Nomas* Projects / Art, Dundee

nomasprojects@gmail.com


2013, Nov

"Lie Down"

The inspiration for Lucinda's work comes both from the built environment and travel brochures; the mundanity of the modern office block or images which provoke wonder and longing, of tropical idylls in the pages of Winter Sun. Her paintings confront the viewer with a picture of Paradise, whilst also suggesting a frustration with this. The skies often appear more like wallpaper than wide-open spaces. They promise, yet fail to deliver. Her paintings suggest a kind of futility to our longings and dreams, whilst also stimulating the desire for the sublime.

The sun lounger calls us to lie down, to place ourselves at rest in the heat of the day, to contemplate, reflect or look towards the horizon. The experience of reclining suggests also a real need for this rest. We exhaust ourselves, working perhaps for the weekend or desperate for the next holiday where the weather will be better and the escape will rescue us for a short while. We see sun loungers as a place of recovery, not far from the hospital bed.

The series of black and white paintings rid the images of their holiday brochure sparkle. We are confronted with the shadows. The palms, a symbol of the exotic, cast dark spirals which appear more menacing than happy. Lucinda mainly works onto a fluorescent red ground, which often peaks through ominously, bathing everything in an artificial light. In "Sea Wall", she uses this trademark red as the shadows glow, and the sky here also shuts us inside. We look for the horizon, but the sky ahead seems impenetrable and looms heavy. We continue to hope.

Lucinda Metcalfe biography

Born 1977, Aylesbury, Bucks, UK. Lucinda Metcalfe is a London-based artist, she recently worked as “Artist-in-Residence” for Singer/Songwriter Imogen Heap and currently teaches Diploma Art to International Students in central London.

She lives in Whitechapel, but works from a studio in Wapping. She gained an MA with distinction at London’s “Slade School of Fine Art”.

London exhibitions include "Remember Paradise" at Husk, Limehouse, "Getaway"' Wandsworth, "Supersaturation" at the Crypt Gallery, Kings Cross, "Moonko, Shoreditch High St", "Urban Outfitters", Kensington, "The House my Sister Drew" at The Albany, New cross, New Contemporaries, Barbican Curve gallery and "Sitting Tenants", Lotta Hammer. Lucinda has also shown at Moonko, Sheffield, SOLAS, Dundee, "ReCreation" at "The Holy Biscuit", Newcastle, "No1 Paint" at "Blank Media Collective, Manchester, Hotel Eger in Eger, Hungary and The Terry Frost Gallery, Lemba, Cyprus.


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