Ian Francis Fireland - Joshua Liner Gallery
Ian Francis Fireland - Joshua Liner Gallery
Ian Francis Fireland - Joshua Liner Gallery
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<strong>Ian</strong> <strong>Francis</strong><br />
<strong>Fireland</strong>
<strong>Ian</strong> <strong>Francis</strong><br />
<strong>Fireland</strong><br />
March 3 - April 2, 2011<br />
Opening Reception:<br />
Thursday March 3, 6-9 pm<br />
For inquiries please contact:<br />
info@joshualinergallery.com
<strong>Fireland</strong><br />
<strong>Joshua</strong> <strong>Liner</strong> <strong>Gallery</strong> is pleased to present <strong>Fireland</strong>, an exhibition of new paintings and works on paper by the<br />
British artist <strong>Ian</strong> <strong>Francis</strong>. This is <strong>Francis</strong>’ first one-man show at the gallery and marks his solo debut in New York.<br />
Working in mixed media on canvas, <strong>Ian</strong> <strong>Francis</strong> combines abstraction, figuration, and elements of both painting<br />
and drawing to create distinctly contemporary works. His robust approach uses a range of techniques<br />
including acrylic, oil, charcoal, ink and graphite, all deployed in a spontaneous, seemingly off-the-cuff manner.<br />
Below this active “surface,” however, are subtle notes of melancholy, alienation and social critique, revealing a<br />
nuanced regard for contemporary mores.<br />
<strong>Francis</strong> draws inspiration and raw material from cinema, pornography, street culture, and images sampled<br />
from the Internet, synthesizing these sources into a quasi-literal vision of the “mediated” landscape. Among<br />
the exhibition’s twelve mixed-media paintings and selection of works on paper, a number depict urban street<br />
life and the complex interactions that occur when random souls collide. Amid high-color washes and jagged<br />
brushwork, youthful figures have a reckoning on park steps in A Boy Returns Home Not Realizing How Much He’s<br />
Changed. The cityscape is fragmented and unsettling in Walking Down a Street a Person is Crushed by Light, a<br />
poignant work that intimates the hardships faced by the elderly and other vulnerable beings among urban<br />
dwellers.<br />
Elsewhere, a Japanese soft-porn princess makes an appearance in Anri Sugihara Three Seconds, a closeup<br />
portrait created from multiple perspectives over time. It’s a play on Sugihara’s own coquettish updating of the<br />
“fan dance” in her erotic YouTube videos. In other works, <strong>Francis</strong> depicts semi-clad female figures who loll and<br />
mix in casual groupings — some scenes are intimate, others hedonistic. These figures are recognizable as the<br />
young and beautiful denizens of media fantasies fueled by sex, death, and celebrity.<br />
In these and other works, abstraction and figuration mutually support the artist’s suggestion of a worldview<br />
where the incongruities of modern urban life — violence and style, wealth and poverty, beauty and the<br />
grotesque — cannot help but intersect.
Paintings on canvas
High Angle Deer Park<br />
Oil, acrylic, ink, pen, charcoal,<br />
graphite, photo transfer on canvas<br />
54 x 72 in.<br />
2011
A Boy Expects to Crash Through<br />
a Window but Hits Nothing<br />
Oil, acrylic, ink, pen, charcoal<br />
on canvas<br />
42 x 60 in.<br />
2011
Five People Attempt to Cross<br />
a River<br />
Oil, acrylic, ink, pen, charcoal<br />
on canvas<br />
42 x 60 in.<br />
2011
A Girl is Stranded at a Holiday Resort<br />
From 2010 Onwards<br />
Oil, acrylic, ink, pen, charcoal,<br />
graphite on canvas<br />
48 x 48 in.<br />
2011
An Island Finally Comes to an End<br />
Over and Over Again in 2010<br />
Oil, acrylic, ink, charcoal,<br />
photo transfer on canvas<br />
48 x 48 in.<br />
2010
A New Band Gets Tired of Their<br />
Own Song<br />
Oil, acrylic, ink, pen, charcoal<br />
on canvas<br />
36 x 50 in.<br />
2011
A Boy Returns Home Not Realizing<br />
How Much He’s Changed<br />
Oil, acrylic, ink, charcoal, graphite<br />
on canvas<br />
36 x 50 in.<br />
2010
Walking Down a Street a Person is<br />
Crushed by Light<br />
Oil, acrylic, ink, pen, charcoal,<br />
graphite on canvas<br />
36 x 50 in.<br />
2010
Three People Lose Track of Time in<br />
the Financial District of San <strong>Francis</strong>co<br />
Oil, acrylic, ink, pen on canvas<br />
36 x 50 in.<br />
2010
A Girl’s Newfound Love for Technology<br />
Grows to Fill Her Whole World<br />
Oil, acrylic, ink, charcoal, graphite,<br />
photo transfer on canvas<br />
42 x 30 in.<br />
2010
Girl on a Park Bench<br />
Oil, acrylic, ink, charcoal, graphite,<br />
photo transfer on canvas<br />
36 x 36 in.<br />
2010
Anri Sugihara Three Seconds<br />
Oil, acrylic, ink, charcoal<br />
on canvas<br />
28 x 40 in.<br />
2010
Hotel Chair Pattern<br />
Acrylic, pen, photo transfer<br />
on canvas<br />
17 x 22 in.<br />
2011
A Cave in 2011<br />
Acrylic, pen, photo transfer<br />
on canvas<br />
17 x 22 in.<br />
2011
Works on paper
Screen Door<br />
Charcoal, ink, pen, oil, acrylic<br />
on paper<br />
12.5 x 16.5 in.<br />
2010
Gold<br />
Charcoal, ink, pen, oil, acrylic<br />
on paper<br />
15 x 12 in.<br />
2010
Kiss Sequence 1<br />
Charcoal, ink, pen, oil, acrylic<br />
on paper<br />
14 x 16 in.<br />
2010
Kiss Sequence 2<br />
Charcoal, ink, pen, oil, acrylic<br />
on paper<br />
13 x 15 in.<br />
2010
Kiss Sequence 3<br />
Charcoal, ink, pen, oil, acrylic<br />
on paper<br />
12.5 x 14.5 in.<br />
2010
Hair Band<br />
Charcoal, ink, pen, oil, acrylic<br />
on paper<br />
16 x 13.5 in.<br />
2010
Bath<br />
Charcoal, ink, pen, oil, acrylic<br />
on paper<br />
16 x 13 in.<br />
2010
Conversation<br />
Charcoal, ink, pen, oil, acrylic<br />
on paper<br />
9.5 x 13 in.<br />
2010
Water Hair<br />
Pen and ink on paper<br />
10 x 12 in.<br />
2011
Group Presentation<br />
Pen and ink on paper<br />
10 x 12 in.<br />
2011
Two Angels Stage<br />
Pen and ink on paper<br />
10 x 12 in.<br />
2011
Ink Hair<br />
Pen and ink on paper<br />
10 x 12 in.<br />
2011
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