Jonathan Ridge

Graduated Chelsea '09.

Firstly, my work continually, but subtly, shifts in theme and purpose.

My paintings typically deal in implication and suggestion.

Through construction and erosion of form, and the layered atmospheres I paint, I leave a trail of possible signifiers, abandoned in the painting process as soon as these forms become too apparent.

Through numerous layers of paint, my work seeks to negotiate a subtle "boundary dispute", between the abstract and the figurative.

The work is as much about applying the paint, and the 'paint as object', as the gradually evolved and corrupted forms of depiction on it.
The tension in the on going interplay, between surface, and the subject, interests me most.
The juxtaposition of the two often exclusive approaches, I see as an echo of the point at which one's conscious self, meets one's unconscious self.

Particularly in my latter pieces, landscape is a reference point, but a physical landscape is only really alluded to. They are more accurately "landscaping the spirit"; similtaneously referencing natural phenomena, whilst commenting on one's place amongst it.

Influence comes in many forms and from wildly disparate sources, largely, I...

BA Hons. Chelsea College Of Art, London.
2009.

"FUTURE FORM" (group show)
Trafalgar Hotel, Trafalgar Sq., Ldn.
February-May 2010.

"Fresh Cream"
Opus Gallery, Newcastle. 4th-28th September 2009.
(Show with other recent selected nationwide graduates.)
www.opus-art.com

'Ten Seconds On Speed'
September 2009
Ex-Mexican Embassy, Mayfair, London.
(group show)

'Primary' 2008
The Art House, London, SE1.(Group Show)

'Paperworks' 2007
RK Burt Gallery, London.(Group Show)

(Untitled Group Show) 2007
The Fleapit, Columbia Road, London, E2.

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