Surrounded by light, water or stone, the central subjects of Sholto Blissett‘s oil paintings simultaneously emphasize and challenge our aesthetic understanding of ‘nature’. Based on the rich history of landscapes, from the Dutch Golden Age to 19th century British paintings Hudson River Schoolthe artist highlights spiritual associations and the universality of the sun, the moon, the elements and the earth.
In his solo exhibition Living in deep time, bee Hannah Barry GalleryBlissett’s large-scale works explore “the tenderness between natural architecture, ecological thinking, human imagination and celestial forms of light and visibility,” according to a statement.
Blissett often uses classical architecture or historical references that create a kind of chasm or chasm between the scene and the viewer, separating us from the scene by time, geography, and a sense of the unknown.
In his most recent works, architectural facades such as large palazzos or towering obelisks have been subtly replaced by the more organic forms of trees, caves or boulders. We are led into subterranean realms flooded with moonlight, suggesting a continuum from prehistory to the future.
Blissett is fascinated by the scale of human existence. Think of the way you feel when you peer out the window of an airplane and grasp the vastness of the world below you – how small you feel, and yet, how connected. Compared to million-year-old caves, tectonic shifts, or dried-up seabeds, the span of human existence seems like just a speck within that span.
Almost portrait-like, Blissett centers trees, monuments and natural phenomena in each composition, silhouetted in the light and framed by rock walls or foliage as if the landscape has been transformed into a boundless stage.
The light itself – what it reveals or conceals – is a character in itself, reminding us of the limitations of vision, and that beyond the two-dimensional format of the painting, we are always surrounded by our environment. Blissett suggests that the darkness also persists around and behind us, and reiterates our focus on the light, on comfort and knowledge.
Often more than six feet wide or nearly as high, Blissett’s expansive scenes approach immersion. He “draws attention to our manufactured and evolving relationship between social constructions of ‘nature’ and ‘culture’ – their cosmically intertwined, spectral and thorny coexistence,” the gallery says.
Living in deep time runs through February 8 in London, and a book published by Foolscap Editions to accompany the exhibition will be launched on January 25 with a reception from 2 to 4 p.m. The artist’s work can also be seen in The silver cord bee Huxley Salonwhich continues until January 18. Find more about Blissett’s website And Instagram.
