Steve Nicholas
05.11.99 - 28.11.99
“It’s no laughing matter having a family...” that’s what my dad told me anyway.
The work in Lapse consists of large scale drawings of family portraits. Looming out of and dissolving into large areas of white paper they appear as if drawn in a state of reverie. They are done in chalk and pastel, pressed into the paper. An imprint of a face pushes out, a hand rests on a knee or in the space where a knee once was. Things get confused. These drawings negotiate their existence within the white of the paper. They are like marks left on vacated beds. It is as if only through physical contact with the paper that these fragile images can be contained.
Posed in the habit of traditional portraiture, these families, this family is stripped down, naked. Certain details in the bodies have been crisply drawn in pencil while other areas are diffuse or absent.
I have never seen nor probably ever will see my parents naked, maybe when they are dead...perish the thought.
These drawings attempt to convey tactile and visual memories into sensuous recollections.
My mum, looking at a painting of mine once said “what did you what to do that for? It’s like one of my nightmares.”
Steve Nicholas has collaborated with; Mathew Caley, Lol Coxhill and Evan Parker. He has participated in group shows in London and Europe including: “Bank TV”, “Happy Squirrel Club” at de Fabriek and “Instantaneous” at Beaconsfield.
For further information please call Sheila Lawson on 020 7375 2973.