Michael Kirkham

Aschenbach & Hofland Galleries is proud to present the second solo exhibition of British artist Michael Kirkham (Blackpool, UK, 1971). On completing his studies at De Ateliers, Amsterdam, Kirkham spent some time in Brussels before finally deciding to settle in Berlin where he currently lives and works.

Kirkham paints figurative scenes portraying a girl, young boy or woman in the seclusion of an interior. Like a voyeur, Kirkham shows us with the paralysed languor that seems to permeate his figures. The tension within his scenes hinges on the imminent approach or absence of the other. In Kirkham’s new work, the absence of the other is heightened as the figures surrender to unashamed erotic pleasures. Their poses are unconcealed moments of ecstatic abandonment to someone who is outside our range of vision or, as in ‘Girl in Graveyard’, is dead and buried.

A great sense of urgency resonates throughout Kirkham’s work; a sense of necessity that, confronted with a painting, we cannot evade. Kirkham’s work reflects a view of reality that is at once raw and realistic, but stems from his imagination. Although the scenes and personages may be invented, they have a compelling immediate link to everyday life. In his handling of the paint –rich impasto layers - Kirkham reveals the struggle he engages in to create the images.

Also part of the exhibition; ceramic sculptures that where made at his 3 months stay at the Ceramic Work Centre in Den Bosch

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Michael Kirkham