https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded

About Justin: Justin Mortimer (b.1970) is a British artist whose paintings consistently invite us to question the relationship between subject matter and content, beauty and horror, and between figuration and abstraction. While the imagery is almost exclusively pitiless, the texturing of the paint, the play between light and shade, and the passages that lead from photo-realist definition to near-abstract formlessness are so sensitively handled as to make the work at least partially redemptive as well as to indicate a key philosophical dimension: the oblique relationship between evidence and interpretation.

In his recent solo show, his works create paradoxical beauty in the landscape of oppression and violence around the world. With the Covid-19 pandemic and the escalating racial conflict, Justin Mortimer's solo exhibition sets the stage for reflection on the 'tomorrow' of our society. Show Notes:

• 0:00:00 - Introduction
• 0:04:52 - Paradoxical Psychological Truth in Work
• 0:08:34 - Feeling Like An Outsider & Childhood Stories
• 0:12:57 - Balloons as Proxy For The Body & Learning Figurative Painting
• 0:17:06 - Painting Latex, Dysmorphia, and Masks
• 0:20:22 - BP Portrait Award and Learning and Unlearning Portrait Painting
• 0:24:25 - Digital Collaging The Overlooked Imagine
• 0:29:23 - Not Knowing When Paintings Are Done
• 0:32:54 - Empathy With People Diametrically Opposing Views
• 0:37:19 - New Meanings of Paintings Included in Solo Show "Tomorrow"
• 0:42:53 - COVID-19 Struggles
• 0:46:40 - "The Social Dilemma" by Jeff Orlowski and No More Truth
• 0:48:54 - Past Generations and "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" by Werner Herzog
• 0:54:02 - Decoding The Everyday Object
• 0:58:03 - Meanings Transform Over Time
• 1:02:11 - Painting David Bowie and Expectations of Portrait Painting
• 1:15:15 - Wrap Up

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