EXHIBITION NEWS

PAUL KILSBY'S WORK WILL BE EXHIBITED AT HOOPERS GALLERY IN LONDON IN SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER 2010 (PRIVATE VIEW SEPTEMBER 9th)

HIS WORK WILL ALSO BE EXHIBITED IN TURIN, ITALY LATER THIS YEAR



These four new photographs are from the series Gazing Globes 



A feature based on an interview with Paul Kilsby was in the October 2009 issue of the magazine  BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY   

 


Please use the CONTACT page to leave comments on the photographs or to get in touch

 

Paul Kilsby is represented by HOOPERS GALLERY, Clerkenwell, London

                                                

                                                                 

  

Paul Kilsby is  working on two ongoing series, Trompe L'Oeil and Lux -

see the relevant pages to explore the ideas and inspiration for each series. 

The Hoopers exhibition  will include  images from a new series, Spheres

A selection from these two series was exhibited at Lensky Gallery in October 2009



TROMPE L'OEIL   

This is a series of photographs inspired by the genre of trompe l'oeil, again combining reproductions with his own interventions. These images make references to the iconography of seventeenth century still life, including the themes of the memento mori and vanitas. A further inspiration comes from the cabinets of curiosity assembled by aristocrats such as Rudolf II of Prague in the sixteenth century. Kilsby creates trompe l'oeil images in which real three dimensional objects seamlessly commingle with reproductions of paintings and fabricated niches.


LUX

Another new series is called Lux. The inspiration for this work again finds its source in French and Spanish seventeenth century still life painting and the objects are drawn from this genre. Each object is painted with luminous pigments and then exposed to light. Then, in total darkness, the objects are photographed using a long exposure, the image gradually forming from the dim glow of the fading luminous light emitted from the objects. This process in turn relates to the vanitas theme - Dutch painters often included images of hourglasses and candles as images of mortality and the passage of time.


GAZING GLOBES

Gazing globes are thought to date back to Venice in the thirteenth century where they were made of glass. Later they became fashionable in the gardens of aristocrats throughout Europe, a taste encouraged by Ludwig II of Bavaria  who decorated his Herrenchiemsee gardens with them. The spheres, made not only of glass but also different metals including polished copper, were primarily objects of meditation but were also believed by the superstitious to have special powers, warding off evil forces.

In this series of four photographs, another key reference is to the Japanese passion for moongazing (tsukimi), celebrated, for example, in the one hundred woodblock prints of Yoshitoshi. The celebration of tsukimi reaches its climax in the Japanese calendar  with the waxing of the harvest full moon in September. At Daikaku-ji temple in Kyoto the moon is viewed by aficionados reflected in the lake from ceremonial boats, doubling its beauty.

Three of these globes are painted using faux techniques.


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PAUL KILSBY trained originally  in Fine Art at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the University of Wales. About twenty years ago he shifted from making sculptures to begin specialising in  the medium of photography. At the same time, he began to research overlooked European artists involved in making photographs but whose work had been marginalised within Modernist histories of photography. This research, undertaken in the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Russia and France, was brought together in a Ph D at the Royal College of Art in London.  It also had a growing impact on his own imagery which turned more and more upon exploring the relationship between photography and the history of painting. He began to work with reproductions of paintings, manipulating them in many ways - sometimes by tearing, sometimes by burning, often by adding extra objects and imagery to create small scale tableaux which he then photographed. This body of work was gathered together as both an exhibition and a book, The Seer & The Seen.


Since that time Kilsby has continued to focus on the  relationship between painting and photography. In 2006 he exhibited a new body of work, After Vermeer,  at Hoopers Gallery, London, which explores the ways in which the Dutch painter's imagery reveals a 'photographic'  look due to his use of a camera obscura.  Kilsby uses a variety of techniques to revisit Vermeer's paintings. In some he  reworks Vermeer's compositions, bringing characters from  different paintings into fresh combinations. In others, he throws areas out of focus, emphasising  the restricted depth of field Vermeer must have experienced as he  peered into the ground glass screen of his camera obscura.  Another technique involves folding, scoring and reworking reproductions to create 'optical' obsctructions. These photographs are conceived as explorations, meditations, homages.


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Other sourrces of information on Paul Kilsby's photography:

 

Paul Kilsby's work and an extensive interview featured in Eyemazing magazine, Issue 03 - 2007. Go to EYEMAZING INTERVIEW PDF  His work also featured in  Silvershotz magazine, the international journal of  fine art photography: THE SEER & THE SEEN  This issue featured works from The Seer & The Seen series with an article by the novelist and broadcaster, Alex Martin.

 

 

Paul was a guest speaker at PhotoStroud Festival of Photography in October 2007 and included in the group exhibition 31 Studio at the Subscription Rooms.


Paul's  photographs were included as part of an exhibition called Oil & Silver at Hoopers Gallery in London from Friday 2nd February until March 2nd 2007. This was a group exhibition exploring dialogues between painting and photography in contemporary fine art practice. The exhibition also included work by Mark Bolland, Nicky Coutts, Nicholas Middleton and Jorma Puranen. Go to www.hoopersgallery.co.uk,  archived exhibitions section for details.  You can see prints by Paul  by appointment at: Hoopers Gallery, 15 Clerkenwell Close, London EC1R 0AA, telephone 020 7490 3908  Go to: HOOPER'S GALLERY    Paul Kilsby's photographs are held in public and private collections in France, USA, Czech Republic, Russia  and the UK                                                


 

 
    





Please  visit  31 STUDIO for details of high quality studio platinum printing

 

                    


Also visit  NICKY AKEHURST CREATIVE MANAGEMENT
for further details about exhibiting the After Vermeer series