Blond Contemporary presents: Lost Sanctuary by Paul McDowall

Humanity is cast into the world for a purpose unknown, yet deeply felt. We recognise that we are lost, yet that acknowledgement itself speaks of direction and a way home. But turned in upon ourselves, as we are, offers no solace. Instead, our folk memories of prior belief, and intrinsic meaning, intrude upon us, rendered uncanny and yet even more alluring by our contemporary unbelief. Our anxiety and desperation separate us from others and the world. Yet the room above is lit and sanctuaries appear in the distance, shepherded into manifestation by an enveloping nature that see us as a part of it. Since we no longer believe in the real, Paul McDowall paints the surreal. Not as the triumph of monsters, but as a contortion of our own artifice - a self-darkening of the light, but still it seeps through, quietly illuminating and emanating. Pools nurture and support, trees draw in, landscape delineates and directs human construction, temples appear and call for reanimation. McDowall paints where we are and where we might yet be. The wherefore and the why are all encapsulated in his visual architecture and atmosphere of anamnesis. His is a painting of romance, of the lost and the found and the yet to be. Evocative, moving and deeply recognisable. McDowall paints us as we are and as we might wish for. Subjective loss and psychic pain are crafted within human figures yet objective redemption and restoration are there also as nature’s exhibition and agency are made manifest so that we might see. - Philip Blond, Gallery Director