ÜBER ART! 

Local artist Eloise Govier at the Pendre Art Gallery

9th September - 1st October 2010 Pendre Art Gallery are pleased to present the fourth solo show by Wales based artist ELOISE GOVIER, featuring a new and exciting collection of figurative oil paintings and drawings.   

The exhibition is the culmination of two years of work centred upon the male form and the artist’s first exploration of the figure.  The creation of the texture-rich paintings contribute to her growing oeuvre, and suggest a deepened examination of emotional and psychological depth.  Both intimate and celebratory, the paintings can be divided thematically into two; those which capture cafe and bar scenes from a trip by train and boat across France, Italy and Greece, contrasted with vibrant dancer-esque poses which Eloise refers to as her “Tiger paintings”.  

The paintings portray a single man whose identity shifts and changes as you take in the collection.  Throughout all he is defined by his broad shoulders, narrow hips, and the slim waist of a dancer.  The long-limbed adonis pulsates from the canvas and you are reminded of a Nijinsky or a Nureyev; which begs the question: were dancers on the agenda for Eloise?  “I was celebrating that type of physique as an ideal and the body-type lends itself to the contorted and twisted forms I was trying to capture on canvas because you can see the muscle and sinew in action.”   

The thickness of paint combined with the way the substance moves across the canvas has become a ubiquitous part of her style, and when used to capture the body the method accentuates the tangible quality of the figure; you literally want to reach out a touch the surface.  Why the figure and why now?  “I wanted the challenge. The figure demands a whole new level of personal commitment, capturing the dynamics between people and translating that to canvas is an extraordinary and intimate process.  The paintings celebrate life and the body as beautiful.”   

The five ‘tiger’ paintings capture a form of kinetic energy; the body twists, writhes, leaps, splits and balances precariously on limbs that appear too slender to hold the weight of their own form.  Yet as if my magic the movement is held and pose captured, a mastery of contortion - but you feel for the model.  Eloise explains that the images are taken from a series of sketches that she drew from a life model, having to work quickly on a pose she had somewhere between seconds and minutes to capture the moment, these drawings were then developed into large-scale oil paintings in her studio in Cenarth.  The paintings were filmed by S4C’s Sioe Gelf last Autumn and the exhibition shall first be on display at the Pendre Art Gallery, Cardigan before heading north to the Scottish town of St Andrews where the works will be exhibited at the prestigious Byre Theatre, Scotland’s only five star Arts Attraction.  

Eloise explained how the title of the exhibition ‘Über Art!’ came about; “Über is a word that literally means ‘super’ in German and has been adopted into the English language of today.  It’s a fun word that fits with the mood of now.  Essentially these paintings are something I want to shout about.”  Liz Hickling-Baker of Pendre Art Galley adds: “we are very excited about the show, the paintings look spectacular.  Eloise has had a great amount of success recently and we are proud to be launching Über Art! from the gallery.”