Lovers: An Art Exhibition by Che Lovelace

These paintings grouped under the title "Lovers", reflect some of the undertakings that have informed much of my work over the past few years. The human figure is still very central and I am still attentive to the forms, vibrations, rhythms, movements and distortions that happen during the process of painting figures. Even though the paintings revolve around the theme of "Lovers", and some of the characteristic or typically representative images of lovers are used, what interests me is not what is obvious or illustrative. Seeing the figures, not in fixed unreactive ways, but trying to unlock fresh ways to characterize and imagine them, is a priority. To this end the activity and process of making paintings remains the most important aspect of art-making for me. Each painting is started in a different way and completed via diverse routes, so that within each piece there exists a visible and unique trace of it's production. In this sense the method by which the paintings are made avoids repetition, favoring instead a spirit of discovery. There have also been a few departures into a type of abstraction, the genesis of which might be in the backgrounds and 'side-grounds' of the paintings where figures are present. With these more abstract pieces, there is no focus on a central figure so they depend solely on improvisation, with sometimes a suggestion of imaginative landscapes. In addition to the more obvious definitions, "Lovers" also relates to a notion of openness, change, cycles, growth et cetera, a love, so to speak, for life and the layers of which it consist. Che Lovelace