Elizabeth Leach Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by Derek Franklin, Between the Time of the Dog and the Wolf, Franklin’s second exhibition with the gallery. In these paintings, Derek continues his exploration of light and dark, clear and obscure, and the way in which everyday objects become part of daily rituals in our lives. Drawing the exhibition’s title from the French concept of “entre chien et loup”, the darkest point of twilight when it difficult to see things as they truly are or discern what is real, Between the Time of the Dog and the Wolf asks viewers to slow down and truly see what lies at the heart of contemporary life. While humanity has experienced drastic changes over time, our three basic needs remain the same, and the items we use on a regular basis, beds, vessels, food, have become hallowed over time. These vernacular objects appear in Franklin’s paintings, and represent the everyday ceremonies of care that sustain us.
Reacting to the “media deluge” and the fast-paced, endless “scroll” on the smartphones that have come to mediate our interactions with the world, Franklin is interested in the presentation of information and ideas. To him, painting is to cinema as poetry is to literature, the distillation of ideas into a more immediate, compact format. In a time when disassociation through media consumption is tempting, these works call for a return to a more sustainable, human pace of life, and invite extended participation with a single image or idea.
Franklin’s background in sculpture and performance art is evident in these paintings. As with his previous exhibition, these new works feature “spotlights” which draw attention to the subject of each work, while obscuring other aspects. The starting point for each work is a collage which includes materials sourced from archaeology journals, food magazines, and the artist’s own images. Franklin cuts out parts of photographs from pages which are then laid over other images, creating unusually shaped apertures through which the background subject matter appears. This overlay recalls the screen in a theater, obscuring and also focusing the viewers’ attention. From this rigid starting point, he then makes fluid, formal, reactive decisions through the rest of the work.
Formally, these new works represent an advancement in Franklin’s conception of space and scale as a painter. The amount of information contained in the largest works has been reduced, giving the spotlit objects more air, and the compositions become increasingly dense as the scale of the paintings diminishes. As such, the small paintings on cast concrete frames contain the most information, becoming devotional objects with an intimate presence that rewards closer viewing.
Reacting to the “media deluge” and the fast-paced, endless “scroll” on the smartphones that have come to mediate our interactions with the world, Franklin is interested in the presentation of information and ideas. To him, painting is to cinema as poetry is to literature, the distillation of ideas into a more immediate, compact format. In a time when disassociation through media consumption is tempting, these works call for a return to a more sustainable, human pace of life, and invite extended participation with a single image or idea.
Franklin’s background in sculpture and performance art is evident in these paintings. As with his previous exhibition, these new works feature “spotlights” which draw attention to the subject of each work, while obscuring other aspects. The starting point for each work is a collage which includes materials sourced from archaeology journals, food magazines, and the artist’s own images. Franklin cuts out parts of photographs from pages which are then laid over other images, creating unusually shaped apertures through which the background subject matter appears. This overlay recalls the screen in a theater, obscuring and also focusing the viewers’ attention. From this rigid starting point, he then makes fluid, formal, reactive decisions through the rest of the work.
Formally, these new works represent an advancement in Franklin’s conception of space and scale as a painter. The amount of information contained in the largest works has been reduced, giving the spotlit objects more air, and the compositions become increasingly dense as the scale of the paintings diminishes. As such, the small paintings on cast concrete frames contain the most information, becoming devotional objects with an intimate presence that rewards closer viewing.
