Louis Lisle
University: Edinburgh College of Art
Graduation Year: 2020
New Blood Art Commentary
Louis Lisle aims to materialise the often ambiguous notions of ‘shifting’ and ‘flux’. Beginning his investigations from localised references, places such as construction sites, car parks, and scenes of detritus serve as the points of impermanence in which to recreate the new. His colour palette is often pared down to the primary and secondary colours, boldly registering the viewer's shock in recognising the affects and motifs that structure modern life. The energy of laying down marks – both in the world at large, and on the canvas – continuously disrupts the regularity of any pattern or grid. Lisle’s work is as menacing as it is openly explosive, leaving us dazzled with the interpretative possibilities that rest in uncannily recognisable forms.
Artist Statement
My work embodies an awkward aesthetic as he balances the creation of finished and unfinished form’s, shapes, and structures. Construction sites, detritus, car parks and many mundane city spaces share this atmospheric- as they are locations and objects that physically represent the ides of shift and flux, of ‘non-places’ which are not fully functional. They underpin urban progression, but are also everchanging an impermanent, serving as motifs which mirror how we experience and perceive an ever-changing physical world. My paintings utilise this idea of incident and structure and has led to the production of scenarios that are difficult to navigate through. Deconstructing girds and regular patterns with various interventions and energetic mark making create scenarios which are visually confusing and difficult to navigate through. It is the idea of claustrophobic confusion that lies at the heart of my work.
Group Exhibitions
(2020) Paradigm Lux, Tent Gallery, Edinburgh
(2020) THIS IS TOMMOROW (Wishing you were here), Zembla with Alt-D, Hawick
(2020) ECA/ I.O. DESIGN, 10 Design, Edinburgh
(2018) Material Dialogue, Fire Station, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh
(2018) Making Art in a School, West Barns Studios, Dunbar
Competitions, Prizes & Awards
(2020) RSA New Contemporaries 2021