VOLTA Basel

THRUST HOLMES

Thrush Holmes’ practice navigates the so-called meta-narratives of artistic practice: grandiose concepts of biography, introspection, and materiality, all whittled down with his own distinctly ironic, colorful perspective. His method is to re-examine while elevating – and simultaneously poking-fun – at the conventions of the ‘Still Life’. Through his handling, and a tongue-in-cheek application of fluorescent neon lightbulbs, Holmes raises these objects to a fetishistic status; his signature marked prominently in arbitrary swirls of neon. These are markings of man’s territory, it seems, as he metaphorically pisses over the conventions of floral painting with gusto and flair. Bursting with energy, the paintings themselves triumph the physical properties of their materiality: paint drips and splatters become definitive marks on the canvas. For the viewer, such confident mark-making and material combinations suggest an artist at the beginning of a strong career. His work suggests a hybrid-form indebted to older traditions but somehow liberated by new contemporary modes. Holmes’ work can be found in permanent collections such as the Elton John Aids Foundation, Sony, Dreamworks and Def Jam Records.

JONATHAN LUX

Jonathan Lux’s practice is interested in the contradictory relationship between spontaneous processes and images that evoke nostalgia, fantasy, and narrative. As a viewer, his repertoire of imagery seems like rejected illustrations from some darkly humorous edition of Alice in Wonderland: teapots, Chesire smiles, dancing figures, and even smoking edamame beans populate the canvas. At once cleary defined, his technique also suggests a hard-worn, spontaneous re-approaching of the canvas. We see a palimpsest-like approach, there the artist’s decisions are evidenced through layers of opaque paint thereafter covered by transparent shapes. Often beginning as a reorganisation of (memories of) his environment, Lux’s subject matter is constantly ripe for re-evaluation. His mark is purposeful, traceable, like a record of time and place in history. As a result, the paintings reference popular culture, nostalgia and play, just as much as they reference his own process in creating them. As viewers, we are privy to his problem-solving. By combining real and fictional elements, subduing the edginess of the real to the influence of his personal prerogatives the paintings inhabit an uneasy territory somewhere between pleasure and mischief, the uncanny and the altogether bizarre. Beers is thrilled to present the artist’s first two-man exhibition after a highly successful solo exhibition with the legendary Marlborough Fine Arts in September 2015.