Exhibition Review- Matt Collishaw: 'This is not an exit'

A gallery we decided to visit was Blain Southern which had an Exhibition on by British artist, Matt Collishaw titled 'This Is Not An Exit'. This exhibition was on from the 14th of February to the 30th of March which seems a long time for it to run as they are normally a few weeks to a month.

This exhibition was made up of 14 detailed oil paintings, many of which were hung at an angle. Being hung at an angle must of been a way to draw attention to them. The angled paintings were defiantly the ones I noticed first, it is almost as if he wants you to read them in an order to make a story. Although I noticed the angled ones first by the end I was much more drawn the the colour and detail in some of the others.

Above left titled: Sinners, 2012 (detail), Oil on canvas, 225 X 225cm

I initially found his work drew me in as I walked into the white open space and although quite liked it had very little idea about the concept about it. While doing research on Matt Collishaw's exhibition I came across this film of him speaking about it which helped me understand his work much more.

http://www.blainsouthern.com/artists/mat-collishaw/multimedia/7   

This quote from the Blain Southern gallery about Collishaw's work  '... nothing is literal; the primary source material - magnified images drawn from the pages of glossy magazines - is a simple metaphor,..' reminded me about a lecture we had about Metaphors and Allegory and it is only now while writing this review the reason of having that lecture has become clear.

 Metaphor: Representation that is symbolic of something else but does not literally apply.

Allegory: A story with hidden meaning not just the literal one.

Metaphors and Allegories are something that are used within every piece artwork as they always have more then meets the eye and it takes a lot to understand the concept of  it. I know realize how helpful this lecture was as it helps us look at artwork as more then 'nice', everything has a reason for its making.

The first thing I wanted to know was the reason behind the title of this exhibition,'This is not an exit' which my first thought was there is no escape which is part of what he was trying to say and in fact he actually got the name of his exhibition from a film made in 2000 called 'American Psycho' when the  man realizes there is no escape. Collishaw really emphasized no escape by creating illusionistic paintings  which give potential to feel escapism into another world but its a flat surface.The scale of his paintings played a significant part to this as they were very large scale it helped you lose yourself in them which creates a field of void.

This was by far the best exhibition I saw during the day I spent looking at West end galleries. Although the work on display was not the more outstanding work I saw this day, however it was a close second, the gallery layout was easier to view then any other exhibition I went to while in London. Collishaw's work is one of those exhibitions that going to the opening day would help a lot because the artist would be there to talk about his work. It is not something you can view to its full potential until you really understand it. His work is out there to make people aware of these issues more then to sell the work, it is not really something you would expect to see in a home. After seeing this exhibition of his I would be encouraged to go to future ones as I think he raises important issues and I love the abstract way he works.

Sources:

http://www.blainsouthern.com/exhibitions/2013/mat-collishaw-this-is-not-an-exit

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144084/