Alison Pilkington’s paintings are situated between abstraction and figuration. Her paintings utilise simple half-formed shapes, which are open to metaphorical and anthropomorphic interpretation. They explore how familiar yet comic images have the potential to disturb, disorientate or to be uncanny.
The idea of artistic freedom and creativity as a journey is alluded to during which a narrative unfolds through simple recurring motifs. In some paintings the shapes take on a character and are given an environment. References to paintings from different periods of art history frequently come through her paintings. There are also references to classical portraiture, landscape painting and the sublime. The paintings are frequently charged with a visual tension and are both humorous and unsettling. The quality of paint handling, although seemingly casual, is a result of repeated attempts at getting something ‘right’.
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