Neil Morley

My work enquires into the fundamental aspects of painting, mainly ‘what to paint’, ‘how to paint’ and ‘why to paint’. These questions are explored through humour and serious self-reflections into the dynamics of painting.

My interest in painting has always revolved around the inherent illusion and deception involved in making and looking at paintings. The manipulation of a flat surface to create space/deny space or create feeling or meaning and by painting the relationship between the viewer, the collector, the artist and the market. The paintings also negotiate the close bond between the artist and the product as well as explore funny/ sad ways to portray the predicament and mental life of the artist.

My aim is to explore the context that paintings are made and who paintings are made for as well as making paintings that are an expression of self-exploration, a forum to make political-social commentary and as an aesthetical object.

The paintings are humorous with a theatrical dimension which is highly staged and ambiguous, provoking multiple narrative interpretations and are purposely open-ended that defy a simple interpretation.

The paintings also deal with the personal relationship to painting. I am interested in exploring Freudian self-exploration of ego, alter-ego and failure. The paintings are influenced by working in the solitary confinement of the studio where elements of psychoanalysis often seem to permeate the paintings.

By making figurative paintings and using classic formats like self-portraiture and the figure the objective is to bring something into the painting that is very recognisable to the viewer but to be psychologically challenging as well.

The paintings also display a concentrated dialogue with art historical references particularly to Goya, Van Gogh, Picabia and Ensor, yet their unconventional compositions and curious narratives defy expectations. The atmospheric images are puzzles involving political, personal and psychological drama as well as highlight painting’s illusionary tradition and its unreliability to create narrative through inarticulacy.

The materiality of paint and semiotic potential of mixing painting styles play a significant role in how each individual painting is produced. The frozen expressionist streaks and runny drips emphasis the inanimate nature of painting but simultaneously foster the idea that the artist is present and absent at the same time. The reduction of paint to fantastical illusionary depiction devoid of painterly marks, splats and drips emphasis the uncanny and supernatural.

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