paul critchley @ gallery oldham.......9 july til 25 september

paul critchley has lived and worked in mainland europe for the past 25 years or more in hollland....spain..barcelona and now italy....close to rome......his work has its roots in realism and surrealism....he is a creator of quirky worlds within worlds.......over the years paul has developed a series of works that explore a mysterious world of secrets and subterfuge....it is akin to de chirico.....landscapes and townscapes peopled or not by enigmatic events....that are often rooted in his own past........doors open into other nether worlds.....many works have movable parts doors ...through the.window is the landscape that you see the real landscape or are we being tricked by the artist......paul is a story teller a narrator....in the tradition of edgar allan poe.......he draws us into his world....what is that telephone doing in a drawer.........who is the voyeur in the cupboard....over the past 5 years or so he has been on working on a major project.....a depiction of his apartment in barcelona..... he is a master of perspective and he manipulates paint in a trompe l oeul manner.....he convinces us of his portrayal of reality....they are not merely photographic representations but an interpretation of his view of reality....they are inhabited by re representations of everyday items and given a new significance in the narrative in which they are shown....there are layers and layers in the works....plots within subplots..............

this is the apartment in bcn....the current show in oldham.is another realisation of the painting as series of rooms containing a juxtaposition of images....from the light switches....to an ironing board.......and a mirrored cupboard with drawers full of telephones........he tells a story that you can try and unravel...or interpret......he collects objects that he paints for the paintings.....they are constructed into a myriad of different shapes....that are the objects.....two cut out chairs connected  by a real telephone cable with a painted telephone....

here are a selection of parts of the oldham show.........

this is a must see show..............

you can see more of pauls work on..........http://www.paulcritchley.com/

manchester city art gallery....11 rooms

the manchester international festival is under way....this event caught our eye........11 rooms....we saw the poster...

on arrival in manchester we went off for a chinese meal in china town...........excited at the prospect of viewing some fascinating work..........when we arrived there were plenty of people milling around....this augured well......in the first room a man seated at a table was swapping stuff with members of the public.....he exchanged some chewing gum for a pen.......cutting edge stuff this.........another room contained a line of people playing at revolving doors......another room " which had a warning on the door" was a man laying in bed reading....then having a pretend wank .........do you remember the poster........by this time i has seen enough....i also saw man doing the limbo in another room.......time to go


"the emperors news clothes are back in fashion"

and this is what the blurb had to say.......

Over the last two Festivals, with the iconoclastic Il Tempo del Postino and the epic Marina Abramović Presents, MIF has established a reputation for commissioning some of the most exciting live art events to be experienced anywhere. 11 Rooms builds on that work, attracting the attention and energy of the international art world to Manchester for the duration of the Festival.

Curators Klaus Biesenbach (MoMA PS1 and MoMA, New York) and Hans Ulrich Obrist (Serpentine Gallery, London) bring together 11 of the most interesting artists creating durational encounters to make new and re-imagined work for MIF. Each will explore the ephemeral aspects of art, focusing on an idea or situation that both establishes and erases itself in the same instance, shaping an unmediated experience for the audience in a series of specially-created spaces at Manchester Art Gallery.   

" this is pure art bollocks speak" 

they have invited 11 of the most exciting......................blah....blah.....yawn...... 

adrain searle adds to the mayhem and gobbledegook in his video clip. ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/video/2011/jul/13/11-rooms-manchester-international-festival-video-review?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3486 

NEWS OF THE WORLD....NEWS FLASH...SUNDAY JULY 10..2011....With Regular Updates

"sunk without trace"

" Who is this lurking"

" PR RULES ....OK"

" it takes a worried man to sing a worried song.....what would houdini have done?"