Mark Francis: Paintings 2002-2005

Description

Over the past few years, British artist Mark Francis has been working on large abstract paintings that due to their repetitive subject matter and the visual solutions he has applied in them can be divided into two equally important and related groups.

In the first group, twirling, sometimes hanging and intertwined, or knotted fine lines, seem to extend beyond the edges of the canvas. The lines float on the surface of the painting against a misty, undefined deep space which literally draws you in. On some works, there are patches of cracked resin that emphasize the surface to contrast with the illusion of depth. The “focused” lines and the “out of focus” background carry with them an obvious reference to photography.

The paintings in the other group are based on the opposite structural premise from the first. The deepest background layer is thin and shiny and is now covered by a black grid, a sort of drape or stage curtain that with its deep matte texture enhances the surface of  the painting and together with the shiny surface visible from below reacts to light and tot the movements of the beholder. The crystalline and curtain-like grid also leads the eye across the surface of the painting and disturbs its entry into the depths of the work. The tension in the paintings is based on the desire that they prompt to penetrate and see beyond these solid, slowly pulsing curtains.

Francis’ work is very much about seeing. In his precisely articulated work he reflects on different systems of perception and representation on which many optical instruments and apparatuses are based to relay qualifying and structural information. Thus he makes us aware of how we see and process visual information.