Exhibition: Stephen Siwiak - New Stairway exhibition, Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, until July 11 2009
The Harris Museum and Art Gallery has been using its stairway gallery to provide a unique and highly visible space dedicated to promoting North West artists, and its latest exhibition features Stephen Siwiak's distinctive artwork, focusing specifically on the human form and head.
The artist does not see the drawings he makes as portraits - there is a detachment from the subject, avoiding a focus on character, personality, identity and denying any reference to social reality.
Siwiak agrees with the sentiments of Gerhard Richter's, who argued that the painted "need not either see or know the sitter...a portrait must not express anything of the sitter's 'soul', essence or character."
Picture © Stephen Swiak
This stance helps to explain why he uses such an affecting subject for his work and then chooses to dismiss the subjective nature of portraiture. Richard Smith of the Harris Museum and Art Gallery explained:
"Stephen Siwiak's drawings are extremely striking and have a very strong presence – the artist was keen that the work was hung closely, and the resulting volume of drawings in the space only adds to their presence and intensity.
"On first appearance the drawings are compelling portraits, however, Siwiak is interested in the contradictions he can create in his work, opposing elements that seem at odds with each other so the work operates on more than one level."
Siwiak is a Preston-based artist and is a recent MA Fine Art graduate from the University of Central Lancashire. For more information visit his website.
