The Albemarle Gallery is delighted to present a selection of paintings by Ron Hicks, Alfredo Roldan and Salustiano, three artists unified by their shared meditation on the human figure.
American painter Ron Hicks relishes the possibilities and outcomes offered by emphatic handling, graphic composition and textural manipulation. The focus of his works is the head, a fixed point around which the material of the painting is orchestrated. The surface is fragmentary and abstracted, punctuated by stainings, smudges and traces that have been brushed, scrubbed and drawn to evoke an aura of intense activity. His subjects’ faces are densely worked, with softly-rendered skin tones framed by vividly crafted traceries of hair. Dynamic and harmonic arrangement is achieved by assiduous selection of gesture and pose.
Born in Spain, self-taught artist Alfredo Roldan’s paintings are sophisticated exercises in sumptuous colour and subtle tonalities. His figures are engaged in the rituals of relaxation, surrounded by the paraphernalia of the home. These enigmatic figures express a theatricality of self-presentation, which is deliberately seductive in its subtle evasion. These compositions evoke a state of pause and tranquility, sustained by simple and everyday pleasures.
Spanish artist Salustiano paints a youthful cast of watchful and pre-occupied subjects, who exist in a dream of themselves, playing with ideas of identity and role. The subjects' groomed and sleekly-edited poses speak of autonomy and self regard. Elegant drawings fluently track outline and surface. Tonalities of flesh are subtly laid down, in paint and coloured pencil, to describe the contours of the human form. Colour is deployed in dramatic saturations to graphically frame and accentuate the body. The figures float in the picture plane, unattached to a physical context or space.
