Artists

Johnny Izatt-Lowry

Press release

Opening: 21. November, 2024. 18-20h

When one talks about the work of Johnny Izatt-Lowry, one often wants to start with the classic movie trailer intro “In a world where…” (add stirring music). He takes from one world and places it into another. The first world is a fast-moving, stressful and at times dark one - the digital world. The other is ours - the physical. The pathos employed by Izatt-Lowry also resembles an epic; the works are understood as a wide-ranging, comprehensive narrative of a reality of our time.

In the past, the theatre was “die Bretter, die die Welt bedeuten” (the stage that meant the world - Schiller); today it is the computer. Each of Izatt-Lowry’s compositions begins with a collage made from drawings and photos, taken from an endless stream of digital images. They are usually then painted from memory or simply the idea of what something might look like. For each work in this show, the initial inspiration came from things surrounding the artist in his daily life, found in, and just outside of his flat. What begins as a document of daily life, through various layers of manipulation, results in a painting. This approach is also translated formally: the works appear like memory clouds, blurred and veiled. Like fleeting thoughts or dreams of something - they are already fading visually, not quite tangible, or conversely, they are only slowly coming into focus. Just like in our mind's eye after indulging in scrolling.

You could say that Izatt-Lowry breathes life back into the fast pace and irrelevance of digital images. He gives the image back its aura in the age of digital reproduction. And he does this with great sensitivity, time and brilliance. When one looks at his work, one soon realises that time must be dedicated to it - the work demands it from you.

His medium of choice is still soft pastel. The support is however no longer crepe fabric, but linen canvas. His meticulous, densely spread application of the pastel chalk roughens the surface. It gives the works a smoky, grainy background that almost pixelates the picture in a pointillist manner. Here, too, a formal connection to the digital source material becomes recognisable.