Jonny Green
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Jonny Green makes paintings of sculptures… Mad-men rendered crudely in Plasticine and electrical tape or abject-looking re-animated brains adorned with filthy paper flowers and grubby clockwork parts. Each depicted object/character seems to be demanding recognition and validation from the viewer in spite of their manifest flaws, they seem to be trying to adorn themselves in an attempt to make their appearance more palatable. In contrast to the gleeful, almost slapdash making of the sculptures, their subsequent rendering in paint is meticulous. Green explains this approach as ‘an attempt to dignify and document or give testament to something that seemingly lacks dignity or a voice’. The resulting paintings are both still-life and portrait, animate and inanimate. As viewers we experience a kind of cognitive dissonance as we are simultaneously attracted and repelled by them at the same time.

In an interview with Tom Groves, Head of Art Histories, Jonny reflected on his experience of the residency at City & Guilds of London Art School: “I can’t emphasize how much the use of the Art School’s expertise and facilities has helped me. It’s been a wonderful opportunity for me to broaden my practice, particularly the staff in the print room and the casting room – so helpful and generous with their time. I also spent some time learning how to do glass casting, which is something I can’t imagine I would ever have gotten-round to without the residency…..Until I started the residency, I didn’t realize that places like this still existed. It is in some ways an old fashioned art school, and I mean that in the most positive way. The staff to student ratio is really wonderful and this means the students are much more nurtured and challenged than the norm.”

http://jonnygreen.net

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