#unitlondon

Tom French, the Unit London

“As the nature of the image becomes apparent, what is viewed changes and evolves. The doubled up use of imagery creates an experience greater than the sum of its individual parts. The interpretations of the characters and actions within the paintings transcend upon realisation of the bigger picture, and visa versa.” -Tom French

Last Thursday, 30th January we went to a private view opening of a retrospective exhibition and memorial for British-born painter Tom French that took place at Unit London, Mayfair. Name was a first thing that grabbed Olga’s interest and after further read she decided to invite all of us to come along. Transcend means to go beyond limits which well coheres with the way French speaks about the work and the execution of the work speaks the ‘same language’ to the viewer. These paintings are relatively large scale and so when you first look at them from up close you get struck by this image within the image effect where you can hardly notice the facial expressions as your attention is drawn towards the detail which can be seen as separate figures within the figure, but referring to French’s quotation about the bigger picture he invites the viewer to see more than just a mere art of illusion and that is where the concept comes into play. What was he trying to say?

Prior knowing about artist intentions behind this work as a viewer I was trying to peace my own possible meanings and interpretations that this work could represent in relation to the name ‘transcend’. First thing that was the most apparent to me was ‘it is not what it seems at the first glance’ kind of approach, not just in an aesthetic way, but more about the inner expression of the artist.

This was a painting that from up close looks like fragments of these beautiful female faces, but if you step further away you can see this face that resonated to me as sad and longing for something, which I believe is not far of what artist actually intended to do in terms of seeing a bigger picture.

Thinking about technicalities of the work there is a lot there too: carefully constructed photo-realistic portraits intertwined with expressive opposite to careful brush strokes that give these paintings a sense of movement, dreamlike abstract forms and elements of urban graffiti. Use of completely opposite stylistic techniques in one piece of work reflects well the idea of duality, complexity and illusion.

Private view was an interesting experience, not only to see the content, but also to be among people that normally come for the purpose of buying the artwork and there was a lot of people, the atmosphere created by the crowd seemed unusually different to what you would normally see in somewhere like Tate or National Gallery where you would simply go to be with art, here it felt a more like ‘disposable’ and ‘one time thing’ orientated around investment then pure act of seeing.

Exhibition consisted of 16 artworks, in pretty simple layout and lighting on the white wall which suited the artwork and the purpose of the exhibition quite well. Paintings themselves were expressive enough so the simplicity of the interior subtly complemented it. Audio sound did not seem to be doing much for the exhibition, but rather for the private view ‘party’ opening. If the purpose was to study the artworks the better time to visit would have been in the next few days after opening when it is more quiet, but overall it was to be expected to be an event which is totally appropriate for it’s purpose.

Written by Rugile Kozlovskyte (Venus)

Link for more info:

https://rhodescontemporaryart.com/artists/29-tom-french/overview/