Alastair Gordon

'Central to my practice is the notion of a painting as a cultural artefact. At first these are paintings about paintings: images that oscillate between artefact and artifice. Certain questions emerge about the craft of the artist, residual materials and replication of painted objects.

Notions of authenticity and illusion lie at the heart of my artistic enquiry. I find myself looking for evidence of ‘the real thing’. I look for evidence of the artists process before and after a work is completed. Artists materials such as masking tape and paper are rendered in paint to appear as taped or pinned on a wooden surface, a practice that refers to a specific form of illusionism that proliferated in 17th century Northern Europe called quodlibet (what you will).

As Jean Baudrillard wrote in The System of Objects: “We are fascinated by what has been created…because the moment of creation cannot be reproduced.”

Exhibited at Griffin Gallery in Perfectionism (Part III.): The Alchemy of Making in October-November 2016; in the Griffin Art Prize 2015 shortlist exhibition, November - December 2015.

BORN

1978

EDUCATION

MA Fine Art - Wimbledon School of Art, 2012 
 
BA Fine Art (Hons) Painting - Glasgow School of Art, 2002  
 
Leith School of Art, Edinburgh, 1998 

(Last updated 08.07.2016)