TODD JAMES – GREAT ADVENTURE
2010-09-27In Great Adventure Todd James depicts subjects as varied as modern day Somali pirates, anthropomorphized war machines of every type, his signature women in emotionally barren landscapes, and irreverent portraits of the personnel that Western governments, with straight faces, call “peacekeeing forces.” The raw transgressive lines of these daunting compositions are rendered in a bright palette of colours that lends the work an innocent and disarming appearance, but deeper exploration shows that despite this cheery surface, the artist is dealing in themes of warfare and global conflict, damage and desperation; subjects whose reality must be sublimated to be bearable, and which here are triangulated effortlessly, astonishingly, and somehow, with James’ trademark humor.
Todd James says simply: “The reason I find things like this funny is because sometimes you need to laugh to keep from crying”. With this new collection of paintings, which includes some of the artist’s first works in oil, viewers may find both reactions conflictingly appropriate.
Opposite – Dare to dream, 2010
Exhibition runs through to November 3rd, 2010
Galería Javier López
Galería José Marañón, 4
E-28010
Madrid
Spain
