06.2001