IAP Fine Art, Monmouth
Until Sat 28 Oct
This collection, inspired by the song lyrics and lives of Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Eleanor McEvoy, is made especially poignant as this was the last collection that artist Chris Gollon completed before his unexpected death in April this year.
During his life, Gollon mixed with everyone including Yoko Ono, David Bowie and Gavin Turk, and in the late 1990s he was sent a 60-second recording along with them by Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and was asked to respond with a piece of art. More recently, he worked with Chinese classical musician, Yi Yao, to produce a 41-foot-long painting which was accompanied by a 20-minute composition called And It Came To Pass.
His latest exhibition Gimme Me Some Wine was shown in IAP Fine Art earlier this year. Irish singer-songwriter Eleanor McEvoy was writing a new album called Naked Music and was inspired by Gollon’s paintings. She invited Gollon to create the cover artwork for her album and he was so inspired by her music, he painted 24 pieces for his collection and took their titles from McEvoy’s songs.
Throughout all of his work, his closeness and obvious enjoyment of both music and art allowed him to create a new way of exploring the relationship between them, leading to a new merging of the two.
This sentiment is built upon in this latest, and last, exhibition by the great artist. The numerous pieces inspired by Neil Young’s Driftin’ Back, Bob Dylan’s Man in the Long Black Coat and Eleanor McEvoy’s Gimme Some Wine, evoke memories of the pieces intertwined with new interpretations of their meaning.
David Tregunna, IAP’s Director said: “Following Chris’s unexpected death at only 64 in April, by curating this exhibition we want to celebrate his love of music, to show where it led him intellectually and artistically; and to share his fascination with artistic ‘boundary crossing.’”
This exhibition has been timed to coincide with the Monmouth Festival at the Monmouth’s Savoy Theatre and it will show Kaleidomorphism One, Gollon’s film collage of 500 paintings synchronised to the music by Calexico, Tom Waits and Paolo Conte.
Admission: free. Info: 016 0077 2005 / www.iapfineart.com
words ELOUISE HOBBS