Lewis Brander, Works on Paper

Vardaxoglou Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new works on paper by Lewis Brander (b. 1995). This is the artist’s first exhibition with the gallery dedicated to his works on paper. There will be an opening reception on Wednesday 26 April, 6-8pm.

An observer of the shifts in natural light in both Northern and Southern Europe, the colour of the sky has become a constant reference in Brander’s paintings since returning to London from Greece three years ago. Upon moving to Athens in 2018, the artist became exposed to a new landscape and quality of light. Now working from the top floor of a disused factory in East London, his studio’s views of the sky have allowed him to sustain this study of light over extended periods.

On an intimate scale, the paintings depict sunsets, the summit of hills and charcoal delineations of a tree as fragments of much larger scenes. Varying only the orientation of the works on paper, the shifts in palette and atmosphere allow for more obvious comparison. In this respect, Brander adopts an almost empirical approach to painting light – employing constants and variables in order to understand what its effects are.

All located within urban spaces, visual indicators of London and Athens’ built environments are omitted from the paintings, leaving any specific marker of place to their title. By not making direct reference to the built environment, the artist’s own interests in post-war American abstraction become counterpoints to works which appear at first to fit within the legacy of English Romantic landscape painting. The interplay between gesture, colour and ground and the push and pull of representation and abstraction means that often our own initial associations with a landscape is cultural. Paper therefore becomes an important surface through which light and atmosphere are not only observed and recorded, but a place in which the language and history of painting is played out.