(EMAILWIRE.COM, November 05, 2008 ) Bruce Backhouse has been at the David Krut Print Workshop (DKW) working with printmaker Mlungisi Khongisa to produce stimulating new works for his upcoming show, Mirror. Given our successful collaborations in the past, we are very excited to be working with Backhouse again, particularly because these works are a series of watercolour monotypes – a medium that Backhouse has not worked with previously. He was introduced to this process by visiting New York master printer Phil Sanders, and it catapulted him into a period of intense experimentation.

Backhouse is well known for his watercolour paintings. In these, as well as in several earlier works created at DKW, his figures and settings have tended towards the satirical. This satire is carried through to his latest works but is now applied in a self-reflexive manner, through the motif of the mirror that appears in many of the prints. Despite this self-contemplation, however, there is a lightheartedness about the series. Backhouse has clearly enjoyed creating this work and has relished the flexibility the medium allows. The prints themselves range from small to very large – some of them over a metre wide. These large works are amongst the biggest prints made at DKW and they have introduced a freedom and expansiveness into Backhouse’s printmaking.

The process of watercolour monotypes allows the artist to build layers, textures and effects that cannot normally be achieved through simply applying watercolours directly to paper. Backhouse has made excellent use of the layers, showing off the different effects by varying the tonal qualities of the images. The beautiful liquidity and alternately striking and sombre colours draw the viewer into each work. By adding crayon to already-bold colours, Backhouse lends extra vivacity to the works. He also manages to create strong contrasts between backgrounds that are loose and abstract, and foregrounds peopled with crisply rendered figures. This body of work shows Backhouse successfully exploring the many possibilities of an often-neglected medium.

Mirror opens at David Krut Projects on 15 November at 12:00 noon.

Exhibition closes: 15 December

David Krut Projects
142 Jan Smuts Avenue
Parkwood, Johannesburg
www.davidkrutpublishing.com
lucy@davidkrut.com
011 880 5646
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Sat: 9am - 4 pm

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