A Newtownards artist whose poetic scenes capture the strange unreality of Strangford Lough at low tide is set to have his first major show in Belfast city.
The exhibition Signs of Life by Xander, an artist who creates striking oil paintings which capture the landscape of his youth, is set to feature at Gormleys Belfast from January 10-24.
“My pictures are often set at low tide on Strangford Lough: when the tide goes out, it goes for miles and there is nothing like it – a vast expanse of sand, like a desert,” said Xander.
“This vast undifferentiated plain of sand offers a sparse stage set for poetic dramas, and so a through-line of the works is peculiar happenings out on the sands.”
A graduate of the UU art school in Belfast, Xander’s paintings strive for a specific poetic quality, often fusing formative memories and associations against the backdrop of the landscape surrounding his home town.
“It has been mentioned that the work reminds people of Dali, and while my work has a kindred relationship with surrealism, the similarity is superficial as philosophically the pieces are very different,” he said.
“Surrealist works are derived from uncensored imagery liberated from the artist’s subconscious and represented without aesthetic or moral considerations. By contrast, my work is the product of a poetic imagination: sometimes light-hearted, sometimes ranging into the territory of benign nightmare, certainly achieved through representing the unexpected, but with moral and aesthetic clarity. In that way, my work is not strictly surrealism, rather I would identify it as poeticism.”
Using personal and found media, Xander populates the backgrounds of his work with old photographs to evoke the character of Newtownards in days gone by.
“The character of old Newtownards and the changes I have witnessed over the years do filter into my work,” he said.
“Through my parents who both lived into their 90s, I have a strong sense of a place which reach back beyond my personal history. It is an irresistible invitation to the fantastic.”
“The old costume is relevant as almost always I refer to the sense of times past and lost; to fading failing memory and poetic fantasies. As such, figures are often preserved in the original sepia or black and white. They are not ghosts but this ‘old photograph’ treatment intentionally encourages a view of the work which touches on the liminal and loss by means of obscure allegory and undefined drama.”
“Beasts are significantly represented in the work, their incongruous presence is intentionally provocative. The works will often reveal themselves as I work – they are built up piece by piece by association, a palimpsest with each addition overlaying previous ideas. This makes the associations very rich, with the final product often taking a significant amount of time to mature, sometimes years.”
Xander’s exhibition, Signs of Life, can be seen at Gormleys Belfast from January 10-24 and will be free to the public.
See Gormleys.ie for details.