There are two great exhibitions coming up over the next few weeks by one great artist – French. Hitting both Nine Lives Gallery in Brisbane as well as Backwoods Gallery in Melbourne, French brings forth a world of fantastical, and at times macabre, imagery with deft and texturally inked precision.

“The artist by the name of French takes delight in reduction. His favour is for that which is less, best exemplified by his fondness of darkness – the absence of light. Reduction is constant in his art with an almost entirely rejecting colour and working unfalteringly on a flat surface. By withholding the innumerable options we have available, French opts for focus and intensity in one place.

Darkness is constant in his artworks, and that relates to both the density of the line and the subject matter it depicts. French is a forefather for the new blood line in a tradition of subcultural aesthetics. With an upbringing of obsessive attention to the grotesque of metal record sleeves and the immoral graphics on skateboards it is worth noting that the artist grew up in a garrison town. Familiar with military machismo, termination machinery and the displays of death, it is no small wonder that French’s morbid tendencies and medically precise depictions of human entrails recur frequently. In recent years he has added to his artillery of imagery (skulls, corpses, executioners, decaying beasts and Black Metal musicians) the regularity of medieval knights, wizards and occult rituals. Compasses and sea-going vessels, hand-forged tools and armour bring us back to a Europe of old, dark ages and discovery, the dawn of science and religions that stood in its way. Wickedness reigns in the absence of illumination.

Science prescribes that black is the absorption of all light frequencies. Similarly French’s work consumes much. Excruciating amounts of detail and time are applied to a single idea or an image to arrive at the intricate depiction he has conjured. A dark intensity and singularity define the work of French with his priority of the solitary line and, contrastingly, it’s myriad of possibilities.

– Joseph Allen Shea, Sydney, 2012”

This also hails as the final show at Nine Lives – the gallery has been running for some time, and having covered a wide range of shows that they have held in the past, we are quite sad to see them moving on to other things. They have done wonders fro the underground and urban art scene up in Brisbane, and we always looked forward to seeing what they had next – and we wish them luck in their new ventures, and look forward to seeing what they get up to!

Who: French
What: Nine Lives closing exhibition and Oath Of Armageddon (at Backwoods Gallery)

Brisbane

Nine Lives Gallery, Shop 5F Winn St, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane
Show opens Thursday January 19th from 6pm til 9pm and runs til
January 22nd.

Melbourne

Backwoods Gallery, 25 Easey St, Collingwood, VIC
Show opens Friday 10th February 6pm til 9pm and runs til February the 25th.

Check out the Nine Lives Gallery website as well as the Backwoods Gallery website, as well as Frenchs website and the Facebook event page for more info.