50
Auckland
Ron Left Shadow Series
Artis Gallery, 11–24 June
PETER SIMPSON
In 2016 Ron Left completed a PhD at
AUT (from where he has just retired
as Dean in the Faculty of Design and
Creative Technologies); the practical
dimension of this qualification was
a vast 19-panel work which was
acquired by the university and
is located in its new engineering
building. It is accessible to the public,
and is well worth a visit.
His new show at Artis Gallery—a
welcome return to the dealer gallery
scene after an absence of some years—
is closely related to this enormous
work in its imagery, materials,
methodology and philosophical
context.
These new paintings combine
photographic imagery and acrylic
paints on sheets of aluminium. The
artist initially covers the whole
aluminium sheet with a digital
photograph which is then variously
altered or covered (partially or wholly)
by acrylic paint—whether brushed,
rolled, poured or splattered. In
Escalator Painting No.4, for example,
the rectangle is divided by a grid of
eight (smaller) upper sections and
eight lower sections; the underlying
photograph is clearly visible in
the upper right section, and partly
visible in others, notably the middle
panels both upper and lower where
the black-and-white photographicimageis largely(butnotwholly)
obliterated by red paint; in other
panels the underlying image is masked
completely by squares or rectangles of
black, yellow or grey paint. In Escalator
6 and 7 , a black-and-white photograph
of an escalator (clearly visible in 6 ,
largely obscured by surface spatterings
and striations in 7 ) is partially masked
by a contrasting rectangle of bright
colour at the top (pink in the first
instance, two shades of green in the
other). The coloured rectangles are
not pristine but are obtruded upon
at their edges by portions of the
underlying photograph. The technique
allows for a wide variety of effects
and gives the surfaces a compelling
dynamism.
In the Shadow paintings similar
elements are involved, paint and
photograph being variously deployed.
In the long, narrow Shadow Painting
No.2, the upper part (showing legs
and feet reflected in puddles) is
dominated by photographic imagery
with differing degrees of exposure,
while the lower part is more
clearly divided into ten rectangular
panels, some continuous with the
photographic images above them,
others entirely painted over with red,
yellow, white and black. By contrast,
Shadow Painting No.4, a two-panel
work, is a blaze of yellow in three
shades, ambiguous and doctored
photographic imagery being confined
to the outer bottom corners. Again,
the colour fields are not consistently
flat (as in, say, Ellsworth Kelly), but
intruded upon by seemingly random
impurities, especially along the central
join.
Left is obviously motivated by
aesthetic and philosophical issues
concerning time and identity that
stem from his postgraduate research;
viewers however will mainly engage
with the intriguing facture of these
paintings, the challenging hybridity of
their visual idiom, the range of effects
achieved by the handling of the grid
structures, and the virtuosity of their
surfaces. This impressive exhibition
is clearly the work of a painter at a
vital stage of personal and artistic
development.(left) RON LEFT
Escalator Painting No.4 2017
Acrylic & digital photograph on
aluminium, 900 x 1600 mm.
(below) RON LEFT
Shadow Painting No.4 2017
Acrylic & digital photograph on
aluminium, 1500 x 1500 mm.