18.May.2010
to 16.Jun.2010
@ Rojo Artspace,
Barcelona
, Spain
James Roper, english artist born in 1982, mimics the complex bodily structures found within nature by constructing abstract bodies formed from multiple elements. Biological machines such as the human body process and retain energy and any processes placed under restraint will result in an intensification of it's eventual release. The work attempts to portray this intermediate state as control gives way to chaotic abandon and a transition occurs from one state to the next. Roper is heavily influenced by the excessive and sensuously rich imagery of Baroque art and it's depiction of the unfettering of religious restraint. Instead of the gentle ushering of the spirit towards the heavens his paintings spit, ejaculate, regurgitate and projectile vomit the spirit out, rejecting it's bodily form in a fit of maniacal hysterics, a nonsensical reflexive outburst like the spasmodic speaking in tongues of those 'slain in the spirit'.
His work has been showed in London, Milan, Los Angeles, New York, among others and has been published in magazines like Dazed and Confused and Art Review.
Source: Rojo artspace