blank is pleased to announce the representation of Gregory Olympio with an exhibition of the artist’s latest body of work, his third solo project with the gallery.
Titled Ligne, the exhibition comprises a series of new paintings in which Olympio has expanded on the concept of his ‘double portraits’, by spreading his compositions of seated figures across two canvas panels, placed side by side. He writes, “I’ve had for a while a desire to juxtapose two halves of images to form a new one; a blended image, like a blended family. Intuitively I put two canvases side by side then I started to paint characters.”
Partly inspired by the people and situations he witnesses in public life - on the street or on the internet - Olympio’s ‘characters’ are painted from both memory and imagination. These characters embody particular attitudes or impressions, but are not bound by a singular, fixed identity: "I have no desire to represent something specific, no intention of representation.” Instead, with their sketched outlines and improbable skin tones, the figures shift between personas, confounding any ready conclusion as to their socio-cultural context.
These works on exhibition also represent a new direction in the artist’s process; rather than start his paintings on clean canvases, in this body of work Olympio decided to paint directly over unresolved and discarded compositions, allowing traces of the previous layers of paint to show through. Applying his paint in thin, transparent layers - “questioning the outline of forms in the paintings, which I wanted more fluid, less opaque since my last series” - this approach brought about surprise combinations of colour and shape.
For Olympio, it is important to make the canvases cohere as a series; whether they are recomposed paintings, or reharmonized compositions, or still others which are halves of an incomplete image. In this way, the works speak to the artist’s view of culture and identity as ambiguous, fluid and at times incongruous.
Titled Ligne, the exhibition comprises a series of new paintings in which Olympio has expanded on the concept of his ‘double portraits’, by spreading his compositions of seated figures across two canvas panels, placed side by side. He writes, “I’ve had for a while a desire to juxtapose two halves of images to form a new one; a blended image, like a blended family. Intuitively I put two canvases side by side then I started to paint characters.”
Partly inspired by the people and situations he witnesses in public life - on the street or on the internet - Olympio’s ‘characters’ are painted from both memory and imagination. These characters embody particular attitudes or impressions, but are not bound by a singular, fixed identity: "I have no desire to represent something specific, no intention of representation.” Instead, with their sketched outlines and improbable skin tones, the figures shift between personas, confounding any ready conclusion as to their socio-cultural context.
These works on exhibition also represent a new direction in the artist’s process; rather than start his paintings on clean canvases, in this body of work Olympio decided to paint directly over unresolved and discarded compositions, allowing traces of the previous layers of paint to show through. Applying his paint in thin, transparent layers - “questioning the outline of forms in the paintings, which I wanted more fluid, less opaque since my last series” - this approach brought about surprise combinations of colour and shape.
For Olympio, it is important to make the canvases cohere as a series; whether they are recomposed paintings, or reharmonized compositions, or still others which are halves of an incomplete image. In this way, the works speak to the artist’s view of culture and identity as ambiguous, fluid and at times incongruous.
