ART-PRESENTATION: Liam Everett-The Listeners
In his abstract, mixed-media works, Liam Everett explores the process of art making, centered on the artist himself, and the gestures and movements of his body as he shapes raw materials into finished pieces. Inspired by dance, theater, and philosophy, he produces work abundant with human traces. The gestural smears, smudges, lines, and creases in his works on panel and fabric reflect his elaborate, labor-intensive method, in which he alternately builds up and erases layers of pigment
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Galerie Kamel Mennour Archive
Liam Everett’s solo exhibition “The Listeners” is on presentation at Galerie Kamel Mennour in London. Everett’s works may appear natural, as if the surfaces have formed naturally on their own, though upon closer inspection, it is visibly noticeable where such marks could not have possibly formed unaided. The artists hand is simultaneously not visible within the works, for Everett has consciously chosen to focus on his processes of painting as an act of labour. It is only once his battered pieces of silk, wool or linen escape the studio, do they enter the foreign context of being artworks. In his studio Everett always has several paintings in process, and they too must stay in motion, frequently shifting from the floor to the wall to the tables outside, a practice that inevitably alters his physical relationships to his compositions as he works alternately on top of, up against, or leaning over them. Influenced by contemporary dance, his gestures are deliberate yet immediate responses to his studio environment. His intent is to stay in the moment, encouraged by a rule-based armature. Instead of brushes he uses objects that he finds near his studio such as metal fencing, sticks, or debris, which he positions in such a way that he is forced to make marks with or through them, yielding unpredictable shifts in rhythm and speed. These changes keep him destabilized, spontaneously pushing him toward the materiality of his paintings and away from conceptual frameworks and ideas. Everett’s compositions are built up with and worn down from these improvised actions. And like the physical process he sets up for himself, the materials that he employs are meant to incite instability. Marks are made with a combination of acrylic and enamel paints, alcohol, and salt. Typically used to preserve or clean, salt and alcohol have acidic properties and act as dissolving agents. They weaken the binding agents in the paint, stripping the color and distressing the surface. His works often spend time outside and are thus further shaped by the landscape and weather of Northern California.
Info: Galerie Kamel Mennour, 51 Brook Street, London, Duration: 11/4-12/5/18, Days & Hours: Mon-Sat 10:00-18:30, www.kamelmennour.com
