Friedrichs Pontone presents a portfolio exhibition of six artists, who demonstrate a variety of approaches to contemporary figurative art, both in theme and technique.
Emil Alzamora's work has oscillated between painting and sculpting. In both practices, he has incorporated various unorthodox approaches and techniques in an effort to explore the human form both physically and psychologically. He often distorts, elongates, encases or deconstructs the subjects with the intention of revealing an emotional or physical situation or narrative.
Scottish artist, Iain Faulkner's, works feature a lone protagonist. Dressed uniformly in white shirt, black suit trousers and leather shoes, we see him paused between activities at a moment of reflection, pre-occupation or self-absorption. These scenes highlight moments of withdrawal and consolidation, where the subject turns inward.
Malcolm Liepke is a painter of a particular world, a 'demi-monde', inhabited by mostly young and attractive subjects, who project an air of self-absorption and watchfulness. Isolated figures pose with an almost insolent self-regard, others appear more vulnerable, as if exhausted by the rigours of a dissolute life.
For J Louis the silhouette is all. It is the dynamic driver of the composition. Isolated against the picture plane, which is absent of any reference or context, the figures inhabit an aesthetic void, a clear space in which the viewer's attention is fully focused on the body and force of personality. The painter creates a clear arena for a pared-down encounter.
Born in 1958, Yigal Ozeri is an Israeli artist based in New York City. His emphatically romantic subjects mine a seam of closely-related female characters. They allude to an art-historical cast list of classical nymphs, dryads, Botticelli goddesses and Pre-Raphaelite muses.
Christopher Thompson's technically accomplished paintings derive from an interest in the portrait and particularly what might be termed 'the urban portrait'. Solitary figures, predominantly male, are often situated in sparsely rendered urban spaces. Their form is dramatically revealed by artificial light; the resultant 'chiaroscuro' effect lends a brooding, emotional intensity to the scene.
