Other Worldly

The Paintings of Paul Reid & Nicholas Jolly

1st  – 29th April 2017

Nicholas Jolly and Paul Reid make paintings which bring to the viewer a very personal and contemporary vision of their 21st Century existence.

The dream like quality of both Nicholas Jolly and and Paul Reid’s images suggest other worlds; both familiar and ethereal. Jolly’s paintings are surreal experiences of the world and it’s creatures; subconscious tokens formed from childhood and adult memories. Experiences of an increasingly complex, fragile and technological society, which would have seemed unimaginable to those living a few generations ago. An Age of Anxiety.

Like all truly great artists Paul Reid continues to be inspired by a myriad of ancient and contemporary subject matter and influences. As a young man he was inspired by American Super Hero comics, alongside his fascination with the Gods, Heroes and Beasts to be found in the 2,800 year old books The Odyssey and The Iliad. In more recent times he has become interested in the stories and creatures invented by the digital gaming world; Reid considering modern super heroes and fantasies to be a continuation of the perpetual human fascination with Gods, mythological beasts, dreams and the mystery of nature.

Both Jolly and Reid deal with controversial and contemporary issues, with reference to man’s fascination with science and technology – the desire and ability to control and manipulate nature whether through cloning and mutation of the natural world, or through discovering ever more sophisticated ways of producing the means to destroy or cure. Neither artists comment on the rights or wrongs of our modern age, but they do provide extraordinary work that resonates with so many facets of our own time.