Based in Australia, the British artist Giles Alexander blurs the boundaries between realism and abstraction in his paintings. An ardent researcher, his work displays an enduring interest in the themes of memory and history. His paintings include images from personal documentary, as well as historically significant and insignificant ‘found’ images, therefore juxtaposing personal and second hand experience and confusing the banal, important and sublime. His work is many ways a response to the modern condition of existing in a world which proliferates with vast and rapidly disseminated images.
Alexander’s paintings often use images of historical significance to draw parallels with and critically reflect on contemporary issues and their representation in the media. Some of his paintings rework seminal history paintings using contemporary people and symbols. In other paintings, images or sometimes formal abstractions are juxtaposed in surprising ways with architecture.
This dialogue concerning the status of the image is also central to the materiality of the work. Philosophy aside, the artist displays an academic touch which he can manipulate at will, which reveals his commitment to investigate the possibilities of painting. Alexander raises questions about the role of realist painting, the hand-made image and the notion of authorship by sometimes revealing and sometimes hiding the painter’s hand. The artist combines layers of resin and paint over his images, presenting a conundrum of illusionistic depth and at the same time an awareness of surface.
Giles Alexander is currently completing his Masters in Painting at the National Art School (NAS), where he earned first class honours in Painting in 2006. Before immigrating to Australia in 2000, the artist attended several British art institutes including Central Saint Martins, London. In 2005 he won the inaugural MCQ International art prize at the MCA and the Murray Sime prize for painting at the National Art School. In 2007 the artist won the Metro 5 art prize in Melbourne and had the first of three successful solo exhibitions at Mori Gallery, Sydney. In 2009 Alexander was also selected for the inaugural COMODAA (Contemporary and Modern Australian Art) exhibition in Covent Garden, London. In 2010 Alexander was shortlisted in the Archibald prize and will be shown in several International Art Fairs.
