Grear Patterson’s True Romance

12.05.2016 | Art | BY:

This summer, New York-based artist Grear Patterson is presenting an exhibition at London’s Marlborough Contemporary which is centred around something that is often thought of as an ever-deteriorating concept: true romance. With Tony Scott’s seminal film of the same name serving as the catalyst as well as the title, he has produced a series of mixed-media works that both encapsulate and explore the theme.

Utilising the “visceral vernacular of the sunset as an auspicious moment – simultaneously a romanticised ending and yet a promise of new beginnings” – each piece is a study in pop-culture, imagery and processes of perception, all of which have become recurrent motifs in Patterson’s work over the years.

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Grear Patterson, Blue Bronx (2010), c-print, 13 x 20, Courtesy the artist and Marlborough Contemporary, London

The symbolism of the sunset is explored both literally and figuratively elsewhere in the show – with banana trees and hammocks physically present within the gallery – further adding to the stereotypical idea of a tropical sunset, especially as is so commonly seen through the millennial lens of social media.

A plethora of found materials – from parachutes, wedding tablecloths, boat sails and vinyl – make up the large scale sunsets, while smaller works are comprised of block colour paper works in purples, pinks, blues, oranges and greens become a “memorialisation of youthful possibility, oddesey and adventure”.

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Grear Patterson, Odyssey (2008), Photograph, Courtesy the artist and Marlborough Contemporary, London

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Grear Patterson, Quiet Corner (2010), Courtesy the artist and Marlborough Contemporary, London

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Grear Patterson, Moonrise (2016), Photograph, Courtesy the artist and Marlborough Contemporary, London

Main image: Grear Patterson, Beachstrollers, (2008), Photograph, Courtesy the artist and Marlborough Contemporary, London

Grear Patterson, True Romance, Marlborough Contemporary, 24 June – 23 July 2016.

Marlboroughcontemporary.com

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