I absolutely loved this exhibition. I thought it would be really full, because it's Good Friday and a Bank Holiday but of course there's an exodus from London at Easter, and it was relatively empty.
Obviously, I am neither a man nor a person of Jamaican heritage, but there was something about the way Anderson 'sees' the things that he paints, first through the lens of a camera, and then through the process of painting, that really chimes with the way that I work. He also has a way of 'feeling' the humans in his paintings that was really recognisable. You could sense his connection with the subjects of his work.
And the colours- the town trees with their cast of greyness, the many different greens, the splashes of unexpectedness that bring a composition to life. It was so inspiring! The rendition of plants, and the way light and shadow catches their leaves, sometimes reminded me of Abel Rodriguez's paintings of the rainforest. I felt excited, and I felt love for these paintings.
One huge canvas painted especially for the exhibition was almost like a graphic novel: panels next to each other, above and below, made a narrative of colour and juxtaposition of the historical and contemporary experiences of black Jamaicans that was as intriguing as it was well executed.
There is repetition of ideas, although the ideas develop and morph. I loved this too- the sense that the project is not finished, and that his process of painting is an external experiment possibly with no end in sight. Brilliant. I'm going again, soon.
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