Death Ray II (Broken Circle Relief) Painting

James D Wilson (b.1982) is an artist and designer based in South East London, UK, working predominantly in paint and relief on layered surfaces constructed from cardboard and wood. His process starts as an act of reconstructing a memory of a time or place using fragmentary, visual phrases that make up an environment that have been held in the mind. In re-assembling and remembering, the resulting composition ride the line between abstraction and figuration combining bold, reduced graphical forms with the language of landscapes, both architectural and natural. The materials used in his works, together with their limited colour palettes have a utilitarian quality to them, following in the footsteps of constructivist/concrete artists of the 50s/60s. The cutting and brushwork are predominantly made freehand with no masking tape involved, which lends itself to feeling more human. There is a tension between the planned and unplanned, the finished and unfinished, the loud and the quiet. The pieces featured here all contribute to an ongoing exploration into expanded painting, visual rhythm and negative space.