Dean Carson: Wallworks and Film Stills

As part of a series of exhibitions exploring new directions in contemporary painting, the AGW is pleased to present a long-overdue look at the work of local artist Dean Carson. Carson takes inspiration from a variety of sources, such as medieval illuminated manuscripts, architectural motifs and avant-garde cinematography.

There will be two installations of Carson’s work running concurrently, reflecting separate bodies of work that diverge in terms of execution and content, yet share a meditative aspect. One of the Gallery’s project rooms will present recent paintings that explore the changing play of light within interior spaces, ranging from the glow of sunbeams on patterned wallpaper to the smouldering of bulbs in darker, enclosed spaces. Achieved by using photocopies as his source, Carson’s abstracted images are deceptively simple and almost melancholy.

A second space will house new works on paper that are also founded on a similar idea of stillness, but in this Carson chooses his subject matter from older Japaness film images. Using high contrast black and white, the resulting works provde some clues to possible narratives. The artist’s pared down, varied approach to representation, however, obscures easy readings further detaching the viewer from action which has already been mediated by a disintegrating film still.