Cryptic and crinkled, terse, sparkling, and imminent; masked visitors from unknowable realms present themselves here in painted form. Impossible to know why or how they here materialise to intercede mutely in our affairs.
Perhaps they carry with them powers of divination, or a message of portent. Whatever it is they are trying to say, we should take time out to listen. For in their silence, much is conveyed.
Juan Ford’s practice has consistently been engaged with opening new possibilities for realism in painting. Ford enjoys exploiting the limited shortcomings of the dull, officially sanctioned dialogue between painting and its would-be executioner, photography, in order to develop new potential for realism. While his work evolves and varies across time, it characteristically involves an examination of the human figure and its fraught relationship to the natural environment.
See full exhibition catalogue HERE