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"DARKNESS VISIBLE" Painting
United Kingdom
Painting, Acrylic on Wood
Size: 59.8 W x 35.8 H x 2 D in
Artist Recognition
Artist featured in a collection
About The Artwork
ENDANGERED SPECIES: GORILLA MADE WITH SWAROVSKI® ELEMENTS 7 000 crystals & paint on board Featured on SAVE VIRUNGA, Channel NewsAsia, Yareah, Inspired Economist, The Palette Pages, & The Press This artwork references the threats currently facing one of mankind’s closest cousins who share 98.3% of our genetic code. It symbolises an intertwined destiny when the decimation of important species starts an irreversible process which will ultimately affect the future of humanity. The biblical fire resulting from acts of greed and vanity is all-consuming and inspired by Milton’s Paradise Lost “on all sides round, As one great Furnace flam'd, yet from those flames, No light, but rather darkness visible”. The latin graffiti gives the message “Ubi major, minor cessat” Meaning that the weak or less important capitulates to the strong or more powerful. ABOUT THE ENDANGERED COLLECTION: This collection of endangered animals in Swarovski crystals and paint throws a light on the intolerable rate at which animal species are suffering and becoming extinct at the hand of man. Metaphors of our time, they symbolize an irreversible process through the decimation of important species, which will ultimately affect the future of humanity due to acts of greed and vanity. Focus is drawn to the expression, created as a Swarovski crystal mosaic, emblematic of the preciousness of the living animal; this medium fades out and morphs into mixed media and paint and depicts the threats these creatures face for survival. The endearing qualities of the animals' faces are undercut by the ominous nature of the background messages. These artworks include allegorical references and the co-existence of abstract elements with realist forms, together with quotations in the dead language of Latin and literature including Dante, William Blake and Shakespeare written as graffiti. The handprints and stenciled dots reference the birth of art in the earliest cave and rock paintings. In this series, in their relevant colours, they represent the hand of man in the destruction of the planet and its wildlife, but also symbolize the ancient healing practice of Reiki and the capacity to reverse this trajectory. With their combination of both metaphorical and literal messages, the works aim to provoke awareness of topical potential catastrophes whilst at the same time retaining an independent aesthetic, representative of their subject matter. The collection is all about contrasts; between the singular animals representing the last of the species made up of thousands of individual elements, between the technical precision of the precious crystal mosaics and the unrefined application of the painted backgrounds, between good and evil, between choices to make things better or worse.
Details & Dimensions
Painting:Acrylic on Wood
Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork
Size:59.8 W x 35.8 H x 2 D in
Frame:Not Framed
Ready to Hang:No
Shipping & Returns
Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.
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United Kingdom
British artist Claire Milner was famously commissioned to create the Blue Marilyn portrait for Rihanna, widely featured by the global media, but her personal body of work is made up of paintings inspired by her time spent in Africa focusing on social and environmental issues. In May 2023 Milner was selected as one of fewer than ten artists worldwide for Active Membership of the Gallery Climate Coalition, along with several blue chip galleries, institutions and museums. Her work was selected by the conference organisers to be exhibited in the Blue Zone of COP26. She works in collections which are continuously evolving around the theme of nature, our place within it and encroachment upon it. Environmental references such as climate change and mass extinction have been the central focus of her image making for more than two decades. Her artworks include diverse mediums including paint, paper and collage, and as a signifier of her familial ties to Italy, she sometimes incorporates the ancient art of mosaic - famous for animal depictions – and crystal methodologies as a symbiosis of past and present. Her portrayal of animals’ interchanges between the metaphoric and the literal, yet the impact of humanity remains implicit, even when the human figure is absent or plays a minor role in the composition. Her process begins with extensive research, engaging in hours of study, compiling statistics and viewing painful imagery of the consequences of poaching, habitat loss and climate change. A great deal of consideration is given to the integration of this material into the final composition, where realistic and abstract elements coexist, alongside carefully selected art historical references and themes from classical literature forming a balance of topical and historical narratives. Milner’s work has been displayed in museum exhibitions in the UK and her paintings have been widely featured in the global media including the BBC, BLOUIN ARTINFO, Channel News Asia, Elle, Forbes, Huffington Post Arts, The Observer, Save Virunga, The Telegraph, The Times, Vogue Paris and Vogue India.
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