Chris Lilly’s Eerie dreamscapes

Chris Lilly better known as Du Gary to me, is one my friends who is coming over from Bristol to have an exhibition at the Sir John Cheshire Gallery in Jersey. So make sure you pop along and see his work. He’ll be coming over this Saturday to set up. The exhibition starts Sunday 30th August and finishes the 13th September. Above is a JEP article about the exhibition.

Chris’ drawings are concerned with the intangible, fleeting nature of moments, and the defining effects they have on the individual’s psyche. Influenced by the photography of Jeff Wall, Diane Arbus and Sally Mann, this latest exhibition brings together a series of recent pastel drawings in which layers of torn paper have been built up before any colour is applied – the false notion of a ‘blank canvas’ is abandoned, and the reality of a complex, damaged history is evoked.

The subject matter is often ‘borrowed’ from lost or abandoned photo albums that the artist has amassed over the years, or in other cases is simply from imagination. The use of surreal colours gives the pictures a dreamlike, dusky quality, while long shadows, and a wide and high viewpoint, create ominous, thoughtful atmospheres.