Gareth Sansom’s paintings are eclectic, studded with allusions both historical, cultural and personal. There is something almost diaristic about his work, but its presentation is anything but linear and logical. Abiding themes are mortality, ageing, sexual identity, popular and youth culture and cinema. Stylistically Sansom uses a wide array of painting techniques but signature devices include allowing earlier layers of paint to remain visible, hard-edge geometric shapes juxtaposed with playful, lyrical, more organic or atmospheric passages of paint and figurative “doodles”, often at the margins of the paintings.
Image : Sweeny Agonistes (2005)Oil, enamel and collage on linen, 3 panels, 213 x 183 cm each
